One of your tasks in a presentation or training environment is to energize your participants. Or I should say it is necessary to have a group of energized participants in order to put your message across in a presentation or class. You can always imagine that there is a device in the room which can detect and show the ‘energy level’ in the room, like what the thermometer does to the room temperature. If the ‘energy level ‘ is low, the learning is slow (or even does not exist). Remember all the boring wordy product briefing!!
Two incidents these 2 days which make me think:
I sat in some of ex-participants' presentation and class these 2 days. Having been a trainer for a while, I can feel very strongly the 'low energy' at the start - the silence, the dull face, the lack of response to the speakers' questions. People (at least I do) felt odd, and the speakers are not sure whether the participants are getting the points. The question is to raise the 'energy level'. Well, in short, this is the reason why ice-breakers exist. However, what should we do if the session is very brief e.g. 1 hour like the system briefing today? A thought we had in the post-briefing discussion is that we should have some easy-to-participate activities in the beginning. Asking question is one. Even better, we can ask some yes-and-no questions so that people can just respond by raising their hands, or even better by standing up ('energy level' always up when people stand up!!!). In addition, some visual aids will help e.g. circulating the fake bank-note if the topic is about bank fraud.
The another occasion is a conference call today. It was like the one I mentioned last time -global one, largely one-way, lot of people. However, the call facilitator was great. His voice is of 'high energy' (the golden rule - the participants will NEVER have a higher energy level than the presenter / facilitator / speaker!!!). More importantly, I believe he designed the call from the 'energy level' perspective!! Before each speakers started, he introduced each by telling what the speaker's Chinese Zodiac animal symbols are!! It is quick, it is about the coming Chinese New Year. And people get excited - how old he / she is, whether he / she has the same symbols as mine... Great stuff!!
What are the learning points? Think from the 'energy level' perspective when you plan, and prepare accordingly!! (yes....It all relates back to preparation!!! Surprise!!?)
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