In the afternoon of 16 Sept. 2018 (Sun.) , I delivered a 30 mins' training about Meeting Roles for the New Member Orientation (NMO) of Division L, organized by People's Square Toastmasters Club( PSTMC), and I would like to take the notes here as a review of my first training experience.
1. Design the Workshop
Brainstorming
As a Toastmasters member and officer, I am no stranger to meeting roles, Still, I found myself stuck in an anxious mode when assigned with this task. I reviewed my previous article "My First TTT by Jeff Tan" --so lucky that I had written the article after the TTT--and realized that I should firstly find my purpose of presentation and build a Presentaion Pyramid. But!? I could hardly focus my ideas at all!
I decided to spare myself and started the random easier "Brainstorming" by reading whatever related materials, either from the TI website or wechat accounts, and took notes on paper when felt like to, hoping and believing some briliant ideas will come out among my scrawls, and I DID find my brain was much more active when I was writing down the notes on paper than typing on the laptop!
Presentation Pyramid
After days of searching, struggling and suppressing the impulse of starting working on Powerpoints, I gradually gathered my thoughts and drafted my Presentation Pyramid as below with "the purpose of the presentation is to give a general introduction of the meeting roles to the new members so that they can ake the roles after the training with confidence and basic skills", and three key points as "What', "Why" and "How".
Later, little by little, I developed the pyramid into a larger outline with supporting details. One thing interesting I found is It's painful but useful to limit the supporting points to THREE, by either adding, cutting or grouping your materials, for it helps to develop your presentation in a more logical way.
2. Create Presentation Material
?Script?
I have read over Jeff Tan's book Sticky Steps and learned that one should move on to write the script and edit? it over and over again--before start the PPT. Howerver, I was terribly scared of the workload of writing a complete article for a delivery of half an hour, also I was short of time then, after some struggling, I decided to skip the scripts and moved on directly to the PPT.
(So, there is still the question: Is a script necessary for every training, whether it's a long or short one?)
Working on a PPT is always enjoyable and painful, but luckily, some tips were followed, making the work easier for me.
K.I.S.S. & "One point One Slide"
K.I.S.S.--Keep It Simple, Stupid.
No special effect was used--and that really saved my time and efforts.
No limit on the number of the slides as long as "One point One slide" principle is followed. In total I created 25 slides, some had only one word, some a picture, and some had several lines with the minimal words.
Though no template is recommended, a Toastmasters PPT template was applied in my presentation, aiming to make the presentation more formal and official.
Font & Size
Sans Serif, Arial.
As LARGE as possible
Picture
Two full screen pictures were used in my presentation: one sandwich for the "Sandwich structure" of evaluation, and one portrait of the poet Tagore for the "P.O.E.T.S" order of introducing the speakers.
Good point: high resolution, full screen, black background to emphasize the pictures.
To improve: 1) a picture without a logo would be better, 2) the portrait of Tagore was difficult to be recognized and linked with POETS.
End on a high
No "Thank you" slide in the end, instead, I put a "action calling" slide to encourage the audience to take the meeting roles, hoping that, as suggested by Jeff in his book Sticky Steps, it "make them RUN out of the room to do what you've asked them to do!"
Flipchart--A Surprise!
When I read from Jeff's Sticky Steps that the old-fashioned flipchart is "the secret ingredient for WoW presentation", for sometimes it works surprisingly well and makes the audience feel special, I intended to try it in my training. It was disappointing when I learned from the organizer that there's no flipchart in the meeting room. However, when I arrive at the venue, I saw a small whiteborad standing in the front of the stage--that's perfect!
When I raised my first question "What Are Meeting Roles" and waited for the audience to reply, I walked to the whiteboard, picked up the marker, wrote down their answers, whether wrong or correct, and leave their answers there displayed for the whole training. And I do believe that it had generated a special feeling on them.
3. Engaging the audience
A conversational tone
Possibly inspired by the words Jeff wrote for me --which he probably wrote for everybody, though anxious, when walking onto the stage, I managed to wear a smile immediately--and that helped! Not only to draw the audience closer, but make myself calm down quickly and began my presentation in a light, friendly conversational tone. And all the designed interactions were done with much ease.
Keep asking questions
Yes, quite a lot, and that is quite an effective way to keep the audience attracted and awake.
Ask for presentation
Though no group discussion was designed due to time limit, there were two chances forthe audience to present in public: one for the "Sandwich" structure, one for the "POETS". I felt that was the most exciting, challenging and favoriate part for the audience, but a pity that the two vulunteer presentors were both senior members, for it would be more intetesting if any new member was picked up to present, but if so, it may be diffulicult to control the time.
Telling stories as much as possible
I began the training by sharing my record of meeting roles since I joined Toastmasters, told my story of the first time IE experience, and? shared a mini story in the end to ask them to visit the clubs. One story was prepared? for the "big roles" but not used. More stories can be designed and told if time is better allocated.
4. Delivery
Time management
My given time was 30 mins, and I used 33 mins. But actually, a short training should be measured and controlled by seconds.
When reviewed my video, I found time can be saved from the story telling. It is said that better we limit the story to 30" to 90", but for my story for? IE part took up to 150".
Also, time can be better controlled during the interaction and question asking. I spent? over two mins to listen to their first meeting roles experience, but an interaction is not a survey, we don't need to wait for the reply from most of the audience.
Gestures
Basically the gesture was good, the problems were
1) Should we hold the laser pen in hand all the time? If so, we cannot open both hands for gestures.
2) When I watched my video again, I found I tided my hair for several times during the training. Maybe next time, it's better I tie my hair up.
5. Preparation
Onsite check
When I rushed to the NMO from another meeting, I was late for over ten minutes...Luckily my TTT team member helped to check all the equipment. But still, I had a little problem with the laser pen at the begining. What's more important, since we needed to record our training, a better position should have been checked before hand to take the video. Also my phone was out of memory during the filming for my team member and I had to ask a gentleman in the audience for help. What a lesson.
Rehearsal
I knew quite well that the rehearsal is super important, but since too much time was wasted on the "to be or not to be" question about the scripts, and adjustment of the PPT, I had little time to make a thorough rehearsal but some imaginery ones in my mind....And the due results were, first time management was poor for some parts and too many filler words, espcially the word "so".
Dress: Business casual
In my opinion, the dress of a trainer needs to convey a feeling of professional and authentic, but I didn't make it too much for a Sunday, so I chose business casual.
A dusty pink shirt, a black cardigan, gray shirt, a pair of loafers rather high-heeled shoes, which made myself confortable and relaxed.
6. Final words
A review is time consuming yet important.
But the pitcure thing is even more time consuming, either for the review or PPT.
