How to Design & Teach Workshops that work every time

This is a simple book on how to organize a presentation in the context of a workshop. Below is the annotations and take-aways from what I have read

Chapter 1

• Workshops are not Lectures, you don't have to dictate as if they are, part of the magic is being able to make real time live connections with the audience and adjust the Material on the Fly.
• The author starts by laying out essentially the definition of Leadership Capital which he calls good will. The concept is that when beginning a workshop of any kind you start out with a varying amount of good will from attendees. You can either build upon that or actively diminish it depending on how you structure your presentation.
• The entire workshop should really be constructed around Learning Outcomes which are the individual nuggets of knowledge that you would like to impart to the audience. You need to have these clear in your mind and build the workshop around them.
• In terms of sequencing. It is important to schedule breaks to coincide with deep learning goals and natural ebs and flows in peoples attention span. The author suggests inserting the breaks into the overall plan before trying to "cram" content in. This will make the breaks feel a little more natural.
  • the Example he uses is 15-90-15-90-60-90-15-90-15 for a full day.
• One of the critical functions of a workshop designer is to curate what content goes into the process. This means both what do you add and what do you remove! Its both ends of that process. Pretty much everything is available online for free, People pick workshops and classes to have the necessary information filtered, prescribed and spoon fed to them. You're goal is to guide them through the world, not cram the whole world down their throat. It's a bit like giving a tour of a campus or a building you're familiar with. You can point out fun facts, things to avoid, and things to pay attention too. They're capable of walking around themselves but they want to be guided!
• He end's the first chapter by essentially saying the first step is to create a Workshop Skeleton which serves as a time block outline, and has some of the connective tissue figured out. Having a solid skeleton that stands alone in the abstract is critical to having a coherent presentation, it's quick to do and is easy to adjust if issues or sticking points are found.

Chapter 2

• There are three different teaching formats and different people are going to behave differently in each.
  • Hands on experimentation
  • Pair discussions
  • Brief bits of lecture to tie it together and connect missing theory to discussions.
• You can stay in the groove of a single type for too long though, people get Format Fatigue and need/crave the ability to change it up a bit.
• Practically information can be delivered in 5 different ways
  • Lectures
  • Small Group and Pair Discussions
  • "Try it now"
  • Scenario Challenges
  • Questions & Answers
• Again filtering is hammered in. Start with the Main learning outcomes, add some supporting arguments and delete everything else. People are going to be fighting overload already so it's important to only have strong examples in there.
• Don't do the things people hate "turn to your neighbor and discuss" if meaninglessly vague. You need a much more targeted prompt to foster actual valuable discussions. Something along the lines "Starting a company sucks. Why do we bother doing it?"
• Good prompts allow for good conversations. You need sharp questions that require personal answers"
• Finish the group formation step before revealing the prompt, this removes some of the chance of selection bias occurring.
• The discussion after a well executed prompt can be some of the most valuable, make sure to take the time and discuss as a larger group so everyone can benefit.
• Q&A acts as a buffer, it's primary purpose is to be deleted assuming things are going late, if people actually have questions they'll come find you. Most people wait anyway to discuss privately.
• For scenario challenges. You can't expect people to know how to reach the final goal, that's why they're here, the goal is to give them bite size sub-tasks to lead them towards the final outcome.
• The overall purpose is to get the comfortable experimenting themselves out in the real world. Provide the structure and guard rails, they need to walk the path themselves.

Chapter 3

• The Author breaks the Learning Outcomes down even further into 3 types of skills users can acquire
  • Knowledge -Taught by lecture
  • Skill - Taught by "try it now"
  • Wisdom - taught by Scenario Challenges

Chapter 4

• Pushing through all the slides in an effort to "get through Everything" is a terrible idea. Part of working through this is to start with only the essential slides. The Really fundamental stuff.
  • Summaries of your Learning Outcomes and Supporting Arguments
  • Exercise prompts (instructions, rules, discussion topics, etc.)
  • Resource lists (recommended books, your contact info, etc.)
  • Visual Examples for fundamentally visual topics
• That's it.
• If you're not sure what a slide needs to say at any given point, close your laptop and go back to figuring it out on your paper skeleton.
• Learning outcome slides are helpful for you as a facilitator because they force you to explicitly state your message.
  Flavor should be used sparingly. Some people go crazy with tit and get lost in the sauce. It's like cooking: the spices should support the dish, not overwhelm it.
  Eliminate the introduction parts of slides, get right into it. This leads to a stilted speaking style where you "introduce" every new slide which is dumb.

Your Workshop should do the teaching "let the knife do the work"

Chapter 5

The purpose of an intro is to offer just enough credibility for the audience to give you the benefit of the doubt
Short intros are better than long. you can add more personal details later on, when applicable in context.
Don't joke that you're tired, hungover etc... Respect peoples time.

Think of yourself as a party host:

• Fewer than 12 attendees is a dinner party.
• 12-20 attendees is a birthday dinner
• 20-50 is a house party
• 50+ is a wedding
  The size of the audience is going to do a lot to determine the tone an mechanics of your presentation.
  Large crowds are still constructed from individuals.

Chapter 6

Eloquent answers come from preparing a list of stories. Prepare and bring a list of powerful stories from your own life and experiences.

One trick for very self centered communicationis when you're trying to regain the crowd, deputize someone to share their experience and then lean into the fact tat everyone else is being super rude. It comes across much better than doing the same for yourself.

Chapter 7

Charisma comes from a place of 3 separate personal qualities.

• Power
• Warmth
• Presence