Hey ,

From 2014 to 2020, I facilitated over 4,000 workshops and events for Apple.

Before even leading those sessions, I experienced one of my favorite internal trainings that I'll ever remember. And, I revisit my notes often.

I learned a lot about:

• large and small group event management,
• individual learning styles,
• managing different personality types
• how to engage all participants,
• ways to ensure people feel valued,
• and more.

One thing I have continued to this day is how to design a session to do all of the above.

So, I wanted to share with you how I start off leading every workshop, class, course, etc. — in the hope that it might help you do the same.

1. Provide a warm welcome to be an inviting host

Introduce yourself and invite your attendees to do the same. Take a few minutes to create community. Ask a personal questions to get to know more about each other. Often times we'll find that we have more in common than we first thought. This intention creates strong bonds early on, and sets you and your workshop apart from others.

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2. Inquire about participant takeaways to understand individual goals

Ask what they were hoping to learn. By asking first, you get to learn a few of these things:

1. Do they want to learn what you're supposed to be talking about today?
2. Could you go deeper on a topic that you're already planning to cover?
3. Are you able to provide some personalized notes as you go because you know more about your attendees?
4. Can you ensure that everyone's here for the right reasons?

When you invite people to share more about themselves, you're showing that you care about them as people (instead of giving the impression that you only care about your own content).

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3. Set expectations to create a roadmap for the day

Let each attendee know what to expect. Share the main points you hope for each of them to take with them after the session. By sharing what the session is focused on, you're allowing for a clear understanding of what is also not covered. Not everyone will read your workshop description and may have received an invite from a friend. So, by setting the expectations early, you can "set sail" in the right direction.

This helps make sure the workshop doesn't become something else entirely, and that everyone will leave with a common goal. Later on, when things go off course, you can redirect back to the original expectations.

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4. Define group guidelines before the diving into the content

Ask the group to help you create a list of guidelines for how you are going to learn together. This is most helpful if you're leading a multi-day event. For example:

1. Is timeliness important?
2. How should people provide feedback to each other?
3. What creates a safe environment?
4. Is there room for additional learning? How?
5. How do they define participation?
6. How do each of them learn best?

You can create the most effective learning environment, when each individual contributes to the designing of that learning environment.

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Why is all this so important?

This is a workshop. By inviting participation 4x early on, you instill the value of each individual's and the groups' contributions. Your participants will be engaged throughout the session, because you've assured them they're in the right place.

There are many more steps to a well-structured workshop that I follow, so if you're interested in me exploring this more in future editions, let me know in a reply.

Here's an example of a news session I'm creating now for my new support hub. I would be happy to see you in there, and to learn how I can support you.

Enjoy,

Matt

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