Lead Effective and Engaging Workshops and Meetings

• We will understand the POISED® methodology at a high level and explore the toolkit you will need in terms of PC setup and introduce digital tools such as Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Whiteboard

We will understand how how to define a clear purpose and ensure that fits with the bigger picture! Please download the course workbook for the exercises you will carry out to create your meeting or workshop together with me as we progress through the course

We will understand how to quickly define outcomes for your session, methods to brainstorm these and refine them to ensure maximum productivity for your session.

We will understand ways to quickly brainstorm questions that need to be collectively answered in the session to ensure you achieve your outcomes.

The S in POISED® is about the stakeholders and attendees, we will understand how to select the best stakeholders not just for the session but also to ensure momentum continues towards the bigger picture the session is part of.

As a foundation for exercises, we will understand why you would use exercises. how do they help? what issues do they mitigate which prevents many sessions achieving outcomes

we "Open the bonnet" and look in to discover how most collaborative exercises work; this will help you understand the exercises we use in the training and also analyse standard exercises you find on the Internet and be able to select the best exercises to use in your session.

Generally, a level of context is required amongst attendees before going ahead to solve problems or innovate etc. In this lecture we explore some exercises you will be able to apply to gain or share knowledge before or at the start of your session.

Understanding and unpicking problems is essential before trying to create solutions, in the lecture we explore exercises to carry out an analysis on issues, we will also explore a facilitation method to reframe and dive deeper into high-level issues and find the root cause.

Generating solutions is one of the key reasons for collaborative meetings and workshops. In this lecture, we explore a number of brainstorming methods to generate ideas and innovate. You will be able to use these to focus attendees and trigger them to think in different ways.

We will understand how voting helps address common issues in sessions where people just voice their ideas. You will be able to use voting in order to select ideas quickly in a democratic manner. Providing a quick first pass to downselect ideas, issues or solutions.

Voting is helpful for a quick pass but what if you want to take a more scientific approach and assess ideas against multiple criteria? In this lecture, we explore methods to judge ideas against multiple criteria. When combined with voting this provides a powerful way to rapidly assess ideas. You will be able to apply this to reduce many hours of discussion to select ideas in a typical session down to typically less than 60-minutes.

To ensure momentum of a team post a meeting or workshop it is essential to check that everyone is on board; in this lecture we explore anonymous and rapid methods to check that everyone is on board with an idea or solution.

A sticky note only has high-level info or ideas. To dive into detail we will explore how to detail things. As a result, you will be able to prepare ahead of your session to ensure actionable details will be captured to enable progress on ideas or solutions post session.

Introductions are often boring round-table affairs. In this lecture, we will explore how to turn introductions into a productive aspect of your session that helps move everyone towards outcomes. We  will also explore icebreakers and outline a fun simple icebreakers which you can use to help build trust and interaction in a team who have to work together post session

There are three reasons to use feedback, assessing that everyone feels that the time in the session was valuable, assessing if everyone feels energised to continue towards the larger goal your session is part of and finally feedback that enables you to improve your facilitation skills. In this lecture, we will start to explore these and in the next, we will look at how to practically setup a survey for feedback.

If you have never set up or run a survey before in a session it can be very daunting. In this short lecture, we will go through the steps to actually set up a survey and use it in a session. The demo is with Mentimeter. Please set up an account on Mentimeter before playing and replicate what is covered in the lecture to ensure you are comfortable creating questions and using the tool at the end of your session.

Exercises don't need to be just limited to the session, in this lecture we explore if and how to use exercises before your session and the subtle benefits and insights you can gain as a facilitator by asking for prework. We also explore the pitfalls of asking for prework and how to mitigate these.

To reduce the pressure on you as a new facilitator or a facilitator of a high-stakes session, you will need to create more than the agenda. In this lecture, we explore what steps you should take to detail many aspects of your session using an excel worksheet. This will ensure your session hangs together in terms of achieving outcomes and also makes your session less stressful to facilitate. It also enables you to use some of this information to create the agenda for your invitation.

Please download the worksheet here as you will need it, NOTE it is also included in the final lecture of the training with other assets for you to take away.

Two other aspects of your detailed planning include creating an invitation and guiding assets ahead of your session. In this lecture, we will explore the information you could include in your invitation to ensure everyone is clear. We will also explore how to create guiding assets for your whiteboard which will guide attendees. We will explore this further in the next lecture and in the next module on Microsoft whiteboard.

A useful Invitation template is included here for you, it is also included in take away pack in the final lecture.

This lecture is a quick overview of some of the guiding assets created for the example workshop being used in the training course. It rolls together nearly every aspect of the methodology we have discussed.

Introduction to Module 3 where we focus on using Microsoft teams and Whiteboard from a facilitation standpoint. If you do not already have access to teams then please set up a teams account , search for "Microsoft Teams - Sign Up Now"

Understand two methods to setup a teams call, depending on the purpose and scale of your session we also explore also how to tune the options for your meeting.

As part of setting up your call, you should also set up your whiteboard, you will be able to prepopulate and share this ahead of your session. We will explore whiteboard features further in around 8 lectures ahead so this is just showing the initial setup and methods to access whiteboards. Note at the time, of course creation the sharing of a whiteboard outside your organisation is not possible but this is being worked on by Microsoft for a future release) This does not mean you cant share a whiteboard with external parties during your workshops or meeting.

Image is important! You will understand how to use virtual backgrounds in teams. You will be able to apply one of these should you wish, in this lecture, we will also cover how you can create a customised background e.g with a company logo.

In this lecture, we explore how to use change teams setting so that your camera and audio and correctly selected and optimised.

During your session, you will need to share content; in this lecture, you will learn how to share content or enable someone else to share content.

Due to latency in computers and networks  there is unfortunately a very short delay in a speech in an online session compared to a face-to-face session.

In this lecture, we will understand how the raise hand feature can be used by people to ask questions or put a point of view forward in a session and how you manage this as a facilitator.

We explore some beneficial functions in teams which can reduce workload. You will understand how to record a session to enable something to be clarified post-session and also potential issues around recording (Which we will also cover in module 4 on facilitation)

You will also understand how to take "Live" notes during a session which are shared with everyone immediately after and finally an attendance report which can with tracking large group attendance

We now start to explore the powerful whiteboard features and functions. You will be able to prepare sticky notes and use text headings to add exercise instructions as you move through exercise phases on the whiteboard.

You will understand two methods to support voting, and how to add additional assets such as images.

• Teams includes a range of standard templates which you can use in your session reducing the need to produce guiding assets.

• You will understand how to adapt these standard templates.

• You will understand how to insert PDF's for knowledge-sharing exercises and adjust them for your session.

• You will understand how to import your own custom PowerPoint template for a session which presents a more professional image.

You will understand how to

• Insert links to assets or external content you wish attendees to review e.g survey results

• Insert videos and how these need to be triggered to play, also how to start youtube videos at a certain point.

• Use the pen function and perfect the shapes you draw so they are more professional

In this lecture we will explore how you can ensure a common focus on exercises in your session; you will understand how to

1. Use a highlighter to draw attention

2. Use follow me to sync everyone on the same task

3. Use collaborative cursors to track that participants are on the same pages

This is the first lecture on facilitation, we will start but outlining how you will engage attendees who arrive at your session early, how to open your session effectively and how to handle late attendees, we will also cover one of the most critical tasks of managing time to ensure you reach the session outcomes and strategies you can implement to manage time more effectively.

In this session we cover how to build rapport with attendees to ensure they stage engaged through the session and support attendees with activities so that they stay on track. Finally, we understand why you will need to compensate for the loss of your energy as a facilitator and how to approach that.

In this lecture, we cover the importance of remaining impartial and how you will mitigate the risk of running a session where you could be perceived as biased.

You will understand how you can manage guest speakers effectively so that you don't appear rude when time managing them.

You will understand additional ways to guide attendees on the tasks and ensure they are clear.

Collaborative workshops and meetings are a natural place where poor behaviour can occur due to poor meeting culture. In this lecture, you will understand the reasons for the most common disruptive behaviours and how to handle these.

Conflict can occur due to the nature of ideas being generated, differing viewpoints, differing power dynamics etc.

You will also understand how to analyse conflict and aim where possible to leverage it to get even better outcomes. You will also understand the types of conflict you can't manage in the session and potential ways to mitigate these while planning for your session.

Notes are useful and action-taking is even more critical. Successfully closing the session is important as to how people feel about it.

In this lecture, you will understand steps you can take to ensure energy and momentum for the actions as part of your session, how to support individuals to ensure they are able to complete the actions successfully and how to close your session on a high note as a result of achieving outcomes.

Post-session activity is a key failure point which has given collaborative meetings and workshops a bad reputation. In this lecture, you will understand the steps you need to plan for and take after your session. This will help ensure actions are clear, and ensure you improve your facilitation skills and tools. Finally and most importantly, you will be able to stake steps to maintain energy post-session ensuring momentum continues.

Congratulations! You have reached the end of the course, let's recap what was covered in the training.

There are also assets in this lesson for you to take away including:

• A detailed planner

• Etiquette and break slides

• Sites where you can get free "royalty-free" images to make your guiding assets more engaging

• An invitation template that you can customise

• PDF guide which summarises what we have covered in the training and guides you in preparation for your future sessions.

  
  

  Wishing you all the very best on your future facilitation journey!