Imagine you have a huge bowl of muesli in front of you. If you try to gulp it all down at once, you probably won’t get full but choke instead. It’s better with a splash of milk and in small bites. That way, nothing gets dusty, and the desired effect of feeling full sets in slowly but steadily. Goal achieved, put down the spoon (not give it away ;-) )
You should feed the synapses of your participants in team workshops the same way. Everything they need to learn should be presented in as small bites as possible. For example, in teambuilding, you start by having participants playfully learn each other’s names, then interests, strengths, and so on. Only after that can you tackle good teamwork. A team that doesn’t know each other already has problems with basic communication if a team member doesn’t know how to address the others.
To help your participants understand as quickly as possible what you want from them, you should pay attention to the following:
- Clear, understandable, and as precise language as possible
- Support what you say with visual aids if possible (demonstration, video, drawing, pictures, ...)
- Correct participants during execution (If you need to touch participants to, for example, reposition a leg or similar, announce beforehand what you intend to do! Nobody likes to be touched without asking, and this also increases trust and your reputation.)
Think of keywords for the learning steps
With keywords, you have a powerful tool at your disposal. If you want to teach certain processes, think of bullet points for the individual steps.
Example movement sequence for throwing a ball:
- Aim at the target
- Take the ball in the throwing hand
- Bring the arm into throwing position
- Let the arm snap forward
- Open the hand
Of course, most people can throw a ball without keywords. But if you want to drill a specific combination of movements into a platform diver, it makes sense for the diver to be able to recite the sequence of moves in the correct order before the jump, so they don’t have to think about it mid-air...
It also makes sense to develop a structure of as few clear keywords as possible for processes in companies and clubs to ensure clarity.
Not entirely serious example for office tasks:
- Print out the email
- Place the printed sheet on the scanner
- Scan and save the printed email for archiving
- ;-)
Keywords work like checklists that lead to routine.
Start from zero if you don’t know where to pick up the group
Most of the time, you have no idea what your participants already know or can do. So just start simply and then slowly adjust the difficulty to fit the group or individual.
If you assume knowledge or skills at the beginning, you should be sure that they are actually present. You can’t build anything on nothing. No matter how well you explain the advanced stuff, if the basics are missing, it won’t work. Use the right tools for your workshop: check it out here!
