Some notes on presenting ideas.
Writing
- Article structure
- Summary at the top
- Images
- Credit where it’s due
- Bullet recap at the bottom
- Article content
- Teach something you learned
- Take people behind the scenes
- Have a clear takeaway
- Have a call to action
- Answer “why?”
Workshops and talks
- Social
- Connect everyone by showing shared experiences, especially struggles and failures.
- Work in groups and pairs.
- Use pair share / teach back activities, have accountability buddies.
- Physical
- Get them moving. Use activities like show of hands, walk around the room.
- Have breaks that involved leaving the table.
- Link concepts with movements to increase recall and attention.
- Positive
- Have a physical environment that’s not classroom-like.
- Promote empathy, kindness, perspective, compassion.
- Use love and charm, not guilt and blame. Positive emotions greatly improve learning (and negative ones hinder).
- Structured
- Have something to complete or fill in.
- Frame it. Have an agenda, outline, overview.
- Pull the whole thing together with a narrative.
- Practical
- Show how to get started with small wins that stack up and lead to big ones.
- Do the work. Tell learners to bring their stuff.
- Provide a toolkit with clear, actionable, steps.
- Practice different techniques and choosing the best fit.
- Short
- Keep it simple and prioritise. What’s the key message or concept?
- Make small but meaningful milestones. Find the short-term reward linked to the long-term benefit.
- Do warm-ups, easier or softer, stuff before the difficult stuff.
- High energy
- Have a strong opening.
- Have a strong peak.
- Have a strong closing.
- Flexible
- Vary type and length of activities, senses used.
- Have a responsive curriculum (modular, chosen by learner).
- Recognise and accept diversity.
- Concrete
- Have integrity: be the example.
- Use concrete examples to help focus. Look at good examples and analyse why they’re good.
- Use images to make it more memorable. Use metaphors to make connections.
- Entrenched
- Make it repeatable, regular, ritual.
- Help them establish habits.
- Make concrete plans. Use WOOP (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan) or 5Ws and 1H.
- Accessible
- Share (shortened) links early, or in advance
- Mind your language: sexism, ableism, swearing, weird references
- Speak the alt text of content images
- Distribute accessible slides, maybe a transcript or article
Workshop closing activities
For Now
- What will you do?
- When will you do it?
- Where will you do it?
- Who will be involved?
- How will you do it?
- Why do this?
Write a sentence starting with “I will…”
For Now Now
- How likely are you to do this? Give it a score out of 10. 1/10 = Nope. 10/10 = Very yes.
- No judgement! Be realistic.
- Why isn’t your score lower?
- Is there something small you can do to make your score higher?
For Later
- Small steps
Focus on progress - Accountability Buddy
Check-in with them regularly - Try an Action Trigger
Have an “If This, Then That” plan