Romy Alexandra’s Post

As I drove out of the neighborhood two days ago, the tantalizing promise of Black Cherry Ice Cubes beckoned from the container my oldest had left in my car. Temptation won, and I popped one into my mouth, relishing the burst of flavor as I navigated the streets of my neighborhood. But, as quickly as the joy came, it faded. Within 90 seconds, the Black Cherry allure turned bland and unfulfilling. Oddly enough, this mundane experience triggered a thought about corporate training courses. Picture this: a trainer kicks off the day with something attention-grabbing – maybe a humorous anecdote about their journey to the training, a slick company video, or some friendly introductions. Initially, it's like the first taste of that Black Cherry Ice Cube – engaging and exciting. The trainer then shifts into firefighter mode, bombarding participants with information like a relentless firehose. The initial engagement fades, and participants slip into passive listening mode, much like the fleeting flavor of the Ice Cube. From the participants' perspective, they may have been captivated at the start, but soon find themselves merely going through the motions, retaining information (and interest) for only as long as the initial engagement lingers. This is where the art of facilitation comes into play. Your challenge, as a facilitator, is to not only capture but also hold participants' attention throughout the training session. While some may possess a natural gift for it, most facilitators need to craft a deliberate engagement strategy. Understanding the WHAT (What facilitation is) and the WHY (Why it is effective) of facilitation is crucial. But the real fun lies in the HOW – how you engage your participants early, often, and with purpose. It's about creativity, about infusing your unique personality into the delivery, making the experience memorable and impactful for your participants. #corporatelearning #corporatetraining #corporatetrainer #learninganddevelopment #learningdesign #facilitation #facilitationskills #facilitator

🗣️ Let's Talk about Training      Face-to-Face Training  📤 It's National Conversation Week, and this has made us reflect on the power of in-person training sessions where learning transcends mere instruction. Imagine engaging in lively discussions, sharing insights, and gaining knowledge firsthand from industry experts. That's the essence of our training philosophy – interactive, dynamic, and enriching.   💡 We’ve always believed in the transformative potential of face-to-face interactions. Whether it's mastering new software skills or honing leadership capabilities, our expert-led sessions foster genuine connections and meaningful conversations that inspire growth.     Online Training  🧑🏽💻 Can this be as good as instructor-led, online training?  We’ve proved that it can!  In today's interconnected world, carefully managed online interactions can be just as empowering as in-person engagements. With increased accessibility, dynamic tools for engagement, and personalised feedback, our digital training also offers a rich environment for meaningful conversations between the team and the Trainer and provides impactful learning experiences.    ❓ What do you think?  Digital or face-to-face? Which training delivery method do you prefer - join the conversation and let us know...    #onlinetraining #digitaltraining #JoinTheConversation

Power of Collective Wisdom: The Importance of Facilitator-Led Discussions When we bring together a group of individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences, we create a wealth of knowledge and insights that can be tapped into. However, without a skilled facilitator, these discussions can often become chaotic, dominated by a few voices, or stuck in groupthink. Facilitator-led discussions are the key to unlocking the full potential of collective wisdom. A skilled facilitator creates a safe, inclusive, and structured environment where every participant feels heard and valued. By expertly guiding the conversation, they ensure that: - Everyone's voice is heard - Diverse perspectives are shared - Ideas are built upon, not shut down - Learning is effortless and enriching With a facilitator-led discussion, participants can focus on sharing their experiences, listening to others, and learning from each other's insights. The facilitator handles the logistics, keeps the conversation on track, and ensures that everyone leaves with new knowledge and connections. Investing in facilitator-led discussions is investing in the growth and success of your team. It's a powerful way to leverage the wealth of experience in the room and create a collaborative learning environment that benefits everyone. Curious to know how such wonderful learning environment can be created for your teams? DM me! Let's make the most of our collective wisdom! #FacilitatorLedDiscussions #CollectiveWisdom #CollaborativeLearning #TeamSuccess #SoftSkillsTraining #HighImpactPresentation #असलीकमाई

Creating workshop content is one of my favorite things to do. At a recent workshop, I tried something new. I love trying new activities, but I also get nervous. Will the instructions be clear? Will participants engage? Will the outcome be impactful? For this class, I took an exercise for teams and applied it differently to a group of people who largely don’t work together. They do similar work within separate silos. I asked them to consider which strengths they lean on most to support four key areas of support within the teams they impact. The result? Some wins. And some learnings. Instructions – ❌ My instructions were ok but lacked enough examples to be crystal clear. That’s an easy fix for next time. Engagement & Impact - ✅ When there are flip charts that summarize their learning, and nearly everyone asks if they could have a copy, you know it’s been helpful. In facilitation, it is important to be patient through the low murmur of discomfort. When you ask attendees to self-reflect and access vulnerability, there can be some initial discomfort. Learning to read the room and know when to relieve discomfort with a new example or a new activity is important. So, too, is knowing when to let individuals wade through the discomfort because the best learning is on the other side. This group was a bit of the latter. They got there and seemed to be excited by seeing the dots connected. ❤️ #facilitation #teamdevelopment #personaldevelopment #strengthsdevelopment #learning

The transfer of facilitator’s learnings. „Do you learn anything from us?“ „Every time.“ „And do you apply these things with other groups?“ „Absolutely.“ I just returned from working with a fantastic team, and this was an exchange with one participant during the closing segment. Her second question got me thinking, though. What and how do I transfer my insights? I discovered that there are different forms of learning that I, as a facilitator, take from my sessions: 1. Group-specific insights. These are unique to the participants and this group, thus are not transferable. 2. Process insights. These insights are learnings regarding the specific design or segments of the design. It is partially transferable because every design and group is unique. 3. Group-dynamic insights. These learnings reveal elements of group dynamics and interactions. While occurring in this specific group, they can occur in others, and it’s worth observing or testing. Potentially transferable. 4. Individual insights. These are the perspectives that the participants shared during the session. These are transferable to other groups when anonymized to stimulate conversation. 5. insights about myself. These crucial learnings helped me to get to know myself better as a facilitator, and while every workshop is unique, I discovered reactions and mental models that underlie my behavior. Fully transferable. So, back to her question. Yes, I do transfer insights, but not all of them. I invite you to reflect on those layers and nuances of the insights from your workshops. It’s worth it. Enjoy. #facilitationhacks #facilitationskills #facilitation #humansynamics

Facilitation Diaries: 14 - Reflective Card deck In my recent series of training sessions, I explored the power of image cards to enrich learning. These cards, devoid of any text, proved to be a powerful tool for creativity, reflection, and deep engagement. Here are some of the methods I used across multiple sessions with different groups: Participants drew cards and crafted unique stories inspired by the images. This activity sparked imagination and facilitated narrative skills and team bonding. Each participant selected an image that symbolized their thoughts or feelings. The resulting discussions provided profound insights and fostered a deeper understanding. Images served as conversation starters, helping participants share personal stories and connect on a deeper level. Post-activity reflections using images helped participants articulate their emotional journeys, aiding in emotional processing and insight. Participants visualized their goals by selecting images that represented their aspirations, fostering a tangible connection to their dreams. Using images, participants expressed their expectations for the session or program. This helped in aligning goals and ensuring a shared understanding among the group. The experience was profoundly impactful. Deep reflection became a shared journey as everybody engaged in introspection. Unheard voices emerged, abstract connections were made, and participants gained a wider perspective. We had emotional exploration and became more presence-oriented, with unique thoughts and insights shared by each individual creating a rich, collaborative learning environment. Have you tried using image-based cards in your sessions? Share your experiences below! 👇 #ExperientialLearning #Facilitation #CreativeLearning #Storytelling #TeamBuilding #ReflectivePractice #GoalSetting #FacilitationDiaries

When it comes to helping groups find alignment or consensus, there’s a tonne of tools you can use in the room. Some are easy to facilitate and provide simple, surface level results. Others require careful facilitation and allow for more robust decision-making. I reckon there’s a time and place for both. It depends on: ⚖️ The decision that needs to be made 🧑🤝🧑 Who is in the room, and 💬 How much deep discussion has already taken place. 🔍 It also depends on how you frame it up. The ‘Sticky Dot’ method or ‘Dot Voting’ has been around for as long as I can remember. It’s a handy tool for taking a quick temperature check of the room, but it often leaves a lot of ideas unexplored—and minority voices often get overlooked. (Thanks Manal Sayid, MBA for your awesome post on this.) So, if you’re going to use ‘Dot Voting’ in your workshops, here’s a few ideas you might want to consider in the mix: 🔴 For big, important decisions, only ever use it as a ‘Temperature Check’ or part of a larger decision-making process. It’s too simplistic to rely on by itself. 🟠 Give participants two sets of dots. One colour for ideas they love and think should be implemented straight away. Once colour for ideas they’re not sure about but would like to explore some more. It’s the second set of dots you want to focus on. 🟢 If you want the group to take ownership over implementation, use the activity to determine Preference vs. Commitment. Give participants two sets of dots. One colour for ideas they’d like to see happen, and one colour for ideas they’re prepared to put time and energy into implementing. Commitment beats preference. Of course, there’s other ways you can use this method too. The key is making sure it’s fit for purpose. Which usually requires some adaptation from the original design. #facilitation #facilitationtraining #facilitationskills #facilitator #thefacilitatorsnetwork

✒ Welcome once more to the design desk of a facilitator! 🖋 🤸♂️ A good facilitator has to be radically flexible. They need to be able to work with both structure and chaos. In fact they have to be able to turn any disarray into a structured process, so it helps if a facilitator has planned for the event in mind by projecting multiple possible scenarios, not just one agenda. 👌 And after the event is over, how do you know if you have done a good job?  One of the key measures we use is participants' feedback. 🎁 Today we share with you the screenshot of the feedback from a successful training session on Design Thinking. The format we used is “I like / I wish”. This example encapsulates many insights - from things you should look for to others you need to expect: 💛 / Participants recognise good facilitation even if they were unaware of what it meant at the start of the session. Keywords like “good structure”, “nice format”, “supporting collaboration”, and “flexibility” are what you’re looking for. 🧠 / Whether in a training environment or routine meeting, you want your participants to go out with more than what they came in with. Indications for this are phrases like “learned a new concept”, “increased transparency”, and “liked the new tool”. ⏰ / If you are trying to cover a vast topic, time will never be enough - it doesn’t matter if you allocate to a given element (a tool or a process for example) 15 minutes or a full hour. What you need at the end is a clear plan of action on what to do with everything said and done during the session - and this is usually your responsibility to summarise. Do you need help to facilitate a work session? Reach out to hello@launchlabs.bg ! #facilitation #designthinking #feedback #structure #learning #launchlabsSofia

How do you ensure the momentum gained 𝗶𝗻 a workshop carries on 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 the workshop? I mean you can make good ground in a workshop, but if the ideas don’t turn into action, it’s not all that useful. Here’s a 4-step 𝗥.𝗜.𝗖.𝗘 formula that works for me. 💥 𝗥 – 𝗥𝗘𝗙𝗟𝗘𝗖𝗧 Give participants a chance to reflect on their own. If the workshop has been training based, give participants 5 minutes to go through their notes and make a cheat sheet. A one-pager that covers all their key takeaways and aha moments. If the workshop has been about collaborative planning or problem solving, invite participants to reflect on their own about what the next step should be. If it was totally up to them, what call would they make? 💥 𝗜 – 𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗙𝗬 Identify the first steps. Acknoweldge that there might be lots to do, but not everything needs to be done at once. Just identify the first 3-5 actions to get (or keep) the ball rolling. 💥 𝗖 – 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗠𝗜𝗧 Get those first steps on paper and voiced aloud in the room. If the workshop is about individual actions, invite participants to find an accountability buddy and share what their first steps will be. If there are actions required on behalf of the whole group, make an action plan that includes: 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 the action is. 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 it needs to be completed by. Who is 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲. Who needs to be 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗱, and Who needs to be kept 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗱. 💥 𝗘 – 𝗘𝗫𝗘𝗖𝗨𝗧𝗘 Identify a micro-task that can be actioned within 24 hours. Make a phone call. Send an email. Book a date. Anything that gets action happening quickly. There are a tonne of activities you can use to walk through R.I.C.E in a workshop setting. Knowing the formula is a good place to start. #facilitationtraining #facilitationskills #facilitator #thefacilitatorsnetwork #facilitation 

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