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What To Do With Negative Feedback About A Presentation

4/26/2016

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The workshop day had come to an end. Tired but content, I decided to quickly scan the evaluation surveys before grabbing a taxi.
 
As I breezed through the surveys, one in particular caught my eye. The participant had given me the highest marks in every category but then added in big bold letters
 
I LIKED YOU BETTER AS A BLONDE!
 
As a public speaker and talent developer, I work with thousands of adult learners every year. Most of them provide me with written feedback about their learning experience. I work diligently at designing survey questions that yield helpful feedback, but I always add an open-ended “Additional comments” space. This gives the participants a chance to tell me something that I might not have anticipated in my Likert-style questions.
 
Over the years I have saved the comments that most surprised me. Here are my top 3 shockers:
 
  1. "I don’t like presenters in open-toed shoes."
  2. "Here’s my number in case you want to go out tonight."
  3. "You should never mention your favorite football team if there are men in the room."
 
Most of the time, the open-ended comments are complimentary about the day. While I am not seeking compliments, they are always a pleasure to read. However, occasionally, a participant will write something that helps me to improve my teaching. It might be:
 
  • a specific comment that changes my activities
 
                              “I was hoping for more networking time”
 
  • a question that changes my future handouts
 
                       “Is there any way to get a copy of the article about…”
 
  • or an opinion that makes me wonder and grow
 
                     “I don’t like group work. I would rather work by myself.”
 
Of course, I don’t change something just because one person shares a criticism or suggestion. It’s my role to look outward for patterns in the comments,  and to look inward to my own feelings and understanding about adult learners. It is this constant reflection that leads me to improvement.
 
How do you gather helpful feedback from your classes or presentations?
 
Find specific evaluation questions in my book “Caffeinated Learning: How to Design and Conduct Rich, Robust Professional Training.”

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Motivate and Activate Learning with this Simple Game

4/12/2016

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When I was a child, my father and I would play Scrabble on Sunday afternoons. It was a quiet time for us to share our love of words and be engaged with each other. In my mind, I was really great at the game – often beating my father. Now that I am a parent myself, I realize that he probably let me win occasionally.
 
My daughter’s generation is more inclined to play Words with Friends on their devices, but I still prefer the immediacy and face-to-face engagement of Scrabble. Whatever your preference, these word games are an effective way to activate our learners’ prior knowledge and vocabulary about our class content.  Simple to play, familiar to most, and easy to integrate into any course – what more could a trainer ask for?
 
Here’s my favorite way of doing it:
  1. Obtain chart-sized graph paper and hang it on the walls around your room.
  2. Ask everyone to stand by a chart in groups of 4, and then divide into two teams of two.
  3. Direct participants to write a word, related to your content,  in the middle of the chart. For example, if I am teaching a course on presentation skills, I might assign the word “engagement.” If I am teaching a course on communication skills, I might assign the word “communication.”  Long words make it easier for participants to get started.
  4. Each team takes a turn adding a word to the grid, following rules similar to those of  Scrabble or Words with Friends, i.e. adjacent letters have to form a new word.
  5. Let the game progress for a few minutes and then discuss with the large group some of the common words and unusual words you see on the charts.
 
For more ideas about how to engage adult learners, check out my book "Caffeinated Learning: How to Design and Conduct Rich, Robust Professional Training."


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9 Things I Learned From My Life Of Crime

4/2/2016

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      When I was only seven, I committed my first crime. My parents had gone out to run errands, leaving my two older brothers in charge. Ensconced in front of the weekly football game on TV, they paid no attention to their little sister. Bored with football, I decided that I had the perfect opportunity to explore my parents’ bedroom. My parents, continually harassed by four children, considered their bedroom an oasis, off-limits to us unless by special invitation. Thus, the temptation. I opened the top drawer to my father’s walnut dresser and, standing on tiptoes, peered inside to see what treasures it might hold. Tucked into one corner was an uncovered box, filled with shiny coins that he removed from his trouser pockets each night. I quickly snatched a nickel and dropped it into the front pocket of my skirt. Glancing over my shoulder guiltily, I found that the world had not changed one bit, so I continued exploring.

      Wedged into the back of the drawer, under some graying, fraying hankies, there was a tube-shaped object, kind of brassy in color. My fingers reached for it, closing around the cool metal and pulling it forward. As I examined it more closely, I found that one end was narrow, with a circle of glass over it, while the other end was wider with a fuzzy bit of glass covering it. I put the narrow end up to my eye to look inside and squealed in delight at the storm of colors that rained down. This of course brought my brothers running. My life of crime was over, but my lifelong love of kaleidoscopes had just begun.
​
      Kaleidoscopes represent the beauty of diversity to me – all the ways we can create a mix of people that come together in wonderful new configurations. As a facilitator of adult learning, it is invaluable to have numerous strategies for grouping and regrouping learners so that they share their talents and ideas in new ways. There are times when it is best to intentionally assign specific individuals to work together, while there are other times when random regrouping leads to wonderful collaboration. My love of kaleidoscopes reminds me of the importance of mixing things up. And, I have learned that I don't like being in trouble! That's why, whenever I run a training class,  I always have a cheat sheet with me that lists 9 ways to quickly develop new groups. I can mix participants up on the spur of the moment - in response to lagging energy, a chatty table or the need for new ideas. Here are 9 of my "go-to's."
 
  1. Partners – Ask everyone to stand and find someone wearing a similar color of clothing.
  2. Partners – Ask everyone to stand and find someone with a similar hairstyle.
  3. Partners – Ask everyone to stand and find someone wearing similar shoes.
  4. Partners – Ask everyone to number off – 1, 2, 1, 2…. Have partner 1 shares first, partner 2 listens and paraphrases. Then switch.
  5. Small Groups – Post the numbers 1-12 Ask everyone to stand and go to their birth month. Tip – if a birth month has just one person, ask them to combine with the neighboring month.
  6. Small Groups – Place a different type of candy on each table. Ask everyone to pick up a piece of candy. Have participants form a new group in which no one has the same type of candy.
  7. Small Groups – Give everyone a playing card and have them form new groups by suits (or mixed suits.)
  8. Small Groups – Obtain four different colors of sticky dots. Place a dot on everyone’s nametag before they arrive. Ask participants to regroup by colors (mixed or same.)
  9. Small or Large Groups – Post A,B,C,D signs in the four corners of the room. Project a multiple choice, opinion-based question on the screen. The question might be content related or a way for participants to get to know each other better -Which season do you like best? Which vacation destination would you choose? Then ask participants to go to the corner that best represents their answer.
 
 Looking for more ideas that keep you out of trouble? Check out "Caffeinated Learning: How to Design and Conduct Rich, Robust Professional Training"

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    Anne Beninghof is passionate about teaching and learning.

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