3 Compelling Reasons to Make These Appointments

Everyone’s calendars seem overbooked these days. We schedule travel, meetings, doctor visits, webinars, lunches, exercise – I even schedule “downtime” on my calendar, just to make sure it happens.
 
With all that busyness, I still appreciate it when I am asked to make Give and Take Appointments during a professional training session. Here’s how the strategy works:

• Print out the  “Appointment Calendar” and make as many copies as you need. Cut the pages up into individual sections. (If you have the budget, print these onto business cards instead.)
• Place the Appointment Calendars on the tables where your meeting or training participants will be seated.
• Early on during your session, ask each participant to grab an appointment calendar and stand up. Once standing, direct participants to find someone to be their 9:00 appointment, and someone else to be their 10:00 appointment.
• At an appropriate point during the session, when you want participants to discuss the content with someone, ask them to find their 9:00 appointment. Later, ask everyone to find their 10:00 appointment to discuss another concept. (The times don’t need to correspond to the clock.)

 
Three great reasons make this strategy one you should add to your repertoire as a trainer or facilitator.

1. Movement research shows that the neurotransmitters necessary for learning decrease when people are stationary for more than 15 minutes. Moving around the meeting room to make and keep appointments is an easy way to get the blood flowing and increase neurotransmitters.
2. Memory research shows that people must make personal connections with new content in order to move it into long-term memory. Discussing with others provides an opportunity to generate and share these connections.
3. Problem solving research shows the importance of listening to and considering multiple perspectives. Given the chance, most meeting participants will sit with their work buddies – people with whom they share similar beliefs and ideas. By asking everyone to stand and find others in the room for an appointment, the facilitator effectively breaks up cliques and encourages cross-pollination of ideas. 

For more ideas to increase audience engagement, check out Caffeinated Learning

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