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From the Publisher:
Hello MFJ
Readers.
Are
you too smart for your own good? Read this weeks
article to find out and explore the dilemma of the professional
speaker or seminar leader, placed in the front of the room
and expected to be the font of all knowledge. The entertainer
supreme. Take a minute to unravel this fallacy with us and
release yourself from much unnecessary burden.
New
Facilitator's Guide From FacilitatorU.com. We're
very excited to announce the release of our
first of many planned Facilitator's
Guides by FacilitatorU.com,
on the subject of "Full Participation."
These guides provide "Just
in Time Training" to facilitators and group
workers in key skill areas and situations. This very
affordable Guide fully explores the concept and practice
of Full Participation
and comes complete with a full teaching license to use it
in your workshops and trainings. These illustrated guides
will help you to drill down deep in each skill area, ehancing
your mastery in facilitation, one competency at a time.
Please see details below and consider adding this information-packed
guide to your personal Facilitator's Toolkit.
If you or your colleagues are
interested in submitting an article for consideration, please
email
your ideas. I'd love to hear from you.
Have a great week...
Steve
Davis
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Self-Mastery Skill
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Are
You Too Smart for Your Own Good?
Speakers and seminar leaders
don't need to do all the work.
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The
Point
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I still
attend lots of workshops, seminars, and speaking engagements
where the presenter seems compelled to talk TO the audience.
Though I do believe they're expressing a sincere desire to
teach, enlighten, and inform their audience with the best
of intentions, how often have you actually been inspired by
shear quantities of information?
I don't give "speeches" anymore. When I'm asked
to give one on a topic I feel comfortable with, I accept but
when introduced as the speaker, I love to change that perception
by saying, "Well, I am going to stand in front of the
room today, but I don't plan to be your speaker. Instead,
I hope to serve you better by being your listener." The
rebel in me revels in this!
I sincerely believe that my success as a "speaker,"
facilitator, trainer, teacher, whatever, rests more in my
ability to hear what people need and to create an environment
where they can get that, in content and delivery, from whoever
can best deliver it at the time.
Now ofcourse, if I've shown up for a speaking gig in the hopes
of getting lots of attention and ceremonious fluffing of my
expert ego, I certainly wouldn't employ the above approach.
But if I want to truly empower my audience by asking, listening,
and delivering what they want and need, then I'm going to
continually refocus my attention on them. We're going to have
discussions, demonstrations, and exercises and only enough
focus on me to maintain the energy of focused connection and
involvement among the participants. |
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Example
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| I
attended a workshop last weekend with an energetic healer
and her husband, a psychologist, with a new technique to assist
people to return to their essence, to lessen the influence
of their personality and coping mechanisms that they had developed
through childhood.
While
I was most interested in the topic, and they had a lot of
valuable
information, they almost lost me. There was very little
experiential
interaction or none at all as they talked for over an hour
about their mysterious techniques. It was apparent that
most everyone there was puzzled and trying to figure out
what it was all about. They kept asking but the explanation
got more and more obscure and it felt as we were being marketed
to death. Finally, during the 30 minutes of the 2-hour presentation,
they offered an opportunity for everyone to have a short
reading. Lo and behold, the seminar picked up strength,
everyone started asking questions and were very involved.
It was evident now through their work on us that they were
quite talented and had something to offer that all the words
in the world would never have conveyed. Several people even
signed up for individual work afterwards.
Why
do people insist on telling us when they can show us? Maybe
it's just the way that we were taught, or maybe it's just
the best way we know. Whenever you get the chance, teach
people a facilitation tip that will make their presentations
more powerful and engaging with less effort.
Tips
- If you have the choice between showing and telling,
show first, tell later. Then people know and feel what
you're talking about. Also takes a lot of pressure off of
you to entertain. Once you impact people with a physical
or emotional experience, they'll have lots to tell themselves.
- Talk to your audience. Ask them more about themselves
and what they're interested in learning at the beginning
and adjust your approach accordingly.
- Don't talk so much. Check in with your audience
periodically and see what they have to say about what you're
saying. Are they getting it? Do they have something to add
that can amplify or validate your point?
- Get them talking to each other. Use simple methods
to get participants talking to one another about their experiences,
what they're learning, what they want, etc. This brings
more energy and attention to the group, can mine new perspectives,
and can improve the experience for everyone.
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Action
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| Can you relate to
the situation above? Is there something about your presentation
style you'd like to change or improve upon? Is there someone
you know who might benefit from a facilitative tip you could
offer. I'd love to hear from you. Please email
us your comments. |
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Reader Survey
How do you
manage the "emotional" component of your group
work?
As facilitators, we know the importance of attitude and
the emotional state of our participants. We know that if
we focus purely on content delivery with little attention
to how it might influence their emotional states, we may
be missing the mark with our processes. I'd like to hear
about how you plan for, monitor, and influence the emotional
flow in the group processes you design.
Please email
us your responses. All those who respond will be
sent the entire collection.
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Facilitator
U Releases First Facilitator Guide!
We're very pleased to announce the
release of our first of many planned Facilitator Guides
called, "Getting
Full Participation." Here
are some reasons you'll want this guide:
- Offers
Just in Time Training" to facilitators
and group workers in key skill areas or situations.
This Facilitator Guide explores Full
Participation more completely than any
other document we've seen before.
- No
fluff! This guide is practical, easy to read,
with ideas and actions you can use right away.
- Includes
an audio portion that
answers real world problems in getting Full
Participation from group members.
- Includes
a full training license
so that you can teach this material to others.
- Includes
tools and perspectives that will help your group members
understand what it means to particupate fully.
- Illustrated
20-page guide will help you to drill
down deep and master the art of facilitating
Full Participation
in any situation.
- This
information-packed guide is a must to include in your
personal Facilitator's Toolkit
Who
is this guide most useful for? This learning
guide is for anyone who plays a facilitative or leadership
role in a group who wants to discover new and creative ways
to get more involvement from individual group members. In
particular, it is useful for group facilitators, trainers,
life coaches, teachers, business and community leaders,
and managers.
Here's an overview of the contents
of this information-rich guide:
Why full participation?
Explores the benefits of full participation and ramifications
of not having it.
What is full participation?
Explores a new model of full participation from a 3-dimensional
perspective.
Facilitating full participation.
Looks at perspectives to take
to facilitate full participation using this new model.
Facilitator's full participation
inventory. A 10-part self-assessment to help
facilitators become better at this skill.
Participant's full participation
inventory. A 10-part self-assessment for your
participants to help them be conscious of behaviors that
make up Full Participation.
Full participation strategies.
25 strategies you can employ to get Full Participation.
Worksheets. Worksheets
to collect your own ideas, resources, and actions to employ
what you learn from the guide.
Cautions. Explores special
situations to be aware of around this skill.
Contrarion perspective on full
participation. Resources that look at possible
negative impacts of full participation.
License Rights. Owners
of this guide are granted a license to copy and distribute
this material in their own trainings, workshops, and groups.
Basically, you can do anything you want with this guide
expect sell it yourself.
RealAudio of the 45 minute TeleClass. Contains
a lively real-audio recording of a recent teleclass exploring
the application of Full Participation Strategies to participant's
real-life problems.
Cost of this Guide: $17.95
Click
here to order now.
100% Money-Back Guarantee. If
for any reason, you are not satisfied with this product,
simply email
us with a request to refund/credit your credit card in the
full amount and we will do so immediately. It's our policy
to do this and we honor this in every single case. (Why?
Because we are sensitive to the fact that you are buying
an e-product from us and we feel that if this package isn't
EXACTLY what you expected or wanted, that you should be
able to get 100% of your money back. This policy completely
removes the buying risk for you and keeps our customer-satisfaction
rates extremely high.)
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