Yesterday, I had the wonderful opportunity to give my Step out of your comfort zone workshop 7 times in a row. Yes, you heard me right, I gave it 7 times, one after another. It was for a company’s annual kick off meeting. We were up in the mountains, surrounded by snow. It was brilliant.
I’ve given this many times anything ranging from a 1 hour talk to a half day workshop but they wanted it in 25 minutes. This is what I learnt:
1) I split the workshop into 5 minute sections; Introduction, hands on exercise, step out methods, inspirational video and challenge worksheet so I could remember the flow more easily.
2) One of the common mistakes is that we want to include everything. I really had to go through my anecdotes, often shortening them or not including some and still get the message across.
3) By repeating it so often, there was a very quick feedback loop. I could immediately change things for the next round so improving the workshop again and again.
4) Every group was different so it was important to feel the group. Some groups had more people and depending on the participants, I would include different anecdotes or go deeper on certain topics.
Towards the end, I started asking myself, “Have I said this already?” ☺
If you want to improve anything, I recommend finding opportunities to repeat it as many times as possible, integrating the feedback as you go along.