Comments on: Adventures of Ted and Tina Trainer-Overload

By: Linda Farley

Linda Farley — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 02:46:17 +0000

Thanks-sounds like you have a solid strategy.
I love to facilitate training without any slides; it focuses the learning so much more on the participants.
One of the best presentations I’ve ever seen was from Duke Rohe, who is the Organizational Development guru from M. D. Anderson hopsital in Houston.
He did an entire hour on organizational development with only photos (no words on the slides). Very powerful. I think we can make training so much more meaningful than a PowerPoint deck.

By: Alicia Arenas (@AliciaSanera)

Alicia Arenas (@AliciaSanera) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 01:34:26 +0000

- Breaks every hour to 1.5 hours
- Exercises to have the participants interact with the facilitator
- Activities to help the participants interact with each other
- Reflection time
- Whenever possible, I try to avoid giving all-day sessions

I would love to hear what you do Linda!

By: Linda Farley

Linda Farley — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 21:04:33 +0000

Great comment! I once saw Thiagi present. He only had about 3 slides for the entire day; those to give activity instructions.

By: Katie Stroud

Katie Stroud — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:54:46 +0000

I like to start with a workbook for participants. I have a template that ensures I follow a pattern of covering the objectives with sample activities for practice and review.

When the workbook is complete, I take only the high level points: agenda, objectives, key points, and session markers (next objective, break, activity, review, lunch, etc.) and put only those into the PPT. This helps keep the facilitator on track and puts the focus on the facilitator rather than the powerpoint. I also use page markers on the slide to tell the participants which page they should go to in their workbook for more info.

Minimal PPT content sprinkled with activities, discussions, breaks, and a lively instructor go a long way to avoid brain suffocation.