I have an assignment for a training/workshop session to facilitate the teambuilding and formation of a project team. The participants are from an NGO working with youth. I have around 4 hours with the group, and I've put together an initial session plan, focusing mostly on teamwork and team dynamics, with a couple of exercises and discussion rounds: https://goo.gl/p8qHyV
I'd love to hear if you have any feedback on the session plan - any tips or suggestions to make it effective?
4 Responses
Hi there, very brave of you
Hi there, very brave of you to share this and invite feedback. I don’t think there’s much wrong with what you have included but it falls into a trap that many in L & D fall into that it’s packed full of well known models and theories but lacks a bit of the so what, the reality.
In my opinion, it wouldn’t make any difference in actual work practices by knowing these theories which seem to just be reinforced all the way through. What, I think, you need to do is work on discovering real problems/challenges/issues that the learners face and work on finding ways to tackle them. You can bring in the theories to support that but as it stands, it’s too generic and doesn’t really address anything specific. The more in context you can make it, the better. Hope that’s ok.
Hi Clive,
Hi Clive,
Thank you for the feedback, I really appreciate that you took a look at on the session plan.
It’s a good point you are raising, and if I translate that into a session design, it would advocate for first providing a platform to bring up current work / teamwork related issues by the participants, and then – depending on which type of issues they bring up – use the appropriate models when discussing them and looking for solutions.
I imagine this is a very practical approach, especially when you have a group who already have some experience of working together, so most of them have a good context of the issues being raised.
In your experience, how does this approach work when the group members are fairly new to each other?
(In my case, the group was just starting to work together)
Great point. So, I think
Great point. So, I think there’s a couple of things to consider; the first is almost receiving permission from someone senior, with influence, to be honest and open. This might just be a senior person opening the session and giving that permission.
The second is to explore issues that they have had elsewhere when joining a new team and exploring both good and bad experiences. If it was good, what made it good and how does that relate to the theories, and similarly if it was bad.
What you want to move towards is the candidates making some commitment to do something new or different. Not a big proclamation or anything too unachievable. What you want is small sustainable changes that don’t take much time but can be sustained for about 90 days to affect change.
You may almost want them to agree some small things they will all do and hold each other accountable. Hope that helps.
Thanks Clive, this is a
Thanks Clive, this is a really useful advice! Definitely something I will consider when designing my next session.
I especially like to call-to-action in the end, to make them help each other and each other accountable for their small commitments. It also gives an actionable way to follow-up towards participants a few weeks after the session.