Greetings from Bogota, Colombia 🇨🇴where I am catching up with Colombian family and friends ❤️.
🙌Many thanks for reading The Quest, your weekly round-up of tips and insights to help you design and lead exceptional virtual sessions that your group members will love.❤️
“In the word question, there is a beautiful word – quest. I love that word.” Elie Wiesel
When I started the Quest 🎉100 issues ago🎉 I was at the very beginning of my journey as an online facilitator. I was on a mission to learn everything I could about how to make online experiences more engaging and meaningful. I knew others were asking the same questions. So I started The Quest to share what I was learning.
“We are all partners in a quest.” Elie Wiesel
I had no idea where this deep dive into the world of virtual facilitation would lead. What began as an email to a small group of supportive family and friends has grown to 800 readers on a quest to learn about how to design and facilitate exceptional virtual sessions – including you!
The Quest has taken us to many places. We’ve listened to podcasts. We’ve read books. We’ve covered digital tools, tips for running tech, and ways to improve your home studio. We’ve explored how to create safety, establish trust, and be authentic. We’ve learned how to ask powerful questions, facilitate better group discussions, hear all voices, track engagement, welcome latecomers, transform breakout groups, and more. (You can access all 100 issues of The Quest👉 here).
“The essential questions have no answers.” Elie Wiesel
I’ve learned that there are no easy answers. And that writing about online facilitation has given me insights into how to lead live online experiences that I wouldn’t have without the Quest.
Here are the 10 biggest insights I’ve gained. I’d love to hear yours. Please feel free to hit reply to this email or join the conversation on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Let’s jump right in👇
💡10 Insights I’ve Gained About Exceptional Online Facilitation From Writing 100 Issues of The Quest
When I lead my first live online training at the start of the pandemic, I was a nervous wreck. Every bone in my body was telling me that it wasn’t going to work. But it did. And it showed me that it is possible to do meaningful, productive learning and work online.
I decided to immerse myself in the world of online facilitation. Here are 10 insights I’ve gained about exceptional online facilitation from writing 100 issues of The Quest. I’d love to hear yours. Feel free to hit reply to this email.
1/ Prioritize Safety
Lack of safety is the number one reason online facilitators struggle to get their online groups to engage. So many of the non-verbal cues your group members need to feel at ease – like body language and chit-chat – are completely missing in virtual sessions. To lead exceptional live online sessions you need to prioritize safety.
How? Check out 👉 The Quest #24: Psychological Safety – What, Why, and How?
2/ Connect Early & Often
Your group members will never complain about too few slides. But they often wish they had more opportunities to connect with their peers. Connecting with others who share your struggles is often the highlight of online sessions. That’s why you want to design your sessions so that your group members can connect early and often.
How? Check out 👉 The Quest #47: 🔑The Key to Creating Connection Online
3/ What Works In Person Doesn’t Work Online
Online sessions feel weird. We don’t have the non-verbal communication we have in person. We are checking out our own facial expressions. We try to scan for cues from others but get blank stares. It’s hard to know when to jump into the conversation. These are all reasons why you need to design your online sessions specifically for the way we interact online.
How? Check out 👉 The Quest #88: 🤷 Why Virtual Meetings Feel So Weird (and what you can do about it)
4/ Design An Experience
The Peak End Rule tells us that our group members remember the emotional peaks and the end the most in any experience. These peak moments should not be left to chance. You can intentionally design memorable moments in your online sessions so they are unforgettable.
How? Check out 👉 The Quest #76: ✨How to Design Powerful Experiences
5/ Nail The Tech
When you run virtual sessions there are about a million things that can go wrong at any moment. And if you are a tech-challenged person like me running tech can be anxiety-producing and exhausting. I learned there are ways to run tech smoothly and dramatically reduce the chances of things going wrong.
How? Check out 👉 The Quest #96: 💪Tips for Running Tech Smoothly in Your Virtual Sessions
6/ Cut Your Content
Overwhelm is quickly becoming a hallmark of live online sessions. It’s easy to assume that you provide more value to your group members by cramming your session with slides and information. The truth is that you can be contributing to cognitive overload without even realizing it. That’s why you need to cut your content.
How? Check out 👉 The Quest #68 – 🤯How to Reduce Overwhelm in Your Virtual Sessions
7/ Increase Interaction
When you lead online groups, you are competing with a million distractions. Online audiences are becoming more interested in becoming active rather than passive participants. You have to earn your audience’s attention. The way you do that is to increase interaction.
How? Check out 👉The Quest #70 – ⚒️ 10 Digital Tools to Try
8/ Treat Your Live Sessions as Sacred
One of the biggest mistakes that online facilitators make is to use live sessions for things that are better done offline – like delivering long presentations. Instead, you want to use live time exclusively for the things that are done better live like connecting, ideation, working through challenges, and learning experientially.
9/ Have Fun
It can be easy for you and your group to feel mentally and physically exhausted after back-to-back online sessions. Online sessions don’t need to be boring or torturous. As the online facilitator, it’s your job to find ways to bring joy back into being together even when we are apart.
How? Check out 👉 The Quest #64 – ✨Why Play is the Magic Ingredient in Groups and How You Can Play More
10/ Keep Learning
How do you know if you are growing as an online facilitator? Virtual facilitation is evolving so quickly that there are very few analytics, benchmarks, and KPI’s. Exceptional facilitators are constantly looking for ways to improve their skills. You can too.
How? Check out The Quest #66 – 📈4 Ways to Measure Your Facilitation Skills + Self-Assessment
❤️What You Have to Say
Your emails are the fuel that keeps me writing this newsletter each week. I am amazed to hear about the ways you apply your online facilitation skills. Here is a sample of what you have shared with me.🔥🔥🔥
Gillian who wrote after reading The Quest #57: 📝The Power of An Annual Review
I have two final practices this week, and my gift to my participants will be this from your newsletter: When you think about 2021 ask yourself: “What’s one thing you’ll leave behind, and one thing you’ll take with you”.
Delia who wrote after reading The Quest #90: 🌐 10 ways to shake up your next webinar
I’m stealing the “how do you feel about this topic” prompt for my next webinar!
And Geraldine who wrote me after The Quest #96: 💪Tips for Running Tech Smoothly in Your Virtual Sessions
As a result of the last issue of the Quest, I created my own sheet with a detailed rundown of an event and it made such a difference! Thanks for helping me experience a breakthrough today.
And Adam who wrote after reading The Quest #98: 🎥How to improve your home studio (for under US$300)
This was exactly what I needed to finally push me over the edge. I bought a 2nd monitor and a mic.
And Connie who wrote after reading The Quest #94: 📡How you can develop intuition as a skill
Love this and the insight that trusting your intuition is a risk-taking activity ; )
And from my Dad, a loyal Quest reader after every issue:
👏😎👌💪👍😀
💌Thanks for reading The Quest
I always love hearing your feedback and suggestions. Just hit reply to share your thoughts and ideas.
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Creatively yours,
