Hello friends,
🙌Many thanks for reading The Quest #123, your weekly round-up of tips and insights to help you design and lead exceptional online sessions that your group members will love.❤️
If you were forwarded this email, you can subscribe and receive The Quest straight to your inbox every Monday👇
I am sharing curated lists of my all-time favorite design and facilitation resources.
Whether you lead team meetings, online courses, group coaching sessions, or training, I hope these resources will spark some fresh ideas and inspiration for your live sessions.
Here’s what I’ve shared so far:
Week 1 –>🎙️My favorite facilitation podcasts.
Week 2 –> 📚18 books that will help you become an exceptional facilitator (and an all-around better person).
Week 3 –> 🧰10 Facilitation Toolkits I can’t live without
Week 4–> 🎥9 click-worthy YouTube videos
Let’s dive right in!
I get very easily distracted.
I go to YouTube hoping to find some experience design tips. And then before I know it I find myself in a massive rabbit hole. 🕳️🐇
First click, Thomas Frank’s Video on How to Use AI to Take Perfect Notes – without typing (because that sounds cool!)
Up next, “the procrastination cure you don’t want to hear”. (You are right, I don’t).
And then without realizing it, I am 2 minutes into an 8-minute video about zucchini tasting better than meat (4.4M views – what???).👇
When it comes to learning about how to lead and design live sessions, there are some YouTube gems. You have to look for them. And stay focused.😀
To save you time, I’ve put together a list of 9 click-worthy YouTube videos with my takeaways.
I hope these videos will help you:
💡Come up with ideas for icebreakers
🙌Engage your group from the get-go
✍️Design sessions for transformation
🤝Encourage inclusion
And more…
Okay, here’s the list👇
1. How to deal with difficult participants in meetings – Jan Keck
Jan is a Trainer, Facilitator, and Experience Designer (and a Quest Reader – hi Jan👋). He produces high-quality, engaging, and humorous videos on a range of facilitation and design topics. Like this one on dealing with difficult participants in meetings👇
3 takeaways:
👉Assess the impact on the group
👉Check in with yourself
👉Respectfully interrupt
2. The one sentence that kills your meetings… Jan Keck
In this video, Jan talks about one of the biggest mistakes facilitators make at the start of a meeting and what to do instead.
3 takeaways:
👉Plan an “unofficial start” for your meeting so people feel welcome
👉An opening prompt idea: “What’s something that made you smile this week”
👉The best walk-through of the interactive tool StreamAlive in the second half of the video that I have seen
3. How to Manage Energy in a Remote Workshop – AJ&Smart
This video is from the facilitation and training agency AJ&Smart. It walks you through facilitation tips for managing the group’s energy in a remote workshop:
3 takeaways:
👉Bring more energy than you would in person
👉Start with a warm-up
👉Play some workshop music
4. How to Explain Any Exercise with This Simple Formula
Giving clear instructions to a group is way harder than it looks. In this video, AJ&Smart founder Johnathan Courtney breaks down a formula for giving clear instructions.
3 takeaways: (his three steps)
👉What is the exercise
👉Why are we doing this exercise
👉How do you do the exercise
5. 4 Ways to Encourage Inclusion During a Business Meeting
In this video, Forbes Senior Contributor and facilitator Dana Brownlee shares techniques to encourage inclusion. She talks about meetings, but the tips can be applied to any group experience.
3 takeaways:
👉 Start with a creative introduction
👉Use the “round-robin” facilitation technique
👉End with peer kudos. Prompt idea: “What was the best idea you heard today that wasn’t yours?”
6. Best Icebreaker: Connection Before Content
This video is all about creating connection at the start of a workshop. Seasoned speaker, author, and facilitator Chat Littlefield shares his top tips. And he offers up some practical strategies for getting buy-in from grumpy groups.
3 takeaways (Chad’s checklist items to score your icebreaker)
👉Does it connect people to each other?
👉Does it connect to the purpose?
👉Does your exercise create a choice for authenticity and vulnerability?
7. How to Be Confident on Camera (5 Tips)
Being confident on camera is a skill that all online facilitators need to master. In this video, YouTube sensation Ali Abdaal shares his top 5 tips.
3 takeaways:
👉Ramp up your energy
👉Embrace imperfection
👉Speak with a smile
8. What is Learning Experience Design?
In this video, eLearning Designer’s Academy’s Tim Spade shares tips for creating transformative learning experiences for your group members.
3 takeaways:
👉Create a total user experience
👉Create multi-media rich learning experiences
👉Create hands-on learning experiences
9. Avoid this MISTAKE When Building a Course
I was so happy to hear recently that Instructional Designer (and Quest reader!) Alexandra Allen launched a new YouTube channel. This video is like a mini-demo of an instructional design approach, talking about instructional design. 😅
3 takeaways:
👉Most course creators focus too much on information transfer
👉Start with an outcome in mind and work backward
👉Design so students apply what they are learning
What YouTube videos help you lead better live online sessions?
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Creatively yours,
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