Hello friends,
🙌Many thanks for reading The Quest, your weekly round-up of tips and insights to help you design and lead exceptional online sessions that your group members will love.❤️This is issue #129.
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Let’s jump right in!
How do I engage the “quiet ones”?
That’s a question I get asked a lot. Maybe you are familiar with this situation… You are leading a live session. You ask for volunteers. The same hands go up. You ask a question. The same people jump in.
You know there are several group members holding back.
You try to make Zoom eye contact. No response. You don’t want to always default to the chatty participants. But you can’t get the quiet ones to engage. And the last thing you want to face is the dreaded awkward silence.
Engaging shy participants can be even more challenging online.
As session leaders, it can be harder to read the needs of introverts, especially online. And sometimes, even without realizing it, you can give disproportionate floor space to the participants who talk the most.
When we fail to design for introverts, we fail as facilitators.
It can make our audience members feel excluded. You can overlook the contributions of up to half of our participants. And it can erode the group’s confidence in you as the group leader.
It’s your job to get all voices heard.
That means that you need to level the playing field for introverts to take part. You’ll get more diverse perspectives. And your group will get better outcomes.
How can you design and lead introvert-friendly online sessions? That’s our Quest for this week🔎
👉Understanding Introversion and Extroversion
👉10 pro tips for engaging introverts in your live sessions
👉Zoom Annotate: your secret weapon for engaging introverts
🔎8 Signs That You Are An Introvert: Understanding Introversion vs Extroversion
An article from Very Well Mind that I found helpful to understand how introverts operate. Especially because there are so many misconceptions about what introversion is.
Here are some useful facts:
- Introverts make up about 25% – 40% of the population
- Introversion is different from being socially anxious or shy
- Introverts typically prefer to learn through observation
- Introverts like to collect their thoughts before sharing them with others
Source: Lifehack.org
💡10 Pro Tips for Engaging Introverts in Your Live Session
A brand new Twitter Thread (is it still called that?) I wrote about how to level the playing field for introverts in a group. Join the conversation on Twitter here.
Here’s the summary👇
1/❓Start with a prompt.
2/🎙️Turn on mics and say hi.
3/📊Use a poll.
4/ 🤔Give reflection time.
5/👥Vary group size.
6/ 👍Use reactions.
7/ 🎥Turn off cameras.
8/📝Use whiteboards and chat.
9/💭Share post session.
10/ 💡Educate yourself.
What strategies do you use to engage introverts in your live sessions?
🌟Annotate: Your Secret Weapon for Engaging Introverts (and Extroverts:)
Annotate is one of those hidden Zoom features that not very many people know about. I love it because it allows you to invite audience members to contribute in a low-risk and fun way. And it’s super easy to use.
Annotate allows you and your participants to draw, stamp, and write over a shared screen. You can use it to vote, make collaborative drawings, and do informal polling.
Here’s how to set it up👇
1/ Go to your Zoom account settings and turn on annotation
2/ During your live Zoom session share your screen
3/ You’ll see annotate appear in your toolbar
4/Click on annotate to see your annotate tools
6/ You can hide the names of the participants so their contributions are anonymous. This can help introverts feel safer to share.
5/ After you share your screen, your participants can access their annotation tools by clicking “more” on the top right of their screen and selecting annotate. (It helps to have a slide up explaining where to find annotate. Here’s mine.)
Let me give you an example of what annotate looks like in action.
It’s an icebreaker called How Are You Feeling? I learned this from one of my favorite facilitators Stef Turner early on in the pandemic. It’s a great way to survey the emotions in your group at the start of a session.
1/ Share your screen with the emoji emotion slide. You can swipe the one I use in my course Breakthrough Facilitation here.
2/ Introduce the activity by inviting group members to share how they are feeling today using any annotate tool (stamps, shapes, arrows etc…). I like to give people the option to choose as many emotions as they want. And also to add their own emotions to the slide.
3/ Give the group about a minute to select their choice.
4/ Share some observations about what you see and/or invite the group to share theirs. Often you’ll see a range of emotions. This warm-up helps your group members express how they are feeling. And it helps you meet your group where they are at.
💌 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,
Whenever you are ready there are 2 more ways I can help you:
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