Hello friends,
Greetings from Barcelona.☀️
🙌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.❤️
If you were forwarded this email, you can subscribe and receive The Quest straight to your inbox every Monday👇
🔥How You Can Take Your Closings from Good to Unforgettable?
There is so much to say about closings I’ve made this a two-part series.
In case you missed it, last week we covered the 3 elements for closing for a one-off session.
Today I’m going to break down the ✨secret ingredients✨ for designing the closing session for a longer program.
Let’s jump right in.
You are coming to the end of your program.
You want to give your group a closing session that will honor all of the amazing moments you’ve had together. One that will tie up all the loose ends. That leaves no question left unanswered. And that ends on an emotional high.
You want it to be perfect.
That’s how I used to approach my closing sessions. I put so much pressure on myself to come up with the “perfect” ending, I would get flustered and completely blank out on the things that mattered most. And I often felt disappointed with the result.
There is no perfect ending.
As soon as I pushed my desire for perfection aside things changed. I started to see that what my group members really wanted (and needed) was a chance to reflect. To bond and celebrate one last time. They wanted to feel ready to take what they learned out into the world.
Focus on designing a meaningful closing.
There are simple elements that will help you design a closing session that is meaningful and satisfying for your group. They’ll feel motivated to take action on what they’ve learned. And they’ll be more likely to recommend your course to others.
What are the secret ingredients of a meaningful closing session? That’s our Quest for this week 🔎
Plus
📅Last chance to join our free expert session – Boost Your Course Engagement With Copywriting with Billy Broas on November 7th @ 12 ET (register 👉 here).
🥗The Secret Ingredients of a Meaningful Closing Session
I just wrapped up my 5-week course Breakthrough Facilitation so closings are fresh on my mind.🎉
As the end of the year approaches you may be coming up to the end of your program or course.
I want to share the 4 elements I used to design my closing session. This blueprint will help you design a meaningful closing for your program – again and again.
Success 100% comes down to designing your closing session for your audience, your purpose, and the transformation that you want for your group.
Hat tip to my facilitation mentor Nadia Chaney for helping me put these elements into practice.
Here are the 4 elements:
1) 🌾Harvesting – Individual and Group Reflections
Reflection is the compass that guides your group to see how far they’ve journeyed. It gives your group members the chance to look inward and take stock of what they’ve learned. Here the key is to build in time for both individual and group reflection.
What I did👇
Before the closing session, I asked the group to fill in a self-assessment survey. It’s called the Virtual Facilitator Coefficient. It’s a tool I developed with the brilliant MySnapshot founder Charlotte Crowther that helps students track their progress through the course.
Here’s an example of BF Alumni Ryan Clover’s Virtual Facilitator Coefficient (thanks Ryan!)👇
Filling in the survey before the closing session gave participants time to start reflecting. So by the time they joined the live session, their insights were already bubbling up.
Then during the live session, they had individual writing time. This helped distill their key areas of growth, insights, and breakthroughs. The group then shared reflections in the big group.
I ended the individual reflection with this prompt in the chat:
✅Describe your BF Journey – “From… To…”
Then came the group reflection. I prepared a Miro board for the closing session with the Breakthrough Arc Framework that I teach in the course. We used the Arc to map our group journey together. This also gave us a visual artifact of the group experience.👇
I ended the group reflection with this prompt in the chat:
✅Describe our BF Group Journey – “From… To…”
2/ 💪Commitments – Charting Next Steps + Actions
Making commitments gives people a way to take learning and new skills into life beyond your program. And it keeps people accountable. Here the focus is on next steps and actions.
What I did👇
The group members met with smaller accountability groups to identify actionable steps.
They identified three things:
- The areas they want to focus on going forward
- An action plan of the steps they will take in the next 30 days
- And support they would need from the group to be successful
3/ 🎉Celebration: Gratitude + Strengths
The celebration opens up space for emotions. And it helps people move toward letting go and moving forward. Two ingredients that make celebrations meaningful are expressing gratitude and naming others’ strengths.
What I did👇
I can’t divulge the full details of the closing celebration because it’s a well-guarded BF secret 😃. I can tell you that we created a special virtual background and did a group movement activity. Each group member had a chance to shine in the spotlight and receive the group’s support one last time. And then we took a group photo to capture the magic of the moment.📸
4/ ✨Closing: The Last Word + End
This is the moment for any unspoken words to be aired. Then it’s your turn to express your appreciation to the group. To share how you were moved and changed. And give them words of encouragement as they take their new knowledge and skills into the world. The key here is to keep it short and sweet.
What I did👇
I tend to get choked up at the end. So I wrote out what I wanted to say to the group beforehand. I circled back to a quote that I used in my intro at the end. It took about 2 minutes.
Here’s a recap of the 4 elements for designing a meaningful closing session:
How might you these elements to design a meaningful closing session for your group?
Big congrats to the exceptional facilitators of Cohort 5. 🙌🎓And huge appreciation to BF5 Alumni Mentors Flor, Darren, and Erika. And to our dynamite Course Manager Lilian.🌟
💌Thanks for reading The Quest
I always love hearing your feedback and suggestions. Just hit reply to share your thoughts and ideas.
If you were forwarded this email, you can subscribe to The Quest 👉here.
If you enjoy The Quest, I’d appreciate it if you shared it with anyone you think might like it.
Creatively yours,
Whenever you are ready there are 2 more ways I can help you:
👉Custom coaching & team training. Book a free 15-minute zero-commitment call with me to see how I can support you and your team.
👉5-week Live Online Course. The Breakthrough Facilitation course gives you tools, personalized feedback, and a proven framework for designing and leading high-engagement live sessions. Join the interest list and be the first to get the next cohort dates and discounts.
