It’s trainee season again, and if other firms are like mine, the library staff are busily arranging numerous training and induction sessions. As a result I find myself being asked to take training sessions.
I remember back in Uni, oral presentations were the worst. I hated practicing (still do) so I would only do one or two run throughs and hope for the best. And inevitably, the sessions usually went badly. I’d fumble and stutter and speak too fast or too quietly. Even presenting at a day long symposium in front of industry people (including people from Red Hat) I was so nervous that I skipped points, and put myself down.
I’ve had more experience now and I actually enjoy doing the training sessions. Quite often the sessions turn out to be fun, depending on the content and, of course, the audience. I love having groups that are really involved and willing to have discussions. But every so often I’ll get a really unresponsive group and it’s hard to keep positive and smiling when the people in front of you would obviously rather be somewhere else.
Some of the things I try to remember when I’m doing a session that’s not going as well as it could be are:
- stay calm and positive
- act like you’re having a conversation with one of the audience members rather than the whole group
- have a list of all the points you need to make in front of you, and if need be tick each one off as you go
- and no matter what, don’t say anything disparaging about yourself, or your department.
Mostly, I just try to remember that they don’t know what I’m telling them, and therefore I have the upper hand. That usually makes me feel a bit better about the whole situation!
Peter Bromberg of Library Garden recently posted a top ten list of articles on giving good presentations which is a post I’ve bookmarked and will be working my way through. And another post I’ll be working my way through is Stop Doing Sucky Presentations by Emily Clasper over at Library Revolution.
In the same vein Michael Stephens of Tame the Web has a good post - Ten Tips for Technology Training. Most of the tips aren’t relevant for my training sessions, but the first one has a good point - “Be ready to present just from your notes if all the tech fails.”
Oh and tip eight - Rehearse, but go with the flow.
March 12th, 2008 at 10:03 am
Davina, thanks for the post. I don’t find presenting too bad, I wouldn’t say I’m the greatest presenter in the world (I talk too fast and don’t rehearse what I’m going to say) but I’ve moved on from hiding behind notes to engaging directly with the audience more by actually looking at them and being interested in their reactions.
One of the things I always say to the Trainees I deliver training to is that what I’m going to show them may not be relevant for the seat they are currently in, but it could well be useful in their next seat. This negates comments like “I’m not doing any case searching so why do I need to know how to do it?”
March 12th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Training is a tricky thing to get the knack of. My best advice for other trainers? Be confident. Have genuine enthusiasm for your topic. Make mistakes on purpose.
And one trick I swear by: When I’m doing anything that requires a live demonstration, I make all handouts, diagrams, etc. in Power Point. This way, if my live demo gets nixed by a bad internet connection or other act of God, I have something to put up on the screen.
Of course, if technical difficulties mean that’s not possible either, it’s always good to know how to tap dance. :)