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Designing the Logistics of Your Course

One of the most difficult questions a trainer must answer is, Just exactly what will you be able to accomplish with how many people in exactly how much time? Not only must you have an answer, you also must be flexible in response to the needs of your organization. In all likelihood, you will be given more trainees and less time than you would prefer; hence, the need for some logistical guidelines.

Structural Elements of a Presentations Skills Course

While you can offer some flexibility, you don't want to diminish the integrity of your course by trying to do too much for too many people in too little time. So before you prepare the content of your course, you need to set your structural parameters by developing a plan of action. As you calculate, be sure to include the following sections in your presentation training class. Delete the "optional" sections if you are pressed for time. We'll discuss the exact wording in great detail in later chapters.

* Hold time. 5 minutes. Wait five minutes to begin, unless you count heads and everyone is seated and ready. Even if they are seated, taking a few minutes to relax and chat among themselves is useful.

* Logistics announcements. 5 minutes. Announce break times and bathroom locations. Cover anything that might be unfamiliar to the participants regarding the training facilities. Ask for any questions they may have.

* Course introduction. 10-20 minutes. Grab attention, explain basic objectives, and demonstrate specific and personal benefits that participants can expect to gain from the course. Emphasize the "what's-in-it-for-them."

* Presentation challenge discussion. 2-7 minutes per person. Depending on how you frame this exercise, participants' answers will take two to five minutes. If you get ahead of yourself and try to respond to each answer, you might use up to six or seven minutes per person. Be careful here and watch your time.

* Your introduction. 5-15 minutes. Tell the class why you are qualified to teach this class. The longer your bio and the more stories you tell, the longer this segment will be. Use this opportunity to build your credibility, which is something you will be able to refer back to later in the course.

* Lecture on the first three steps of the Strategic Communication Model: Preparing Your Presentation. 30-45 minutes. Again, stories and examples make this longer, but they also make it a richer experience for the participants.

* Demonstration: video examples. 15-30 minutes. Optional, but fun and different, especially for an audience that is reticent about participating.

* Small group exercise. 30-45 minutes preparation time. 3 minutes per team presentation time. Optional.

* Individual exercise. 30-45 minutes preparation time. 3 minutes per person presentation time. Optional.

* Lecture on Steps Four and Five of the Strategic Communication Model: Delivering Your Presentation. 30-45 minutes. This part of your presentation includes the fun stuff about platform skills, so it takes longer if you are a "performer" yourself.

* Exercise: Visual Aid Assessment. 10-20 minutes. The more examples you use, the longer this will take. Optional.

* Exercise: The Credibility Test. 10-20 minutes. Discussion will make this longer. Optional.

* Individual presentations and evaluations, first round. Your planning gets tricky at this point. The participants' first speech can be three, four, or five minutes, depending on what kind of presentations they normally give in their work assignments. The more you know about evaluation and the more your participants want to talk, the longer this can be. (See Chapter Nine for more about giving feedback.) As a rule, I assign three-minute presentations to groups of entry-level people and four- or five-minute speeches to executives. Setting up takes a few minutes, and evaluation usually takes approximately three times the length of the speech. Therefore, if you have a class of entry-level employees, allocate at least fifteen minutes for a three-minute speech.

* First-round wrap-up. 15-30 minutes. Answer questions, and ask for take-aways. Summarize evaluations, and explain your expectations for the second round of presentations.

* Individual presentations and evaluations, second round. These should be a little longer, but you can reduce evaluation time. For lower-level employees, require five-minute speeches, and plan on four per hour. For executives, require seven-minute speeches, and plan on three per hour. This includes setup before each speech and a break after each hour.

* Final summary. 15 minutes. At the end of the workshop, participants are likely to feel somewhat drained and are going to be ready to leave. Do a quick round of "what did you learn" and a quick summary of the Strategic Communication Model. Resist the temptation to quit too soon. This kind of wrap-up is very useful to overall comprehension.

* Course evaluation. 5 minutes. Ask participants to fill out the form and leave it at the front of the room.

Examples of Course Design

It's hard to say which is worse - a class that is too big or one that is too small. I have had some of both, but, surprisingly, the problem with each is basically the same: People won't talk to you if there are too many or too few participants in the room.

My magic numbers are twelve to twenty-four participants in a series of half-day classes with lots of time to divide them into small groups for their actual presentations. For example, in an ideal situation, you would be allocated nine half-day sessions to train twenty-four management-level employees (Exhibit 2.1). But you might be asked to present "refresher" training to twenty-four experienced account executives in a half day (Exhibit 2.2). Of course, this is not a best-case scenario because the participants don't have time to present individually, but it might create follow-up opportunities. We'll also look at a class of twelve entry-level participants in one full day (Exhibit 2.3).

Exhibit 2.1

Nine Half-Day Course for Twenty-Four Account Executives or Management-Level Employees

Nine half days for the trainer Three half-day commitments from each participant

First Half Day (All 24 participants)

8:30 Begin (hold for five minutes)
8:35 Logistics announcements
8:40 Course introduction
9:00 Presentation challenge discussion
9:40 Your introduction
9:45 Break
10:05 Lecture on environment, options, organization
10:50 Video examples
11:10 Break
11:30 Lecture on delivery (including visual aids examples)
and feedback
12:15 Summary, four-minute presentation assignment,
questions, final take-aways
12:30 End

Second Half Day (Participants 1-6)

(Note: Schedule at least twenty four hours but not more than a week following the first half day. This is a morning example, but of course you can offer an afternoon session. Also, you can easily schedule a morning and afternoon session on the same day.)

8:30 Begin (hold for five minutes) 8:35 Announcements about logistics, peer evaluations, video tapes, timing; questions about preparation 8:45 Speaker #1 (Allow twenty minutes per speaker: three minutes to set up, two minutes to explain target audience, four minutes to speak, one minute for Q&A, and ten minutes for evaluation. Then give yourself an extra five minutes of discretionary time for a total of twenty-five minutes per speaker.) 9:10 Speaker #2
9:35 Speaker #3
10:00 Break
10:15 Speaker #4
10:40 Speaker #5
11:05 Speaker #6
11:30 First-round wrap-up; assignment for second day
12:00 End

(Note: You may choose to replace the one 15-minute break with two longer breaks and run your workshop until 12:30.)

Third Half Day (Participants 7-12)
Fourth Half Day (Participants 13-18)
Fifth Half Day (Participants 19-24)

These sessions replicate the second half day with each six-person group.

Sixth Half Day (Participants 1-6)
Seventh Half Day (Participants 7-12)
Eighth Half Day (Participants 13-18)
Ninth Half Day (Participants 19-24)

(Note: Schedule these sessions at least two days but no more than a week after the first round of presentations. This is an afternoon example, but you can easily do a morning and an afternoon on the same day.)

1:00 Begin (hold for 5 minutes)
1:05 Announcements about logistics, peer evaluations, video tapes, timing; questions about preparation
1:15 Speaker #1

(Allow twenty minutes per speaker: two minutes to set up, two minutes to explain target audience, six minutes to speak, two minutes for Q&A, and eight minutes for evaluation. Then give yourself an extra five minutes of discretionary time for a total of twenty-five minutes per speaker.)

1:40 Speaker #2
2:05 Speaker #3
2:30 Break
2:45 Speaker #4
3:10 Speaker #5
3:35 Speaker #6
4:00 Course wrap up
4:20 Course evaluation
4:30 End

(Note: You may choose to replace the one 15-minute break with two longer breaks and run your workshop until 5:00.)

Exhibit 2.2

One Half-Day Seminar for Twenty-Four Experienced Account Executives or Management-Level Employees

8:30 Begin (hold for 5 minutes)
8:35 Logistics announcements
8:40 Course introduction
8:50 Presentation challenge discussion
9:25 Your introduction
9:30 Lecture on environment, options, organization
10:10 Break
10:30 Video examples
10:45 Lecture on delivery (including visual aid examples)
and feedback
11:30 Summary, questions, final take-aways
11:50 Course evaluation
12:00 End

Exhibit 2.3

One Full-Day Workshop for Twelve Entry-Level Employees

8:30 Begin (hold for five minutes)
8:35 Logistics announcements
8:40 Course introduction
8:50 Presentation challenge discussion
9:10 Your introduction
9:20 Lecture on environment, options, organization
10:00 Self-introduction exercise
- forty-five-minute preparation break with refreshments
- thirty minutes to present
11:15 Lecture on delivery (including visual aid examples)
and feedback
11:55 Assignment for three-minute presentations
12:00 Working lunch
1:00 Three-minute presentations and evaluations, first six speakers

(Allow twelve minutes per speaker: two minutes to set up, one minute to explain target audience, three minutes to speak, one minute for Q&A, and five minutes for evaluation. Then give yourself an extra three minutes of discretionary time, for a total of fifteen minutes per speaker.)

2:30 Break (and a little flex time, just in case you need it)
3:00 Second six speakers
4:30 Summary, questions, final take-aways
4:50 Course evaluation
5:00 End

My Story

One of my goals with this book is to help you avoid wandering into the training quicksand where I have occasionally found myself. This is one of those quicksand stories:

A prestigious educational institution hired me to train a large number of staff employees from a wide range of functional areas. The client assured me that all my participants gave presentations regularly and that they would easily assimilate my material and perform with a high level of proficiency. "And, oh, by the way, we don't have very much money, so could you train forty-eight people in two days?"

I managed to convince them to stretch their commitment to two-and-a-half days. However, since my original proposal had included two presentations by each participant, I organized the five half-day seminar so that all forty-eight people spoke twice, twenty-four at a time in half-day workshops.

Six per hour sounds reasonable, but with late starts, setup, evaluation, questions, breaks, technical difficulties, and a much lower level of proficiency than the client had promised, it was a horrible experience. Everyone felt rushed, and no one was satisfied with the training.

I was disappointed and embarrassed, but I learned a valuable lesson about presentation skills training: When it comes to scheduling individual presentations, schedule at least double the time you really think you need. Participants truly appreciate the individual attention, and their improved presentations will justify your insistence on adequate time allocation. I should have either severely adjusted my program (and the client's expectations) or insisted on half the participants or double the time.

Remember

Be prepared when someone asks you exactly what you can do with how many people in how much time. Your organization may want to give you more trainees and less time than you know would be effective. Be flexible, but set your structural parameters and be prepared to defend your proposal. Refuse to diminish the integrity of your course by trying to do too much with too many people in too little time. Any short-term gain will be offset by client disappointment and participant frustration. You won't have much fun, either.

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Excerpted from The Presentation Skills Workshop by Sherron Bienvenu. Copyright © 2001 by Sherron Bienvenu. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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