Anticipate and Prepare

One last thought on this subject: Be prepared! There are several things you can do prior to facilitating a learning event that can help you anticipate and prepare for the most likely disruptive behaviors.

One thing you can do is review evaluations from previous courses with the same participants, on the same subject, or both. Make note of comments regarding the difficulty of the subject matter and the participants’ satisfaction with the facilitation. If possible, get information about the participants from a facilitator who has worked with them in the past. You can also find out from managers—or the participants themselves—about the participants’ learning styles, work environments, and enthusiasm about the learning event. Keep up with organizational issues that could be on the participants’ minds: downsizing, annual performance appraisals, organizational change efforts, and so forth.

The following suggestions will help you personally be better prepared to manage learner disruptive behavior:

• Make a card, poster, or even a Post-it note that says, “My professional agenda is to make learning happen” and put it in a place where you will see it often both at work and even in the classroom.

• Make a list of disruptive learner behaviors that are hot buttons for you and make it harder for you to control your reaction. Simply identifying these behaviors and posting the list in your office will help you remember to behave differently.

• Make a list of the reactive behaviors that you tend to use most often when a participant behaves in a disruptive manner. Ask a trusted colleague to observe you (in the classroom, in a meeting, in a presentation) and identify the reactive behaviors that he or she sees. Are the two lists the same? Do you exhibit some behaviors that you aren’t aware of?

• Plan steps you can take to help you recognize that a personal reaction and agenda are about to emerge in a situation and to help you remember to act on your professional agenda (take a deep breath, count to 10, call a break, take a drink of water, and so forth).