Anticipating and Addressing Problem Situations and Problem Participants

Every facilitator would prefer to think that problem situations and problem participants will not show up in his or her workshops. Uncomfortable situations will arise no matter how carefully you plan your workshops, but there are quite a few proactive steps you can take to help anticipate and prevent some of the difficulties encountered in project management workshops.

Know your audience. Find out as much as you can about the experience levels and expectations of your participants. Use a questionnaire to gather some of the information. Also, open most workshops (live or online) with an ice-breaker exercise that allows participants to introduce themselves and share their expectations about the workshop.
Manage expectations. Have an agenda posted in the front of the room (in a live classroom) or in the announcements page of your online classroom, which spells out the topics and approximate times for workshop activities.
Clearly state learning objectives and ask the audience to rank them in importance. Make sure the participants understand why they are there and that the objectives have relevance to as many of the audience as possible. Ask them which objectives are most important to them, but make certain they understand that you will be addressing all the objectives ‚ unless you, your audience, and those who requested the training have agreed to cover the participants ‚ stated objectives ‚“by request. ‚½
Spot the ‚“resident experts ‚½ and enlist their help. You may wind up with a number of participants who already know (or think they know) a lot about project management. They will frequently find the materials too simple or the pace too slow for their taste, whereas the rest of the group is working and responding well to the workshop as you ‚ ve designed it. The best approach here is to face the problem head-on as early as you spot it and ask them to assist in helping others in their group to master the materials. This approach may not always work, but you will at least have recognized their needs and given them an opportunity to demonstrate their expertise and apply it in helping others.
Unwilling draftees. Try as you might, you may wind up with departments who decide to make attendance at your workshop mandatory. Sometimes salary reviews and even continued employment are predicated on staff attending a certain number of training activities. This kind of coercive policy may fill seats in the workshops, but your audience ‚ being literally captive ‚ will often be less than eager participants. You already have a few tips for dealing with resident experts. You then have to figure out how to build in incentives for the unwilling and clueless, who have no idea why they are attending other than the fact that they were told to ‚ or this group will give you plenty of opportunity to exercise your best facilitation skills.

Try to help these draftees identify some reasons for acquiring project management knowledge beyond ‚“my boss made me take this workshop. ‚½ See if there are other areas where they might apply the information in the workshop, even hobbies or other outside activities. If nothing else, you will have acknowledged the situation for what it is and may gain their trust by being honest and attempting to be genuinely helpful.