What to Do Next

• Think about your audiences. Each participant has both a ‚“good twin ‚½ and an ‚“evil twin. ‚½ The ‚“good twin ‚½ is your model participant. Imagine a room full of these ideal individuals, pick any one of the facilitated activities found in chapters 7 through 9, and jot down the kinds of behaviors they ‚ d exhibit. Now, imagine your worst nightmare: a room full of ‚“evil twins. ‚½ Do the same exercise and jot down how it might go. Is there anything you might do to counteract the negative behavior? Could you save the day with a group like this? You may be surprised to find that when you ‚ ve finished this exercise you ‚ ve identified some preventative measures for managing your most likely audience: a mixture of ideal and less-than -ideal participants .

• Do the same thing for yourself as facilitator, using what you know about your best qualities and how you perceive yourself when you ‚ re at something less than your prime. Again, most people who try this experiment manage to discover some useful insights that help them improve their facilitation skills.

• Narrow your choices. Decide which workshops you are committed to prepare and facilitate and begin working through the activities and debriefings in detail. Start to visualize the flow of activities, taking into account what you know at this point about your prospective audience. Make sure you have a clear idea of how each activity supports the stated learning objectives. Ask yourself what kinds of questions or objections your participants might raise.

• Prepare to evaluate your workshops. Read chapter 6 with the thought of how to align your facilitation plan with your evaluation criteria. ‚“Starting with the end in mind ‚½ can help you focus your facilitation efforts on those areas that your organization has determined to be the most essential.

• E-learning readiness check ( continued ). If you have decided that you will be delivering one or more of your workshop offerings via e-learning, find out what platforms you have available for delivering both real-time and asynchronous facilitated workshops. If you are not familiar with these platforms, arrange for a demo or check out books, tutorials, and other resources to prepare for using them.

As facilitator, you (and others who may be facilitating your workshops) will be the center of project management learning activities for the organization. You bring the workshop materials to life, help your participants find relevance and practical application for the skills taught, and lead your organization to continuous improvement of its project management training program. Without you, the texts , PowerPoint slides, and handouts have limited value. In your skilled hands, they become valuable training assets.