This is one of the reasons that I love to read Helen Blunden’s tweets and blogs and watch her video’s. She’s a very well respected learning designer with followers from all over the world, and yet she tweets about panicing before every workshop she gives.
Others from the field reply with all kinds of tips to overcome that feeling of panic. There are more than 40 replies just to this one tweet and in most of them followers share their tips and insights about presenting workshops.
With this tweet, Helen shows once again how valuable it is to ‘work and learn out loud’ and to show one’s vulnerability in that process. Other recognized that too:
Helen, this is why I love you. I will be showing this tweet to my niece who has been feeling paralysed by a similar feeling pre-performance in her art studies. She is under the impression that everyone else has it together.
— White Owl (@white_owly) September 6, 2019
Just a few examples of the other responses, though there are so many more worth mentioning:
I over-plan my workshops. I have more activities than can be done in the allotted time. This way I can branch according to the circumstances and know there is always something else we can do if things are not going well
— Harold Jarche (@hjarche) September 5, 2019
I've got an overall sequence for my workshop on job aids, but like @hjarche I have more activities than could fit in the usual time allotted. I know the content and the likely outcomes, so I can skip or swap based on the preferences, abilities, interest of the group…
— Dave Ferguson (@Dave_Ferguson) September 6, 2019
To me, a workshop is a collective journey of discovery. As facilitator I provide structure and focus so that participants can explore, debate, figure out, and make something new. So it's not me who's the centre of attention – it's the topic, the task, the participants themselves.
— Margaret L Ruwoldt (@emelaarghh) September 5, 2019