Today’s Topic: Making Presentations
We recapped the previous four days by playing Jeopardy. One team (they named themselves Joaquin’s) was very competitive and kept a tally of their scores. I didn’t realize until the end that the other team (who named themselves Rabbit) didn’t keep score. Then it made sense to me why they chose 10- and 20- point questions while Joaquin’s chose 40- and 50- point questions! I had to give both teams prizes since I didn’t know which team had won.
The morning was spent with the participants giving 2-minute key point presentations on content from the four days that was significant for them. The belief window and self-esteem came up as topics, as did non-defensive communication, adult-adult communication, and active listening.
It appeared that the topics we spent the most time on, because they had difficulty with them, impressed them the most. These presentations provided a great summary of the key points from the previous days.
The afternoon focused on 5-minute presentations on any topic they desired. Topics ranged from being a good parent, avoiding malaria, supporting a withholding tax, the importance of water (twice, from different perspectives), non-smoking benefits, eating healthily, work/life balance, and active listening. Two went over the time and several were less than 4 minutes.
What impressed but did not surprise me was the quality of the constructive feedback the group gave each other. They caught things I didn’t see and articulated things I was only semi- conscious of, such as introductions that didn’t directly relate to the body of the presentations. They were also lovingly supportive of participants who hadn’t done a great job yesterday- noting their improvement.
They were all highly interactive with minimal lecture, providing a few facts and figures where relevant. Many began with questions to engage the group, and some continued a dialogue throughout the presentation. Several outstanding presentations were wonderfully organized and flowed beautifully. I was proud of them all.
They all noted in the debriefing that they saw their own improvement between the key point and the 5-minute presentations. That pleased me enormously!
After our three-part ritual of writing a personal action plan, completing the evaluation sheets, and identifying and reporting their key take aways, they did a walk about in pairs to discuss how they plan to use what they’ve learned.
When they came back, I gave them mini containers of bubbles and turned on Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration.” They threw themselves into blowing bubbles and dancing, which went on for a good 10 + minutes. We did a few group photos and they left, after giving me hugs and their email addresses so I can send links to their three videotaped presentations.
It wasn’t until I packed up everything that I realized no one had given me their evaluations, although I know they filled them out. I’ve emailed two of the participants to see if they can get the others to scan their evaluations and send them to me.
On a personal note, I had worried that I wouldn’t have the stamina to conduct five straight days of training. I’m happy to report that I’ve kept my energy up throughout the week. One contributing factor is that I’ve been getting 9-10 hours of sleep every night!
I look forward to telling you about my adventures in the town of Malabo tomorrow.
Have a great day!
May your learning be sweet,
Deborah
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