The power of practice

- I believe in the power of practice. It's true for your participants and it's true for you too. You'll be more calm, confident and comfortable if you practice your workshop before you do it in front of an audience. The real trick here though is to do it in real time using your deck and any props or materials you'll be handing out. Doing this kind of dress rehearsal has really helped me work out the kinks. For example, I discovered how easy it is to get my handouts confused and that I better lay them out in order with clear labels so I don't mix them up in the moment or that if I'm having them refer to certain pages in a manual, I better have those pages clipped or dogeared so I can flip to them quickly and I learned that if I don't have my notes numbered in order and bound together I'll drop them all over the floor. Yikes. Practicing out loud also helps you smooth out your delivery getting the wording to be just right. And it really helps you to know how long each section actually takes. If you're going to be in a new or unique venue, I also recommend doing a trial run there as well. Every podium and computer hookup can be different which is why I bought every type of computer dongle possible and carry them with me. I also bring my own stash of Kleenex, slide clicker, batteries, water and breath mints. Once you feel that you're ready for an audience, consider piloting your workshop with a friendly group and call it a pilot too. That ways folks know that you're open to feedback which makes them more likely to give it. This strategy can be particularly helpful if you know you're going to have to deliver to a tough audience. It's better to test things out with a neutral group than find yourself flustered in front of a critical crowd. I will even ask friends to role play challenging situations just so I know I'm ready for anything. All of that practice helps me feel really solid in my material and delivery which makes me more relaxed and fluid in front of an audience. I even practiced this video a couple of times before we turned on the cameras. And practice is powerful for your participants too. Your workshop can and should be that sandbox for them to practice new behaviors. Even a few minutes of trying a behavior can make all the difference especially when you make it safe for them to make mistakes and have some trial and error. It's amazing how much people can accomplish in just a few minutes of focused effort. I found that as little as five or 10 minutes of practice can make a world of difference. If it's a complex skill or behavior I'd break it into segments and have them practice each part separately and then string them altogether. For example, I teach coaching skills to managers and leaders. I've broken a typical coaching session into four separate steps. We spend two to 10 minutes on each step talking about how it went after each phase. This is a really great way to pull out important learning moments and leverage insights across the group. Once we've done all the parts, I then give them 30 minutes to do the whole thing as one fluid experience and of course they switch so everyone gets a turn being the coach. This strategy can be used for a whole range of behaviors and really helps your audience gain both competence and confidence. Here's an interesting fact from neuroscience. All learning is a neural pathway. Thoughts and behaviors are just strings of neurons firing in a certain order, so use trial and error to help them learn the skill correctly. Once the pathway is built, repetition is how we gain comfort and ease. In fact, it's through repetitions that a behavior becomes a habit, something that's controlled by the basal ganglia in the brain. It takes about 40 to 50 repetitions on average for a habit to form so think about how you can help your participants build up repetitions during your time together. By doing the behaviors correctly in the room, you set up your participants for ongoing success after the workshop ends. Practice is the way we all get better at things so make sure you honor the power of practice by building it into your workshop design.