Tip #284: Preparing to Conduct Workshops in Hotels

Here is the first four items of a checklist for preparing to conduct a workshop in a hotel. Feel free to suggest additional items!

1. Call ahead to get the room dimensions.

If you are like me, you probably have a room arrangement that you prefer. Rather than be unhappily surprised when you arrive, it is useful to get the room dimensions ahead of time.

I also like to ask about windows and pictures on the walls. Since I bring kites to decorate the walls, I need to know what kind of blank wall space is available. This is also important information to help me to plan how to put up the wall agenda map, which is often pretty long.

2. Find out who should actually receive the room layout.

I can’t tell you how often I have arrived at a hotel, looked into the assigned room and found that it had not been set up according to my
room layout. When I have spoken to the hotel conference staff, I learn that they have never seen the layout. This sad experience has taught me that it is better to deal directly with the hotel conference staff than with the client who is arranging the workshop. This way I’m sure that they have received the layout and can accommodate me. I also get a contact name and phone number, which may come in handy during my stay.

3. Find out exactly when they’ll set up the room.

I travel with a lot of materials to go on the walls and on the participant tables. I like to have an hour or two to prepare the room in the evening before the workshop. I find it is too exhausting to set up for a workshop on the same day I facilitate it.

If I have traveled a distance to get to the hotel (which is a typical situation), I am tired when I get there. I want to get into the room as soon as possible to prepare for the workshop. Frequently, I’ll find to my dismay that the hotel is planning to use a late night crew to set up the room - or an early crew the next morning. I have needed to tip generously to get the room set up that evening!

4. Find out when you can get into the room to put out your materials.

I’ve learned to call ahead to ask: (a) Is there another function in the room? (b) If so, when is that function over? (c ) When can I get into the room? and (d) Who will let me know when I can get into the room?

I’ve cooled my heels waiting to get a call telling me that the function in the room is over. Sometimes, I’ve never been called and the only way I knew I could get into the room was to physically keep checking on it. No fun at all.

Next week, we’ll add to this checklist to cover issues related to mailing materials ahead of time and actually locating them on site when you need them!

This topic will be very fresh in my mind, because I will have just completed facilitating a week of training in South Carolina- for which I mailed seven boxes of materials. I know they got there (because of FedEx tracking). The question will be locating them once I get there! Wish me luck!


Before we get to this week’s Tip, Beth Eberhardt has posed another question, this time regarding self-defeating behavior and guiding staff through stressful times:

“My question as a new trainer is, "how do you facilitate the conversation in regards to times like these?" For example...within our system we are a college, therefore: we are dependent upon state funding which is up in the air, we are facing a double digit increase in enrollment, and our Governing Board has just hired a firm to come in and do an efficiency study. In anticipation of doing some of our training topics on change, communication, goal planning, diversity, etc. how do you anticipate the participants demeanor, questions etc and then how do you tactfully address their concerns without shutting them down? (one nice thing is most of the training we do is not mandatory therefore their are still their on their free will.”

If you have some ideas about how to approach training within the context of stressful situations, please send them in and we’ll print them. I know that most if not all of you are faced with this same situation, so I am counting on your wise experience and tested approaches!

In this week’s Tip, we continue our look at handy tips to prepare to conduct workshops in hotels.

Tip #283: A Fee Negotiation Cautionary Tale

I hope that no current or potential clients are reading this, because I have an embarrassing admission to make: I haven't raised my fees in many years, and I often agree to accept less than my daily rate. A hard-nosed negotiator I definitely am not!

There are consultants I know who post their rates and stand by them. They never negotiate. I wish I had their self-confidence and business savvy!

Since I don't, the following real-life sad fee negotiation story is meant as a cautionary tale:

Many years ago, I helped a college conduct some very sensitive strategic planning. The faculty had to decide what programs to cut because of lack of funds. This meant that they had to essentially decide which among them would lose their jobs.

We used my "building consensus on sticky issues' approach to establish decision-making criteria acceptable to all concerned. They identified all of the possible options and then applied the decision-making criteria to identify their key options. However, all of this took the entire day.

There was still work to be done and final decisions to be made. Although the group had all of the decision-making tools they needed to make those decisions, they were uncomfortable with the idea of continuing without an objective and disinterested facilitator. They asked me if I would be willing to facilitate an additional session. Of course, I agreed to do it.

I facilitated the second session and then submitted my invoice for both consulting days.

While I was conducting a training program for another client, the dean called me to question why I was charging for the second day. I was very surprised by his message and called him right back during the next ten-minute break. I asked him why it would be reasonable to expect that I would conduct the second session for free. He was adamant that my agreement to facilitate that session included no mention of additional payment. Although that was a true statement of the facts, I countered that it should have been clear that I would expect to be paid for the second day.

In the interest of maintaining a positive relationship with the college, I ultimately offered to accept 1/2 of my daily rate for the second day. He insisted that I was culpable but, in the interest of "fairness," the college would pay 1/4 of my daily rate for the second day. Pressured by the need to get back to my training session, I gave in.

That was many years ago and I still get angry when I think about it. I was offended by his manipulation of the situation, but I was much more angry with myself. My reluctance to make it clear that I would charge the same rate for the second day made it possible for him to take advantage of me.

What I learned from this experience is to be upfront about my fee and bring it up myself if the client doesn't ask about it. And I do!

Enough said about this topic! Next week, we'll look at handy tips to prepare for workshops in hotels.

Tip #282: Training is a Business

Training is a real business, but frequently trainers, particularly independent practitioners, forget that being in business DOES mean getting paid!

The video, The Vendor/Client Relationship In Real-World Situations' illustrates what trainers face with some clients who want to negotiate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2a8TRSgzZY

I think it's wonderfully if painfully accurate! If this strikes a chord with you and you have a story to tell, please write in with it and we'll print it in the next Tip.

Next week, we will look at some pretty sad real-life training fee negotiations!

Before we get to this week's Tip, Beth Eberhardt, Interim Coordinator, Maricopa Community Colleges, needs your assistance. She trains employees how to be more effective when they communicate using email and voice mail- and would like to incorporate activities into her program:

I am currently revising a Communicating with Voicemail and Email workshop. This is the one that you gave me the suggestion to do the shared responsibility dominoes exercise. I did it previously and it went well but the evaluations state that they would have like more activities. "My dilemma is that I work for a community college system and we have 10 colleges, all with their own email systems (Zimbra, Outlook, SeaMonkey) therefore it is difficult to teach any technology in relation to the content. Some wanted to have recordings of voicemails that they all could critique which is a possibility. One additional activity that I have them do is write a personal voicemail greeting and share with a partner. "

Do you have any other advice for activities when teaching soft skills in relation to technology? Thanks in advance, Beth

This week, we look at a real-life training fee negotiation!

Tip #281: Improving Energy Education

Many people may not realize that I have more than 12 years of experience designing specialized energy educational programs and training the trainers who provide energy education on a local, regional and national level. So, before I get on my soapbox, let me offer the credentials that support my opinion on the problems with energy education.

In collaboration with technical experts, I designed the curriculum, created the trainer manuals, and trained the trainers for the highly acclaimed National Compressed Air Challenge, the Wisconsin Energy Star Homes Program, and Focus on Energy. These programs include: Compressed Air Challenge Fundamentals and Compressed Air Challenge Advanced Training, Ventilation Basics, Drainage Basics, Practical Energy Management, Integrating High Performance, and the eight-day Wisconsin Energy Star Homes Training Consultant training.

According to Marge Anderson, Associate Director of the Energy Center of Wisconsin, my curriculum design and master training skills helped the Energy Center of Wisconsin win the 1998 and 2002 Awards of Excellence in Education from the American Institute of Architects, as well as the 2000 Exemplar Award from the International Association of Continuing Education and Training.

The fact that the National Compressed Air Challenge is one of the highest rated training programs for the U.S. Department of Energy has also been attributed to my curriculum design and train-the trainer expertise.

For years, I have designed and delivered the two-day Technical Trainers Toolbox for Focus on Energy. I worked with Productive Energy Solutions to design the Fan System Assessment Training and the Fan System Qualified Specialist training programs for the U.S. Department of Energy.

Over the past two years, I worked with Southern California Edison to provide train-the-trainer programs and to audit and recommend revisions to their key training programs to incorporate adult learning principles to ensure a quality learning experience for their customers.

More recently, I have worked with Productive Energy Solutions to design an Energy Awareness Program for Arcelor Mittal, Steel: An Energy-Intensive Business for Purdue University, and Pump System Energy Efficiency and Fan System Energy Efficiency programs for Portland General Electric.

In the past month, I designed and delivered a two-day program on Training Analysis and Design for Midwest ISO (the folks who manage the electric grid!) in Minneapolis and Presentation and Facilitation Techniques for Pump Systems Matter in Chicago.

However, until a representative of Midwest ISO contacted me and pointed it out, I did not realize that I have a niche in technical energy training design.

As a result, I feel that I have a responsibility and an obligation to make the following observations:

Most technical training programs about energy-efficient practices are based on an ineffective and outdated training paradigm. They waste valuable time and resources promoting the lecturer's expertise rather than developing the participants' capability.

What happens when technical energy experts get in front of their audience?

Do the participants:

(a) learn a lot and leave confident in their own competence?
(b) enjoy the stories and consider it good entertainment?
(c) leave in awe of the expert's knowledge and skill?

The answer is probably not (a).

Unless technical energy experts understand and incorporate adult learning principles sufficiently to set their participants up for successful learning, the training simply wastes everyone's precious time and limited funds. Given the importance of energy conservation, how can we justify that?

Customers and consumers need specific technical skills to effectively implement energy-efficient practices. Don't we want them to get those skills and leave the training programs confident that they can capably use those skills?

Unfortunately, despite many years of research into how the brain works and how people learn, most technical training only uses lecture. So, what's wrong with lecture?

It depends on what the desired outcome is.

If the desired outcome is an awareness of and exposure to new knowledge, lecture will achieve that goal. However, why not simply post this information on a website and save everyone the time and expense of attending a workshop?

For any agency committed to promoting energy-efficient practices, the desired outcome is either new skills or a change in attitude or behavior. In these cases, different instructional methods other than lecture will be necessary.

The energy industry needs well-designed training programs that will accomplish their ultimate intent: to motivate and empower consumers to make energy-efficient changes.

There are also sound business reasons to change the design and delivery of energy training programs.

First, most energy programs are designed without an educational component, so they are destined to fail. Instead of gaining consumer buy-in so that they are motivated to make energy-conscious decisions, the energy industry offers rebates or incentives. When the rebates or incentives go away, the energy-conscious decisions stop. True energy-conscious behavioral change requires energy training programs that incorporate learning activities that generate participant buy-in.

Second, reliance on an expert lecturer hampers the ability of energy training organizations to effectively respond to the increased interest in energy efficiency. It makes better business sense to offer training that is no longer dependent on the expert's limited time and availability. Energy training programs should be designed with content drawn from the expert's expertise and learning activities that build consumer buy-in and expertise. This way, the same training can be delivered by a number of skilled trainers, which will enable energy training organizations to achieve much deeper penetration into the market.

I will get off of my soapbox now, but I warn you that I am on a mission!

I am writing my very first book to help energy-training organizations know how and why to redesign their training so that learning and real energy-conscious behavioral change will occur.

I would appreciate any suggestions you are willing to provide regarding:

what to title this book so that it draws the energy industry's attention;

compelling reasons why energy-training organizations might want to buy this book;

what content to include;

the best way to structure the book so it will be most useful; and

how to effectively reach this audience.

(If it's not too pretentious to say), the planet and I both thank you!

Next week, we will begin a discussion about ridiculous training fee negotiations.

Tip #280: Getting Past Embarrassing Training Moments #4

Here are two funny moments that happened to trainers whose behavior epitomized the saying: The show must go on!

Deb Johnson, who is a Training Specialist for Allina Hospitals and Clinics, wrote in about her experience:

One of my embarrassing moments happened last year. During the opening introductions of a training class, almost immediately after my intro, I felt something slide down the front of my dress. I slapped my hand to my chest and made some kind of sound of surprise. Needless to say, at this point all eyes were on me.

With my one hand still holding my chest, I used my other hand to reach down. I pulled out a long large necklace that had come undone and that I caught before it fell out the bottom of my dress or got hung up.

Their momentarily stunned faces were priceless- and quickly turned into loud laughter. I said that was the only trick I had up my sleeve or down my dress for the day.

We all laughed and joked, and it set a lighthearted tone to the beginning of the class that carried through the rest of our time together.
It left me thinking about the challenge of intentionally creating a positive mood and setting a lighter tone that instantly connects everyone in the room without the embarrassment of the unexpected.

Deb, thanks so much for sending this in! You handled a very ticklish situation beautifully! Yes, it is certainly nicer for us if we can set that comfortable tone without the embarrassment of the unexpected.

Now see what you think about the aplomb of the trainer in this situation!

Another trainer (who shall remain nameless) told me that her most embarrassing moment occurred when she was giving a presentation to a large group of cadets. She was standing on a stage and really struggling to connect with the group. Her struggle to engage and interest them continued for a long time. Then suddenly, everyone sat up on the edge of their chairs and started listening intently to her presentation.

She was very gratified by this change in their demeanor- and enthusiastically continued to speak until she went to move and discovered that her pantyhose had fallen down! [I have no idea why she didn't feel the pantyhose slipping down! She must really concentrate on her presentation to the exclusion of everything else!]

I asked her how she handled the situation and her response was very simple and to the point. I just stepped out of them and then I had their full attention for the rest of the presentation. They kept waiting to see what else would drop!

Isn't that marvelous? I think she really used the situation to her advantage, while many of us would have probably have been devastated and hurried out of there as fast as we could!

Next week, I plan to tell you about my current training crusade. However, if you have ever been embarrassed as a trainer and lived to train another day, please send in your stories and we'll publish them in the following week's Tip!

Tip #279: Getting Past Embarrassing Training Moments #3

One of my own most embarrassing moments happened a number of years ago- so long it ago, in fact, that it occurred before there was even PowerPoint!

I had facilitated an all-day training program, taught a different program that evening, then hit the road very late to drive to the city where I was going to conduct a strategic planning session the next day. I had my materials and colored overheads in a bag with my ever-present bottle of diet Coke- and the bottle spilled, getting sticky Coke all over everything.

I spent the entire night washing, blow-drying, and recoloring the overheads! Exhausted in the morning after my stressful and sleepless night, I had no time for breakfast. I dressed and dabbed cover-up under my eyes so I wouldn't look like a tired raccoon. Then I put on a smile and went to meet the gentlemen on the board of a national corporation who had come from around the country for a day of strategic planning. This was to be my very first experience with them.

Everything went fine as I entered the room and was introduced to the group. Then I took one more step and tripped, landing in the lap of a very surprised CEO!

Well, after the frustrating night I had endured, I can't tell you how tempted I was to simply struggle out of his lap and run for the hills (or at least my hotel room)!

Instead, I got out of his lap, stood up with as much dignity as I could manage, and told the astonished group: If we do a good job with the strategic planning today, I will sit in EACH of your laps!

Everyone laughed with me (much better than at me!) and the session proceeded very well. (And no, I did NOT sit in any more laps- either accidentally or on purpose.)

I learned a number of things from this experience:

Do not travel with a bottle of soda in the same bag as your materials or overheads!

Everyone is human, including me, and so mistakes will happen.

You have to see the humor in embarrassing situations and be able to laugh at yourself.

People are very forgiving and relax if you don't take the embarrassing moment too seriously.

Next week, I'll share a funny moment that happened to another trainer whose behavior epitomized the saying: The show must go on!

Tip #278: Getting Past Embarrassing Training Moments #2

ince this is a holiday week, today's Tip will be a quick read.` Here is a classic situation shared by Lois Walton, MORE Trainer at Hazelden Springbrook:

I think my most embarrassing moment as a trainer was when I had to leave while my clients (fellow employees) were doing a small group activity so that I could use the restroom. I forgot to turn off my lapel mike, so everyone heard the toilet flush. They were all laughing when I returned to the training room and the story was all over the organization by later that day.

Enough time has gone by that I laugh at the embarrassment now, but it was only funny to the group, not to me at the time. I was mortified!

Thank you, Lois. I think that many trainers have probably had the very same experience when using a lapel mike for the first time- or remembered to turn it off just in time: myself included! When something like this happens, the best we can do is laugh along with the group.

When trainers are nervous about presenting in front of a group, one thing they are often told is to Imagine the audience in their underwear. Well, turn around is only fair, don't you think?

Next week, I'll tell you about one of my own most embarrassing moments and how I managed it!