How to Keep People Engaged on Zoom

[0:00:00.04] Welcome everybody to our session with Gwen.

[0:00:02.04] You know, Gwen.

[0:00:03.28] She's going to be teaching Zoom facilitation today, obviously.

[0:00:05.84] But she taught me a whole bunch during during Rite of Passage and I've used her tips and tricks in my newsletter, Launchpad and everything I've done live.

[0:00:15.92] And so I I'm thrilled that she decided to to teach us Live Today.

[0:00:19.68] So thank you Gwen for doing this and maybe we could we could get started.

[0:00:23.68] Gwen, I I know we'll have some more folks joining, but.

[0:00:27.12] But probably this is a good time.

[0:00:29.4] Great.

[0:00:29.68] Yeah, great.

[0:00:30.8] Let's get going.

[0:00:33.04] Thank you so much, Louis.

[0:00:34.68] Thank you, Daniel.

[0:00:36.64] This it's such an honor to be here with the small vets community, which I've joined recently and it's just opened my eyes to a whole new universe out there of people who are in the space.

[0:00:50.44] That's really exciting.

[0:00:51.96] Louis, had I known that, you know, meeting you in a breakout group and Rite of Passage would have led us to leading a session today, I wouldn't have believed it.

[0:01:01.44] But there you go.

[0:01:02.32] That is what can happen online.

[0:01:04.72] Serendipity in in action.

[0:01:07.68] So hello everyone here.

[0:01:10.36] Hello small Bets community.

[0:01:13.36] Welcome to the session.

[0:01:14.76] How to keep people engaged on Zoom.

[0:01:17.84] So on behalf of everyone who suffers through exhausting Zoom meetings, I want to thank you for taking the time to come out today and learn a few things about how to engage your groups.

[0:01:32.88] So let's just start by renaming ourselves on our Zoom little Zoom screens with your name and where you're calling in from.

[0:01:43.04] So if you go to your Zoom box and you see three little dots on this on the top you'll you'll come up with an A menu option.

[0:01:51.6] You'll see rename and you can just rename with your name and where you are calling in from.

[0:02:05.52] Perfect.

[0:02:07.04] OK, so wonderful.

[0:02:11.4] So just as you are renaming yourselves, great.

[0:02:15.68] So as we can now see from this, the Zoom boxes, we have got people calling in from all over.

[0:02:22.52] We're going to get to that in just a second.

[0:02:27.72] Let's drop in the chat just to start us off.

[0:02:32.2] What is a memorable experience that you've had and how has it made you feel?

[0:02:39.84] How did it make you feel?

[0:02:40.92] I'll just drop that in the chat.

[0:02:42.96] So let's drop in the chat.

[0:02:44.64] What is a memorable experience you've had?

[0:02:48.2] And one word, how did it make you feel?

[0:02:54.76] I'll just drop that in the chat.

[0:02:57.24] OK?

[0:02:58.96] Grateful.

[0:02:59.92] Wonderful.

[0:03:01.2] OK, so even.

[0:03:05.04] Thanks, Arvana, for putting getting us started.

[0:03:08.24] Yes, Kamar In Life on Zoom in life in life in general.

[0:03:12.64] So I might say brunch with my daughter and that made me feel really connected.

[0:03:21.88] So just feel free to just put any any memorable experience you've had whether it be life professionally and one word.

[0:03:30.12] How did it make you feel OK.

[0:03:33.16] First day at university in Mexico and curious.

[0:03:36.56] Killian Gilad.

[0:03:40.28] Time in desert Tranquility.

[0:03:44.12] Nice Prince London.

[0:03:45.92] If I if you had one on Zoom, please share.

[0:03:49.32] We're going to get to that.

[0:03:50.48] Definitely sleeping well for 9 hours and don't remember what that feels like.

[0:03:59.64] What is Sleep OK?

[0:04:01.6] Fortunate.

[0:04:02.48] Rested and then driving through the flood, Anxious.

[0:04:06.72] But let's just get to some of these emotions here.

[0:04:09.28] Peaceful, Sexy.

[0:04:11] OK.

[0:04:12.6] Excited.

[0:04:15.08] Full.

[0:04:16.12] Connected.

[0:04:16.72] And joyful.

[0:04:17.72] Connected.

[0:04:18.48] Great.

[0:04:19.12] All of these ways that these memorable experiences make us feel.

[0:04:23.68] And so, just to give you a little foreshadow, we're going to be exploring some of those.

[0:04:29.96] How can we create those kinds of emotions here on Zoom?

[0:04:36.12] Wonderful, So let's just start by turning on our mics.

[0:04:41.84] And if you want to keep sharing in the Zoom memorable experiences, please keep keep going ahead and and sharing in the in the chat.

[0:04:49.6] Let's In the meantime, if it's possible for you, turn on your mic and let's say hello to the Small Bets community.

[0:04:58.64] It's not very often that I've had the chance to connect with people in the community live on Zoom, so let's just turn on our mics and say hello to this group.

[0:05:07.88] As you would say hello to a friend, a very good friend of where you live.

[0:05:14.04] Turn it on.

[0:05:14.56] Hello.

[0:05:17.04] Group Hey, how you doing?

[0:05:20.64] How you doing?

[0:05:21.52] How you great, It's good to see some of you on the screen and it's really good to hear you as well.

[0:05:29.28] I mean, turn something as small as turning on our mics just reminds us all that we're real human beings behind those Zoom screens.

[0:05:39.4] Wonderful.

[0:05:40.2] So I know we've spent a lot of time on Zoom, but just to get us just before we get started, here are a few Zoom instructions for our call, just to get the most out of the call today.

[0:05:54.12] 90 minutes of your time is an awful lot of time.

[0:05:57.32] We want to make the most of our time together, so if it's possible for you, turn your cameras on.

[0:06:07.24] Let's use the chat.

[0:06:09.16] Let's use emojis reactions.

[0:06:11.48] You can see the reaction button down here on on your zoom panel below.

[0:06:18.36] Let's also just make sure you know a lot of us are working from home.

[0:06:24.12] There's a lot of stuff going in the background.

[0:06:26.04] Cameos are welcome.

[0:06:27.68] Cats, dogs, kids, whatever is happening for you in the background.

[0:06:33.64] Any technical questions, just ask Louis.

[0:06:37.2] And let's just also enjoy the session, because if we're not enjoying our time on Zoom, it actually really isn't worth our time at all.

[0:06:46.76] OK.

[0:06:48] So before we go get into too much talking and again if it's possible for you to turn on your camera, we're going to do a quick connection activity just to to get to know a little bit better of who is in the zoom room with us.

[0:07:06] So if you haven't turned your camera on already and it is possible for you just start that video and that's great.

[0:07:13.88] OK, perfect.

[0:07:15.72] So who's in the room is just going to be a a quick way of us to get to know each other a little bit better.

[0:07:22.16] Who is in the call?

[0:07:25.48] So I am going to start in just a couple of minutes.

[0:07:28.96] I'm going to ask you to turn yourselves on to gallery view so you can see everyone's screen.

[0:07:34.92] And then in a couple of minutes, I'm going to ask you to turn your cameras off.

[0:07:39.28] So we'll all be in the dark and I'm going to read out a sentence, a statement.

[0:07:44.4] And if that statement is true for you, just turn on your camera.

[0:07:48.92] OK, We're going to take a look at who's on the screen and then turn the camera off and we'll go to the next statement.

[0:07:55.64] OK.

[0:07:57.28] Any questions?

[0:07:59.28] All right, we're on gallery view.

[0:08:01.16] Let's turn our cameras off.

[0:08:08.36] OK.

[0:08:09.16] Perfect.

[0:08:10.16] So the first question, I've been part of the small Bets community for more than a year.

[0:08:18.24] If that's true for you, turn your camera on.

[0:08:21.64] Daniel, I thought you were going to.

[0:08:22.76] I thought I was going to see you.

[0:08:25.48] Great.

[0:08:25.72] OK, so we've got a couple of community members here who have been with the small bets for some time.

[0:08:32.32] Great.

[0:08:33.24] So let's turn off the cameras and next statement.

[0:08:38.6] I'm brand new to the Small Bets community.

[0:08:45.2] Great.

[0:08:47.2] Wonderful.

[0:08:47.68] So we've got a few people who are, are new here.

[0:08:50.32] Yes.

[0:08:51.2] All right, wonderful.

[0:08:52.92] OK, let's turn our cameras off.

[0:08:59.24] This is my first live event.

[0:09:09.84] OK, great.

[0:09:11.2] So we've got three people.

[0:09:12.48] I know there is a an amazing line up of live events that Louis and Daniel have prepared for this group.

[0:09:19.92] So I'm really excited also to check out some more live events after this one.

[0:09:25.28] OK, let's turn that the cameras off.

[0:09:29.76] I check small bets, The small bets Discord channel every day.

[0:09:40.36] OK, there we go.

[0:09:42.52] There are our stars, the the ones who are checking the Discord channel every single day.

[0:09:47.84] Amazing.

[0:09:48.6] OK, let's turn the the cameras off.

[0:09:54.4] I've received some really helpful feedback from others on small bet, from others in the small bets community.

[0:10:05.04] Nice.

[0:10:06.08] Well, there you can see.

[0:10:07.16] But yeah, from our little come see.

[0:10:11.4] Come sigh.

[0:10:12.28] OK, great.

[0:10:14.72] Amazing.

[0:10:15.88] Let's OK, and let's get to zoom now.

[0:10:23.08] So most zoom sessions I attend suck again.

[0:10:35.98] Again, some nods there, Nate.

[0:10:40.58] Sorry about that.

[0:10:42.22] Yeah.

[0:10:42.98] Oh, and I'm even seeing some people who didn't have their cameras on before turning their cameras off for that particular response.

[0:10:49.98] So yes.

[0:10:51.14] OK, let's turn our cameras off again.

[0:10:57.3] I get nervous when I lead Zoom sessions or just thinking about leading zoom sessions.

[0:11:08.36] Yeah, yeah, I'm turning myself on as well.

[0:11:12.6] It's.

[0:11:13.72] I still get nervous before leading zoom sessions, and I've LED quite a few of them to date.

[0:11:19.76] OK, so let's turn our cameras off now.

[0:11:24.68] Does anyone in the group want to throw out a statement to this group?

[0:11:29.52] Anything that you are curious about, you can just unmute and throw out a statement to this group.

[0:11:44.32] Is the point that no one will ever say anything?

[0:11:49.28] Do you have any any statement?

[0:11:52.16] Is any any statement goes?

[0:11:55.92] How many hours per day do people use Zoom?

[0:12:00.52] I'm at six.

[0:12:03] OK, so maybe the statement is who here uses six or more hours a day of zoom?

[0:12:12.88] Works, yeah 'cause it's a kind of a yes and no thing.

[0:12:15.96] I'm even worse off.

[0:12:17.12] I have to use teams.

[0:12:19.08] Oh no, for you.

[0:12:23.04] OK.

[0:12:23.68] I'm going to turn myself on for that 1-6 hours a day or more often times I am.

[0:12:29.48] Yes or on Zoom or online, Kamar.

[0:12:33.72] Great.

[0:12:34.44] OK, fabulous.

[0:12:37.64] Any let's turn our cameras off.

[0:12:39.76] One more statement from from the group.

[0:12:43.64] Anyone want to just throw something out you're curious about?

[0:12:51.4] I'm curious about some of the tools.

[0:12:53.24] I don't know if that's a statement.

[0:12:56.4] OK.

[0:12:57.08] Who here is curious?

[0:12:59.2] I am curious about learning some tools in the session.

[0:13:07.48] All right, great.

[0:13:08.72] Got a lot of a lot of screens going on for that one great question.

[0:13:13.92] OK.

[0:13:14.4] And I've just got one more question for you.

[0:13:17.28] Thanks for those questions, those statements.

[0:13:20.56] So you can see in this game the statements work when it's kind of a yes or no for the cameras.

[0:13:27.04] OK, one last one.

[0:13:29.08] I want to be one of those people who can vibe up a zoom room.

[0:13:38.6] Great, Wonderful.

[0:13:41.84] You are in the right place.

[0:13:45.92] Great.

[0:13:46.44] Fantastic.

[0:13:48.88] Thank you for that.

[0:13:49.6] So that is who's in the room.

[0:13:51.6] I'm gonna be doing this session, kind of doing some activities, but also speaking to the intention behind it so that you can get a sense of like when you might be able to use who's in the room.

[0:14:03.96] Just a quick question and just feel free to unmute.

[0:14:07.32] What do you think we accomplish by something by by an activity like who's in the room, What do we accomplish?

[0:14:15.52] Or you can put this in the chat as well.

[0:14:21.32] You get people to engage and start feeling like they can talk and be more comfortable.

[0:14:28.56] Yeah.

[0:14:29.8] Yeah.

[0:14:30.16] Prince, great.

[0:14:31.24] Great point.

[0:14:34.68] Wonderful.

[0:14:35.32] Anything else?

[0:14:36.68] Yeah.

[0:14:37.48] Louis Connection and Smiles.

[0:14:40.44] Ensuring people are not working during a session.

[0:14:42.64] Yes.

[0:14:43.12] We are competing with a lot of distractions.

[0:14:46.64] So anything you can do to make your screen more enticing than the other things going on, make more connected, move out of passive passivity, Yes, making sure that people are excited, having them in the room and not elsewhere, convert passive listeners into active participants.

[0:15:07] I love that.

[0:15:08.48] OK.

[0:15:08.96] Those are just a few of the things that this kind of who's in the room and it doesn't.

[0:15:14.12] You know, you might look at some of these activities and say, I don't know if that's going to work for my group and it might not.

[0:15:20.84] So you really, really want to have clear in your your own mind, your audience, the purpose of your session.

[0:15:27.96] And we'll get to a few other things but and tailor any of these activities specifically to your audience.

[0:15:36.04] This is a connection activity.

[0:15:37.6] It's a warm up activity.

[0:15:38.8] It's supposed to be something very easy, an easy way to ease people into engaging in your session.

[0:15:44.92] OK, and convert those passive listeners into active participants.

[0:15:50.4] Brilliant.

[0:15:51.4] So for those of you who don't know me, my name is Gwen Wansborough.

[0:15:57.76] I'm a facilitator and a an experienced designer, and I have spent quite a few hours on Zoom leading live sessions.

[0:16:10.84] So when the pandemic hit, I had been leading in person workshops for about 15 years and I didn't know anything about how to lead a workshop on Zoom.

[0:16:26.08] But I did also want to be one of those people who could vibe up a Zoom room.

[0:16:31.24] So I immersed myself in everything that I could to learn how to design and lead really engaging online sessions.

[0:16:40.8] I started a newsletter that's called The Quest where I share everything that I'm learning.

[0:16:45.52] And I launched my own small bed which was a a cohort based course called Breakthrough Facilitation that teaches people how to design exceptional online session.

[0:16:58] So I've had the privilege of collaborating with the other cohort based courses like Rite of Passage where I met Louis, online communities like the folks over at Circle and and facilitation communities like Session Lab and International Association of Facilitators.

[0:17:15.12] And through all of this, here is what I've learned, that truly exceptional online sessions are designed specifically for the way that we interact online, which is much it's different than how we interact in real life.

[0:17:33.36] So there's a big opportunity here for those of us in small bets who want to take advantage of what we can now do online to generate income and and grow our businesses.

[0:17:45.04] And especially if you're running workshops or courses or even thinking about it, there's a big opportunity to learn how to run these really high engagement live on live sessions really well.

[0:17:59.44] So in this session I'm going to, I would like to share some of these tools and techniques and my intention is to help you spark some new ideas for your sessions.

[0:18:08.6] So again, the exact activity or tool that I use may not work for your group, but it's under and understanding the intention behind it and the underlying principles that will help you adapt these tools and these activities for your specific audience and purpose.

[0:18:25.96] OK, so great.

[0:18:29.4] Let's just put in the in the chat a little.

[0:18:36.56] On a scale from 1:00 to 4:00, how would you rate your confidence level in engaging people on Zoom?

[0:18:45.88] So one being I actually I'm not I'm not running Zoom sessions yet.

[0:18:52.72] 4 being I'm completely in my element when I am leading sessions on Zoom.

[0:18:58.56] OK, so just one to four.

[0:19:00.88] How would you rate your confidence level?

[0:19:04.08] Great.

[0:19:05.56] So fantastic we have, we have quite a few ones and that's a great place to be for coming out to a workshop like this.

[0:19:17.8] We've got Twos 2 maybe 3 some and we've got we have got a a few fours as well.

[0:19:24.6] So people who feel really comfortable already leading live sessions on Zoom.

[0:19:30.64] So wherever you are on that confidence scale, I'm hoping that this session will bump you up at least one number.

[0:19:40.04] If you're a four, let's get you to five, but bump you up one number so that you get the confidence and tools that you need to increase engagement in your sessions.

[0:19:52.36] Great.

[0:19:54.36] OK, Right.

[0:20:02.36] OK.

[0:20:02.76] So let's start again in the chat.

[0:20:07.72] Just let's kind of off the the top of your head.

[0:20:10.84] What are some of the biggest challenges that you face when running live sessions?

[0:20:17.04] Just drop it in the chat so we get it.

[0:20:20.28] A little sense of, you know, some of the things that people are coming up against when they're when they're leading live session.

[0:20:27.32] The biggest challenges.

[0:20:29.52] OK, Louis, the nerves and John getting people to turn the cameras on and engage and Carol cameras off and not being able to read the room.

[0:20:37.88] Yes, Nate.

[0:20:40.52] Fostering connection and exuding confidence.

[0:20:43.2] And Brian.

[0:20:43.8] Engagement.

[0:20:45.4] Mm hmm.

[0:20:46] Daniel, I want the guest to remember the event.

[0:20:50.08] Yes, Those memorable experiences that we can create online.

[0:20:57.4] Great.

[0:20:58.04] People will watch my whole class like ATV Kumar.

[0:21:02.6] Yeah, So lots of cameras.

[0:21:05.08] Yes, there's there's if focusing on talking clearly when most of my focus is going into doing a live demo.

[0:21:13.44] That's right.

[0:21:14.08] Yeah.

[0:21:14.36] And understanding.

[0:21:18.12] Understanding.

[0:21:18.6] Understood.

[0:21:20.36] OK, Mark.

[0:21:21.52] Getting a higher percentage of participants to engage in polls and interactive elements.

[0:21:25.28] That's right.

[0:21:26.56] What?

[0:21:26.88] Yeah, all of those things.

[0:21:28.52] The awkward silence that I feel when I'm talking.

[0:21:31.52] So this is what we want to really dive into in our session today.

[0:21:37.64] We're going to dive into learning some proven facilitation techniques that will boost engagement in your Zoom sessions.

[0:21:50.36] Yeah, I'll just going to put those in the chat.

[0:21:52.08] So these are our aims for the session.

[0:21:54.04] So there's a whole world of facilitation just on the screen here of the people who I can see how many people are familiar with facility, what group facilitation is or maybe even have had a little bit of training and facilitation anybody had.

[0:22:10.8] OK.

[0:22:11.04] So the great news is that there's a whole world of techniques, proven techniques and tools when it comes to engaging your audience.

[0:22:21.04] And that's what we're going to take a look at some of those techniques today that's good that are going to boost the engagement in your zoom sessions because there is, it's not rocket science, but there is in an art and a science to this to engaging people.

[0:22:37.08] So the second aim that we have today is to generate some fresh ideas that you can use in your session straight away.

[0:22:44.8] So I want these to be actionable.

[0:22:47.68] So you have maybe you have a live session coming up where you can start to test some of these tools and see with your own eyes the impact that it has on engaging people in your group.

[0:23:01.4] And I will tell you something, not a lot of people are taking the time to actually learn how to facilitate online experience as well.

[0:23:11.4] So you are going to be ahead of the of the pack by learning some of these really pretty straightforward but techniques that you can you can use in your session.

[0:23:24.2] OK.

[0:23:24.84] Any questions about the aims so far?

[0:23:28] Does that make sense?

[0:23:28.92] Is that what everybody came out for?

[0:23:31.92] OK, great.

[0:23:33.56] So I would like to propose one agreement to this group and I can see already that you are, you're you're jumping right in, you're participating, but there is one agreement that I'd like to propose and that is to participate fully.

[0:23:52.12] Again, we've got this golden hour and a half together, and as we all know, you learn so much more when you participate.

[0:24:01.6] This is an immersive workshop, and so we're going to be learning by doing and immersing ourselves into these techniques.

[0:24:10.12] Participation looks different for everyone, so in some cases it's not possible to turn the camera on.

[0:24:17.24] But you have audio, we have the chat, we have the reactions.

[0:24:22.12] So please feel free to use the whole range of ways that you can participate in this session, whatever is going to be working for you.

[0:24:29.8] The most important thing is that we we hear from you, OK?

[0:24:35.64] So if you agree to participating fully, let's just drop a yes in the chat, OK?

[0:24:48.56] Or a thumbs up.

[0:24:49.6] Perfect exclamation marks are also welcome.

[0:24:53.96] Wonderful Vamos, Stanley.

[0:24:57.92] Yes.

[0:24:58.64] Hell yeah, perfect.

[0:25:00.32] OK, so let's start by I know that a few of you have mentioned, you know, these awful Zoom experiences that make you feel so exhausted.

[0:25:12.96] It's so exhausting.

[0:25:14.28] Let's think about a few of the most awful live experiences that you've attended and how How did they make you feel so awful?

[0:25:28.28] Online events?

[0:25:29.8] I'm just going to drop this in the chat.

[0:25:32.16] How did they make you feel?

[0:25:33.92] Just the emotion.

[0:25:35] So just like, let's kind of just come up with some emotions.

[0:25:39.72] Bored out of my Yes.

[0:25:42.76] Drowsy.

[0:25:44.36] Yes.

[0:25:45.68] Frustrated and bored.

[0:25:47.04] Yes, John.

[0:25:48.56] Bored, disengaged, detached, bored and sleepy.

[0:25:51.72] Just bored.

[0:25:54.56] Yeah, and distracted.

[0:25:58.64] All of those things.

[0:25:59.84] And you think about, you know, some of the emotions that we were talking about before at the at the start of the session, those memorable experiences making us feel, you know, connected and energized and rested and all of those good things.

[0:26:17.2] OK.

[0:26:18.4] So presenters winging, it caused me to regard them as unprofessional.

[0:26:24] Then I disengage.

[0:26:26.8] Bill, I love that you brought that up because there's a very important piece around engagement that some people don't even take into consideration, which is preparation.

[0:26:35.4] Being fully prepared for your session actually helps people engage with you and your session.

[0:26:42.92] So thanks for that, Bill.

[0:26:44.28] Why did we get to the meeting in the first place?

[0:26:48.16] Sarah Von An great question, great point.

[0:26:52.16] And it's a question so many times the purpose of the meeting is not clear for for people, So you just end up feeling like you're wasting your time, OK?

[0:27:05.8] And that is what a really awful zoom meeting will make you feel like.

[0:27:10.6] And just a constant stream of information.

[0:27:13.32] No time to process any of it, Liam.

[0:27:18.32] Too much content.

[0:27:19.8] We're going to get to that in just a second.

[0:27:23.64] One of the biggest mistakes that people make when they're leading live sessions and they treat it as kind of like a content download, where what we really want is to create an interactive experience for our for our group members.

[0:27:40.16] We can very easily get what we call suffer from cognitive overload on online way more so than in person.

[0:27:50.36] So too much information coming through long slide decks can actually make us completely.

[0:27:58.96] It's just it's too much information, It's overload.

[0:28:02.12] OK And I guilty as charged, Yes, absolutely.

[0:28:06.4] I think it is one of the most challenging parts of that online facilitation is how much content where to trim so completely get that.

[0:28:20.96] So let's I'm going to share my screen and we're going to use a zoom, a zoom tool that very few people actually it's kind of one of those very underutilized zoom features.

[0:28:37.6] Can you guys all see my screen?

[0:28:40.72] OK wonderful.

[0:28:42.72] And it is called Zoom Annotate and so you'll be able to see.

[0:28:48.6] Actually let me just I have a here we go.

[0:28:54.56] So how to annotate?

[0:28:55.6] So can you see on your zoom screen the annotate option?

[0:29:00.92] If you go to View options and just drop down, you'll see a yeah, you'll see a an option that says annotate.

[0:29:11.12] So I see Daniel, you've found it already.

[0:29:14.16] Can anyone not find annotate?

[0:29:16.4] Just give me a little wave here.

[0:29:19.96] And if you found it, great.

[0:29:21.4] OK, So what I would here.

[0:29:25.12] Oops, here we go.

[0:29:27.92] Common mistake, engagement mistakes.

[0:29:30.16] So with the annotate, if you can find the stamp, annotate.

[0:29:36.72] Let's take a look at these common engagement mistakes.

[0:29:38.92] And as I'm talking, just put a stamp or some kind of drawing on these mistakes, any mistakes that you may have made.

[0:29:51.44] And there's no shame here, because I've made every single one of those mistakes, Louis.

[0:29:55.72] I've made the mistake of too much content as well.

[0:29:58.8] And let's just get a sense of of maybe you know what are the most popular mistakes in this group.

[0:30:05.44] So not enough connection.

[0:30:07] So that's a big one for, for engagement when we don't connect our groups, well, let's put it in the positive.

[0:30:15.92] The more people feel connected to each other, the more likely they are to engage with each other.

[0:30:21.52] OK.

[0:30:22.36] So not enough connection, too much content.

[0:30:25.28] We've just talked about too much content, guilty as charged.

[0:30:29.76] So it is very difficult and very challenging.

[0:30:32.36] You've got all this great content you want to share with your, with your groups and and so that ends up being, you know, probably really long slide decks and one person talking through most of the session, OK, that does not lend itself to bringing other people in.

[0:30:52.48] So we're going to talk a little bit more about how you can balance the content with interaction, too little interaction.

[0:30:59.2] So again, especially online people zone out if there aren't opportunities, engaging opportunities for them to take part in the session.

[0:31:10.36] So too little interaction is another very common engagement mistake, the wrong icebreaker.

[0:31:15.92] So sometimes you can come up with an activity that you think is really great or a a facilitator comes up with an activity that just misses the mark.

[0:31:27.4] And and one of the reasons why is because they're not designing it for their specific audience and purpose in mind.

[0:31:34.32] Any activity needs to be really connected and dialed into the purpose of the session.

[0:31:40.8] Otherwise it feels a little bit kind of random and out there it leaves people feeling a bit confused, insufficient preparation.

[0:31:49.12] So we've talked about that already as well.

[0:31:53.16] So really, it's a juggling act on Zoom to try to get all of the tech pieces working.

[0:32:01.72] True confession, Even in this session there was another tool I wanted to share with you, which I will, and it just didn't.

[0:32:07.96] It didn't connect right before the meeting.

[0:32:09.88] So when you prepare all of your links and the tools and your outline, it makes it easier for people to engage with you.

[0:32:22.6] OK.

[0:32:24.24] So I would say, let's see which one is the most popular engagement mistake in this group.

[0:32:32.24] Anybody want to just call it out?

[0:32:39.84] It's like too little interaction, Too little interaction, yeah.

[0:32:45.84] Now, if there's too much content, has one more than too little interaction, OK, I think it's yeah, it's pretty.

[0:32:54.2] It's a tie.

[0:32:55.28] It's a tie.

[0:32:55.88] Let's let's call it a tie.

[0:32:57] Too much content, too little interaction and those are both very closely related.

[0:33:02.16] So it makes a lot of sense that those both get about the same votes.

[0:33:08.04] OK, wonderful.

[0:33:09.44] So Zoom annotate, just so that you know before we before I take down this slide, is a zoom feature, you have to enable it in your in your zoom settings.

[0:33:23.2] But once you do, it opens up a whole range of options for people to make comments, make drawings, a little eyeballs there, some arrows and circles, and also stamps.

[0:33:37.32] So it just makes it more interactive.

[0:33:40.56] And I often find that even before I, even before I finish giving the instructions for annotate, people are already annotating.

[0:33:47.36] So there it's one of those tools that people kind of jump on quite, quite quickly.

[0:33:52.92] OK, so great, we're going to say goodbye to the common engagement mistakes.

[0:33:59.84] OK, great.

[0:34:04.72] So one of the things that I like to do in the sessions that I teach is something that I call lifting the curtain.

[0:34:15.76] OK, so it's a it's a way of there's been all kinds of facilitation techniques running in the background of this session.

[0:34:23.72] And my aim, my goal, my desire is to make this an immersive session so that you're actually interacting, you're learning about how to make it engaging by engaging in the session itself.

[0:34:36.52] So it's all very, very meta.

[0:34:38.72] This, the approach, this approach to training, lifting the curtain is a way of kind of breaking down all of the the engagement techniques that have been going on.

[0:34:52.32] So one thing I wanted to ask you and we now have a better idea of some of the mistakes, the common mistakes that that that people make when it comes to engaging online.

[0:35:05.72] Now I want to, I want you to think back to the very beginning of the session, before you even, you know, before you even just as you were joining the Zoom room.

[0:35:20.6] Think back to when you came into the Zoom room and everything that has happened since then.

[0:35:26.88] And I'm going to set the timer for just about, let's just say 3 minutes for us to have just a brainstorm in the chat.

[0:35:42.72] Then we'll we'll have a little discussion about it.

[0:35:44.52] But let's just say, think of what did I say or do in this session that made you want to engage?

[0:35:52.12] OK, And I'm going to set the timer for 3 minutes.

[0:35:55.12] Let's do a little brainstorm in the chat.

[0:35:58.88] What did I say or do that made you want to engage in the session so far?

[0:36:08.32] OK, And we'll just let that chat run.

[0:36:11.32] So think about, you know, every everything we've done so far.

[0:36:18.12] What did I say or do?

[0:36:24.24] Great.

[0:36:29.16] Let's keep it coming.

[0:36:30.12] Let's see if we can get up to.

[0:36:32.04] I know we're about 30 people on the call, let's see if we can actually get to to 30 in this 3 minutes.

[0:36:38.88] OK, great.

[0:36:42.96] Yeah, nice.

[0:36:52.2] OK.

[0:36:54.28] I think actually 3 minutes might even be you've.

[0:36:58.28] You've come through with lots of different techniques just even in the in the first minute.

[0:37:03.16] So, OK, great.

[0:37:06.36] Yeah, I can still see them coming through.

[0:37:09] I'm going to just right, yeah.

[0:37:12.08] The activities.

[0:37:13] The activities you asked us to engage.

[0:37:15.08] You asked about our past challenges.

[0:37:16.6] You made it fun.

[0:37:18.16] Recall a memory being intentional about asking our commitment.

[0:37:22.8] Yes, turning on and off the camera.

[0:37:26.44] It made me feel like there's other people there.

[0:37:28.24] We got prompted to do or say something.

[0:37:30.8] Opened up the floor to any kind of funny comments and kind of like now Veronica made it feel casual and conversational.

[0:37:39.76] Personal questions check in with people in the start, invite into interaction very early on all of these things.

[0:37:48.28] Yes.

[0:37:49.4] Saying hello.

[0:37:50.44] Replicating in person feeling yes.

[0:37:52.56] The requirements were very clear.

[0:37:55.36] Love the timer.

[0:37:56.2] Never used it before.

[0:37:57.32] OK, this is another little little tool that can.

[0:38:01.16] It's very helpful.

[0:38:02.04] There's a there's a zoom timer app that we're going to be sharing with the link with you.

[0:38:07.4] Great active participation, instead of just listening, encouraged us to participate in a friendly way.

[0:38:13.68] Great.

[0:38:14.44] OK, does anyone just want to turn on their mics and just speak a little bit to your experience in this session?

[0:38:24.36] What made you want to engage?

[0:38:26.2] What was it?

[0:38:27.84] And let's see.

[0:38:28.84] You know how we can.

[0:38:29.72] I'm going to turn the timer off as well.

[0:38:33.28] Hey, Gwen, This is Brian.

[0:38:35.36] How are you?

[0:38:36.04] Thanks for hosting today.

[0:38:37.96] I think a big, a big challenge for me personally is that it just seems like there's so many people in the room and I don't want to take up time saying something unimportant or, you know, irrelevant.

[0:38:50.52] And maybe sometimes I feel like I want an invitation.

[0:38:54.52] So maybe being called up like, hey, John.

[0:38:57.2] Hey, Carol.

[0:38:58.44] Hey, Brian.

[0:38:59.36] That might make the people who are trying to participate.

[0:39:03.28] Even have one more reason to just an invitation.

[0:39:08] Nice, nice.

[0:39:09.32] I love that.

[0:39:09.96] Yeah.

[0:39:11.36] Yeah, there's something there's and it's it's sometimes it's a real call of the facilitator to know whether your group is going to respond, you know, to an invitation.

[0:39:20.16] Sometimes I like how you framed it.

[0:39:22.92] Also as an invitation.

[0:39:24.28] You're not putting somebody, you know, necessarily on the spot, although you are in a way, but it's in an inviting way, you know, and so, yeah, great.

[0:39:35.64] So it's a it's a call, it's a, it's a decision.

[0:39:37.72] You can either leave it open or you can call in somebody sometimes, you know these these also the, the comments in the chat, you can jump off of the comments say, yeah, Gilad, yeah, getting us to commit to engaging.

[0:39:52] Wonder if you could say a little bit more about that you know, and that also is a way of you know somebody who has already put something a little bit out there.

[0:40:00.64] And and and you can invite them to to elaborate nice.

[0:40:06.32] Kind of getting us to acknowledge is is kind of forcing us to commit and.

[0:40:11.16] And pulls us into it.

[0:40:14.32] Yeah, absolutely.

[0:40:16.44] And so, am I pronouncing your name right, Gilad?

[0:40:21.16] Yeah, you got it.

[0:40:22.16] OK, great.

[0:40:24.2] Really important point because you know sometimes we can take engagement for granted that people just, you know are either going to be willing to engage or they're not going to be willing to engage.

[0:40:35.68] You can actually set that up with with an agreement and agreements serve a lot of different purposes.

[0:40:41.36] Agreements are very important and there's a whole other piece that we could be doing on agreements, but it is part of creating that kind of psychological safety in the group.

[0:40:52.92] So if you noticed when I said the the agreement, you know, participate fully in the instructions, I didn't say, OK, everybody has has to turn their cameras on.

[0:41:05.28] There's a lot of people reasons why people sometimes people don't have their cameras on and it's not just because they don't want to engage in your session, but to give people options, participate fully.

[0:41:16.88] It looks different to different people.

[0:41:18.76] There's lots of ways of participating.

[0:41:21.36] So that means that, you know, if you're a little bit introverted or shy, OK, I know that I don't have to, you know, necessarily turn on my mic and speak in front of the whole group.

[0:41:29.6] I can use the chat.

[0:41:31.16] So those agreements and particularly participate fully is one that I like because it really kind of opens up the realm for people of like this is what we we we might, you know, this is, this is what's possible when when we participate fully.

[0:41:49.56] So thanks for that Gillan.

[0:41:51.36] Daniel.

[0:41:54.68] Hey Gwen, quick question related to this.

[0:41:57.4] Do you, do you consider activity in the chat as engagement or is it or is there a special type of engagement that involves the comment on the microphone and other sort of more high bandwidth things?

[0:42:10.28] I ask because I've had, I've LED zoom sessions where I had like I had 50 people in the room nobody had to comment on.

[0:42:18.44] Nobody spoke, but the activity in the chat was incredibly active, like hundreds of messages.

[0:42:23.96] And I felt like, you know, it felt engaging.

[0:42:27.36] But I wonder if there are two distinct categories of engagement that maybe I should be seeing it differently.

[0:42:35.76] Great, great question, great question.

[0:42:37.88] And I I want to throw that back out to the group and then I'll come back to it.

[0:42:43.76] What do you all think is engagement?

[0:42:46.2] Is is kind of like the chat on fire, Is that engagement or is engagement really you know these other things, other other digital tools and people verbally?

[0:43:00.16] The thing that came to mind is that you have like Twitch or streaming platforms where the engagement is meant to be in chat, but then soon is a bit different.

[0:43:09.76] You have a two way stream of conversation, so.

[0:43:14.4] Maybe there's a parallel with streaming versus having people engaged in chatting.

[0:43:21.16] Yeah, yeah, interesting.

[0:43:23.8] I hadn't thought of it that way.

[0:43:25] And Marcelo, thank you for that.

[0:43:26.92] I also think of it as people that are non-native English speakers, are not the speaker the same language as the main presenter?

[0:43:34.64] Feel more comfortable chatting.

[0:43:36.6] Right, They they can.

[0:43:37.48] They can put their idea together and then present it in chat.

[0:43:41] And they may not feel comfortable speaking on camera.

[0:43:43.4] So I think chat is a good way to do it.

[0:43:44.84] But you as a presenter quite often just lose.

[0:43:47.6] You almost need someone riding shotgun with you looking at it to kind of help feed you bits from it.

[0:43:55] So it's important to collaborate on how to manage the chat going by.

[0:44:00.04] Yeah, yeah.

[0:44:02.32] Yeah, absolutely.

[0:44:03.12] I know it does.

[0:44:05.4] I was just saying that Daniel does that in his sessions.

[0:44:07.28] When he invites a host, he's the one reading the chat questions and gives it, feeds it to the host and then the host can, you know, obviously because they want to look at their slides and look at the camera, they can't really go through chats at the same time.

[0:44:18.2] So exactly what John said.

[0:44:20.28] Yeah, it's a skill.

[0:44:21] Like me personally, I think I got used to it.

[0:44:23.16] So I I can read the chat while I'm presenting, but I I understand it's quite hard to do.

[0:44:28.08] Especially when there's lots of activity to filter out or sometimes there's inside jokes and other things like to, to ignore the noise and and see the important stuff.

[0:44:38.32] Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[0:44:40.4] And so I think there's a few few kind of key points here.

[0:44:45.04] One is the chat and I'm I'm, I'm looking here too.

[0:44:49.76] Yeah.

[0:44:49.96] It would definitely say that's engagement and introverted engagement.

[0:44:55.72] Yes.

[0:44:56.04] So chat is a is a way of engaging people and it's it's you know this is one of the miracles I feel like in that Zoom has given us versus like in person workshops.

[0:45:06.84] I think back now I'm like, Oh my gosh, I don't even know what I'd do without the chat in a, in a, you know, in a in person session because I've become so accustomed to there being some activity in the group that can express itself through the chat.

[0:45:22.12] I I think there's a, there's a couple of caveats.

[0:45:25.8] One is the group size.

[0:45:27.36] So as you mentioned, like if it's a big group and there's just a ton of stuff going on in the chat.

[0:45:34.12] First of all, yes, having somebody kind of filtering out things, especially if questions come up to be able to bring that into the conversation where the presenter may not and the facilitator may not have the capacity to be following that and doing what they they need to do.

[0:45:49.88] So I think group size is a consideration where you may want to find other ways also for people to kind of like actively engage in the main part because you it.

[0:46:04.4] Yeah, it's difficult to always pull things out of the chat.

[0:46:12.64] I think also it's a choice.

[0:46:14.64] It's another choice that you have as a facilitator, whether or not you want to.

[0:46:19.92] I tend to invite people to to engage in the chat because I know it's a very important channel, especially for those people who feel a little more shy.

[0:46:29.88] Maybe like you said, John, English isn't their first language.

[0:46:32.8] It's easier for some people just to express in writing rather than kind of turning their mics on.

[0:46:38.48] That said, it's one it's one engagement tool that you have and I certainly wouldn't in a truly like high engagement session.

[0:46:49.8] You do want to be bringing in a range of tools and a range of of ways that people can can participate.

[0:47:04.38] I think the other thing just to to to follow up on that is the there's an intention you know behind each tool and every way that you're inviting people to to engage with your session.

[0:47:18.62] So asking people to speak in the in the big group, there's an intention behind that.

[0:47:23.48] I want to hear people's voices.

[0:47:24.8] I want to hear directly from them and the and then feed that into the session, the annotate.

[0:47:30.92] I want, you know, a little bit of fun and creativity and something visual.

[0:47:36] So there's intention behind that.

[0:47:37.72] So and Daniel, does that answer your questions?

[0:47:41.56] OK, great.

[0:47:42.96] Louis.

[0:47:44.64] Yeah, I was, I was just going to, I mean add that inviting people up to speak I think is super, super helpful, but it can sort of also backfire like you know and doing Rite of Passage, David Perel is excellent.

[0:47:56.76] I mean it's a huge group.

[0:47:58.52] And by the way, I've never raised my hand to speak in that thing because I'm too nervous.

[0:48:01.76] But I'm always very grateful when someone raises their hand and speaks and says something valuable that that that, you know, David just couldn't have said himself because you know, we're on the other side sort of feeling it.

[0:48:12.6] But it can backfire because some people tend to ramble, you know, like and this happens sometimes.

[0:48:17.6] I open up the mic and you know somewhat we have an hour and a half and like I'm rambling right now And so you know people, the nerves, right.

[0:48:25] It's not even the person's fault.

[0:48:26.64] It's just you're nervous and there's a whole group and so you're you're kind of just just rambling on and and so the I think the host kind of needs to be skilled at like shutting you down gracefully and in a nice way and and and all of that so but but I do love opening that up because it just there's so much value to it even if it's just 30 seconds or something.

[0:48:49.16] Yeah yeah lots of good points it rate in that in the in what you've just said.

[0:48:58] It's true that some people have the tendency to ramble SO1 facilitator skill is learning how to interrupt well and there's a few ways that you can kind of you know prevent that from happening in the 1st place and then manage it when it's happening in the moment.

[0:49:18.2] So one way is, you know I'd love to hear from a few people Let's keep our responses to one minute each.

[0:49:27.56] There's a lot of people in this group.

[0:49:29.64] We want to hear from as many people as possible.

[0:49:32.6] So I'm gonna and I I will interrupt you at one minute just because we want to hear from so many people.

[0:49:38.36] So time putting a time expectation from the very beginning.

[0:49:44.32] Another thing is if somebody does just start to ramble and they're going on and on, there is you can you can interrupt them and say so I'm done.

[0:50:02.28] We're going to talk to you, Louis.

[0:50:04.24] So what you're saying is that one of the mistakes is that or one of the challenges is that people tend to ramble and then you say yes.

[0:50:13.28] OK, thanks Louis.

[0:50:14.36] And then you move the conversation on so you can you can kind of reflect back what you've heard.

[0:50:23.48] You thank the person and then who else you know and so you've you've actively proactively kind of jumped in and that is very important because it is part of what the facilitator does to create what we call like a a safe container.

[0:50:40.72] If people start to see that that container is leaky because the facilitator is not doing their job and having the interests of the group over the interests of any one person who might be kind of, you know, even inadvertently, there's just some chatty people, then people will feel unsafe.

[0:51:02.72] They're like, oh, gosh, this session, you know, this person's just going to this facilitator, lets this person ramble on.

[0:51:08.72] You know, no one's really, you know, in in control here.

[0:51:19.42] Great.

[0:51:22.94] OK.

[0:51:23.74] So anything else, any other comments or or see I got very into that.

[0:51:35.2] OK.

[0:51:36.32] So anything else that stands out to you if we if we kind of also check the chat for comments, but what did we say or do OK Vas?

[0:51:50.16] Thanks Gwen.

[0:51:52] You're.

[0:51:53.6] You mentioned facilitators.

[0:51:55.72] Do you feel it's different from just, you know, presenting something on a call?

[0:51:59.4] Like, you know, many, many participants of small best community have been doing?

[0:52:05.52] Not really, you know, presenting those themselves, not facilitating someone else.

[0:52:11.2] Do you think it would be different?

[0:52:14.2] Yeah, great question.

[0:52:15.44] And yes, it's very, it's very different.

[0:52:17.76] And there's a there's a time and a place for both.

[0:52:20.56] It's not to say that you should you should always facilitate or you should always present.

[0:52:25.12] There is a time for presenting and presenting a lot of content and it's you know kind of more of a but it it it goes to the purpose of the session.

[0:52:33.44] So is this is the purpose of the session just that you are you know sharing your your expertise around a certain subject and actually what people want to do.

[0:52:42.4] Or maybe there's the platform doesn't allow for interaction maybe there's a there's a part of that purpose.

[0:52:48.72] I'm I'm.

[0:52:49.32] I always find it hard to think of a reason of a situation where it would just be content delivery because I'm kind of over at the other side of the spectrum in facilitation where the difference is.

[0:53:02.56] So if you think about, you know a spectrum or a a graph where you have agency and autonomy on the 2 lines, lecturing or presenting doesn't give your group very much autonomy in in the process.

[0:53:21.56] Facilitation is very much about making it easier for a group to achieve an outcome.

[0:53:32.16] So it's very much about tapping the wisdom that exists in the group, inviting people to participate, inviting them to take ownership of of or share ownership in the process in the in the session.

[0:53:48.88] And I often think of facilitation as a hat that you can also take on and take off.

[0:53:54.52] So you might be, you know, say for example, a university lecturer who's very used to just content delivery.

[0:54:01.72] There's actually moments in the content delivery where you can put that facilitation hat on, invite the group in, make it more interactive, make it more dynamic and engaging while you're you're also delivering content boss.

[0:54:17.56] Does that answer your question?

[0:54:19.72] Yeah it does.

[0:54:20.28] I think I had a different perception of what what it's this is, this would be all about.

[0:54:26.48] And I was constantly thinking from the perspective of you know presenter and I, it was hard for me to juggle like how would you look in the chat and deliver your topic and do all the things like together And now.

[0:54:38] Yeah, now now I just understand that you.

[0:54:40.48] Like.

[0:54:42.44] We're we're discussing a little bit different, something different here.

[0:54:44.64] Not, not from the perspective of a presenter, but yeah, yeah, no, really, really important to distinguish these things because they are different roles and each role kind of serves, serves a purpose.

[0:55:00.28] Sometimes the facilitation in terms of like if you are used to presenting and that is what you do, you know, most of the time my invitation to you is just to see where are some of those points in your presentation where you could put a facilitation hat on, make it more interactive, make it a little bit more more engaging and and dynamic.

[0:55:25.36] Brian.

[0:55:28.28] I just had an idea.

[0:55:29.16] A lot of the small group sessions and maybe every meeting you know ever is time based.

[0:55:36.52] And I'm not convinced that time based things are the best way to go about it in this moment.

[0:55:40.68] I'm thinking if you said how to keep people engaged, we're gonna cover X number of ideas you can pop in and we're you know, our goal is to get you to understand 9 ideas, 7 ideas, some, some number.

[0:55:54.52] Then we can all be participating to help each other figure out those ideas instead of just waiting around hoping those that we absorb those ideas in, say, 90 minutes.

[0:56:06.48] So like, even right now it would like kind of a refresher.

[0:56:09.72] Like we've covered this, this, and this, and we're gonna cover these three more things or something like that, just so it doesn't feel like we're just taking up space.

[0:56:18.8] That's an idea.

[0:56:20.04] Great.

[0:56:20.68] OK, Brian, we're we're we're going right there to the five keys for unlocking engagement.

[0:56:26.12] So all of these things that we've been talking about very openly and freely, we want to start to zero in on kind of if there were five things that you can focus on to really unlock engagement in your sessions.

[0:56:43.8] Just before we go there, I just wanted to is there anything else that anybody wants to contribute to, to say about what you have experienced in the session in terms of making it engaging?

[0:56:57.36] Anything that feels like it's OK.

[0:57:01.4] Yeah, great.

[0:57:05.8] OK, perfect.

[0:57:10.2] So and we can come back to to some of this as well.

[0:57:15] So what are just if you could focus on five keys and what I also want to do is share with you.

[0:57:26.92] I don't usually actually share this is with outside of my course breakthrough Facilitation.

[0:57:31.84] But I wanted to also share because it is true of Brian I all of these ideas how do you actually bring them down to earth.

[0:57:40.08] So two things I wanted to share with you.

[0:57:43.84] One is let me just put my finger on the link here.

[0:57:52.28] Well, OK, here we go.

[0:58:00.8] This is a let's go to first of all, let's go to the keys to unlocking engagement.

[0:58:06.16] Let's go there first and then I will go on to the template.

[0:58:12.6] Great, here we go.

[0:58:19.4] OK.

[0:58:20.52] So we've talked a lot about, you know, a lot of different elements in in this process of engaging people.

[0:58:28.32] And in some ways there's so many interconnected pieces that the the points that you you've brought up, so many connect to each other.

[0:58:39.4] So it's facilitation's a little different than other kind of things where you can, you know, kind of list off, you know, put it in listicle format.

[0:58:52.04] But if you were to focus on the five most important things, one and and many of which you have referenced already in in the chat, one is to create a welcoming space.

[0:59:08.32] So just from the group, how did we do that in this session?

[0:59:14.76] How did we create that open that welcoming space?

[0:59:21.56] What did you notice when you first got on, Got on the call, Anything.

[0:59:31.24] We're still annotating?

[0:59:32.2] Great.

[0:59:32.96] Feel free to annotate.

[0:59:35.24] OK, The music.

[0:59:36.44] And we were welcomed by name.

[0:59:38.08] Yes, the radio.

[0:59:39.12] Yeah, that was the music.

[0:59:40.32] OK, so the welcoming is where you are, are setting the tone for your session, and it really is.

[0:59:50.92] That's one of the key moments for you, because participants are coming into the session with three things on their minds.

[0:59:58.4] They want to know if they can trust you as the facilitator.

[1:00:04.2] They want to know if they belong in this group, and they want to know whether they're going to get anything of value from the session.

[1:00:13.84] So the first thing Can they trust you?

[1:00:16.96] As a facilitator, Creating that welcoming space is an important part of you.

[1:00:23.24] Making that connection and building that trust with your group.

[1:00:26.16] So I think somebody in the chat had said, you know that the, the role of the facilitator, the energy that you bring as the facilitator, as your group comes in, welcoming people by their names, for example, is a very, a very simple way of acknowledging.

[1:00:46.4] You're saying I see you and I hear you as people are coming in to the to the call.

[1:00:52.72] So the music kind of, you know, just some people are spending a lot of time on Zoom.

[1:00:58.36] You don't know where your participants have just been before they come onto the zoom.

[1:01:02.72] They might have already spent three hours on Zoom already before they even get to your session.

[1:01:07.68] So the music is a way of kind of getting them to cross that threshold into your session.

[1:01:14] This is going to be something you know, the message is this is going to be different.

[1:01:17.72] This is going to be, you know, engaging.

[1:01:19.56] This is going to be fun and worth your time.

[1:01:22.84] So creating a welcoming space, yes.

[1:01:27.68] Playing games, yeah.

[1:01:29.48] So right at the beginning I'm talking about right at the in the welcome we're asked to open up our mics and open up our cameras.

[1:01:38.2] So this, this leads to the second point and which you have raised already before as well, engage from the get go.

[1:01:47.4] So one of the biggest mistakes also is that people can say, OK, we're just going to wait for some more people to arrive, we'll wait for some more people to arrive.

[1:01:54.48] The people who have gotten there on time are already feeling this is a waste of my time.

[1:01:59.28] You know you're not respecting the fact that I got there on time and there's kind of like this dead time at the beginning of your session.

[1:02:06.88] So you want to engage straight away and you you don't have to, you don't have to wait until everybody joins the group.

[1:02:21.04] You can start with some engagement and you can design it in a way that even if people are filtering in, they can still jump in.

[1:02:27.68] So a prompt in the chat, you know, I got there a few minutes late and I'm, I'm still reminding people, OK, we're just dropping in the chat.

[1:02:35.92] You know, a memorable experience and how it made you feel great.

[1:02:40.48] I see that Killian, you have your hand up.

[1:02:44.24] Yeah, I was just reminded of a situation by the comment and the chat from from Prince.

[1:02:49.68] He's saying that he can't see anyone doing that at the beginning of a professional like corporate presentation.

[1:02:55.52] And I wanted to to ask you if you maybe have some some ideas regarding that because.

[1:03:01] I mean exactly that situation that some people are coming early to a meeting and some are coming 2-3 minutes, two or three minutes late, that happens every day, right?

[1:03:09.32] And actually the people that come early, those are the ones who are paying like the price for the others that come late, so to say.

[1:03:15.92] And what what what are your experiences with that?

[1:03:19.48] Maybe to to bridge that gap?

[1:03:21.56] Yeah.

[1:03:22.48] Prince and and Killian, thanks for for catching that in the chat.

[1:03:27.64] I'm gonna.

[1:03:28.52] I'm gonna throw this back at the group, so I can't see anyone doing that at the beginning of every corporate presentation or talk.

[1:03:36.72] What would you take that challenge?

[1:03:39.96] What might you do in that case?

[1:03:44.12] You still want to be creating you.

[1:03:47.08] You still want to welcome people into your session.

[1:03:49.72] You still want to take maximum advantage of that time.

[1:03:53.28] You still know that those people are still coming into your session with those three questions on your on their minds.

[1:03:58.76] Can I trust this person?

[1:04:01] Do I belong here?

[1:04:03.12] Is this worth my time?

[1:04:05.2] So I want to throw it back to the group.

[1:04:08.24] What would you do in that in that situation?

[1:04:14.4] I think it's good that if you can get a Co presenter, have some banter for the first minute that's still relevant to what you're trying to achieve.

[1:04:22.52] Maybe you haven't started the presentation.

[1:04:25.2] But also then let people know we're starting and anyone that comes late, you know they can catch up or whatever.

[1:04:29.64] So set the set the guidelines for we're we're not going to waste people's time waiting for everyone.

[1:04:36.48] Yeah.

[1:04:37.12] OK, great.

[1:04:39.28] So you've got some banter going on.

[1:04:40.8] There's something happening when people get there.

[1:04:43.96] Relevant banter.

[1:04:45.04] Yeah, I love that.

[1:04:46.2] Insider secrets.

[1:04:47.36] Yes.

[1:04:48.88] OK, Makes a startling opening to hook them up.

[1:04:55.16] Sarah Van.

[1:04:55.64] And do you wanna just speak to that idea?

[1:05:00.04] Yeah.

[1:05:00.56] An interesting thing is like like have a like start with the story or maybe like to like sort of, you know, have some dramatic activity in the presentation.

[1:05:16.2] Like I've done that for an enterprise sales where I sort of narrated a poem.

[1:05:23.08] Which sort of got their attention and then we sort of you know moved into the product demo.

[1:05:28.64] Very nice.

[1:05:29.4] Yeah, doing something surprising, something a little bit different.

[1:05:35.28] And even though you know as yourself as a facilitator, we all have different comfort levels as far as like how much you know risk do we want to take.

[1:05:44.44] Doing something surprising will catch people's attention and you can think about what what would be a relevant and not.

[1:05:54.16] Maybe too risky, not too out there, not something that big, but like something that connects to the purpose of your session if when in doubt.

[1:06:02.24] Also when you are designing, you know prompt questions or activities, you want to think about your audience, you want to think about the purpose of your session and and design with those things in mind.

[1:06:15.52] So coming up with a surprise is a very interesting idea at the beginning.

[1:06:21.76] And what what you do for that will depend on your audience and your your purpose.

[1:06:27.92] So.

[1:06:30.28] Great.

[1:06:30.8] Yes.

[1:06:32.92] Countdown timer with music.

[1:06:34.4] Yeah.

[1:06:35.6] Yes, that's another one.

[1:06:37.8] So absolutely people have a a sense of kind of what's going on.

[1:06:41.6] They feel oriented with a timer.

[1:06:44.12] OK Oh, yeah.

[1:06:44.92] I've got 2 minutes.

[1:06:45.76] OK, great.

[1:06:46.16] I'm going to just go and and come back and I I won't miss anything.

[1:06:52.16] Perfect.

[1:06:52.92] So I understand you know this one key.

[1:06:55.8] Yes, absolutely.

[1:06:58.56] For corporate groups.

[1:06:59.96] So back-to-back, to Prince's point, the beginning of every corporate presentation or talk, what might be something instead of, you know, music is, is something that may or may not work for your group.

[1:07:21.84] Another couple another.

[1:07:24] Some other ideas that we you could use are a poll.

[1:07:28.36] So you could have people come in and answer a poll and make those questions really relevant.

[1:07:35.36] Another idea is you know if these are corporate people and they're maybe you're, I don't know, doing a presentation on strategy, maybe the prompt question, let's just share, you know, let's just before we start, let's just share in the chat what is your, what strategy has worked the best for you over the last quarter or whatever it is.

[1:07:58.48] So you can see that like you can design those questions, you can design those engagement in the 1st 5 minutes.

[1:08:06.24] The point being that you you want to try to One thing you want to try accomplish is creating that welcoming space and engagement for your group.

[1:08:18.68] How you do it again depends on your audience and your your your purpose.

[1:08:25.6] So if you use music, yeah Mark, make sure you don't have noise reduction working against you and making it sound terrible.

[1:08:34.04] So yeah, when you share your music, so the way that I share it, I share it.

[1:08:39] You share a screen, you go to advanced options and you share your your sound from your computer and that will stream it in straight from your computer.

[1:08:47.92] You don't, you won't have a lot of like background noise.

[1:08:52.16] And test this session with a friend.

[1:08:55.08] Maybe absolutely, even if that friend is you and you're going through some of the stuff.

[1:09:01.64] But with a friend is even better.

[1:09:03.76] So as you start to bring like different engagement techniques in, it is a really good idea to test that, test the tech, test the sequencing and and kind of test it out once before you test it live with your audience.

[1:09:23.76] OK.

[1:09:24.2] A poll, yeah.

[1:09:27.08] In a Twitter headquarters meeting asking something, how do you think we are doing with advertisers on a a finger pull one to five, how are we doing on, on with advertisers?

[1:09:41.48] OK, that's a good meeting starter.

[1:09:43.12] So something that people will be curious about.

[1:09:45.8] You know, I know that's a a bit of a leaning one, but something that people will be curious about and corporate people are also curious human beings.

[1:09:57.84] So that is that.

[1:10:01.36] OK, not a finger pull.

[1:10:04.8] People might use the middle finger gotcha.

[1:10:10.12] Although the finger pull is usually zero to 5 S one being this and five being that.

[1:10:17.84] But got your point Louis.

[1:10:20.6] OK, so creating a welcoming space, engaging from the get go, connecting early and often.

[1:10:28.44] So if you noticed in this session, what did we do?

[1:10:32.6] When?

[1:10:32.96] When did we start connecting in the in the session?

[1:10:38.4] Anybody remember when we started connecting?

[1:10:42.84] Immediately.

[1:10:45.24] Immediately.

[1:10:46.04] So Nate, what was the immediate connection there?

[1:10:51.4] You were calling out people's names as they were coming in, saying hey so and so, hey so and so.

[1:10:57.16] That's just like personal acknowledgement by their name.

[1:11:02.36] Did a lot to to make it feel like, oh, I'm actually seen and acknowledged rather than just like I showed up and I'm here.

[1:11:14.84] Yeah, I'm kind of like one more, you know, screen on on a group of a lot of screens.

[1:11:22] And what that does, if you show up and you're like, oh, OK, I guess I'll just, you know, quietly come into the zoom room.

[1:11:29.8] Is that it?

[1:11:30.32] It back to your points about passive, you know, participation.

[1:11:35.2] People will come into the meeting for the most part with their engagement switch turned off.

[1:11:42.24] So the default is, is passive participation with your camera on or sorry off in most cases.

[1:11:50.16] And what you want to do as the facilitator, especially in those first crucial minutes of the session is that you want to help people turn the engagement switch on.

[1:12:02.8] And it's not like a conventional light switch that just kind of goes from zero to 100.

[1:12:07.68] It's more like a dimmer switch.

[1:12:09.84] So you gradually start to increase that, that engagement switch.

[1:12:14.48] And part of how you do that is by connecting, because we will engage more with the group if we feel like there's some kind of connection there.

[1:12:23.64] So as the facilitator, you are connecting immediately with your by, you know, welcoming people in, welcoming people by names and and then and then opening up connection among the group.

[1:12:40] So the next thing that we did after that was the prompt question.

[1:12:48.2] Does anyone remember what the prompt question was?

[1:12:51.28] About the the experience and the feeling, Yeah.

[1:12:55.96] So yes.

[1:12:57.72] And it wasn't like your name and where you're calling in from, which is a.

[1:13:02.04] That's one.

[1:13:02.68] That's the usual prompt.

[1:13:04.44] Oh, let me, you know, drop your, drop it in the chat.

[1:13:07.48] Where are you?

[1:13:07.96] You know, what's your name and where are you calling in from?

[1:13:11.84] I actually decided to get you to rename.

[1:13:14.04] So we already had that information.

[1:13:15.76] As the chat went down, you could already see people's names and where they're from.

[1:13:20.28] We can see that it's a very international group and instead use that valuable chat space to go a little bit deeper.

[1:13:29.12] So I call this the third prompt.

[1:13:30.8] So you got your name where you're from.

[1:13:32.88] The third prompt is what goes a little bit deeper.

[1:13:37.12] It goes into, let's just share something about ourselves with the group that goes slightly beyond.

[1:13:46.48] And so again, that third prompt, it's interesting to have a think about what that third prompt might be for your group.

[1:13:55.96] In fact, let's just have a think think about your the a session that you might want to lead or or a group that you've LED before.

[1:14:08.52] Let's just have a think and make drop in the chat what a third prompt might look like for your group.

[1:14:22.2] What might be something just one step further than than your name and your location.

[1:14:38.99] Yeah, OK, City and your team or your role.

[1:14:44.07] What have you been working on lately?

[1:14:45.91] Yeah, John.

[1:14:48.83] And so Prince, I want.

[1:14:50.35] Is there something that's even one step further than your role, 'cause that's still kind of like, you know, that's kind of at this level, how can you take your group just even one level down?

[1:15:05.04] So what have you been working on today?

[1:15:06.96] Yeah.

[1:15:08.12] What's the success that you've experienced this week to celebrate?

[1:15:12.72] Yes.

[1:15:14.04] And then you can get, you know, you kind of get that energy and oh, wow, you know, so and so's done this and so and, you know, the other person's done that.

[1:15:21.04] And that lifts a little bit of the energy and people kind of get to know each other a little bit, a little bit more intimately.

[1:15:30] Yeah.

[1:15:30.72] Yeah.

[1:15:31.68] Or what did you have for breakfast today?

[1:15:33] That actually reveals a lot about about people in your most used emoji.

[1:15:40.24] That also reflects something about the personality and and and a little bit more about that person.

[1:15:49.04] Yeah, great.

[1:15:52.64] Can't use the middle finger though.

[1:15:56.08] Wonderful.

[1:15:56.68] So we are coming up to the end of the session.

[1:15:59.4] Now there's a few more keys to the engagement, so connecting early and often, so connecting early and then having many opportunities to connect during the session.

[1:16:12.24] One of the big connectors that we didn't use in the in today's session are breakout groups.

[1:16:18.28] And so I would normally use how many people here have used a breakout group, just give me a little wave on the screen, Yeah, great.

[1:16:28.72] Breakout groups are very powerful ways of of connecting people.

[1:16:35] And so one of the things that I like to keep in mind is if you are going to, if your group and the the nature of your session lends itself to a breakout group, I try to aim to do a breakout group within the 1st 10 minutes of the session.

[1:16:51.64] And one of the one of the things you know just as a kind of like a icebreaker or a way of a first connection is something even like you know, what made you say yes to this session.

[1:17:03.6] People go off into breakout groups.

[1:17:05.12] They they talk you know amongst themselves and they come back and the whole, you know kind of the the the vibe and the and the the level of connectivity then is at a much different place than if you didn't do a breakout.

[1:17:21.84] But connecting early and often before you do a lot of talking, it's actually more important to connect people and then kind of get into into more of the content.

[1:17:31.68] So that's a big one.

[1:17:33.2] I call that the CEO principle, connect early and often, less content, more interactions.

[1:17:39.4] We've talked about that, trimming our content, avoiding this cognitive overload and bringing in ways that people can interact and then mixing up your methods.

[1:17:52.92] So we've got a range of digital tools at our disposal.

[1:17:56.6] We've got polls, we've got word clouds, we've got all kinds of things.

[1:17:59.88] And I will share some links with this group of some tools that you might want to check out.

[1:18:07.32] OK.

[1:18:08.28] So anything else, Anything else?

[1:18:13.76] Before we go, I want to ask you just wrapping up this part of the this, this session, now that we've talked a little bit about the five keys for unlocking engagement, we have broken down the whole session, lifted the curtain on all of those engagement techniques.

[1:18:33.64] What is 1 engagement technique or tool that you could envision using in your session that not only envision but that you'd like to to to use in your session?

[1:18:46.52] One engagement technique or tool and let's just drop that in the chat, OK.

[1:18:58.96] Great friends.

[1:19:03.8] Early engagement and music and Vas early engagement, yes.

[1:19:09.92] Anything else?

[1:19:12.96] Annotations.

[1:19:13.84] Great, Carol, So glad to hear you say that.

[1:19:16.36] Because this is a there's a lot you can do with annotations.

[1:19:19.64] Killian creating a welcome space to make people feel positive about the meeting and John mixing up the chat.

[1:19:26.2] Polls, audio, video providing flexibility.

[1:19:29.52] Killian make it entertaining.

[1:19:31.32] Louie use the polls.

[1:19:32.64] Some of the internal zoom tools like the timer.

[1:19:36.08] Wonderful.

[1:19:37.72] OK, loved the timer.

[1:19:41] OK, so we'll have all of those all of those links I want to share with you.

[1:19:47.12] A this is what I was referencing before.

[1:19:54.52] This is a a session outline template.

[1:19:59.92] So everything that we've done today, this is a Google Spreadsheet You'll see in the spreadsheet.

[1:20:07.52] But it's it's in the format.

[1:20:09.52] Let me just stop sharing this.

[1:20:13.6] I'll just pull this up really quickly because this is, this is really, I hope, going to help you put some of these things into practice, kind of organize it in your in your session.

[1:20:28.72] So this is what it looks like.

[1:20:30.6] It's just a Google Sheet, but it comes then with all of the different sections of a live session.

[1:20:37] What you want to be focusing on, how you can accomplish this, a few ideas of how you might be able to accomplish that and also these prompts for the chat.

[1:20:45.36] So know that if you put a little emoji before your your your chat prompt it actually will list it in a list format.

[1:20:55.16] If you don't, you know, all those lines just become one long line.

[1:21:00.28] So you've got some things here that you can just get ready to drop in the chat.

[1:21:04.84] And I've walked you through kind of how I would design a 60 minute session step by step.

[1:21:14.04] OK, so that is yours.

[1:21:15.28] Please feel free to make a copy and adapt it, change it in whatever way works for you.

[1:21:24.52] So today what we have done is we have explored how to keep people engaged by zoom, all of the different engagement techniques.

[1:21:34.76] We've explored some of the common mistakes that people make and ways that we can avoid those mistakes.

[1:21:40.96] We've lifted the curtain on what techniques were running in the background and and we've had a a kind of like a, a, a, a debrief with this group on on what that looks like.

[1:21:56.68] So on top of the template what I want to also share with you if you want to kind of go a little bit more into detail on some of these ideas.

[1:22:08.76] I do have a download on my website it's 10 fresh ideas for engaging your groups.

[1:22:14.68] It's APDF download and it just gives you a little bit more detail on some of the things that we were we were talking about.

[1:22:21.88] So that is there if you want it.

[1:22:27.32] Great.

[1:22:29.2] So anything else before we wrap up?

[1:22:35.28] We now are going into our closing.

[1:22:38.16] So we haven't.

[1:22:41.2] Sarah Bannon, that's beautiful.

[1:22:44.48] Thank you so much.

[1:22:45.28] I've never had a an acronym lined out like that for me.

[1:22:50.08] Thank you so much.

[1:22:50.8] That's so.

[1:22:52.08] Oh my gosh, that's so nice.

[1:22:56.12] The closing, I want to say one, one piece about the closing because we haven't gone through the closing.

[1:23:00.52] The closing is one of your opportunities.

[1:23:03.52] It's one of the most important moments of your session and it is so easy.

[1:23:08.16] People often just say thanks everyone.

[1:23:12.4] Zoom meeting ends, you have a different opportunity.

[1:23:16.08] You have an opportunity to end on an emotional high, and we know from something called the peak and rule that the ending is often the most one of the most memorable points of the whole workshop.

[1:23:29.52] So if you don't design this closing or even take time for the make time for a closing, you are missing out on a on a big opportunity.

[1:23:40.04] So two things that I'd like to do.

[1:23:44.28] I'd like to do one last prompt that gets all of the voices back in the room one last time.

[1:23:51.92] We're going to then use another Zoom app, which is the Zoom Photo app.

[1:23:57.32] I don't know if anyone's ever tried to take like a group photo of and some people are looking at the camera, some people aren't.

[1:24:04] The Zoom Photo app actually makes it easier.

[1:24:06.76] It takes individual photos and puts them together, and the people who don't want their photo taken can opt out if they don't if they don't want to.

[1:24:16.44] So last prompt and something kind of that lifts the energy one last time.

[1:24:22.52] We'll do the zoom photo and and then we're going to turn our mics on one last time to say goodbye.

[1:24:28.92] OK.

[1:24:29.28] So I just wanted to break that one piece down just before we do it and just before we say goodbye.

[1:24:36.4] One last thing before we go into our closing is to remember to save the chat.

[1:24:43.72] So at the bottom of your chat there is there are three dots and it gives you the option to save the chat from the meeting as the facilitator.

[1:24:55.32] There is a lot of golden information, golden Nuggets insights that your group members have had.

[1:25:01.96] So you want to save the chat and your participants can also save it.

[1:25:06.6] So I just encourage you to save it as well, 'cause there is a lot of really golden information.

[1:25:12.4] OK, Prince, I usually put a funny comic at the end.

[1:25:14.72] Absolutely make people laugh, Bring up the energy levels one last time.

[1:25:20.68] So let's just start in with our closing, then one last closing prompt.

[1:25:27.2] One insight that you gained in this session.

[1:25:30.96] We'll just put that in the prompt in the in the chat.

[1:25:33.84] One insight 1 golden nugget that you are taking away from this workshop.

[1:25:48.72] OK, great.

[1:25:57.12] OK, engage from the get go.

[1:26:00.04] The early and intentional set by the difference between facilitator and presenter, The CEO, leverage annotate engagement of all sorts.

[1:26:09] People like to interact.

[1:26:10.92] Zoom meetings can be so much more engaging and interactive.

[1:26:13.64] Start engaging right away.

[1:26:15] Engage from the get go.

[1:26:17.28] OK, awesome.

[1:26:18.28] So we're going to just finish things off with one last.

[1:26:24.52] I have something to add.

[1:26:26.36] Sure I.

[1:26:27.28] Think engaged from the get go, could be egg.

[1:26:29.64] So next to CEO, you can have as well egg.

[1:26:34.56] Thank you.

[1:26:35.72] You've just used another principle.

[1:26:37.68] My name is followed by the Egg Prince.

[1:26:41.28] Thank you.

[1:26:41.76] I'm going to give you the credit on that one.

[1:26:44.64] OK, so let's do one last thing.

[1:26:46.64] We are going to go to the group photo, so I'm just opening it up, only used by the meeting host.

[1:26:54.12] So, Luna, are you the meeting host?

[1:26:58.4] Yes.

[1:26:59.4] OK, would you mind just opening up that app, the group photo?

[1:27:03.28] Let me try and open it.

[1:27:07.4] Hopefully I won't ruin this.

[1:27:09.24] No, no.

[1:27:10.24] If you just go to the along the bottom there's an app option and hopefully you will see it there.

[1:27:21.52] I do not, Gwen.

[1:27:22.52] I'm really no OK.

[1:27:23.8] Well, you can make her.

[1:27:24.88] You can make Gwen host Louis, I think easily.

[1:27:27.6] No.

[1:27:29.12] I should be able to.

[1:27:30.56] It shows up as the very last one in my apps if you Scroll down.

[1:27:37] OK, Gwen is now the host.

[1:27:39.12] OK.

[1:27:40.36] So let me just see.

[1:27:41.56] Yes, thank you, Louis.

[1:27:43.08] I've got the control, so I'm gonna press.

[1:27:46.72] So think about how you are feeling.

[1:27:50.12] At the end of the session.

[1:27:51.64] Strike a pose.

[1:27:52.92] Let's take the photo.

[1:27:54.12] Ready to engage?

[1:27:57.48] OK, great.

[1:28:03.6] Where's the meeting?

[1:28:04.56] Definitely not ready.

[1:28:05.44] Great.

[1:28:05.72] OK, we're gonna do one also, just manually strike a pose.

[1:28:11.28] How are you feeling at the end of this session?

[1:28:14.36] And we will wrap up.

[1:28:17.48] Let's turn our mics on and say farewell to this wonderful community of small bets.

[1:28:23.48] Thank you so much, Daniel.

[1:28:24.84] Thank you, Louis, for making this possible.

[1:28:27] And I look forward to seeing and interacting with you guys all in small bets.

[1:28:31.72] Thank you very much.

[1:28:34.76] Thank you.

[1:28:36.4] Thank you.

[1:28:36.72] Thank you.