The Secret to Starting Strong: Unofficial Starts
the Lazy Facilitator Episode 09
Picture this.
People trickle in late, everyone’s standing around awkwardly, the room feels cold, and you’re already behind schedule before you’ve even started.
Sound familiar? Here’s what most facilitators don’t realise.
The real program does not start when you say, “Welcome everyone…” It starts the moment the first person walks through the door.
Three Engagement Secrets
I’ve been doing this for decades, and I’ve learned three secrets that transform those first opening minutes from dead time into productive engagement.
First, be prepared early. I mean, really early. Arrive with enough time to set up so that you can greet people as they walk in. You know, make eye contact, shake hands, chitty-chat and so on. This isn’t a waste of time. This is you building rapport before anything official begins.
Second, if you don’t know the group, capture some names. Not everyone’s, but a few. Write them down if you need to. You may call on these people later on, and when you do, watch the energy shift, because now it’s personal.
Third, have unofficial start activities ready to go. These are simple, fun experiences people can jump into immediately as they arrive. They might choose to interact, laugh, they connect with each other before anything official has happened.
There are currently no comments