Congratulations on facilitating a Leadership-in-a-Box® program!

Whether you are a seasoned expert or a relatively new presenter, the programs are designed to make your job as easy and enjoyable as possible. Additionally, these best practices will help prepare you for a productive and engaging session.

Whatever you do, remember to be yourself. Trust your judgment and have a good time. Thank you for taking the time to invest in the leaders around you!

• Utilize Multiple Learning Dimensions – Participants learn from multiple sources: the facilitator, the content, each other and their own self-reflection – and also from to the opportunity to practice the exercises. Each Leadership-in-a-Box® program incorporates all of these elements. As the facilitator, this means your responsibility is relatively small, since most of the elements are addressed by the program’s design. You don’t have to be an expert to deliver a great learning experience.

• Use Facilitator Notes – Each Leadership-in-a-Box® program contains facilitator notes in the presentations, but there isn’t a facilitator guide. The notes contain talking points, but not an exact script. This is on purpose for a couple of reasons. First, this keeps the preparation time to be as short as possible. Second, you have flexibility & freedom to use your own words to facilitate, including terminology or illustrations specific to the organization. Don’t change the slides, but as you deliver, make it your presentation. You know your group the best and the program provides the structure to deliver a high quality workshop, but use your freedom to place special emphasis where the group needs it the most.

• Plan Illustrations – It may help if you have a couple stories to share at different parts of the workshop. The best illustrations are concise (since 60 minutes goes by quickly), practical and relate directly to situations members of the group experience in their work roles. Don’t stress over this part, since the most important part of the workshop are the interactions and exercises.

• Pace the Allotted Time – Each program is designed to last 60 minutes. This means the facilitator will need to move purposely through the content, and not spend too much time on each slide. Each slide has a suggested amount of time. If you want to spend additional time (perhaps for more interactions), you might consider increasing the time to 90 minutes, although 60 minutes is enough for a high quality interactive session.

• Maximize Small Group Interactions – Participants learn most when they are interacting with each other, and they tend to enjoy this the most as well. Each Leadership-in-a-Box® program is designed so that approximately half the time is spent as a presentation and half as interactions & practical exercises. Great facilitators keep their remarks concise in order to maximize the interaction time. Since the workshops are 2 © 2022 Leadership-in-a-Box® short in nature, facilitators need to occasionally make sure extrovert or long-winded participants don’t dominate the group conversation. Use your best judgment with this.

• Ensure Practical Application – The most important outcome for each Leadership-in-aBox® program is for the participant to be confident and prepared to effectively address a situation based on the topic later that day – not perfectly, but more effectively than they would before the class. Information is helpful, but it’s the practical application that matters most. This should be the biggest focus of your facilitation.

• Focus on Core vs. Comprehensive Takeaways – Because Leadership-in-a-Box® programs are only 60 minutes, there are undoubtedly many elements of any given topic that could be included, but aren’t for the sake of time. Don’t feel the need to add substantial extra information. It’s more important for the participants to master the basics than to try to cover all the bases, including ones not addressed in these workshops.

• Plan Ahead for Virtual Facilitation – Leadership-in-a-Box® programs can be facilitated both in-person and virtually, but do not include specific instructions for virtual technology. For virtual settings, the easiest way to facilitate collaboration is to utilize both the chat function and to allow unmuted participants to speak. (Watch out for background noise though!) For small group discussions, you can utilize virtual breakout rooms, as your organization’s technology allows. If you are unfamiliar with this process, you may need someone to “produce” the session for you, until you’re comfortable using the technology. Ask your support team for instructions on how to use your organization’s virtual technology. You may want to do a practice run your first time. Leadership-in-a-Box® programs are designed to be as easy to facilitate as possible (both in-person or virtually), so don’t be intimidated to try it virtually, even if it’s a new method for you. One additional note: depending on the virtual technology platform you use, the presentation slides may or may not animate, but this is not a critical component of the learning experience.