At the end of 2024 and onset of 2025 I was happily traveling around India and didn’t make time for an end-of-year reflection exercise. And I think I felt a little less intentional last year as a result. This year I spent around 8 hours creating a review schedule, having a mini “kitchen table workshop” […]
(Photo by Martino Pietropoli on Unsplash) “What is a DACUM?” I asked, when I received an email inviting me to join one from an IAF learning webinar co-presenter. DACUM, which stands for “Developing a Curriculum,” is an occupational analysis technique developed in the 1960s that employs a panel of master practitioners in a field to “capture […]
(photo credit: Marc-Olivier Jodoin, Unsplash) Inspired by Oliver Burkeman’s Book, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, I reflected over the New Year about how I had spent the last 12 months of my professional life. The concept of “4,000 weeks”, that make up (on average) an entire life, provided a useful lens for envisioning […]
Virtual workshops need a team to produce them behind the scenes. One person will struggle to do everything quickly and smoothly, and it is nearly impossible to both do the technical hosting and be the participant-facing facilitator if your design is at all complex (interpretation, breakouts, trouble shooting, spotlighting, music, videos, using tools like MURAL, […]
This post is generally translating “serious games” (games with learning messages) that we normally play in face-to-face settings into versions that can be played in a Zoom or other online evironment. Here I am writing specifically about games in the Systems Thinking Playbook and the Climate Change Playbook, the latter of which I wrote with […]
This post isn’t about how to run training in Japan, it’s about how to get your body ready to do training in Japan, if you live 7 time zones away in Switzerland. Normally, I would be enjoying a Bento box right now in Tokyo, preparing with my Japanese co-trainer, the interpretation team, and colleagues there […]
If you can’t run your Open Space session in real life (like this), how can you do it virtually? This is a very detailed account of how to use Zoom and the Breakout room function to replicate Open Space Technology-like sessions online. Executive Summary: You can run Open Space Technology (OST)-inspired Sessions in Zoom […]
When the days run together without a clear delineation between the work week and the weekend; when you need to work but have other things on your mind (feeding a family of four three meals a day with an increasingly weird set of back cupboard ingredients, supporting your kids to go to school and stop […]
(Note: This blog post is long and detailed, and really only for facilitators or hosts who want to run bi-lingual meetings in Zoom. I’m capturing this learning mostly for myself so I can use it easily next time, and I’m happy to share with others exploring this useful functionality of Zoom. Feel free to ask […]
There has been a raft of flipped workshops recently where F2F events have been redesigned to be held virtually, and it is fascinating what a rich diversity of designs there are. Some of them have been reworked as big blocks of synchronous together time that aim to closely mimic the programme of the original F2F […]
There is an excited flurry of activity right now among meeting, workshop and conference organizers -and their facilitators -as travel restrictions due to the coronavirus cause cancellations of face-to-face (F2F) meeting formats. Planning meeting agendas are being taken over with the exploration of different technologies, tools and platforms to help hold these events virtually. But […]
You’re not going into the office, you can’t go to that busy cafe, you’re not dropping into a co-working space. You are going to work from home for a while. At first you think that this will be fun, after all you have worked effectively from home in the past for a day or two […]
(Note from Gillian: This is a very long, detailed, and rather geeky post. I write this as I have been asked a few times recently for “how to” information on how to set up these kinds of group work templates for virtual workshops.) As we get more comfortable with getting work done collectively through No-Fly […]
No-Fly Workshops are becoming increasingly popular as people become more sensitive to carbon emissions from air travel, respond to budget freezes or higher scrutiny of trips and travel, and try to profit from the time savings afforded by avoiding long flights or trips to meetings. We know that face-to-face (F2F) meetings are good for social […]
I used some of the precious end-of-year calm to reflect on our work over the last 10 years, and look forward to the new decade. What had we done? Practically speaking, I created a spreadsheet of all the Bright Green Learning projects that we have undertaken between 2009 and 2019 – projects of all types, […]
The day before our recent 130 person, 3-day multi-stakeholder workshop, we were excited to learn that not one, but three VIPs would attend our opening session – two ambassadors and a minister! This was great news in terms of national visibility for the event, demonstrated buy-in on our topic, and support for follow-up on the […]
I recently had a conversation with a new collaborator where I needed to say that I communicate primarily by email and scheduled phone calls. The person at the other end said, “Well, I just pick up the phone, you might need to adapt to that.” When I’m running workshops or giving a training course I‘m […]
Some of us are coming up to our first major break of the year, after a busy flurry of January, February and March. The nice long spring break, when email slows down a little and our work obligations are put on temporary hold with our out-of-office messages, creates a welcome breathing space which encourages us […]
No matter what your financial or calendar year looks like, there’s always time for planning! Woo hoo! What are we going to do next year? You certainly have some options – you could do it strategically or unstrategically. What exactly is unstrategic planning? Here’s how you might go about doing that… No big picture thinking needed: Don’t bother […]
I just finished From Ideas to Action: Bring ideas to life through Ideation and Prototyping – my first of two courses with IDEO U for the IDEO Foundations in Design Thinking Certificate. The final project for this online course, run over 5 weeks with hundreds of participants from all over the world, was to create […]
One of the hardest things about using LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method (LSP) is just getting people to try it! Imagine walking into the workshop room and sitting down at your spot to see, with your water glass, pen and paper, a small mixed bag of 48 LEGO® bricks – a LEGO® Exploration Kit. What’s running through […]
You travel a lot, I travel a lot. International work is exciting and takes many people to the four corners of the earth. Maybe we go to similar places? Faraway places, or those close by; hot places and cold places; highly populated urban areas and sparsely peopled rural areas. North, south, east, west. You’re a […]
As trainers and facilitators, we need not necessarily be confined to working in our native languages. We have probably all had experiences working with translators (who translate the written word) for materials and interpreters (who translate the spoken word) in meetings using both simultaneous and sequential interpretation. But normally these opportunities are confined to more […]
Great events get attention, achieve results, and create momentum towards your goals. We all want great meetings, workshops and conferences. Having a list of VIPs who are attending your event helps demonstrate the importance of the topic and the work you are doing. As a result, organizers can focus a lot of energy into woo-ing […]
Bringing together a large global community of people for learning is a considerable investment in time and money. Planning can start 6-8 months or more in advance, and for large communities entail hundreds of flights and hotel rooms, vast conference facilities, a team of interpreters, an army of VIP handlers and rafts of protocol. Meeting […]
It’s January again and I find myself compulsively clearing my desk and going through my cupboards and drawers. Reaching the bottom of piles of papers, looking in the backs of deep shelves and under things, I unroll tubes of flip chart papers, and sort through piles of “filing” that hasn’t yet been done. I archive […]
As winter arrives in the Northern Hemisphere and 2017 comes to a close, it is a time to reflect on our work and give thanks for all the opportunities and lessons of the past year. It’s also traditionally a time for cooking! We seized on this idea recently with UNIDO’s Learning and Knowledge Development Facility […]
We just completed our Bright Green Learning Academy training course on “Using Interactive, Experiential Learning Games in Meetings to Communicate Messages (and have fun!)” and part of our course includes selecting, adapting or making a new game and running it for the group – going through the stages of game administration: Preparation (parameters, people, space, materials, […]
Breakout room 5 (the one on the other side of the building) is out of flip chart paper! Where’s my Key Note Speaker? Anyone seen the group work template for Table 3 (after 2 hours of hard work), it’s not in the stack? The online location for saving the country screencasts has changed to… […]
Would you like your Keynote Speakers to do more than stand at a podium with their notes and read their prepared speeches? (perhaps even prepared by someone else?) Would you prefer your speaker to share personal experience and examples – to speak from the heart? Do you want high energy at the opening of your […]
Working with complexity and uncertainty seems to be a feature of everyday life in our organisations and projects. There are undoubtedly great, daunting challenges presented by working within systems that seem to be constantly changing and have many moving parts. Thankfully, there are also useful tools that can help us think through what is going […]
Staff Meetings, when the whole of a staff group are convened in one place (physical or virtual), are an important investment that a team makes on a regular basis. And they can be a significant investment – if you monetize the time that is used to convene this group, you can have a significant […]
Every time I facilitate I make a Materials and Equipment List. This is for me to think through exactly what we need on hand, and also to share with a partner or host when you are sourcing these items locally. This is a two column list that can be an aggregated list of everything needed […]
Michelle Cartín, Project Manager – events and congresses. Former Deputy Forum Manager, IUCN World Conservation Congress One of my most interesting and challenging roles was Pavilions Project Manager for the 2016 IUCN Congress, which attracted around 8,000 participants. The thematic pavilions, centred on themes from youth to marine conservation, are where delegates can explore the […]
You’re asked to help design an interactive and engaging conference of 200, 400, 1,500, or 10,000 people. Do you leap at the challenge or quake believing this is beyond your capacity? Rest assured: You can do much more than you might expect, whether in side events, workshops or on the ‘main stage’ in plenary. People […]
You just finished your exciting learning workshop, the walls are plastered with carefully completed templates, there is a stack of A3 sheets from group work, a pile of cards that captured individual reflections to salient questions, e-templates were filled in. Learning was captured, key messages identified, ideas prioritized. Lots of learning and exchange filled the […]
Brian McKenna, Deputy Director, Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition (RHSC) In October, the RHSC held its 17th General Membership Meeting in Seattle for 330 participants from 43 countries. Evaluations from last year’s meeting told us participants wanted a more interactive event with more technical sessions and opportunities for discussion. We needed to be innovative – to […]
As event hosts and organisers do you focus all your energy on designing the official programme? If so, you’re missing out. Workshops large or small offer plenty of opportunity to network ‘around the edges’ of formal sessions – during coffee breaks, meal times or waiting for sessions to start. Think how many people pass each […]
You are speaking, facilitating, moderating, or MCing at a BIG event. You are in front of dozens, hundreds, a thousand people, and you are introducing people with big names and long titles. The lights are bright, the video camera rolling, surrounded by a buzzing room full of eager participants. Can you remember all those names, […]
You have received an invitation to fly to another continent to deliver a one-hour training presentation within the context of a longer, carefully designed workshop, on an important subject that you know a great deal about. You are a Parachuted Presenter, dropping in to share some wisdom that can be helpful, hopefully, to the group as […]
