Writing Engaging Workshops That Enhance Learning

🎯 Here's 3 reflective questions to prepare meaningful workshops To date I've hosted over 300+ in person/virtual workshops across 8+ sectors Here's the strategy I use before EVERY engagement, research tested: 1️⃣ Distinguish the purpose of activities & engagements - "How does this activity support new learning?" - "Is this activity 100% necessary to creating new attitudes/beliefs/new ways of thinking?" If you can't say "YES" or explain this in detail scrap the activity. 2️⃣ Create audience personas using design thinking 🧠 - "Who's in the audience?" - "What's important for me to know?" - "What has already been tried? How might we go one layer deeper?" - "What power dynamics/positions of power are present? How might we bring folx closer to the center?" 3️⃣ Ensure 70% hands-on time for real behavior change 📌 - Many exercises have been pulled from research and best practices from The Arbinger Institute and Elena Aguilar "Transformational PD" These strategies help me deliver workshops that truly resonate! 👇🏾 How do you prepare? What makes workshops meaningful to you? #WorkshopPrep #DesignThinking #EngagementStrategies #ProfessionalDevelopment #EffectiveLearning ---- 💗 I'm Brittany: TEDx Speaker, Executive Coach, and Corporate Trainer!  🎤 I post weekly on Career Development, Personal Growth, & HR/Tech!! ♻️ Like this post? Please like, share, or comment!

Ready for an unpopular opinion? Course creation isn't easy. Well, it can be, if you're not particularly invested in whether your participants learn. Creating an effective, high-quality workshop or course, takes time and know-how. Last summer, I asked participants in my course The CREATE Framework: 6 Steps for Building Your Own Workshop or Course, this question: 🤔 Think of a workshop or course that truly inspired you. What made it so impactful? Here's what they said: ⭐️ Passionate facilitator ⭐️ Stories of failure to success, overcoming adversity ⭐️ New frameworks ⭐️ Thought-provoking, critical analysis ⭐️ Movement & variety ⭐️ Visual, multisensory ⭐️ Small groups for sharing ⭐️ Connect to why—passion and interest in the room ⭐️ Walk away with concrete skills & more confidence ⭐️ Debating an issue ⭐️ Real life examples & case studies ⭐️ Simple, accessible language ⭐️ Resources & materials reinforced practical tips, professionally designed materials ⭐️ Humor & energy of facilitator ⭐️ Collaboration with attendees ⭐️ Participatory & interactive ⭐️ Applicable to real life ⭐️ Facilitator vulnerability & ability to relate to them ⭐️ Peer stories & testimonials to connect with content Think all of that can be built in a day? I sure don't. 🤖 How about using AI tools? Please DO! They're awesome, and they can cut down some time developing content, questions, activities, and more. But don't think they're going to do all the work for you. And you still need to learn how to use them well. Ever attend a really crappy course? Yeah, me too. And I hope I never waste my participants' time like that. I remember sitting down for an in-person, full day workshop, and the instructor opened with this: "You're not going to learn anything new today." 😱 Can you guess what my brain did at that very moment?

Do your learners rush through training without pausing to process what they've learned? 🤔 Reflection is one of the most underused but powerful tools in learning. When learners are given space to pause and think, they gain deeper understanding and clarity. It’s not just about completing a course. It’s about making the content meaningful, connecting it to their own experiences, and figuring out how to use it in real life. Reflection helps learners go from hearing something to owning it. For example, imagine a leadership training session where learners are asked to reflect on a recent conflict they’ve managed. Instead of jumping to solutions, they take a moment to consider questions like: “What went well? What could I have handled differently? How would this training have changed my approach?” This process encourages self-awareness and allows learners to integrate new strategies into their existing practices. Want to help learners reflect in a way that enhances understanding? Try these ideas! ⬇️ 👉 Incorporate reflective prompts. Add open-ended questions like “How would you apply this concept in your role?” or “What’s one thing you’ll change after learning this?” 👉 Schedule reflection time. After covering a key concept, include a short pause for learners to write down their thoughts or share in small groups. This ensures reflection isn’t skipped in the rush to move on. 👉 Use reflective journaling. In longer courses, ask learners to maintain a journal where they can track insights, questions, and personal action plans. 👉 Tie reflection to action. Pair reflection activities with concrete next steps. For example, “After reflecting on your approach to X, create a plan for how you’ll use Y in your next project.” Reflection is the bridge between learning and doing. ---------------------- Hi! I'm Elizabeth! 👋 💻 I specialize in eLearning development, where I create engaging courses that are designed to change the behavior of the learner to meet the needs of the organization. Follow me for more, and reach out if you need a high-quality innovative learning solution. 🤝 #InstructionalDesign #ReflectionInLearning #eLearning #AdultLearning #LearnerEngagement #LXD #LearningAndDevelopment

Nobody wants to take your training. I learned this harsh truth early in my L&D career, and it changed everything. Your compliance course? They're clicking through as fast as possible. Your onboarding modules? They're multitasking through every slide. Your leadership development program? They're there because they have to be. It's not that people are mean or don't want to grow. They're just busy. They've got real work to do. This realization stings, but it leads to the most important breakthrough any L&D professional can have: Empathy. When you accept that learners don't automatically want what you've created, you start asking different questions: → What do they actually need to solve their real problems? → How can I make this feel relevant to their daily challenges? → What would make them choose to engage, not just comply? This shift in thinking led me to the SURE principles that transformed my approach: SIMPLE: Cut the jargon. Write like you're explaining to a colleague over coffee, not lecturing to a graduate seminar. USEFUL: Instead of "Introduction to Customer Service," try "How to Handle Angry Customers Without Losing Your Mind." Which one would you click on? RESONANT: Connect emotionally. That safety training hits different when it starts with "Imagine explaining to your family why you didn't make it home tonight." EASY TO SKIM: Busy learners scan for key information. Visual hierarchy isn't just pretty design—it's learning efficiency. The moment you realize nobody wants to take your training is the moment you start creating training people actually want to take. Because when you design with empathy, something magical happens: learners stop being compliance statistics and start being humans who genuinely want to grow. What's one way you've made your training more learner-centered? #TrainLikeAMarketer #LearningAndDevelopment #TrainingDesign #LearnerExperience