How many times have you attended a webinar, conference, or even listened to a podcast and felt the conversation only skimmed the surface? I’ve found the best learning experiences allow everyone to dive deeper into the conversation. Deeper through shared experiences and application of lessons. 

As leaders, our clients, peers, and team members are thirsty for knowledge. Information and experiences they can learn from to excel in their roles.

Fear Creates Shallow Water

Some of the challenges and fears we face when teaching include:

• Fear of what others will think
• Fear of oversharing and increasing competition
• Fear of oversharing and diminishing own value
• How to share so others achieve results
• How much information to include
• Fear of giving away the farm for free

These factors contribute to shallow conversations and a continuing thirst for actionable knowledge. They can also contribute to skepticism, lack of trust, and a decline in attendance for educational events online and in-person. When people have been burnt too many times by infomercial educational events they show are less likely to show up.

How can we fix this? How can we dive into deeper conversations with our community, clients, peers, and teams?

How to Dive Deeper

The key here is your mindset.  You can’t control what people do so focus on what you can do. Focus on being of service instead of afraid someone will take something from you. If you are truly confident in your abilities then no one can replicate you even if they have the same process. Shared processes don’t equal identical results.

• Share your journey with detail. Your story provides context to your decisions.
• Share what worked and what didn’t work. Be a guide and help people avoid the riptide.
• Address what didn’t work and how you overcame it. This helps people know it is possible for them too.
• Explain the thought process behind the decisions made. For example, what details did you consider when making your decision? This allows people to make their own decisions instead of copying.
• Create room for conversation instead of broadcasting. The best learning is shared when the teacher and students learn from each other. Include time for questions and answers either throughout or at the end. Don’t skimp on this time, be intentional and build it in.

Last year, I led a session at the Event Business Virtual Summit. My goal was not to just share my knowledge, but for attendees to understand the benefits and start to implement the lesson in their business. As attendees, many times when we do find in-depth knowledge there is a gap in execution after the event. 

When we don’t execute on the lessons taught, the knowledge can fade.

Realizing this I divided my session into 4 components: teaching, executing, coaching, questions. I wanted to make the most of our time together and move them forward in the process so they could see individual results quicker. The key is creating momentum. 🏄‍♀️ 

Teaching Tips

If you are a leader, then by default you are a teacher. Below are tips you can apply in various leadership roles.

1. Help your audience understand how taking action will benefit them. Provide context, your thought process when making a decision, and examples they can apply to their own situation. Get your audience involved by having a member participate in a live demonstration.
2. Build time into the event for participants to implement lessons so they can practice and receive live feedback. This helps them start to connect the dots. It also gives you live feedback on what works and doesn’t work in your presentation so you can refine it.
3. Who can you coach up this week? As a leader, your team is a reflection of your ability to coach them. What tools, resources, or information do they need to succeed? What is preventing them from making progress on a project? When they perform well then everyone’s output increases.
4. If you have an employee struggling, find out why. Is there a skill gap and they need more training? Is there a desire gap and they lack motivation? Once you identify the gap, create a plan together. By creating a plan together you enable the employee to take ownership of their performance. You are then responsible for holding them accountable by agreed dates and results. 
5. Schedule regular company meetings to share the highlights of each team/department and their impact on the company vision. It is easy for employees to have tunnel vision and not realize how their work impacts others. By sharing how each team/department contributes and impacts the company it reduces the silo effect. 

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Your Turn

What creates a memorable learning experience for you?