The best laid plans for running your training program frequently go astray. Things happen! Participants may arrive late to the workshop due to traffic or miscommunications, activities run longer than planned, discussions are going great and you don’t want to cut them short, brainstorming sessions are productive – no doubt you’ve experienced some of these issues in your workshops. How you manage the class makes all the difference in how well the training program is received and how valuable it is to the participants.
Below are a few quick tips to help get you back on track when you are running out of time to convey all the necessary information of your workshop. Choose an option or two that works best for your workshop and the audience.
- Reduce break times and the lunch hours
- Eliminate small group discussions and open discussions up to the entire group and facilitate to shorten the time of the discussion
- Eliminate or shorten some activities
- Rather than having every group report back on the results of their small group activity, select one or two groups to share with the rest of the class (alternate so each group has a chance to share at some point in the workshop)
- Look for areas where you can reduce your teaching of content – for example where the class seems to “get it” or be more knowledgeable in a particular areas
What can you add to the list? What do you do when your workshop time is running short and you still have material to cover? Please share your tips and tricks with the group in the Comments field below. Thanks!
