How to Lead a Workshop with a Memorable Slide Deck - International Coaching Federation
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How to Lead a Workshop with a Memorable Slide Deck

Posted by Emmett McCann | October 17, 2018 | Comments (2)

A slide deck can be a hugely powerful tool in creating your next group workshop. When designing a workshop, many coaches try to make it interactive and conversational to better captivate their audience. Most slide decks seem formal and one-sided and can block conversation. However, a well-designed, sparse slide deck can be the key to creating an efficient and powerful workshop. First, let’s take a look at how a slide deck can make your workshop more efficient.

Efficiency:

  • Structure: Slide decks give structure to a workshop. Some workshops are derailed when the timing or the focus of the workshop falls apart. Keep your slides short and to the point in order to create a sense of progress as you flip through the deck. A well-made slide deck keeps everything moving in the right direction and gives both the speaker and the audience an idea of the current focus.
  • Focus Shift: When it comes time to change that focus, whether it’s just a change in the discussion or a transition into or out of an activity, a slide deck makes that switch instantaneous. Any sort of transition is easier with a slide deck since it gives a concrete and succinct introduction (by way of a few words on screen) to the new topic. Start each new idea with a short, to-the-point slide that cleanly proposes a new focus.
  • Explanations: Finally, (and possibly most importantly) a slide deck helps you explain anything. An acronym, a process, an activity, anything you need to explain. Coach Beverly Landais uses powerful slide decks in her interactive workshops and uses bullet points to explain any acronym or give the base instructions for an activity. It speeds up the explanation and helps with retention.

Now that your workshop is more efficient, and you can cover more material in the same time, how do you get all of that to stick? Well, you need to make your workshop powerful on top of it being efficient.

Impact:

  • Images: Images are one of the most important pieces of a slide deck. A beautiful, inspiring piece of imagery can make a slide, but a boring clip art image can break it. An image is not just the background of a slide, it is the emotional meat of it. Just as a slide deck can create instantaneous transitions between activities and ideas, your imagery can have an immediate effect on the mood and emotional state of your audience. Use this power wisely by choosing beautiful, colorful images that have an emotional impact similar to the goals of the slide’s content.
  • Wording: With all the information you can talk about in a workshop, how do you get any of it to stick? Many coaches have found that a single phrase on a slide can help to burn a point into memory. Any more on the screen can be distracting from what you are saying, but one phrase immediately gives the audience a mental title to each point. Try keeping each (non-bullet point) slide to 6 words or less.

The Visual/Audio/Kinesthetic Learning model is often used to describe the learning styles of different people. Many people tend to prefer one method or another, but researchers have found that most learn best when multiple methods are used concurrently. This is why lectures often include a PowerPoint or why Ikea instruction manuals use almost exclusively pictures. Workshops include both the audio component (in the verbal leading done by the instructor) and the kinesthetic component (in the interactive activities).

A slide deck can complete that set, bringing visual learning to a format that is already so strong in audio and kinesthetic learning. By completing the set, you can create an efficient, impactful learning experience that caters to the learning needs of everyone in your audience.

Emmett McCann headshot

Emmett McCann

Emmett McCann is a writer at Haiku Deck who is focused on presentation skills in the coaching industry. He helps coaches utilize presentations in their work to create stronger coach-client relationships and improve the quality of their coaching. He is currently looking at the use of presentations in group workshops and coaching webinars.

The views and opinions expressed in guest posts featured on this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of the International Coach Federation (ICF). The publication of a guest post on the ICF Blog does not equate to an ICF endorsement or guarantee of the products or services provided by the author.

Additionally, for the purpose of full disclosure and as a disclaimer of liability, this content was possibly generated using the assistance of an AI program. Its contents, either in whole or in part, have been reviewed and revised by a human. Nevertheless, the reader/user is responsible for verifying the information presented and should not rely upon this article or post as providing any specific professional advice or counsel. Its contents are provided “as is,” and ICF makes no representations or warranties as to its accuracy or completeness and to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law specifically disclaims any and all liability for any damages or injuries resulting from use of or reliance thereupon.

Comments (2)

  1. Olivia says:

    This is a very interesting and informative Blog! Thank you

  2. Samantha says:

    Thanks! I noted everything you said in the video, it’s amazing that there still tools I needed, I’m so lucky that I found your blog.

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