Team development series 2021 - Present your ideas confidently
After our previous online workshop with Inkmason in May about Team Collaboration, our second module in this Team Development Series was delivered today with the same group of talented and energetic designers, and this time, they were all located in their Beijing Head Office.
This workshop was about presenting your ideas confidently. The topic was very broad and so we decided to start from the beginning - why you need to present and how to structure your ideas. The concept is simple, in order to build confidence, you need to believe your beliefs. Golden Circle by Simon Sinek is my all-time favourite for finding out your WHY as your core value. Instead of simply talking through a slide deck with words and fancy graphics, find out the core value of your idea. Why you need to share the idea? How does it relate to your work and beliefs? How does it related to your organization and the brand? Why is it important to you and others? What is it going to change? If you can answer all these questions, you have a very strong foundation to support your idea, and that's where your confidence comes from.
Next, we challenged their ideas by using the critical thinking process, to find out if said ideas were valid or not! Again, developing critical thinking skills was another broad topic, so we played a game together (inspired by the True Confessions)! This was their favourite activity this time, it's called "A truth or a lie". We prepared four short stories, stories that sounded really ridiculous. Each time they could pick one from the four and I would read the story aloud. Team members took turns to ask questions, any questions that they could ask to help them figure out whether that story was a truth or a lie. Making a decision by asking questions was the major learning point in developing critical thinking skills, and this simple and super fun game was a perfect fit.
There were a few more topics we shared in this workshop including the Principles of presenting ideas, Managing negative self-talk and Online presentation tips. These were all important elements for supporting us to present and talk confidently in front of people.
It's all about practice, practice and practice. So they were all scheduled with an individual 30-minute coaching session to practice their presentation skills one week after the workshop. This was a very practical learning opportunity to improve their presentation abilities.
This on-site virtual workshop gave us a very different training experience. Even though it was a virtual workshop, we designed the day to make the most of the office space similar to an offline event, to encourage the team interact with each other actively and to physically move around in the office. The team really enjoyed meeting all members in one office and appreciated the in-person discussion.
Thank you again for this fun and enlightening learning experience. I enjoyed very much working with this team and our amazing co-facilitator Karen. You are the best! We look forward to meeting you all in one of your offices in the near future.