Train the Trainer Webinar: Training Engagement

GARRICK "RICK" REDDEN: Great. Thank you, Julia. I hope you all can hear me OK.  

JULIA ROTONDO: We can.  

GARRICK "RICK" REDDEN: OK, great. Thanks, Julia. You'll see Margie and I on camera the whole time. And we'll have another colleague joining us, along with our leadership and program manager and colleague, Julia. But welcome, everybody. Good morning or afternoon, for wherever you may be joining us. Morning on the West Coast here still.  

We're from Studio B here at PNNL, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington. It is a pleasure to be with you today in this session. Please note we'd like to make this as interactive as much as possible for this virtual event. If you'd like to turn on your camera, please do so.  

My colleagues and I will do our best, as Julia mentioned, to answer any questions you might have at any time. So if you do have a question, please use the chat. If you've got a great idea or suggestion on—or in regards, if you will, to the content, we'd love for you to do that too.  

If there's a real important item you'd like to suggest, please come off mute and ask at any time. We encourage you to interact with us as much as you'd like to today in regards to the topics that Julia spoke to. I would like to say if I cannot answer a question, I'm sure Julia or Margie will be able to answer your question. I'll call on them for assistance at any time today during our session.  

And as I mentioned, we'd like to make this as interactive as possible from a delivery standpoint, as Margie and I will have some small discussions and share examples during our delivery with regards to content and what has worked well for both of us, both in-person and in virtual delivery.  

Speaking for Margie, Margie and I have been blessed to deliver training in multiple forums, both domestically and internationally. So if there's anything we can share that has worked for us in any setting, please let us know. I hope you can see the screen OK before we march forward. We'll have a lot of content to throw at you, and I hope you find some good takeaways. So let's march forward if everybody's OK. And I'm going to turn the floor over to my colleague Margie.  

MARJORIE "MARGIE" SPLATTSTOESSER: For a real quick introduction. So my name is Margie Splattstoesser. I've been at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for about 10 years. I've been in the world of events and training for about eight years. And my focus is primarily on planning events and logistics. And I support my instructor, Shannon, Rick, in whatever way possible.  

I've been working with these tools for a really long time and I can usually ask what are you trying to get out of this exercise and try to figure out which tool is going to work best. So that's my expertise, not necessarily instructing, so please forgive me. Back to you, Rick.  

JULIA ROTONDO: Rick, you are muted.  

GARRICK "RICK" REDDEN: Sorry about that. I'd like to echo some things that Margie said there. We collaborate quite often to make sure what's going to work in the environment, whether it's virtual, as I mentioned, or in-person. And I know a lot of you will be delivering or facilitating training in different environments, but basically we like to collaborate to make sure we find out what works best in the environment.  

As you can see there on the screen, I'm the other facilitator today. My name is Rick Redden. I have, too, also been at PNNL, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, for around 10 years. But I previously worked at the United States Federal Training Center, and I still work at the US DOE national Training Center, the NTC and teach courses for them as needed.  

But I also do a considerable amount of work, almost 25% of the year, for the IAEA out of Vienna, Austria. So I do a lot of work for them and represent the US DOE. But I'll be with you today and, hopefully, as I mentioned, you'll get something out of this presentation. Along with Julia being here with us, we do have another facilitator that will be with us that has worked extensively with both Margie. And I'd like her to introduce herself if she will. Shannon, will you go ahead.  

SHANNON GOODWIN: My name is Shannon Goodwin. I do international training on a regular basis. I primarily work for the Office of Radiological Security. And the trainings that I've done internationally have mostly been training like radiation detection to customs and border guards. So happy to be here, and really happy to learn more about this program. So I'll see you in a breakout room in a bit.  

GARRICK "RICK" REDDEN: All right, thank you, Shannon. And as I mentioned, Shannon and Margie and I will be getting through a lot of the information material, and Julie will be joining us later also. So there'll be multiple things we'll be doing here today with you, and I—as I mentioned, I hope you find some good takeaways from the information we're going to cover today.  

In general, we like to lay out our training where we talk about overview of the material expectations, goals, and objectives. And I'll cover that real briefly up front here. But these are one of the things we do in terms of training for engagement and influence. We like to make training a two way street. So we like active participation. And, hopefully, the participants, you, meaning the audience, if you find that in your training. Find out about the necessary outcomes when we call—cover all the information up front.  

A lot of these things we do in terms of setting the tone of training are what you see on the screen here. So, for example, present and attentive, we have a general cell phone policy, especially when we're in-person. If you have a cell phone, please put it on stun or vibrate. If you get a phone call and you need to step out and take the call, please step out of the room quietly and come back as soon as you can.  

And I know you can see a lot of the other information up there on the screen, but there is some that we like to say that come from us, the facilitator. So devotion to the content we're going to share with you. And as I mentioned, hopefully there's some ideas or takeaways or some examples that we're going to share with you today that you can get out of this information that we are sharing with you.  

We want feedback, so if you can give us any feedback at any time—and, certainly, at the end where Margie will be leading us through that effort—please do so. We love feedback. We like to get some information for you in regards to the content we're covering.  

So as I mentioned, we give a general overview, setting the tone for training. So, basically, we're going to talk about three different things here, but training strategies to engage and influence the audience. Margie and I are big into this, as Margie said in her introduction.  

How can we make sure things work so it's influential in a positive way to reach our goals and objectives? Which I'll cover next. How do we handle disruptions in the training environment? So there are really no disruptions, and we'll give you some examples. We'll talk about six different techniques to handle those disruptions, but what do we do to handle those in the training environment?  

And then everybody's got a good story, but how does it apply to training? And better yet, if you use a story and tell a story, how does it enhance the learning for your audience members? So this is our overview, and now we're talking about the goal.  

So with all of our trainings that we deliver here at PNNL and the trainings we develop, we always have an instructional goal and objectives. And as you can see on the screen there, our goal is that this is an application of our presentation is best delivered for practices and learning environments.  

So as trainers and facilitators here at PNNL, for example, we have different environments where we deliver training. I'll give you a couple of examples. They could be reviewing standard operating procedures and using maps and doing tabletop exercises, what we call TTX. They could also be, for example, us doing FTX, field training exercises. Maybe when we're doing training out in a certain environment or a contained atmosphere or a certain location within a building or a setting, I know many of you will be training virtually.  

We here at PNNL deliver training, as I mentioned, in many different environments or forms, so we must work to have practices in place that work for the environment we are required to deliver in. And a lot of those things are what Margie alluded to, what's going to work best for that environment, how is it going to be best for the learning environment, and better yet, the participant and their learning.  

Our objectives, as I mentioned, when we give an overview after talking about expectations, we have a goal, now we have objectives. So what are we using for means to engage participants to make sure the training is positive and they're getting something out of it and the engagement is meaningful, and there are those, as I mentioned, takeaways? What are different strategies we use to manage disruptions for our training? What does that look like?  

Disruptions might not be human. They could be others. And we'll talk about those a little bit later on and give you some examples, and what's worked well for us and what we've used to overcome certain situations. And then how we use storytelling to enhance learning, how is that done? Why do we do it? And what processes do we use?  

There'll be some key takeaways there, and we'll do a really good exercise towards the end of the session that I hope you find meaningful and you get something out of. Are there any questions before I move forward after we've covered our goal and objectives?  

JULIA ROTONDO: Nothing in the chat.  

GARRICK "RICK" REDDEN: OK, great. Thank you. I appreciate it, Julia. OK, so our first objective here is, what do we use for techniques to engage the participant? We're going to talk about these six, and we're really going to expand, for example, on the sixth one, the bottom one down there. And I'm going to cover these in brief terms.  

But in terms of introductions, we like to ask general personal questions of our audience. What's your name? Where are you from? How long you've been doing what you've done? And what is your expertise? And maybe what is your expectation for the course?  

But on top of that, for techniques to engage the participant, we also ask a couple of other things. And I did this most recently in a country in Africa to better tie in the relationship of people that come from different organizations or different agencies.  

In addition to the ones I just mentioned I ask them, what is your favorite hobby, your favorite food or your favorite sports team? So maybe they can make a connection with somebody else in the training, the audience, the participants on a break, at lunch or at the end of the session for the day.  

Secondly, expectations. You'll see I covered those earlier in the course. Training has to be a two way street. So for techniques to engage your audience—go ahead. Is that Alison? OK, sorry about that. Let me move forward here.  

I completed that earlier in the course, back on slide three when I talk about expectations from you and from us. So lay those out. There's different techniques to use that to make sure that you're going to have an engaging session.  

Third, verbal. What are those and what do those look like? They may be discussion, use of voice, music, some other things. We'll talk about those briefly here in a moment. Visual, anything visual for the training session environment. And what might that be? It might actually have the participants close their eyes and reflect. We'll get into some of that later too.  

Structural, we're talking about groups, giving a name to a team if you're doing breakouts or exercises, activities where you have small group working environments. We do something unique sometimes to the training, maybe the region, the subject, or in Margie and I's background, we do it a lot of times in the country where we're trying to provide an identity or develop a unity amongst the participants within their individual breakout groups, especially when we're doing activities or exercises.  

And then, lastly, you can see there on the screen tools, various means of engagement, but also to gauge the learners short term retention. And we'll talk about some different things in terms of quizzing or polling or do some of those other kinds of activities. And my colleague Margie will have some great things she'll demonstrate for you.  

So why do we use multiple techniques to engage and impact the learning environment? And anybody give me an answer in the chat, why do you use multiple techniques? Any thoughts or ideas here? Humor, I talked about introductions, expectations—thank you, Julia—keep people's attention, focus on the subject matter. Perfect, learn information differently. I like it. Kevin. Yes, thanks, Karen. Everyone's different. Yes, Sharon, people learn differently. Great. People learn information, thank you, Christine.  

So briefly and capturing—and thank you for all your responses there in the chat. I appreciate it. Margie and I look at developing training that everybody, as you all mentioned in the chat and Julia pointed out—keeping everybody's attention that everybody learns differently because they come to training with vast experience, different backgrounds, and certain expertise. So we like to touch on all of those learning styles.  

It's been long known that the entire audience learns in multiple different forms due to their learning styles. And we touch upon that a lot, but we want to find means as facilitators or instructors to engage those styles. People like to learn in different ways. So we like to touch the audio, the visual, and the kinesthetic or tactile learners.  

So we want to have a blend of learning because everybody learns differently. And just like Sheila mentioned in the chat, there's a variety in teaching that helps keep people focused during the actual training. So very important there to use different means of engagement.  

One of the things that I like to do and have done a lot in my past and background is I talk about the first—or the second item we had in terms of engaging influence, which was expectations. A lot of times the co-instructors and that deliver a lot of training, especially internationally in-person. We like to talk about the three sets and what you can do from a facilitator or instructor standpoint.  

One of the techniques you could have is setting expectations for the actual training session. Let them know what to expect, give them that overview, share the goal, discuss the objectives, provide information that would set the tone for them to let them know what to expect from the session.  

Secondly, set standards. What is it that you want participants to know? And are you going to test them or quiz them or ask them to do something where they've got to perform to a checklist, for example? There's some performance mechanism that you're going to check for them.  

And the third set is set examples. And I know you can see that on the screen, but set the example through your entire delivery, your demonstration, or your performance. So set expectations at the beginning of any course, provide standards—excuse me—and then demonstrate examples. Setting realistic expectation, defining those standards, and being the professional example are the key to successful training delivery.  

OK, the third and fourth here, we're talking about the first techniques being introduction and expectations, now we're talking about verbal and visual. So verbal could be live discussion, it could be your voice projection, your annunciation, your inflection, your tone. It might also be the use of music, especially during activities or exercises, when and where appropriate.  

And you can probably think of some examples even in some of the courses you've taken, both professionally or maybe back in your university college days, but also visual. Again, we talk about the learning styles and appealing to the auditory learner, but we're also going to look at the visual learner. So this means using pictures or charts, posters, projections, simulations, mockups, any type of model that you can use in the training to positively influence the outcome of that training.  

So there's different ways that you can appeal to the visual and the verbal, the learner. The fifth and sixth technique are structural and tools. So structural is really big to us, especially when we're laying out a course.  

And as Sheila mentioned in the chat, the variety in teaching helps keep people focused, well, we like to look at the tactile or kinesthetic learner too on top of the visual and the verbal learner. So we're also looking at the layout of the course. When are we getting them out of the chair? For example. Are we going to do an activity within the first 45 minutes or an hour or after the first or second break? Especially if you have an extended session in your training.  

Are you doing something early on in the layout of the course where you're going to engage them within the first 15 minutes? Maybe they're going to use a tool that my colleague Margie is going to describe here in a minute, but what are you doing for that training environment? Especially in in-person delivery. And, again, I know a lot of you will be doing or facilitating leading virtual trainings, but in terms of your environment, your setup, how exercises or activities are laid out in the actual training.  

And then are you using any tools, devices, or equipment? My colleague Shannon and I do a lot of handling devices and equipment when we're delivering training, especially to our international audiences. So what do we do to provide them opportunities to use a device or touch an instrument or utilize its functionality?  

It's buttonology if it's a handheld device, for example, and utilizing its application. Shannon, can I call on real quick to give us an example of the way you and I deliver training in a structural sense from handling equipment and devices?  

SHANNON GOODWIN: Sure. Let me turn my camera on. A lot of times I'll use Rick as someone—I'll hide a source on him, and then I will demonstrate how I would use that instrument to do a secondary inspection on him and locate where the source is, identify it.  

And then talk through the process that they might do with input from the border guards or customs agents to see how that compares to what they've learned or see if they have any kind of differences that they might do for their standard operating procedure. Is that what you meant, Rick?  

GARRICK "RICK" REDDEN: Exactly.  

SHANNON GOODWIN: OK, good.  

GARRICK "RICK" REDDEN: Yes, exactly Shannon. Thank you so much. So any time you give people an opportunity to handle devices, equipment, something they're going to actually have to use in their work in terms of a task or a skill, anytime you can have them touch it and do something applicable in a controlled environment when they're training to something—maybe it steps in a process or a procedure, those kind of things, greatly important to the learning curve, as you all know. Thank you in the chat there, Julia, Kevin. I don't know, Kevin, if you'd like to come off mute briefly and explain the significance of that and how it had great impact.  

KEVIN: Sure. Can you hear me all right?  

GARRICK "RICK" REDDEN: Yes. Please, go ahead.  

KEVIN: Yeah. So for a bit of context, we were doing a training on indoor air quality sensors, and so we brought a handful of them for the people taking the training in-person to use and set up and get a feel for it.  

And we weren't really sure how it would work out ahead of time but it ended up people were really engaged. They were talking a lot amongst each other. Some went ahead and—went ahead of our instructions and were really interested in getting there.  

We only had we a small groups of people so—maybe five to six people would be sharing one device, which I think helped a little bit because it encouraged collaboration instead of everyone having their own personal device. So, yeah, that's some of our lessons learned from that.  

GARRICK "RICK" REDDEN: That is great. And thank you so much, Kevin. And thank you for speaking to that example. Really relevant here. And Allison, I appreciate you being a part of that too. And Julia, thank you for putting that in the chat. Really relevant.  

Real briefly, Shannon and I tried to do this where we try to make sure each pair or each triad—groups of three—have one instrument amongst them so they can touch it. Think of show and tell, or as Kevin just spoke to, let them see that before the training occurs or the activity or exercise and then they can get a take away. Show it to them, let them touch it, and then tell them about it.  

Especially when you're talking about functionality, or as I mentioned, Shannon does a great job with buttonology on instruments and devices, those type of equipment that we use in our real-world work. And then lastly, as you can see here in engage and influence, when we're talking about total structural, appeal to the diversity of learners to engagement mechanisms. How do you do that, as I mentioned, with audio visual mechanism? Anything that you can put your hands on for application, what do you do for that?  

And I have a great colleague here that I work with routinely and that I rely on her. And that is Margie. And I'm going to turn it over to her because she's going to speak on the next topic here when we're talking about engagement tools.  

MARJORIE "MARGIE" SPLATTSTOESSER: Thanks, Rick. So we are going to first focus on in-platform engagement tools. So we're talking about virtual events, Webex, Teams, Zoom, whatever you're using. A lot of these platforms offer a variety of built-in tools that you can use to engage your audience.  

Now, in order to utilize these tools, you do need to be made a host or a co-host by whomever is scheduling the meeting. A lot of times if you're made a presenter, you do not have access to all the tools. So you want to first make sure that you are being assigned that role in order to have all the tools at your fingertips.  

Now, the breakout room tool, which we're going to show you a little bit later, is a really great option to use for group discussions, collaborative work, role playing simulations, personalized learning. And, again, all of these are on Zoom teams, Webex, whatever you're using.  

Now, the pros of breakout rooms are you can get more targeted and in-depth conversations on specific topics, and that can lead to higher quality discussions. By breaking into smaller groups, participants can collaborate more effectively and build stronger connections.  

It definitely adds variety to your training, so it's not too monotonous. And you can also use it to target support and guidance to different groups. So I was doing a training and it was—we were using some software and one of the students could not figure out how to do one of the steps. So the first thing that we did was we tried to share a screen where she kind of walked us through, and we quickly learned that she was behind a few steps.  

So what we did was we sent her and one of the facilitators into a breakout room so they could get caught up while the main room could continue forward. So that's another way to utilize a breakout room. Now, there are some cons with breakout rooms. With online engagements, inevitably you may have some people struggle with technology, which can lead to delays or confusion.  

Shannon and I just did a virtual training a couple of weeks ago, and we let participants choose their breakout room because there were different topics. We even had a beautiful slide that showed them how to get into it, how to get into the room, click the button, select your room, but we still had some folks who were not able to get into that.  

So in the moment we verbalized that they could just chat with us what room they wanted to go to and we moved them into their room, but you will run into some technology struggles. Breakout rooms can take up a lot of setup time, especially if you want them in specific rooms. But a lot of the platforms do allow for you to set them up ahead of time, and I strongly encourage taking advantage of that when you can.  

Another thing is that when everyone is divided into separate rooms, the facilitator has less control, however, you can utilize co-facilitators to lead each room and that will help with this. So try to imagine a breakout room without a co facilitator, you could have unequal participation or you could just have people talking about their weekend. So that's one of the cons there.  

So when using breakout rooms, we do have some best practices. Before sending everyone to the room, make sure they understand the purpose of the activity and what they're expected to achieve. Give very clear instructions on what they should discuss or accomplish. You can provide them a prompt or a worksheet or, again, having that in-room facilitator can help guide the discussion.  

And then consider assigning roles, leader, timekeeper, note taker, maybe someone to report back. And then just be mindful of the time and ensure they know how long they have in the breakout room. And then I think making sure you give them a warning when time is almost up so they can wrap up their discussions is a good idea. I have had people, the breakout room closes in the middle of a sentence, so having that timer is nice.  

And then I always recommend practicing on the platform that you're going to be using ahead of time, even if you used it before. I don't know if you've noticed that things keep getting updated and they look totally different and your buttons are moved. So definitely practice before you do that for your event.  

All right, so you've already seen us use chat. This is a really good tool. This allows participants to ask questions without interrupting the flow of the session. And trainers, especially co-facilitators, can address questions in real-time or during designated Q&A.  

And we use chat, I think he mentioned, for icebreakers at the start of a session. Rick mentioned the introduce themselves and share a fun fact. And it works really well when you have quiet folks who don't feel comfortable speaking.  

Let's see, chat can be used for quick polls. I think you've seen this before. Put a one in chat if this makes sense or a two if you'd like me to explain more. You can also share links to articles, videos, or other resources. And I'll be dropping some links in a little bit to show you some tools.  

And chat allows all participants to participate. Everyone has a voice. And definitely everyone cannot speak at once so it's really nice. And my favorite part is that the chat transcript can be saved and shared after a session. So you've got a record of all the key points, questions, and resources. So if you missed a question, you can see it and follow up.  

Now, the pros of chat, everyone can participate. It's very efficient. It allows quick communication, and then that written document I talked about. The con, it can be very distracting. Especially like if it's all side conversations in really large meetings, it's really hard to keep up with. I've definitely had to scroll and scroll and I couldn't find what I was looking for. So it can be overwhelming and trainers might have a hard time monitoring it. So you may want to bring a co-facilitator or a moderator.  

And some of the best practices establish clear guidelines on how the chat will be used. We didn't say this, but in some of our events we'll ask if you are putting a question in chat. Please put a Q in front of it, you can also ask them to stay on topic. So just establish whatever guidelines you would like for chat. And then, again, if possible, have a co facilitator—I can't say that word today—monitor the chat to ensure questions are addressed, and then use it strategically during specific parts. All right.  

JULIA ROTONDO: Hey, Margie. This is Julia. Just before you move forward, there's a great question in the chat which I think is going towards the underlying concepts of some of the slides you're about to present, but I thought we could take a second to make it more explicit.  

So in the chat they say, hey, can we please speak to different types of personalities, extroverts, introverts, cultural styles. They note that we are trainers and love to talk—very accurate, myself included—but many or most are not comfortable and do not participate in group activities. What strategies have you used to make sure everyone is heard? So I thought maybe just taking a step back to talk about why we're featuring all these different in-platform engagement tools and methods.  

MARJORIE "MARGIE" SPLATTSTOESSER: And I'll let Rick—I'll definitely let Rick speak to that. He's the trainer. I'm one of the uncomfortable people.  

JULIA ROTONDO: Go ahead, Rick.  

GARRICK "RICK" REDDEN: OK. And I agree with what Walter just put in there. We'll talk about some of these. Ben, I see your comment there. But what Julia referred to is in the chat from Tim, and that's a great question. I will say this—and not to—so what I've done and in my past, I've delivered trading in over 65 countries throughout the world. And I do it for big international agencies. And to speak to different types of personalities is always important.  

So we like to understand cultural sensitivities of our audience members. Now, that could be virtual, it could be domestic in-person, and, certainly—like Margie and Shannon even and I have done a ton—internationally, it's understanding those styles of the learners that come to training.  

Yeah, they could be auditory, visual, or kinesthetic tactile learners, but what are their styles in terms of learning? Are they participative or not? If they're an extrovert, yeah, they may want to speak a lot or be involved a lot or lead a session or answer every question. Ways you can handle that as a trainer with an extrovert is to deflect the question or relay it to other portions of the audience.  

If that extrovert or one or two people are on the left side of the room, for example, direct the question to somebody at a middle table or the right side of the room. Hey, I need somebody on the right side of the room who hasn't participated yet to answer this next question.  

As for the introvert that Tim referred to there, it's easy to call them out by asking them a direct question, especially by name, if you know it as a trainer and facilitator. But if not, try to involve them when you do activities or exercises by labeling them as the lead for their group, the representative, or the person who's going to speak in the debrief for the group activity when they all circle back with you as a facilitator, and, therefore, you can get the introvert involved most of the time.  

But you can also walk around and talk to that introvert while the group activity or group exercise is going on to make them feel more comfortable, to build up their confidence, whatever that may be. The same thing with an extrovert.  

On a break, take them aside and say, hey, I know you know the subject matter. You have a lot to offer to the training and you've been answering a lot of the questions that I've facilitated or the information that showed up on our visuals or on the PowerPoint slides, whatever it may be. But if I could ask you to take a step back when we go back into session here after the break and let some of the other audience participant members answer some of the questions.  

In terms of cultural styles, we go into a lot of situations here, both domestically and internationally, and, obviously, sometimes virtually. But one of the things we always try to do is understand our audience up front. So that may be a survey or something we do to understand the persona or makeup of our audience. We like to understand their styles in terms of who they are and their background, expertise, experience. But we do that a lot up front by asking those.  

One of the things we do internationally too, especially with our trainers here at PNNL, we ask them to refer to or look at a book called Kiss, Bow, and Shake Hands, Kiss Bow, and Shake Hands. It's really good to understand cultural sensitivities or not. For example, when to extend your hand and shake the person of an opposite gender's hand, or not.  

So we want to make sure that blending in the cultural styles, the introverts and the experts, get everybody involved in activities or exercises or giving them opportunities by calling on representatives, tables, or sections of a room so they can participate in the discussion. Did I answer that OK, Tim, and some of the things we try to do?  

TIM: Yeah no, no, that sounds good, yeah. And I think you touched on a lot of it. I think part of it too is that one book that I've read that was really influential in some of the work that I've done is called Quiet by Susan—I don't know what's her name here, now her name. You're probably familiar with her, Susan Cain.  

GARRICK "RICK" REDDEN: Yeah, I am.  

TIM: Yeah. So it just talks. a lot about in terms of how to get the best out of people and other aspects of things. And I know we try and do some of this, sending out the slides or sending out the presentation before the training so people can look at it. Oftentimes they do their best work from an introvert perspective of reading through the material in advance. They can think about things and then come up with questions.  

Other groups I know in doing work in abroad like you've done that they asking a question in a public forum is disrespectful. And so or providing a personal example is that may be contrary to something that's being presented you lose the there you they come from an area where you just don't do that. And so putting them on the spot or asking, does anyone have any questions, they're not going to engage in that.  

So just understanding, again, those different styles of people and cultures, it doesn't always—getting them engaged directly may not always be the right answer, but, certainly, recognizing who your audience is is really important going into a training as much as you can to make sure that you can respect how they're coming to the space.  

GARRICK "RICK" REDDEN: I agree 100, Tim. And thank you for providing all that information to our audience members and, certainly, myself. I know from delivering training internationally, working with my great colleague Shannon and my trusted colleague Margie here, I've learned a lot and I've bettered myself as a trainer to understand people and their differences and their styles of learning, but also their cultural aspects too. So I really appreciate that, Tim.  

And Ben, I see your question here. But Julia, thank you for what you put in the chat there for reference to those books. Really appreciate that, Julia. OK, one last thing I'd like to say in terms of styles and those situations for introverts and experts, when they come to training, we let them know it's a safe space.  

So let me give you one quick example without telling a real story here, I let them know that they're in a safe space. So I have a sports background, and there's a sign in the Green Bay Packers NFL team locker room before they leave the field and go out into Lambeau Field to play a game. And that sign simply says, "What you see here, what you say here, what you hear here stays here when you leave here."  

When you're talking about sensitive training subjects, you let the audience members know they're in a safe space. So a lot of my background, when we're doing sensitive type of training, whether it's equipment, devices, or certain things we don't talk about necessarily out in the public eye, we let them know they're in the safe space. So anything they say and share with us culturally sensitive to their work, whatever it may be, they're in a safe space. So I hope that helped a little. I'm going to stop and turn it back over to my colleague Margie.  

MARJORIE "MARGIE" SPLATTSTOESSER: Thanks. All right, so we're going to move on to polling. This is one of my favorites. So this is really good for gauging audience opinions, making real-time decisions. So we do a lot of quick yes or no polls. I actually set one up. Usually that doesn't even have a question. It just has the two options, yes or no. So you can ask any question during the training. Should we take a break? Are we ready to move on? And it's anonymous so you can typically get to the real opinion.  

It helps you understand participant satisfaction and areas for improvement. And we will go into surveys later. And they're a great option to get participants thinking and engaged. And we also use them to assess knowledge. And it can be either before or after. We do a lot of pre-knowledge checks.  

Now—so we're going to get into the pros here—immediate responses, it makes the session more engaging. And then you have some participants, again, that feel more comfortable sharing honest opinions in an anonymous way. And they offer analytics that can help you easily interpret results and trends.  

Again, with the cons is the technical difficulties. And some of the polls don't provide detailed insights that an open ended feedback can offer. Excessive polling can be kind of annoying. And if you don't have everyone participate, then they might not fully represent the opinions of the entire audience.  

So some best practices are to ensure the questions are aligned with your objectives and are relevant to the audience. Use clear, straightforward questions to avoid confusion. And then limit your choices. You want to have a manageable number of response options. I have seen—because I build these for people, so they'll be like, here's my questions. And I'll put it into the system for them. I've seen like 20 response options. That's a lot, so let's do a manageable number.  

And then poll at appropriate times. And then you can make the poll engaging by linking the questions to the content being discussed. And use the data to inform decisions, adjust content or address participant concerns. And you can summarize key findings with the audience to show that their input was valued and considered.  

Now, we're going to still talk about polling but we're going to pivot to off-platform engagement tools. So any tools outside of your virtual environment or the platform, sorry. So there's a lot of these options, I just put a few up here that I am familiar with.  

So I use Mentimeter quite a lot, which is why it's at the top. And oftentimes I will put a slide up that has a QR code for icebreakers during new training sessions. You talk about folks that are a little quiet, the introverts, icebreakers are really good to get them engaged. A lot of virtual events are very uncomfortable but I find that if you can get people engaged in talking, then it's going to be a lot better.  

So we do like to do icebreakers. And we will have pre-knowledge checks to see where they're at. And then we also love to include one fun question. And you'll see that in just a minute. So if you see the little icon in the right hand corner of my slide, this indicates that we have a poll. And it's a good reminder for myself and for my co-organizer that we're about to switch into something else.  

So we are going to go into Mentimeter. There's a couple of different ways to log in. You can scan that QR code, you can use this link I'm putting in chat. You can go to menti.com. At the very top you should see menti.com and then a code, 15798872.  

So you want to give people, I don't know, just maybe 20 seconds or so to log in. And if you're logged in, you will see that you just see the beginning of this. You can't move forward. And that's because I've set this up as presenter pace.  

It can be changed in settings to be audience paced, which means they can move forward without you. And we do that a lot before an event. We'll put up, like I mentioned, the icebreaker, the pre-knowledge check, and we'll let them go through the questions. We do go through them live and people can still vote, but that's another way to set this up.  

So moving forward. So for this question, select all of the engagement tools you have utilized in previous trainings. We have a few options here, breakout groups, chat, polling, brainstorming, Gamification. If you're using a Mentimeter or a poll, I think it's a really good idea to read your question and read the options. I have been in events where it's just silent, and it's really strange. Yeah, I think it's best to talk through it.  

It looks like a lot of people have used chat. So if you look in the right hand corner, there's a little people icon. And you can see that 15 people have participated in our poll. And my experience with Gamification is the same, very little experience, but I have used it a couple times. And it looks like chat and polling are definitely the most popular, so we'll move on. I'm just showing you how we utilize this.  

Which of these tools do you believe would be most effective for your training? I don't know much about what you guys are training on. I said much, that's even more. I don't know anything about what you're training on. So let's see what worked best for you guys, polling. OK, chat.  

Now, if you remember in the first slide we had about 16 people voting. You never get 100% of your audience participating, so I use that first question as like a benchmark. So we're at 15 now so it's pretty reasonable that that's all we're going to get. OK, so no Gamification, that's really sad. It is really fun. But I understand, certain things need—thank you. Whoever gave that to me, thank you. Thank you very much. OK.  

And which of these tools would you like to learn more about? We got breakout rooms again. This is the same options. Game—yeah, exactly. Gamification, brainstorming. OK, well, the good news is we're going to talk about these. Perfect. OK. And then I did promise one fun question, so here we go. I'm not trying to cause a big debate, but I love this one. Who is your favorite Batman? OK, excellent. Isn't this a fun question? I love it.  

I don't think that Ben Affleck got any votes the last time we did this, so. I don't actually think I saw that one, so. I can't say why, but—OK, look, do you see all the people that answered this one? Yeah, you're right. Casey, I need to update this slide. This was what I used probably before that one came out. But, yes, we got more people that participated in this fun question.  

OK, so that is Mentimeter. That is polling. We'll move on here. So we're going to talk about brainstorming. Some of you said you were interested in that. This is great for collaboration when you want to come up with new ideas or solutions, address complex issues, or gather input from various stakeholders.  

The pros, you get a wide range of ideas and perspectives, and that leads to more creative solutions. It actively involves participants, it can be adapted to various formats and tools, and it often leads to ideas and approaches that might not emerge through other methods.  

The cons of brainstorming, those dominant voices can overshadow those quieter participants. Sessions can definitely go off track without clear direction. And these online platforms—we're going to demo one—a lot of them have technical challenges.  

And then implementing and acting ideas can be challenging if the session lacks structure or follow up process. So here are some tools that we use for brainstorming, IdeaFlip, Mural, Miro, Figma, FigJam. These names are crazy, you guys.  

So these platforms allow participants to contribute simultaneously and often anonymously. So we are going to go over to IdeaFlip. So this is what it looks like. Let me drop the link here in the chat. This can be set up a couple different ways. I set it up so you shouldn't have to log in.  

However, you may not see these tools when you first log in. You may have an edit button. And so you'll want to hit the Edit button and then I think it pops up like a name tag. You can leave it as anonymous or you can plug in your name. So I can see up here, these are the people that are logging in. And I've put a couple activities on here, but you really need to explain how it works because it can get a little out of hand.  

If you just click on this note, it's like appearing somewhere and you don't—you can't always find it. So you can drag and drop it. You double click on it to edit or throw it in the garbage. If you have a mouse that has a scroll, you can Zoom in and Zoom out or you can use these plus and minus. And you can grab and pull over here.  

This is a random map I found of a medical facility. So if you think about exercises, you can move it down here and say something like, where would you need to put defibrillators? You can tell I'm not technical. And, please, put a check mark everywhere that you would need one. Somebody is moving my stuff because I didn't lock it. See, that's a good sign. You can lock right here, so now no one can move it. And you can just put little check marks wherever you need them. So think about how you could utilize this.  

The other thing you can do if you scroll down is you can add images and files. And you can lock this down so the participants can't really do that. I think I left it open. So this is just where you would label the camera parts and you can move these. And anyone who's a photographer will hate that I have no idea where these go, but anyways.  

So I just wanted to show you an example of how you can use this. And people really like it. You can export the entire board. You can create copies of the board and then go into breakout rooms so each room has their own board.  

And the nice thing is, I know a lot of these free accounts, you're limited on how many boards you need, but if you're just doing one activity, you can just refresh it every time and use the same board over and over and over. So that is IdeaFlip. It's kind of a fun one. Participants really like it. Let's see here.  

OK, we talked—we mentioned surveys, we haven't talked about them. So survey, feedback tools, these are a great way to enhance your training by gathering valuable insights from your participants. And we have one for you later. They are the pros. It's a structured way of collecting data, and makes it much easier to analyze and interpret. And I do remember when these were handwritten, and we had to read the writing and compile the information on our own. And it's just so much easier now.  

Now we can send out an electronic survey, it can reach a large number of people and everything comes back. It's beautiful. I can read it, it's efficient, it's wonderful. It allows participants to provide honest feedback, and you can tailor it for specific needs and questions.  

There are some cons, you could have really low participation rates. One tip that we like to do is to carve out two to five minutes in class, depending on how long your survey is, and let them do it in class and where you're going to get a much larger response rate than sending it out afterwards.  

And then the other con is that your responses could be incomplete or biased, especially if the questions are not well crafted. So here are some of the tools we use. And you'll see a Survey Monkey here in a little bit. And they offer customization, so you can put in your logo, your branding. I like that the results are displayed in both tables and visual graphics.  

And one of the features that I absolutely love is the ability to compare data over time. So if you have a reoccurring class, you can compare—can just look at the data from that class or you can look at it for the entire year. It'll help you identify trends and track changes in responses.  

OK, so everyone talked about are wanting to learn more about Gamification. So this involves applying game design elements to educational contexts to enhance engagement motivation. And it makes the learning more interactive and enjoyable. It leads to higher participation and completion rates.  

So the game elements like points, badges, leaderboards, it can drive motivation and a sense of achievement. It reinforces learning and improves retention of information. And it provides instant feedback. So it helps learners understand their progress and their areas for improvement.  

Some of the cons, if it's not balanced, the competition can lead to stress or discourage participants who are less competitive. Game elements could be distracting if they're not properly integrated into the core learning objectives. And then designing and implementing, they can be time consuming.  

So these are some of the platforms that incorporate various quizzes and games to help make learning more enjoyable. There's game shows, hidden images, memory games, board games. I personally have used Genially. I cannot say that, Genially. For one of my events I was given maybe five questions, multiple choice. And they said, here's our game. And I was like, is it though? It looks like a quiz.  

So I went out and I had already—I have an account for something else. So I was looking in here. And I took the content and I threw it in. I didn't really have to think too much about it. It's not overly impressive, but it got the job done. And I'll drop this in chat so you can see. It's kind of fun. I would highly recommend if your audience doesn't know the acronym. So in this one, it provides a scenario and then you have to answer.  

And where we did—we did this in Vienna, and some of the folks that visited the booth weren't familiar with the content so I really wish we would have spelled out acronyms. But if you get it wrong, it drops through. Try again. It's pretty basic, but it's kind of fun and we did get a lot of participation. Eventually you click on the right one and then you move forward. And there's some fun sounds too.  

The other one I've used before—and I don't have—I can't even remember the name of the website but I'll try to find it for you—is we did like a Family Feud. And it was like a knowledge check. It was really, really fun. So Gamification is, really, a fun option if it makes sense. We don't really use—I don't use it in a lot of my foreign events.  

I don't know if everyone's as competitive as I am, but we try to make sure that we're not putting people in a situation where they're going to feel dumb. But these ones where they get to play it on their own I think is really helpful. Let's see here. Rick, it's back to you. I feel like we're in a news studio, back to you Rick.  

Thank you, Margie. Now we look at our second objective here for this session today is strategies for managing disruptions in the training. And in the chat there earlier in the last session, I saw your question or your comment, Sheila, about culturally acceptable questions to ask in front of their peers or not. And sometimes they ask you on a break or later on, maybe in a lunch session or wherever it may be, so thank you for the comment there.  

And then you can see Julia's comment in the chat also with eFRCS cyber program on-demand training games. That was a great comment so thank you so much. When we look at common disruptions in training, typically they're either in in-person or virtual delivery, but sometimes they come from the participant and sometimes not from the participant. Can you think of some disruptions you've had in training that were maybe uncommon, not expected, unwarranted or otherwise? And if so, please drop them in the chat.  

So we always try to plan for disruptions or the potential of that in training. Perfect, Abby. I get that a lot in other situations. Internet quit while the presenter was speaking? Yeah, that has happened before too. We have a lot of issues and sometimes we try to plan for disruptions.  

I know we've had them in trainings that I've done with my colleague Shannon Goodwin here. People can't see the slides. Yeah, other disturbances—thank you, Kevin, for the example—fire drill during training. I've actually had that one happen, Juliet, so thank you. But, yes, things happen and you try to plan for them.  

So we always try to have a management plan for handling these situations. And as you can see, I have five things there on the screen in terms of things to consider in terms of having a plan in place to prevent potential disruptions.  

So planning, consider learning styles and modalities and how we're going to make sure the experience of the happening of the training occurs effectively. And using internet active techniques for a variety of delivery methods, we want to plan for those so there are fewer disruptions or we have technology backups.  

Yes, prayer times had happened before, Teresa. And thank you. Yep, questions and interrupting, so, yeah, you can see a lot of comments in the chat. But preparation also, find out as much as possible about the participants prior to the training. Maybe it's through questionnaires, surveys, interviews, or you just flat out asking the management of those section of the participants coming to your training.  

Hot Mic, that's happened before. Thank you there, Brian. Anticipation, regardless of the length of the session, always be ready for a disruption. Always have extras. For example, supplies, materials, equipment for not only the entire participant pool, but any uninvited guests, dignitaries, upper management, whatever that may be. My colleague Shannon does an awesome job in this area, so she's always anticipating these disruptions potentially happening.  

Communication, we try to take care of that up front by communicating—as you remember back on slide three—expectations by setting ground rules for the sessions. So many of those were presented earlier. Adapting to the environment, planning to move to adjust might depend on an audience member or an affiliation, supervisor you're sitting next to a subordinate, or subordinates who normally don't get along or see eye to eye.  

You may have those situations where there is an actual disruption to your training and you need to figure out how to handle it. But if you plan for it by setting people strategically, it might work best. As you saw in-person or virtual, we look at any environment for approaches to handling potential disruptions.  

I know we all by name on the environment there on the left side of the screen. We can see that those are given their titles because of who they are or what they do, but how do you handle those situations sometimes, especially, for example, with the know it all? Sometimes you just redirect questions or interaction along with thanking them might be a cutoff point, if you will.  

Talkers, reassign them within the audience, move them around. As I was talking about the subordinates who don't see eye to eye, maybe the others who are too agreeable, talkative, what have you. If I move on down the list there, the ramblers, for example, redirect them to the topic for others. Like I said, thank them for their answer and ask someone else in the audience. Redirect the question.  

The multitaskers, how do you handle those people sometimes? A lot of times I try to put them in leadership positions where they can't multitask. They have to take charge of the activity or the exercise for a certain fashion or a period of time.  

And in the virtual environment, the virtual ghost, those people who log in, never participate in one of those tools that Margie used or you never see them on camera or they're never interactive for whatever means. And then the non-participants, a lot of times those are the same as the virtual ghost. We try to get those people involved by asking general questions and have them participate, for example, in the chat or one of the devices that Margie just demonstrated.  

So we know our numbers, we know how many people should be in the training and how many people should participate, where are those numbers at. Next, we'd like to talk about a plan B. So I mentioned my colleague Shannon, always prepared, always has enough material, supplies, equipments. Making sure everything's charged, warmed up, working, those kind of things. We always try to have a plan B.  

But having a plan B means you must know your content. For example, if the projection unit goes out and you're using slides, do you know your content? Do you know what was on slide four, slide 17, or the next slide? Can you move forward and pick up a hard copy? Do the participants all have a hard copy so you can refer to them on page whatever and you can move forward with your training?  

Margie does a great job with that for us, using a logistical agenda that we use to know where everything's at, what we're doing in each session, what electronics, or if you will, links we're going to refer to or drop in the chat, for example.  

I do it a lot in the training. I deliver that if you can see me on camera, I make sure I have a backup clicker. My clicker is working. The one I just held up is not the one I use, but I always have a backup clicker and I know the batteries are working. In case my clicker goes out, I have one close by where I can reach to and use. So I have a plan B in place. Really important when you're trying to handle disruptions, especially from a technology standpoint.  

So how do you handle other disruptions? A lot of them that we like to call the uncontrollables. Those things that happen that maybe are in the environment that might be electronic, light, maybe even technology, let me talk about a couple of them here real briefly.  

What we do in the environment, especially in in-person training and even virtually like we've done today, Margie and I did a dry run yesterday just to check our equipment and what we were going to share. Making sure it worked, it dropped in the chat, for example, what Margie was demonstrating.  

But also at the training venue, in advance, check on multiple conditions and potential hazards, whether it's tripping or knowing where other additional electrical outlets are, or if we had to use a power strip for additional light or electrical power or whatever it may be.  

In technology, like Margie referred to, make sure you have backup plan or that plan B for access to technology to use, to handle, an eventual or possible disruption to your training. So how do we handle that? Before we move into the third objective, we have a disruption for you that I'd like to call on my colleague Margie to share that happened to Margie and I at the Federal Training Center. Margie.  

MARJORIE "MARGIE" SPLATTSTOESSER: Sure. But I feel like these examples in the chat are way better than our story, but I'll go ahead. So we were out at the Hammer Federal Training Center doing a training, and we saw—I think I saw this white powder. And I just happened to say, what is this? Is it for a training exercise? Because we have tools that we use that are fake that look real, and so I wasn't sure if it was a part of that.  

The next thing we know is that several people in hazmat suits came in and we had to leave the building with all the students. We had to go outside, and we had no idea if it was going to take all day, an hour. And luckily, Rick knew his content because he just delivered the training outside while we were waiting.  

But, really, the thing is that sometimes things do happen and we don't have fixes for everything. But if you can be prepared for things you know could happen, then you're in a better situation all around. I want to hear about this earthquake sometime, Shannon.  

SHANNON GOODWIN: Sure thing, the Philippines.  

GARRICK "RICK" REDDEN: Great. Thanks, Shannon. And Ian, I see your comment there in the chat. So about the cheap mini flashlights, that's a great example too. There's all kinds of disruptions. And I just thought I'd call on my colleague Margie just to share that situation we had there at the Federal Training Center with white powder on a pipe in the training session that I, to my—I was oblivious to it, and thank goodness Margie caught it, but we had to move the training outside to a different location, another facility.  

And we certainly didn't want to cancel the training and end it for the day because we had great information we wanted to cover and the participants were very into it and active. So we wanted to move on, and it worked out good. And Margie was real adaptive with us. And thanks, Margie, for the complement, but you know your content, you know what to do, you have a plan B and you move and act upon it in the moment. So, again, thank you for your comment in the chat, all your comments there for all of you. Really appreciate it.  

Let's move on to our third objective here, and that is using stories to enhance the learning within any given environment. So we're going to look at the what, the why, and the how in subsequent slides. But I want to introduce to you some of the storytelling content perspective, if you will, that I use when we're using stories and training.  

One of the approaches is the five C's of storytelling. When you talk about five C's character, that could be people, problem, or equipment, for example. Content, background, the situation, facts, circumstances, whatever it may be to the story you're going to use in the training for the situation.  

The third one is conflict. Is there an issue or problem? Is your story going to add to the training by help solving that issue or problem? Climax is the fourth. Take it to the point where it resonates. The participants, the audience will remember it. It has meaning. Take them to a point where they see it, they get it, they understand it.  

And then, finally, tie it off with closure. So character, content—context, excuse me, conflict, climax and closure. Tie it in, relate it to the learning, the actual goal and objectives of the training that you're actually conducting.  

We're going to visit these later, but the other approaches I've used is called the five P's of storytelling. And that's people, places, pictures, platform, and personal. Again, people, places, pictures, platforms, and personal.  

So people, who's involved. Places, where it's at. Pictures, link it to the situation. Give them a visual, even if you have them close their eyes and picture a situation. If not, showing them a picture on a slide or using a handout or a picture you hold up ties in the story to the actual situation, who's involved, where it's happening, those kind of things.  

And then personal, touch upon the appeal of the human emotion. However you can do that in the session when you're providing training is really important. Again, I'll come back to these real briefly later, but the five C's, character, context, conflict, climax, and closure, and the five P's, people, places, pictures, platform, and however you can make it personal. Just some approaches we use.  

So one of the people I really like to follow is a lady called Nancy Duarte. And it's duarte.com if you ever want to follow her, D U A R T E dot com. And she has this quote that you see here on the slide that, "The emotional glue of storytelling connects the audience to the message."  

So what are we doing for the audience to draw them in, to connect them for their emotions so the audience can relate to the situation or the circumstances? How has that done? So you ask the audience member and then they can finally see it. When you inspire an action, provide some type of motivation and draw the audience in so they understand the situation, the circumstances, or the story you're relating to the training goal and objectives.  

Then they can say to themselves, and sometimes you can seriously see it on their face, been there, done that, can relate to it, know how to do it, I get it. Give them that aha moment. It's a really important. I'll give you a simple example with me with hazardous energy control.  

Years ago I used to do out on the Hanford site here in Washington State when we're talking about controlling energized or powered systems or even some of the nuclear waste, if you will, out on the reservation, when we had to deal with hazardous energy control or what we call loto, L O T O, which is DOE's order 0336 when we're talking about hazard energy control.  

We had to do walk downs to a T A F, a Tagout Authorization Form. So we used to tell stories about how to appropriately do a walk down and relate that to the performance checklist they were supposed to do in terms of lock and tag situations. Locking out certain valves or devices to make sure they were safe, and the lockout tagout was occurring according to the TAF, the Tagout Authorization Form.  

So they could visualize or see themselves actually walking down that lockout. So they know they were following a procedure or requirements, the actual given process, and adhering to all the protocols. So it was really important. So we tried to tie that in with the story and provide examples to them when they actually had to do a lock down before they did work, making sure everything was safe and under control.  

So the second one is, why do we use stories in training? As you can see here on the screen, there's some important things there in terms of emphasizing points or key points within the training context, showing relationships to theory and practice, demonstrating relationships.  

Let me give you an example here. Years ago I used to teach CPR, AED, bloodborne pathogen type training. And I had to use emphasizing key points. We did chest compressions and I actually use music for the example for them to do chest compressions at a certain rate and a certain beat. So there's different music songs you can do to apply that but to emphasize the point, we used music and let them tell the story about the chest compressions they were doing.  

As I mentioned, lock and tag, doing walk downs and field checks on the tags and locks to make sure that we're on the specific devices, for example, in accordance with the TAG authorization form. So there's different reasons why you can use stories, but if you can relate them to the actual objective of the training and tie them in so they can see the real picture and know what they're supposed to do next is very, very important. Think steps or processes.  

So as I mentioned, demonstrating relationships is one of the ways we use them. Maybe it's bridging a gap. Yes, perfect there, Brian, staying alive. Another one bites the dust, but don't check that rhythm too closely. Demonstrating relationships, bridging gaps, fostering collaboration, really cultivating relationships, how do we do that when we demonstrate relationships using a story?  

How do we inspire engagement in terms of motivating personnel, participants in your training to the issue that needs to be accomplished, taken care of, successfully performed, whatever it may be. Third, selling an idea, that might be using a story to create a meaningful connection to sell that idea or to illustrate a concept, communicating a purpose, to show people the reason why we are required to meet a certain requirement or follow a procedure or achieve a certain standard.  

So a lot of times we do this through different techniques. One of them is visualization. So if you can show them pictures or visualize an example using mockups, simulations, relevant examples is really important. Provide them visualization and how you use that story to apply to the concept.  

Using different types of engaging techniques, find a way to relate the topic. Meaning it's going to be productive for you to follow this target authorization form in my previous example, so you can work in a safe environment. Think of being in a certain building that's got an HVAC system that's had some recent modifications done or had some maintenance issues, whatever that may be.  

Connections, how do we make connections that have tie-in that assures you and your colleagues, for example, are going to work safely? How do we use that in a story in terms of making sure everything's secure and locked out in the condition or the situation as required to perform work safely?  

Motivating, in terms of stimulating that thought process that to see the final result, I want to complete. For example, in my lockout tagout, we're going to do that walk down so you can work safely. And then lastly, reflection.  

You can provide that by giving them time to look back to see the overall relationship between the story and the subject matter and how it ties in. So we want to look back at a successful lockout, for example, and know that the working conditions were safe and the team and their coworkers could go to work safely. So really important to think about that when you're tying those in and how we use storytelling to relate—to demonstrating relationships or illustrating a contact or selling an idea, for example.  

So next, we have to look at the what, why, and how previously we're looking at the formula. Pretty general here in terms of a beginning, a middle, and an end. I know you can see the example that I presented on the bottom of the screen, but let me use my example just previously used in terms of that lockout tagout.  

If I had to have a beginning, a middle, and an end, I could say we were using a tagout authorization form that was created for the actual work location, we were to change out some rusty gate valves, for example, as a middle part of what we were doing, and then lastly, the walk in—or the actual walk down would verify that the—and ensure our safety. Everything was locked out, it was in the condition it was supposed to be in.  

So as I mentioned, a story needs to be specific to the instructional goals and mesh to the point where they understand that the convergence in learning and storytelling must be impactful if you have a beginning, a middle, and an end and you can tie it all in.  

So I like to attribute this to Julia here. There must be some type of method you have in place when you're giving a story and using it in training because you just can't, as she mentions, wing it. So practice is really important in terms of relativeness to the situation.  

So some of the must we talk about here, your story when you use it in training, have a place in your content that is relatable. It must add value. It must not be a distraction. And it must not take up time in the course that's unnecessary. So it must be relevant to the subject matter, applicable and relatable. And then it must be used appropriately to tie in whatever it is you're trying to convey in your message to meet your goals and objectives.  

So you must practice your material so it is taught the way it is supposed to be taught. And my colleague Shannon here who's in the session with us today, often reminds me of that. So it's taught the way it must be taught, and the story has the—must that we talked about in there being important, relevant, and relatable.  

Some of the advantages and disadvantages of training and using storytelling that I'll share with you briefly here—and I know you can see all these on the screen—but some of the advantages are attention. Can it grab the audience's attention, keep us focused on the content if you're using a story? Will it enhance the learning curve, for example, as it relates to the topic? In my previous example, steps in a process or procedures to follow.  

Will it maintain learner attention? Will it keep them focused further interest in the subject or the content where there—to the point where they want to know more? And then a couple of the disadvantages that you can see here on the screen, time consuming. You must always be alert for time considerations in your delivery. Is there a takeaway if it's not message in terms of how you set up your story, and then also how you deliver it?  

And then a few more, confuse the audience. Like I mentioned earlier, it has to be relatable. It has to apply to the concept, the requirements, the procedure, and certainly meet those objectives. And the emotional reaction for some of the audience, be careful when you use a story because it might have happened to them or maybe a loved one, especially when we're getting in the safety and security space.  

So right now I'm going to call on my colleagues. And Margie is going to control our breakout rooms. We're going to give you four or five minutes here. And we're going to allow you to go to a breakout room, and you're going to look at the information on the three sentences here in the screen.  

And breakout number one—breakout room number one, some of you are going to be going with Julia. And breakout room number two, some of you are going to be going with my colleague Shannon. And in breakout room number three, the rest of you will be going with me. You can see the information that's been provided to you on the screen. Executive order 14057 requires the federal government.  

You can read the information. FEMP.s Affect on the program provided 104 million in funding to 31 projects, as you can see. And the site is currently working to install solar panels and batteries. So what we want you to do here in this exercise, in your breakout room is work with your facilitator in that respective breakout room. And you can use all three of these to sell a short story, to have an outline, and deliver something that you would provide back to us in a debrief.  

Your short story should reflect a beginning, a middle, and an end and be relatable to the content you see there on the screen. I want to call on our colleague Julia and see if she has any additional comments before we go to this exercise.  

JULIA ROTONDO: Nope, just that we've got about 10 minutes left in our training, so it's probably going to be a very short little breakout. But the intent is to just give everyone—a couple people a chance to practice this really important aspect of FEMP training. And I think, Margie, you're going to have to push people to the rooms. Yep.  

MARJORIE "MARGIE" SPLATTSTOESSER: I'll go ahead and do that now.  

[Attendees move to their respective breakout rooms, then come back for the remainder of the webinar.] 

JULIA ROTONDO: I think we're all back. And Rick, you are muted again.  

GARRICK "RICK" REDDEN: Thank you, Julia. I really appreciate that. I flipped mine up, and I had a great breakout session. And one of our colleagues there, Tim, was providing some very good and relevant information in terms of the meaningfulness and overcoming a challenge, for example, in using storytelling or a challenge within the setting and the story at a specific site. So that was very good and I appreciate that.  

One of the things we like to do with breakout rooms—and especially hopefully you saw in this exercise and wish we had more time—how we use breakout rooms, how we could use them to collaborate amongst peers when we're talking maybe about technical aspects, maybe it's an HVAC system or something going on at a site, for example, with the solar panels.  

So hopefully you learned a few things about storytelling and actually doing this in a breakout session where you could hear from colleagues who have varied background experience and, certainly, expertise. Julia, do you want to add any comments?  

JULIA ROTONDO: Nope. I know that we've only got about three minutes and folks are really busy, so happy to just wrap this up so that we can keep everyone on schedule.  

GARRICK "RICK" REDDEN: I appreciate it, Julia. So we will. So as you can see here on the screens, methodology is important to engage and positively influence the training. Strategies must be timely and appeal to the subject. Disruptions, if you plan for them—remember, we'd have that disruption management plan and always having a plan B.  

And then relating instances or situations that making sure that they always add value to training. And as mentioned many times before, be organized, don't just wing it.  

So as Margie's put up there on the screen, ways we engage participants to positively influence training, strategies to manage any type of disruption, and how you can use storytelling to enhance your learning environment.  

Really appreciate your participation here today. I know there's a lot of information that Margie, Julia, and my colleague Shannon and I tried to share with you in 90 minutes but we appreciate you being here. So thanks, everyone. We greatly appreciate it. And I'll send it to Julia for any closing comments.  

JULIA ROTONDO: Appreciate everyone's time today. Please do take a minute to answer that Survey Monkey. And, please, do not hesitate to reach out to myself, Margie, Rick with any questions. We are hoping to do a few more of these in '25, so informed by your feedback, we certainly hope to continue making sure that we are sharing best practices in training and training development to help meet our stakeholder needs.  

JULIA ROTONDO: Thank you, Julia, and thank you, everyone. Appreciate the opportunity to spend time with you today.  

MARJORIE "MARGIE" SPLATTSTOESSER: Bye.