This is a confusing time. In generations past, efforts for the greater good of humanity were synonymous with hard work, sacrifice, and struggle. In these early days of our Corona crisis, we are being told to stay in our homes, Netflix and chill. This is hardly struggle, work, or sacrifice. It’s confusingly comfortable. I would feel better about all of this if I were pushing up my sleeves and wearing my bandanna on my head to go work in the factory with Rosie the Riveter. Instead, I’m pulling it over my face as I strangely enjoy the solo visits to the grocery store without my 5 year old.
Our industry is fraught with uncertainty. Many within our field have pioneered solutions before others of us could work through the emotional onslaught of what is happening. Big praise to them. I was inline with the former, quickly checking out online apps to make sure that I knew the technology. I’m fully situated to offer online sessions. However, I have also found myself completely on board with the latter, feeling like some days I would just like to sleep for the entire day.
This will end.
Who do you want to be when it does? This pause in the daily grind could be a blessing for you. Especially if you, like me, have great big picture ideas that never leave your brain because you’re also inundated with the responsibilities that come with running the studio or having a large book of clients. It’s the curse of being good at the work. Now is a great time to step back, get your ducks in a row, and take the time to do the big picture thinking that is necessary to bring your big ideas into the open air. I believe that there are thousands of instructors out there who have a wealth of insight to offer who just can’t get it out there because they are actually so busy doing the damn thing that they don’t have time to explain it to anyone else.
So, now is your time, Pilates bosses, to create the workshop that will add value to our industry. You can help others that haven’t the good fortune to have your learning experiences. To save some time, let me give you my process as a framework to write your own workshop.
RECIPE FOR A SOLID WORKSHOP
- Brain Dump: Before I set forth writing an outline, I do a good brain dump. On a single piece of paper or voice to texting into your notes app on your cell phone unleash all of your ideas, judgement free, onto the paper. None of it has to make sense. There are two kinds of dumps you can do to get started.
- General: Don’t know what you even want to present? Write down all the things that you wish instructors knew. Write down all the things that you think you know a lot about. Are there common mythologies that you hear your clients, staff or coworkers saying that you just wish you could educate out of them? What business mistakes do your colleagues make over and over? What major mistakes have you made and learned from?
- Specific: Make a document with every good, bad, or useless thought you have on the topic you would like to present. Go down every rabbit hole. Explore every possibility. Why is this idea unique or different? Or why does this idea strongly reinforce common knowledge?
- Organize Into an Outline
- Structure-There are a lot of structures in which you can organize your information. The most popular format in the Pilates Industry seems to be 1/3 of your time educate about the area in question usually largely anatomy and 2/3 of your time working through exercises that attend to that area. Karen Clippinger and Elizabeth Larkham usually teach this way. I’ve also been to a great workshops that lead with learning the exercise or activity from the first moment and pepper in the information when it is necessary to reinforce the why of choosing the exercise. Trent McEntire is very good at this. What kind of teacher are you? You don’t need to reinvent yourself to be a presenter. You will do your best if you put forth the most authentic version of yourself. Your teaching style will help you design the structure of your outline. Inform clearly and illuminate actively or move first, then explain. Your choice.
- Hierarchy of Learning- My sophomore year of high school I took Public Speaking with Douglas Springer, a legend in Speech and Debate circuit in Central Illinois. We thought he knew everything. I still to this day have the page where I wrote “Hierarchy of Learning” and the note “people only remember 2-3 things at a time.” In that class, we learned to write speeches from an outline and to pack no more than three major points into a speech. To this day, I can’t bring myself to break those rules. When writing an outline, I always try to stick to 2-3 major points, and to only subdivide these points into three or fewer categories. If I wind up with more than three subcategories, I question each one for it’s relevance or consider that maybe the tier above is too general and could be broken down into more specific points. This exercise helps me trim the fat from a presentation so that I don’t overwhelm. You don’t have to put everything you know into one workshop.
- Back Yourself Up-If you plan to apply to provide CEC’s, you are going to need sources for a bibliography. I know that you might think that you, like Joe, created your genius work out of thin air *, but most likely, you were influenced by something that you learned from somewhere. Don’t be worried that you will look like you are stealing from these sources. Almost every intellectual invention was built on the back of another. Unless, of course, you ARE just copying information and exercises straight out of other people’s materials, anything that backs up what you have to say will make you look better. I also look at my bibliography items as a recommended reading list. I can only say so much in the time frame I am with these people. I look for source material that will further support my message so that people who are excited about what I have to say will have somewhere else to go to geek out on the information.
In most cases, this is all you need to submit your idea to for approval for CEC’s. You will need to be able to nutshell some objectives and provide a brief description. You will also most likely need to upload a current resume or CV. One final step in the process remains and I recommend you complete this before you publish presentation dates. The temptation to give yourself time to develop your materials is too great. Complete your handout early, but give yourself permission to revise it.
FINAL STEP: Make Your Materials-I start with a written list of what I want my participants to walk away with and give them the printed tools to reinforce that. Visuals of exercises with clear descriptions and space to take notes always go over well. In my business workshops, if I want them to think about their own situations, I often add in questionnaires or worksheets to work through their own business with their own vision.
And voila! It’s not easy, but dive in and give it a try. I find writing a workshop to be exhilarating and exciting. It also really reinforces my knowledge to try and work through the information I’ve collected and turn it into something clear and digestible.
Need a sounding board for your ideas, let me know. Comment or shoot me an email.
Lisa Moves 