How the best facilitators design professional development

Pop quiz! Which is the correct answer? 
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A: Repetition is your friend when planning meetings or PD sessions. It allows participants to direct their energies toward engaging with the content instead of anticipating what comes next. 

B: Variety is your friend when planning meetings or PD sessions. It increases engagement and prevents things from feeling stale. 

C. Both of the above

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Did you choose C? If so, you would be correct. 

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A skilled facilitator blends repetition and variety into their design. 

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When my team comes together for a meeting or PD, there are things they can always count on. We always have time to transition, set and share intentions, and reflect on what we learned about ourselves and the organization. 

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When my team comes together for a meeting or PD, there are normally one or two new things or things we haven’t done in a while. Anticipatory gratitude is one such activity I utilized recently and invite you to try it out.  

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How to incorporate anticipatory gratitude in your next PD agenda:

• Look at the agenda and consider what we’re going to cover today
• Determine one thing that you want to appreciate about yourself by the end of the meeting. Consider the 3Bs: your behaviors, beliefs, and ways of being 
• Identify a team norm that will be supportive to make that a reality 
  
  • If you don’t have strong team norms, this will help 
• Write down your anticipatory appreciation for yourself somewhere you can see it 
  
  • If in a shared space, consider using Post-its and having everyone place them somewhere 
• End the meeting with a reflection 
  
  • What did you appreciate about yourself?
  • How did having anticipatory gratitude impact your experience? 

This one activity…

• Creates agency
• Harnesses intentionality 
• Builds appreciation 

…those are big wins with very little investment! 

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Keep Learning:

• Subscribe to my Weekly Wisdom Newsletter to get content like this sent straight to your inbox
• If you want to learn more about designing and facilitating PD where participants feel seen, cared for, challenged, and excited to learn The PD Workshop is for you
• If you want to confidently lead a thriving, resilient, learning team that gets stuff done The Art of Coaching Teams Workshop is your next step 
• Check out my free What Why How Agenda before planning your next PD

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