Firstly, here is my sharing about my name which I added to Lydia’s post last week

A story behind my name … very happy to share

My mother actually wanted to call me Chloe … I ended up “Linda” ?
Linda (in Spanish) means beautiful girl … very handy when I travelled through South America for 3 months!
Throughout my childhood I was called “lindy” by close family friends. Then when I was about 10 years old I decided I was “grown up” and wanted to be called by my “real name” … Linda. I got very stroppy with anyone who called me Lindy.
These days I love the fact that there are people who call me Lindy … it tells me they are the people who have loved me for a very long time ….

Now on to Bron’s question … what has changed in the past 6 weeks for me? Let me revisit what I wrote in week 1 …

Why am I here? to learn more about being an effective facilitator/trainer. To add skill and knowledge to the natural style I have used effectively in my own coaching business when running teleclasses. To create the potential opportunity to be a trainer @ ICA … an opportuntiy to give back to environment that gave me so much.

On reflection of the past 5 weeks I would say that all of these things have occured    So what has specifically changed for me? I would have to say I gained a deeper understanding of being an effective trainer. I have acquired a strong sense of “my style” of training and what makes it effective … also the confidence to trust “my style”.

It has been a pleasure to be connected so personally again with ICA

thanks

Linda

 This was an interesting class for me as I had just taught my ICA class 4 hours beforehand using my own interpretation of lesson plans.

What it helped me realise is that the format of the lesson plan is not as important as having a tool/structure that best supports you.  A lesson plan needs to provide the clarity and information you require.

A lesson plan needs a system as well as space for flexibility.

In response to questions posed by Karen …

The parts of a lesson plan that are important to me are: compentencies, key messages/learning, clear introduction, clear closure

Do I ever deviate from my lesson plan? Absolutely!

How do I know how & when? Is it a cop out to say intuition????  I deviate when I feel something really valuable has been put out in the class. Something that would be really valuable to explore further. Something that feels exciting for participants to follow.

 Linda

There are lots of things I take away from the experience and I’d like to share a few ….

* safe space (trainers compentency) – I had 6 people in the class and 3 of them had never been to a teleclass before. This was really exciting for me as I knew it would test my ability to create a safe space. I was mindful of specifically articulating what would happen in the class and invite participation. I reminder that there are no silly questions ot ideas … the sorts of things I needed to hear once upon a time when I was in their shoes

* Compentencies: having a short list of my compentencies proved to be a fantastic support tool for me. It supported the flexible flow of the class while ensuring I incorporated all compentencies in the class

* there was a great dynamic in the class. Lots of sharing, great questions and ideas. You would never guess we had “teleclass virgins” on board! I was so thrilled when one of them ended the class by expressin how great they felt about being at ICA after her first class. We had a lot of fun as well as had some very clear and focussed learning.

* Lesson Plan:  yes I ditched the formal template and went my own way. Thank you Sheri for supporting my choice and giving me permission to fly my own way. It was a great experience to trust in my choices and have them work.

* Listening: was a big part of my style. Respecting the input from everyone and reflecting it back to them. Knowing when to probe a little deeper and expand the learning.

Timing: I confess to being a punctuality freak so I was mindful of ending class on time. At about 7minutes to the hour I wrapped up the main class and gave the homewrok for the week. That then allowed a good 5 minutes for reflection and closure which was really important to me.

I just loved this experience. I got so much from being connected to the students and supporting their journey as coaches. I want to come back and play again

Linda

* timeliness

* neutral

* ask permission

* take responsibility

* give from the heart

* trust yourself

In all seriousness this was a thought provoking class in many ways for me.

Firstly, my hat off to Desiree and Joanne for a well thought out and implemented warm-up! Very inspiring …

4 Levels of Mastery – thank you Karen for sharing these .. I can see how useful they will be to my own journey of learning as well as my awareness of others learning when I am training. One thought I had during this dicussion was what a wonderful moment it is as a trainer when you observe someone move from “Concious Competence” to “Unconcious Competence” and they don’t even realise it happened

I am doing my teleclass before we next have TTT class – yikes! so am looking forward to applying the learning about competencies to my lesson plan. I will be sure to post what I come up with.

Another interesting thought for me today was around class dynamics. The balance between encouraging the quiter members of groups to participate and also respecting someone’s desire to simply listen. I was in a very quiet mood yesterday. I have a lot on my mind this week and felt mentally “FULL” … I was really happy to listen, absorb and learn from that space. I was happy that Karen did not actively call me to participate although I had not been contributing verbally. This made me think about my own responses as a trainer in working effectively with the different energy that people arrive with in any given week.

Those are my thoughts for the day … thank you for listening

Linda

This week I began the Train the Trainer program at ICA … training wheels are now on.

Lovely to be reconnected at ICA. I don’t know any of the other students which tells me how long I have been away. I am looking forward to getting to know them all over the next 5 weeks.

Reflections:

Why am I here? to learn more about being an effective facilitator/trainer. To add skill and knowledge to the natural style I have used effectively in my own coaching business when running teleclasses. To create the potential opportunity to be a trainer @ ICA … an opportuntiy to give back to environment that gave me so much.

How do I create a safe space? By being calm and welcoming. By establishing an understanding that we are all in the same boat and that we will all learn and grow from each others sharing. By being fully present. By being honest.

How do I become present before a class? I take time to reflect on notes from previous class to refresh my brain on where we were at. Reflect on any disucssion that has occured during the week. Time to ensure I have a clear intent for the class. and time to ensure my physical environment is calm and clear.

How would I provide space an opportunity for participation in my first teleclass? I specifically explain that I encourage sharing and what the benefit is. I would check if anyone was a “teleclass virgin” so that I could explain how to particpate and make them feel welcomed. Throughout the class I would actively invite participation … either in a discussion, role play, Q&A … whatever seemed to be needed. I may invite a specific person to participate if I felt they needed a little prodding to take the first step … they always have the right to decline.  I would always thank people for their input.

those are my thoughts for the week … thanks for listening …

Linda