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When I launched the Transformative Trainers Academy one year ago this month (squee!) It was a dream come true.
I’ve collected close to 40 years of tools, trials, tribulations, celebrations, not to mention I’ve created tools, frameworks, worksheets in the thousands, and I wanted to share them.
I decided to work with change makers who were accidental, reluctant, and/or plateaued trainers. People who wouldn’t necessarily define themselves as trainers but who’d been thrown into the ring, so to speak.
And members heeded the call.
Once a month for the past year, we’ve been gathering the gorgeous, global group to dig into the Master Classes and Learning Labs.
BTW, a bit of vocab
- Learning Labs are topics that members suggest, based on their specific needs.
- Master Classes are workshops that I teach on anything to do with designing and delivering great workshops
The topics we’ve covered aren’t really my list. They’re yours. So for this third post in our anniversary series, I want to hand you the highlight reel and let you pick what resonates.
Here’s a peek into what unfolded….
Success Path
We opened in September with a two-part question: out of everything you could learn about designing and delivering a workshop, what’s actually your priority right now, and how do you find the resources for exactly that, without drowning in a hundred tabs of half-finished research?
Learning how to design and deliver workshops that wow can be overwhelming and a tad scary, so for a Master Class early on, I demoed my Success Path – a tool that easily points out what your priorities and needs are and how to access learning tools specifically for those needs.
Sharing my S.A.K.E. tool.
By November, we were deep into inclusive workshop design, and S.A.K.E. became the tool members still reference most. It’s a simple way to check that a workshop design actually works for the range of people sitting in the room, not just the version of “the room” you pictured while planning it.
How not to F.R.U.S.trate your learners
This became our flagship series, stretched across five months because there was that much to say.
- F is for learning design techniques for helping people Find your content in the first place.
- R is for tools to help participants actually Remember that precious content of yours.
- U is for Use, getting people to actually apply what they learned once the workshop ends.
- S is for Share, helping your content travel past the people in the original room.
Creating learning that changes behaviour
Based on a member request, in July we moved from “did they learn it” to “did it stick,” with tools for closing the gap between a workshop that gets nodded along to and one that actually shifts how someone works on Monday morning.
Trauma-informed training
In August, tips and techniques for making sure the room itself, not just the content, is a safe place to learn, and why that matters even when your subject has nothing to do with trauma on the surface. We covered why it’s critical to practice trauma-informed training for any and every workshop topic (because unfortunately, on average, 70% of learners have experienced trauma, source: WHO).
Ten tools for celebrating your learners
Which brings us to this month, our anniversary Master Class, all about helping the people in your workshops feel celebrated, included, and able to genuinely collaborate. Fitting, since celebrating is exactly what this whole series is about.
And that’s just the Master Classes.
The monthly Learning Labs ran alongside all of it, tackling the questions directly from members, including:
- measuring impact,
- keeping a room’s attention when it starts to drift,
- psychological well-being,
- intergenerational learning,
- teaching in genuinely tough times,
- vulnerability as both a topic and a workshop design challenge,
- getting continuous feedback instead of waiting for the post-workshop survey nobody fills out, and
- learning platforms that aim for real transformation instead of just knowledge dumps.
Here’s an example of a Learning Lab
A member named Chibesa mentioned she was interested in learning how to divide participants into small groups. So just this month we did a Learning Lab on how to do precisely that, including in-person and online techniques. Because every moment is a chance to delight, engage, teach, learn, and more. Everything is up for grabs, including monkey butts (true story: I use little plastic monkeys as a tool to divide groups).
Ét voila! No more boring counting off by 1, 2, 3s!
Twelve Master Classes. Twelve Learning Labs.
What a joy and privilege it’s been. It’s truly been a dream come true to work with change makers and game changers.
I cannot wait to see what the next year has in store for the Transformative Trainers Academy.
Enter to win a 1:1 call with me
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Take Action Now – go on and learn, laugh, and lead
Learn
- Scroll back up and pick the one Master Class or Learning Lab topic you’d have shown up for live. Then hit reply and tell me why (details above).
Laugh
- I made a fun, quirky video to celebrate our anniversary!
Lead
- If reading this list left you thinking, “I wish I’d been in the room for that,” here’s the good news: every single one of these Master Classes and Learning Labs is sitting inside the Transformative Trainers Academy right now, recordings and all, waiting for you. A year’s worth of exactly this. Come see what’s inside →
- Special offer! Join before October 6th, when I announce the winner of the 1:1 with me, and you’ll get one additional month of TTA membership for free!
P.S.
- If a year’s worth of Master Classes and Learning Labs like these sounds like exactly what you’ve been missing, doors are open right now. Come join a room full of experts closing the gap between what they know and how they teach it. Join the Transformative Trainers Academy →
Since 2009, I’ve been writing weekly posts across five topics. Click into whichever one makes you lean forward just now … you’ll find everything I’ve written on that topic waiting for you there.
- Working Better Together – communication, conflict, creativity, collaboration, change. The so-called soft skills that turn out to be the hardest ones.
- Learning and Development – practical tools and fresh thinking for your own growth … because you deserve the same attention you give everyone else.
- Training of Trainers – if you’ve ever been asked to teach, train, or share your expertise with a group, this one’s for you.
- Tech Tools – not the scary kind, I promise. The kind that saves time, cuts overwhelm, and makes you look and feel like a rockstar.
- Life Lenses® – because the lens you look through changes everything. Posts on perspective, perception, and the Life Lenses® framework for understanding why we all see things so differently.
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