Standing in front of a crowd can be daunting for some, but with the help of PrepJam it is easy for everybody to lead an engaging and interactive exercise. To help you on your way we combined best practices as advised by our most experienced trainers.
Breaking the ice
It always helps to get introduced or to introduce yourself. A good way to immediately focus on the purpose of why we are here is to start pointing out the emergency exits. Continue to explain the goal of today why we exercise, because things can go wrong and we want to be prepared and know how to manage the situation.
Joining the exercise
To give the participants in the exercise the best experience, they will have to register themselves.
Show the QR code on screen for people to scan and join. Depending on the requirements you set the registration can request the participant to complete their name and/or phone number.
Some people in the audience might be skeptic to share their information, so it is important to explain this information will only be used for creating an interactive experience.
After the session their personal data will be deleted. We have done a thorough review how we manage personal data together with the Norwegian Data Protection Authority, with very positive outcomes. Read more about that here, in Norwegian only. This can be explained while people are registering. But it is also possible to prepare another story to bridge the registration time, e.g. about the inspiration for creating the specific scenario for the exercise.
Inform everybody as well that the QR-code to join the session will appear on the top of the screen throughout the session. If someone would like to join during the session, they are able to scan the code from someone next to them.
Starting the exercise
With most of the audience having signed up, you are now ready to start the exercise.
It is recommended to rehearse the exercise to be prepared when delivering the story, because the exercise is in fact an interactive story telling experience.
Start by bringing everybody into the setting of the story. Avoid using too many slides on this. Instead engage the participants by asking an easy question to which they can respond from their device. Preferably this question has no right or wrong answer, but it serves to get people used to answering and interacting with the exercise through their phone or device.
Like in above example ask something easy to answer. Or ask a question about what is their role within their organization, e.g. IT, Finance, HR, Sales, etc. This creates the opportunity to talk about the crowd and why it is good to have a large diversity or to have many with the same responsibility.
If you have done this exercise before and asked the same question, it is also possible to reflect on this. Use the possibility to highlight similarities or differences from the different exercises if this is relevant for your exercise.
When closing the question, the results will show in a pie chart.
During the exercise
Free Text Answer
Questions where the participants can write their own thoughts, it is important to highlight all answers are anonymous.
Follow the number of participants answering to know when to proceed with the exercise. Remember that you are in control of when to move on to the results and you have the ability to close for answers at any time.
With the sounds enabled you will hear the heartbeat sound while participants are answering. This creates an extra element of stress. This stress level can also be created with showing the timer or countdown to indicate how long time participants have to submit their answer.
Once the answers show on screen, read out some that are of interest and try to summarize some recurring answers. This is also an excellent opportunity to have the participants discuss based on new insights. It is possible to have some people explain what they have discussed in their group.
Tip: if you join the exercise yourself it is possible to write in a provoking or funny answer as well to trigger a reaction from the participants.
Phone call & SMS
Participants receiving a phone call and/or an sms always creates good engagement and excitement in the room.
Not everybody is very keen on answering the phone when an unknown number is trying to reach them. When you know a call will be initiated it is recommended to inform the audience that it is safe to answer.
It is also possible to play the phone call on screen, so that participants who did not listen to the call have the possibility to know what was said. It can also be an idea for one participant to recite the message.
Note that in large groups the phone call and SMS will not happen at the same time as this is being processed in batches of 50 users.
Decision
The decision question is used to give direction to our story.
Though the story might be the same regardless of the choice we made, we have the opportunity to give at least the appearance that the choice impacts the story. Wait for enough participants to answer, close the question and show the result.
Use this also as an opportunity to discuss the result and the way to go forward. Then you as facilitator have to choose an option and continue the story.
Wheel of Misfortune
This is a random path generator. Use this to show how we are not always in control of things that are happening. But it is also a good option to give closure to an exercise.
Reflect and summarize
Reflect every now and then on what we know. While our story is being interrupted by questions and discussions, it will help the participants to frequently get a reminder on what we know, where we stand and what we have to do. This short status update does not need to be long, just to ensure everybody in on the same page.
Final words
Congratulate everybody on their achievement and inform about the diploma if applicable.
After the final slide of the scenario the screen, both presenter screen as well as what participants see on their device, will be filled with confetti.
The scenario is now completed and time can be used to reflect on the exercise. Participants can give feedback on the exercise. And if diploma's are enabled, you can inform participants this can be downloaded from their current screen and store it or share it on e.g. social media. If participants registered their phone number, they will receive an SMS with the link to the diploma as well (valid for 30 days).