Hello friends,
Greetings from Barcelona☀️ where I am sending love to friends and colleagues in India affected by COVID and hoping that every person will soon have access to vaccines regardless of where they live.
Many thanks for your feedback on the last edition of The Quest. A special shout out to Jen in Chicago, Silvia in Rio, Mamen in Barcelona, Connie, Joan and Liane in Toronto, and Michaele and Barry in Bracebridge 🙌.
If you are joining The Quest for the first time, welcome to our weekly exploration of creativity, facilitation, and learning.
You can catch up on last week’s edition on 🔥How to Boost Participation and all past editions here.
This week we are exploring the keys to great experience design 🔎
👉 What is learning experience design?
👉 3 keys to virtual connection
👉 6 core elements for designing sessions
👉 Plus your invitation to 3 free live events in May
Let’s dive right in.
“I don’t teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.”
Can you guess who said that?
It was Albert Einstein.
He suffered through an early education that was focused on discipline and learning by rote. For Einstein, sparking a “lively interest” in learning was a fundamental part of his role as an educator.
The same principle applies to engaging participants online. At this point spending this much time online has become a superpower that we wish we didn’t have. Our tolerance for wasting boring time online has hit rock-bottom.
The skills of being able to design meaningful online experiences have never been so critical. That’s why the most seasoned facilitators, teachers, and course leaders don’t just deliver content. They know that the key to powerful online sessions starts with sound experience design.
What is experience design?
A common definition of experience design in the world of product and web design goes something like this:
Experience design is an approach that centers on people’s experiences to drive the design and features of your products. It draws on users’ needs, feeling, contexts, and mindsets to design experiences that center on them. Clockwork.com
In learning, experience design is the art of creating engaging, meaningful, and transformational experiences for your participants.
What are the keys to really solid experience design for online sessions?
That is our Quest for this week.
🔑3 Keys to Virtual Connection
A new TED talk by facilitator and experience designer Jenny Sauer-Klein. Sauer-Klein is the founder of Scaling Intimacy. She’s an expert in designing experiences where people can connect in meaningful ways.
Her number 1 tip? Prioritize connection over content.
In this 8-minute video, Sauer-Klien shares 3 keys to designing powerful online experiences:
Connect early. The beginning sets the tone.
Connect often. Connection should be a thread throughout the event.
Gradually increase vulnerability. Ease people into opening up.
Watch her 8-minute TED Talk here:
🎯6 Core Elements for Session Design
I love a good toolkit. There are a lot of toolkits out there. But using activities without having a solid design for your session is like trying to grow apples without the tree.
Through learning from others, and a lot of trial and error, there are 6 core elements that have become the backbone of every session I lead. These elements build interaction and connection right into the design. I start with these elements and then I fill in the session aims, activities, and content pieces.
Here they are, summed up in one Tweet:
How do you design your sessions?
📅 You’re Invited! 3 Free Live Events Coming Up
Catalysing Change Week, May 3-7
What? A 5-day event with 100+ sessions where social innovators share their systems change work.
When? May 3-7. Join the 90-minute Activating Your Facilitation Superpowers session with Debbi Brock and Brendon Johnson on Wednesday, May 5th @ 6 pm CEST.
How do I join? Click on this link for more information and to join.
The Quest Icebreaker Platform Demo, May 14
What? The Quest’s very first live event! A small group of friends from The Quest will be doing a 30-minute demo of the Icebreaker platform, a software that helps people connect.
When: Friday, May 14 @ 8am PDT/ 11am EDT / 4pm BST / 5pm CEST
How do I join? Click on this link at the time of the event.
Breakthrough Facilitation: Tips for Course Creators, May 21
What? A 30-minute demo session of a new course I’m developing through the On Deck Course Creator Fellowship.
When: Friday, May 21 @ 7:30am PDT/ 10:30am EDT / 3:30pm BST / 4:30pm CEST
How do I join? Click here to register.
💌Thanks for reading The Quest
I always love hearing your feedback and suggestions. Leave a comment below👇or hit reply to share your thoughts and ideas. Visit my website for ways we can work together here.
If you are enjoying The Quest, I’d appreciate it if you shared it with anyone you think might like it.
Until next week!
P.S. I loved hearing your comments on my new Creativity Kickstarter e-book. If you haven’t seen it yet you can download it for free here💥.
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