One of the most important roles of the training and development practitioner is to present effective presentations. This may involve lecturing (direct presentation), discussion (interactive presentation), and experiential presentation methods which require active participation. This paper synthesizes and reports the views of several authors who have written articles on ways to prepare and deliver effective group presentations.
It is important at the very beginning of a training session to elicit the participants' reasons for being there. What do they hope to learn? Gloria Pearlstein (1983, p. 15) found, much to her surprise, that employees may attend training groups for reasons other than the purpose of the meeting. This information needs to come out right away, or the training session will "blow up". She cites various "blow up" examples. One woman had been instructed by her boss to get an answer to a complicated policy question and to not "come back to work until I got the answer" (Pearlstein, 1983, p. 15). The training session was not geared to the topic of the woman's question, but it did not deter her from continuously asking questions that were off the subject of the seminar.
Creative icebreakers set a comfortable climate for a class. Corrine Brue (1985, pp. 79-81) describes several types of icebreakers that start the process of warming up a group. If you could take a bath in something other than water, what would you choose? If the government prepares a time capsule, what personal possessions would you wish to include? As a child, what favorite toy was so special that you still can describe it in vivid detail? These questions are effective starters for mini-conversations between pairs of class members who then introduce their partner to the group.
Icebreakers establish a non-threatening learning environment where the participants feel safe to express their feelings, thoughts, and ideas. Icebreakers prov...