IAmRemarkable Facilitator Guide: Learnings from 75 sessions.

When I started out as an IAmRemarkable (IAR) facilitator in 2019, I conducted one of my very first sessions in the lawns of India Gate, New Delhi, India.

I remember how nervous I was. I had so many questions in my mind and I hoped someone gave me the answers to them.

Now that I have conducted 75 sessions of IAR, I have curated a list of questions that a new facilitator might have.

I have tried my best to answer from my experience. Hope you find it helpful.

Happy reading!

Table of content

Checklist before your first story

Questions

Content and preparation

1. What is the objective of the session?
2. How should I prepare?
3. What concepts should I know before my first session?

Delivery and engagement

1. What should be the flow like?
2. How can I develop confidence in delivery?
3. How will I know I achieved the objective?

Audience related questions

1. Who are the different kinds of audience?
2. What if they are not responding at all?
3. What if they ask very difficult questions which I can’t answer?

Checklist before your first session

1. Have personal stories and examples for almost all slides.
2. Decide what kind of open-ended and closed ended questions you will ask to drive audience engagement.
3. Have a basic to good understanding of the terms: under-represented groups, self promotion, biases, stereotypes, inclusion.
4. Do one trial run with yourself.

Questions

Content and preparation

Question: What is the objective of the session?

Answer: The objective of the session is to make the audience think and realize why self promotion (especially for underrepresented groups) and working on removing our biases are important. The session is not entirely educational, it focuses on reflection majorly.

IAmRemarkable is trying to bring about a change of mindset when it comes to self promotion and biases. Mindset changes happen when the audience is an active part of the discussion and reflect on/question their own thoughts and beliefs. Hence, aim for discussion driven by personal stories and experiences over just covering the theory.

Question: How should I prepare?

Answer: Go through the resources shared over email. Research on the internet. But going through the shared resources thoroughly is the first necessary step.

Question: What concepts should I know before my first session?

Answer: Start with very basic understanding of these terms. The first few sessions helps in getting a hang of the flow and gain confidence. With more sessions under your belt, you can gradually gain deeper understanding of these terms:

1. Underrepresented groups: Different examples
2. Intersectionality
3. Self promotion: Why, What, How
4. Biases and their impact at work
5. Difference between Diversity and Inclusion
6. Psychological Safety

Try avoiding including any new terms/concepts which are beyond the ones mentioned in the resources. The only reason: to not overwhelm the audience. The slide itself has many new concepts.

Question: Why are stories and anecdotes so important?

Answer: IAmRemarkable’s is trying to bring about a change of mindset when it comes to self promotion and biases.

Mindsets change when people feel their ways of life (driven by their current mindsets) are not adequate or limiting or when they understand the benefits of doing something different.

Just logic alone won’t make the cut; if it did, folks would be exercising daily because so many research studies have proven the importance of exercising.

Humans are emotional beings and most of our decisions are driven by emotions.

We have to feel the emotion of loss/gain/profit/happiness/sadness to make that change happen.

Stories and anecdotes trigger those emotions. Hence, we have to elicit stories from people and also share our own stories of self promotion, being impacted by biases, overcoming biases, feeling safe and productive in an inclusive environment.

Sharing our stories are important, but making the audience think and share their stories are even more important. Humans learn and apply their learnings more eagerly and confidently when they are an active part of the session. Hence, making the audience speak is integral to the success of IAmRemarkable’s objectives. So, encourage the audience to share their stories and experiences as well.

Delivery and engagement

Question: What should be the flow like?

Answer: You can decide any kind of flow depending on how you want to drive the session. Create a flow, experiment with it, and then adapt it based on feedback.

Just ensure, irrespective of the flow you decide for yourself, you are delivering the following:

1. Have an icebreaker in the beginning
2. You are a facilitator, not a trainer. Which means, you are not expected to educate the audience, but guide them to find their own answers, have their own epiphanies during the session, come to their own conclusions, and decide how IAmRemarkable is relevant to them. Give ample opportunities for people to share their stories, and spaces for them to reflect. Share your story to break the ice, if audience is reluctant OR when their stories are not relevant to the objectives of IAmRemarkable.
3. Always wait for a few seconds for audience to share their responses and acknowledge their responses. If someone is not able to acknowledge the importance of self-promotion and prevalence/impact of biases, ask questions to make them reflect on their own understanding. Ultimately, people who come to their own realizations take away lessons which they will implement. Just sharing our insights doesn’t ensure stickiness and learning.
4. Clearly defining terms like under-represented groups, self promotion, biases, stereotypes, inclusion before using them for the first time.
5. Ensure to the audience that your session is a psychologically safe space and you will be listening to all their experiences/stories with no judgment and only empathy

Question: How can I develop confidence in delivery?

Answer: Each IAmRemarkable session is different. So, the more sessions you conduct, the more confident you will become.

But for your first few sessions, start small.

Your personal goal of the first few sessions is to get comfortable with the flow you decide for yourself and also get comfortable in engaging the audience. While doing so, if you have delivered the program goals as well - Congratulations on the great job!

You can gradually evolve the complexity of the questions and discussions you will drive.

Question: How will I know I achieved the objective?

Answer: I believe, IAmRemarkable’s objective is met when at least one of the following things happen:

1. If the audience understands the importance of self promotion and resolves to try self-promotion more than before
2. If they reflect on a bias(es) they have encountered or a bias(es) they might have had

One or more of the following things show that the objectives were met. Please remember, the sessions can vary a lot depending on the audience. Evaluate the effectiveness based on the context of your workshop:

1. If the audience interacts well to your questions by unmuting and sharing, through chat, through thumbs up
2. If the audience stays almost the entire duration, with very few dropouts in case of virtual session.
3. Active participation in the IAmRemarkable activity
4. If they ask questions which show they are actively thinking about how to self promote and overcome the biases

If it is a virtual session, it could get difficult at times to assess how engaged the audience is. Because of which, we are all the more required to ask questions and encourage active participation. These are important data points for facilitators to continue their approach or alter it as required during runtime.

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Audience related questions

Question: Who are the different kinds of audience?

Answer:

Audience bring the entire session to life. Knowing how to bring their best out by engaging them and bringing them back to track if they digress is crucial.

At times, some audience members need to be handled uniquely. Sharing some insights from experience.

1. Overly eager ones: They bring a lot of energy, but it can affect the time management of the session. If they are taking a lot of time while sharing their stories and experiences, then don’t hesitate to cut in politely and summarize their responses quickly, then share your responses and move ahead. Tell them you see a lot of scope for discussion here, but keeping the time in mind, you will connect with them offline to discuss further.
2. Silent ones: Shared below
3. Audience who are resistant to your ideas: You could find someone who denies that biases exist or deny the importance of self promotion. Tell them that you are glad they didn’t have to face the biases or didn’t struggle with self promotion, yet at the same time there are people who could have. And then shift your focus to those who have challenges and get responses/stories from that segment. If the resistant audience is still persisting, then tell them you can discuss offline with them, since you have limited time to cover the agenda.

Do not be intimidated. If you don’t know something, admit it. And don’t give control to any kind of audience member. You are the facilitator and you must be driving the conversation to help, at least initiate, a mindset shift.

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Question: What if they are not responding at all?

Answer: It is possible at times. When the audience is shy/hesitant, it doesn’t reflect on your ability as a facilitator. You can try these things:

1. Reiterate it is a safe space and that speaking up is also a type of self promotion (that is making yourself visible). Since it is a safe space, they should break their hesitation and participate here
2. Have some stock statements that you will use to motivate and encourage people to talk when they are silent
3. Wait for up to 12-15 seconds for audience to think and respond. Try to encourage up to 2-3 times before you share your story. The idea is – if, at least, they listen to your stories, it might spark some thoughts for the audience and they might take away something from the session. Planting an idea/question in the audience's minds is also a victory for a facilitator.

Question: What if they ask very difficult questions which I can’t answer?

Answer: View such questions as learning opportunities which will polish you as an IAmRemarkable facilitator.

1. Rephrase the question and ask for confirmation. It will give you time to think and also confirm that your understanding is correct
2. If you still don’t know how to proceed, then open the question to the audience and ask if anyone has experienced it and then share the response
3. If nothing works, try to answer from your current understanding. Tell you will try to gather more insights after the session and share with them later

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