Galactic Activity 30

Teach a skill, concept or understanding. The emphasis should be on a soft skill, not a practical demonstration.

Activity 30 – Teach us

Duration: 4 – 8 mins
Applicable Streams: Education, Personal challenge, Learning & Development, Workplace skills, Technical, Inspiration/Motivation, Humour

Aim

In this activity you are aiming to:

Teach us something useful

Objectives

To do this, you will need to keep the following objectives in mind:

Choose a soft skill that you have expertise in.
Present the reasons why this is a useful skill to have and how it can help you.
Explain the theory, and demonstrate the skill in a roleplay or similar
Allow time for the participants to ask questions or practise the skill.

The Why…

Professional development is a mandatory part of most workplaces – and this activity gives you the chance to get experience being in the trainer’s chair, whilst having a friendly cohort to work with.

The aim here is to deliver a presentation or a workshop that teaches us something we can use in our everyday lives – strategies or top tips that you have some expertise in, that other Rostrum members don’t.

This activity is challenging you to teach a ‘soft skill’ rather than a practical, hands on skill like the other Galactic activities: Activity 20 (In depth workshop on speaking or meeting skills) and Activity 29 (Practical Demonstration).

Where do I start?

Choose a skill that you’re familiar with and happy to share with others. You may wish to poll the group with a range of options to find out which skills would be most useful for the group – there’s no point teaching chefs how to fry eggs!

The How

Specific guidelines on how to tackle this activity.

Here are some ideas for soft skills you could teach if you have expertise in these areas:

Communicating with difficult people
Networking
Dealing with awkward situations
Working a room
Starting a conversation
Getting out of a tricky conversation
Recognising the signs of a heart attack
What to look for when buying a car
Working out whether your real estate agent is shonky
Dealing with scam phone calls

Much like the other Galactic activities that are focused on teaching others a skill, try to stick to the best practice structure of:

Showing why and how the audience can benefit from learning this soft skill (show a before and after type example so they can see for themselves what they’ll be saved from if they learn this skill).
Explaining the theory is one thing, but demonstrating the task is another. Make sure your demonstrations give clear examples of what to do, and also what NOT to do. Seeing a ‘bad’ example is sometimes more helpful than seeing the ‘right’ example. Roleplays are a great way to show soft skills in action.
Give the audience a chance to ask questions or try for themselves, depending on what’s appropriate for the soft skill you’re teaching.

Variations:

Present as part of a team and balance the presentation between you. This is much more challenging than simply presenting by yourself.
CHALLENGE! Teaching friendly people is one thing – teaching people with challenging behaviours is another! If you want a challenge, ask the Program Director to ‘plant’ some challenging behaviours in the ‘classroom’ that you need to deal with while you’re teaching.

Tips and traps

TRAPS:

Teaching something too complex or complicated for the time allocated.
Not demonstrating enough, and just relying on explanations and the theory behind the skill.

TIPS:

Choose a skill that is teachable in the time that you’ve been allocated.
Try it out on friends or family to make sure it’s doable in the time you’re given.
Demonstrate demonstrate demonstrate – you can’t demonstrate enough! Make sure you cover off on what to do AND what not to do – sometimes this is equally if not more important than showing them the right way to do it!
Questions from the audience are key! That’s where the real learning happens so make sure you leave time for questions, and time to address them properly.