Training emergencies happen to every trainer. These stories and solutions are designed to help you manage those situations as they happen.
These training emergencies happened to me while on the road training.
- Projector Fail: Among training emergencies this used to be the most common. Projectors are more reliable now but it is dangerous to base your entire training session on the use of the projector.
- Invalid Password: If you’re using a computer that isn’t your own and it has a password, make sure you can log in when it goes to sleep!
- Training Emergencies Kit: Every trainer needs an emergency kit that helps manage training emergencies.
Technology Failure 1: Projector Fail (or Missing)
In a workshop I was scheduled to deliver I ran into some technical issues:
- I inexplicably designed a presentation that depended a little too much on PowerPoint
- It included visual aids designed to make a visceral impact on the audience
- It also included a series of embedded PollEverywhere questions so the entire audience could see where their fellow participants stood on a variety of issues
- The facility’s entire A/V staff couldn’t get the ceiling-mounted projector to work
What Other Presenters Would Have Done
Add a “What If” section to a presentation plan
I asked what others would have done under similar circumstances and I received some great responses. One person suggested having a “What If…” column for contingencies on my actual lesson plan (ie: What if the projector doesn’t work? What if one activity takes more time than anticipated?). After receiving that suggestion, I spoke with a colleague and we may end up adjusting our lesson plan format to include a What If column in the future.
Post Materials Online for Others to Access on their own Mobile Devices
Another person suggested that if creating a visceral reaction using visual aids was so important that perhaps it would be a good idea to have those images posted online and I could have given people the URL. While not ideal, it would still allow people an opportunity to see (and feel) what I wanted them to see (and feel).
Voting the Old-fashioned Way
If I wanted everyone to voice their opinion about several concepts from the session, having people vote by standing up when their preferred choice was called out would be one way for everyone to see the results of the vote. Another way would have been to hang flipchart around the room with A, B, C or D written on them and have people stand next to their preferred choice. Both of these options could have been quite handy after lunch.
What I Was Preparing To Do
I have a Lenovo Thinkpad whose monitor can pop off and thus turn itself into a tablet. I was planning to simply pass my laptop monitor around the room in order to show people an image of what you could see if you were cornea blind. It would have taken a while for my monitor to circulate around the room, but my audience was small enough where this might have worked.
When it came to voting, there was no flipchart in the room and I was preparing simply to have people raise their hands in order to indicate their choices on the various polls I was planning to conduct.
I didn’t love either contingency (and I kind of wished I had crowdsourced ideas while I was waiting for the A/V team to tinker with the system because the comments from Monday’s blog post were much more creative than I was coming up with in the moment!).
What I Did When the Projector Failed
The A/V team seemed pretty committed to making their ceiling-mounted system function, regardless of how long it took. I imagine it was a pricy system to install and it seemed new and the A/V people seemed one part frustrated, one part embarrassed that the system wasn’t working.
I pulled one A/V tech aside and asked if they happened to have an extra projector laying around that could simply be placed on a table in the middle of the room and connected to my computer. Thankfully they did. I was able to use my visual aids. I got the reaction I was hoping for when I showed the difference between what a corneal blind person would see compared with what a person with no vision problems would see. Participants seemed quite interested and engaged when the PollEverywhere slides came up. Many said they had not seen PollEverywhere used in a workshop before.
I’m sure I’ll continue to be over-reliant on technology in future presentations. For some reason, the temptation to continue to try new technologies and incorporate features that I think will make a better learning experience (via technology) is just too great for me.
That said, come back Monday and I’ll share a low-tech activity that can be used as an icebreaker or a closing activity and will dazzle your audience by seeming to defy the laws of logic.
Technology Failure 2: Invalid Password
I asked some colleagues how they would respond to this tech failure scenario to help me prepare for future training emergencies.
The Scenario
“I had been asked to deliver a 30-minute lecture on the anatomy of the eye and I was concerned about two things:
1) How on Earth would I fill up a 30-minute block of time on this subject?
2) How on Earth am I supposed to present on this topic when there will be eye surgeons in the audience? They’ve forgotten more about the eye than I could ever teach.
I put together a slide deck and I rehearsed my session. I probably delivered this session in front of the mirror about 10 or 15 times before I had to take the stage. Not wanting to read the text on the slides verbatim, I wrote out a script for each slide on a piece of paper. If I got lost (or if I was hit with a sudden bout of stage fright), my plan was to simply refer to this paper in order to get back on track. It was written in the way that I talk, so if I had to read it, I was hoping it would at least sound natural.
The moment of truth arrived. The session moderator introduced me. I took the podium.
The Moment Technology Fails
The computer on which my slides were loaded had “gone to sleep”, but I had the password to log back into the computer. I entered the login and the computer told me: “Invalid password.”
I entered the password again, and I got the same message. I was starting to see a disturbing trend. Technical staff from the conference rushed the stage. Everyone was trying to figure the problem out. Nobody was having success. I grabbed my own computer which also had the PowerPoint file. I entered my login.
Invalid password!
The session moderator announced a 15-minute break. After more fiddling and anxious moments, we were able to bring up my PowerPoint slides. The break ended.
Thrown off by the technical difficulties, I referred to my script to get started. I found that I couldn’t look away! The script was like a beautiful siren, singing me a song as I navigated the treacherous oceans of the presentation.
Twenty minutes later I was done. I had read my script verbatim from start to finish.
Not my finest (one-third of an) hour.
Expert Advice on Dealing with Technology Fails
Below, two experienced learning and development professionals offer their insights. What would you say? Use the comments section below to share your own thoughts about what to do the next time an SME finds themselves in a similar situation.
Priscilla Shumway, Senior National Trainer, The Bob Pike Group
First: Start with humor: Ask the audience: How many of you have ever experienced technical problems such as this? Anyone care to share a quick episode? (Do this while the techies are trying to fix it.)
Second: Explain that the purpose of the session is to review the anatomy of the eye and that you’d like to honor the experience and knowledge in the room. Ask the audience to turn to the person next to them and come up with their top three facts that they would present if they were up on stage. This would buy time and involve your audience while the technical issues are addressed.
Take comments from 4 or 5 pairs. If the technical problems are not fixed at that point, take a 115-minute break. Once your slides are back up and running you can go through the slides and recapture what the audience said, using names of audience members who stated that fact. For example: “As Dr. Morris stated, here is…”
Third: End with humor. “Thank you all for making my presentation even more stellar than it would have been if all the technology had been working!”
Michelle Baker, Founder & Strategist, Phase(Two)Learning
Yikes! Doubts about subject matter expertise and technical difficulties.
I think most of us have been there. Although it seems hard to believe, I think overcoming a technical mishap is easier to overcome. Typically, an audience is more forgiving because most can relate to the love/hate relationship with technology! The tougher scenario is wading through content when there’s a little voice of doubt speaking into your ear.
First: Stories are more memorable than facts. Sure, storytelling is a fine art, but it’s one that can be mastered. When you are faced with facilitating a session that is outside your scope of expertise, look for stories that support the facts you are presenting. Find an example. Find a success story. Find an organization that is doing something interesting that you can share with the group. It’s easier for you to remember what ABC Company did than it is for you to learn 1001 things about a subject (that your audience probably already knows). As you share the story, point out the relevant, key facts that align with the topic.
Second: Throw it back to the group. This is tricky, especially in an auditorium. On the other hand, this can be an effective way to make a presentation interactive and take the focus away from the facilitator! After sharing your key points (with or without looking at your notes!), ask a reflective or discussion-based question (for example: what does the Bowman’s layer have to do with cornea transplants?). Give the audience a few minutes to discuss and then debrief in the larger group.
Third: Start and end on a strong note. Kick off the session with a strong introduction. End with a memorable point or story. Reinforce the benefit of what you’ve shared. Above all, have confidence! A presenter with confidence will always have more credibility.
Training Emergencies Kit
I had a co-worker who never went anywhere without her “training emergencies facilitator kit”. I thought it was a little crazy. Until I was leading a training and my hosts didn’t have tape. Or markers. I could hear my co-worker’s voice (and laughter… actually more of a cackle) in my head: who’s crazy now, buddy?
Over the years, I’ve grown to love my emergency facilitator toolkit. It’s saved me on many occasions. And in having this kit with me, I was able to continue to focus on providing a good learning experience to my audience (instead of running around at the last minute, trying to find tape or scissors or markers).
Here are the must-have items that I generally travel with to be sure I’m ready for all training emergencies:
- Mr. Sketch markers
- Tape (generally blue painter’s tape – it doesn’t tear the paint off of walls)
- Blue Stick adhesive putty (in case the venue doesn’t allow tape on the walls)
- Scissors (be sure not to put this kit into your carry-on bag if you have scissors!)
- Post-it notes
- Pens
- Name tags
- Card stock (for name tents)
- Blank paper (for note taking, for scratch paper, for small group work)
- Thumb drive (just in case I need to transfer files from one computer to another and don’t have Internet access)
- 3×5 note cards
- AA and AAA batteries
A couple other things I like to bring along if I have room (though these can be a little bulky for an “training emergencies kit”) include portable speakers and a small remote to advance slides.
