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Managers at Zingerman's are expected to do, on average, a minimum of one hour of formal teaching every month. Most of this training is done on shift rather than in a classroom format. However, many managers do lead food classes and tastings for the public and in-house training classes for staff. These are people who possess expertise in the content they are teaching but for the most part have had little or no experience leading a class before coming to Zingerman's.

So one of my jobs within our organization is to share classroom-training techniques that will help new trainers become more effective. One of the biggest challenges I've encountered in teaching classes is finding the balance between interactivity and loss of control. It's much easier to stay on track (and on time) when you just present the lesson in a lecture format. But it takes a world-class lecturer to keep people really engaged for an hour or more. And let's face it, how many of us are world-class lecturers? Here are some of the tools that I have found particularly effective to actively involve people in a class or workshop while still keeping within a structured timeframe. These techniques are equally useful for improving participation in meetings.

Brainstorming
Everyone has heard of brainstorming, but did you know that it was invented in the late 1950's as part of NASA's space program? The purpose of brainstorming is to elicit a large number of ideas from a group about a particular topic. To brainstorm effectively, you must: 1) clearly state the question and 2) establish a timeframe and have a timekeeper (I've found that three minutes is often a good length of time), and 3) follow the Rules of Brainstorming.

Rules of Brainstorming
1. Write down every idea that is spoken (sometimes, you'll require more than one scribe).
2. Do not discuss any ideas.
3. No judgments (positive or negative).
4. Repeat ideas are just written down again.
5. "Piggybacking" off someone else's idea is encouraged.
6. Wait for silences to end; creativity usually follows.
7. Spelling doesn't count!

Post & Vote
On occasion, brainstorming constitutes an end in and of itself, but other times, the next logical step is to evaluate and prioritize those ideas that were generated in the brainstorm. Post & Vote is an organized way to accomplish that evaluation and prioritization as a group.

First, review the list of ideas for repeats and eliminate any duplicates. Then, clarify any ideas whose meaning is unclear. Post the synthesized list of ideas on flipcharts. Next, count the number of ideas, divide by two, and add one. The sum of this calculation is the number of votes each person will have. After voting, take the top vote getters, synthesize them, and, if necessary, vote again. You can synthesize, post, and vote several times to condense to your target-sized list of ideas.

Open Forum
Open Forum is a structured question-and-answer session that allows participants in a class or a meeting to interact and learn from each other. This technique generates prioritized questions from small groups. With this format, no single person takes the heat for asking a particularly challenging question, and frivolous questions are usually avoided because they are not likely to be a group's top priority.

Open Forum can be used anytime you want to generate questions, but is especially effective after a presentation that contains an abundance of information, possibly controversial ideas, or a new concept or direction. Once the presenter concludes, instead of asking, "What questions do you have?" and hearing that deafening silence, follow these steps to structure an Open Forum:
• Divide the room into small groups of three to six. If people have been sitting in seats that they chose (with friends and colleagues), mix things up by having them count off and regroup.
• Ask each group to choose a spokesperson (to keep the group on task and to make sure everyone gets a chance to speak), a note taker (to write down questions as they are generated by the group), and a spokesperson (who will ask the group's questions).
• Now, give the group a fixed amount of time (usually 10–20 minutes) to discuss:
1. What did we hear?
2. What is our reaction?
3. What questions of clarification do we have?
• Ask groups to prioritize their questions.
• Let Group 1 ask its top-priority question. Then have Group 2 ask its top-priority question, etc.
• Once all the groups have had the chance to ask a question, you can either go around the room again for their next priority question or ask for "burning questions." These would be questions that the group just couldn't feel comfortable ending the session without asking.

What I find amazing is that the same groups of people who in the traditional "any questions?" format say nothing come up with many questions that are often quite insightful in Open Forum. And through the power of the group, shy people can ask questions that they would never ask on their own.

Brainstorming, Post & Vote, and Open Forum are all tools that take advantage of the fact that the more people you have in the room, the more ideas and opinions will be generated. Giving participants an opportunity to use their creativity (Brainstorming), express their preferences (Post & Vote), or ask relevant questions (Open Forum) increases the likelihood that they will find the class (or meeting) worthwhile. These tools also provide a platform for an especially valuable teaching technique — giving students the opportunity to learn from each other.

Editor's Note: Part 1 of Tools for Your Trainer Toolbox ran in the October 2005 issue of The Gourmet Retailer Magazine and can be found online at www.GourmetRetailer.com.

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Maggie Bayless is the managing partner of ZingTrain, which is the consulting arm of Zingerman's, the specialty food retailer in Ann Arbor, Mich. If you have specific topics you would like to see addressed, please send your suggestions to Maggie at mbayless@zingermans.com.