When I first started my career, I thought my job was to present well.
Use the PowerPoint Template. Fill in the text on the slides. Bring the energy. Maybe say something funny. Hopefully people would learn something.
Then graduate school challenged that model for me.
As I dug into research on teaching and learning, I realized something uncomfortable: the way people learn best did not match the way I was being taught or was starting to teach.
People do not learn most deeply by sitting and listening to someone move through a PowerPoint.
They learn through engagement.
Conversation.
Reflection.
Activities.
Working on things that matter.
That realization moved me from presenting to facilitating.
But there was another shift that came later, and it was just as important.
Experience design became the next level for me. Design thinking was the way to do it.
I had already been learning about good teaching, learning, and facilitation. But design thinking gave me a more specific methodology for creating those experiences in a better way. I had to learn this after my education. It was not yet mentioned once at any of the three graduate schools I attended. It was emerging at that time. I had to learn it myself.
Design thinking helped me move beyond just asking:
How do I present this content?
And start asking:
Who are these people?
What do they need?
What is the real challenge?
What should they experience?
What ideas can I try for them?
How do I design this so it is useful, engaging, and memorable?
What should I prototype and test before I run it?
That took my work to another level.
It gave me a more unique approach to workshops, leadership development, and facilitation.
Not just content delivery.
Not just even facilitation in the generic sense.
Experience design (through design thinking)
That has become a big part of my special sauce over the years.
Design thinking helped me become much more intentional about how I design learning, workshops, and group experiences.
For me, that was the shift:
from PowerPoint presenting
to facilitation
with experience design
through design thinking (or human-centered design)
And I think that has made all the difference.
Have you ever had a methodology or framework that took your work to the next level and helped you find your own unique approach?
My Innovative Facilitator Design Thinking Program has been one of my favorites I’ve designed and led in my career. I’ve also started Innovative Workshop Design and Facilitation Coaching too. I might even offer a live group program too in Madison or elsewhere.
Design that experience!
Darin Eich, Ph.D.