Ideas for feedback rounds in seminars and workshops
Your course is coming to an end. Time for a feedback session. Don't feel like saying "I agree with the previous speaker" today? Make it more exciting for yourself and the participants. You explain: "Before we go to the end of the day, I'd like you to take a moderation pen and a moderation card. Look back on today. What comes to mind spontaneously?"
If you end your seminar day in this way, you will secure the attention of the participants until the last minute. Now continue with the instruction. "Select the strongest impulse and write it on the moderation card in as few words as possible. It can be a technical term, an adjective, a condition or a feeling."
The participants think about it. Some find it easy. They write their word down quickly. Others take longer. When everyone has finished, explain the next step: "Now comes assignment number two: please turn your moderation card over.
Take your pen and draw what you have written on the front in a picture on this side of the card in two minutes." There is often a murmur around the room: "Impossible: I can't draw!"
Painted feedback
Encourage the participants to stay relaxed and just give it a try. Everyone will be surprised at how expressive many of the quickly drawn illustrations are. After two minutes comes the third part of the exercise: "We are curious to see what you have written down and drawn. Please present your map to us and tell us a little about it. You can show us the word first and then the picture. Or you can make it more exciting and show us your sketch first and let us guess what you meant by it. Decide what works best for you. If you feel like starting, just begin."
Patricia starts: "I'll make it easy for myself and you and start with the word: Here's my picture. For me, today was like a big cornucopia full of ideas. The cornucopia is well filled. And I'm happy to add more tomorrow. Your neighbor Oskar continues: "First I'll show you my picture. What do you see? The other participants start to guess: "relief", "anger", ... Oskar turns the card over: "Exactly: 'letting off steam' was my keyword. You've all heard about my difficult conditions. It was good for me to let off steam today. I will be able to take a more relaxed approach to the difficult situation at our company. My possibilities, but above all
my limits, have become clearer for me today. That took a lot of pressure off me."
Powerful images
In the following minutes, the others also present their cards. With the feedback method "In words and pictures", it is possible to exchange very meaningful thoughts and feelings about the seminar and the learning progress in a short time. It isoften surprising how accurately the participants sum up their conclusions in a simple picture. Especially when they initially declare in panic that they cannot paint. The images are often so powerful that they stay with the group for the next course units.
