Overview

As a trainer interested in conducting workshops for elected officials, you may be thinking, "So, what's left to prepare?" The 12 handbooks that make up the series on elected leadership are complete enough. They have been carefully designed by experienced trainers, have they not? Isn't it true that each handbook has been field-tested and subsequently revised based on thorough participant review? Well then, what's left to be done other than carefully follow the script - do the training exactly as intended by UNCHS (Habitat) and the authors of this series?

Wait a minute! There is a bit more to conducting a successful training workshop than being able to read a script. Workshops don't just happen. Planning and preparation are necessary to ensure that everything needed to conduct a successful workshop (space, facilities, equipment, handout materials) are there when participants arrive.

In Part II of this guide, we discuss many things that you will need to know as you make preparations for a workshop based on materials contained in one or more of the handbooks in the Elected Leadership series. Included are such things as meeting the client's expectations, location and physical facilities, training equipment, participant materials, and so forth, and important skills needed by the trainer as workshop designer.

Part III of the guide reviews the various types of training exercises (case studies, role plays, instruments, and so forth) that can be found in the 12 workshop designs, what contribution each is designed to make to workshop goals, and how you can use each of them with the greatest possible effectiveness.

In Part IV of the guide we turn attention to the actual on-site delivery of training and some practical techniques that, when used as suggested, can make a profound difference in the outcome of a workshop.

Finally, in Part V we present workshop scoring keys, and other materials that you will need are conveniently cross-referenced by workshop and exercise.