WII-FM (what's in it for me?)

· 20 to 30 participants · 30 minutes to 1 hour

WII-FM stands for "What's in it for me?" This is based on the principle that a motivated person performs better. WII-FM involves creating interest in what one is learning by answering the questions "What's my personal stake or interest in this activity?" "What benefit will I get from this activity?" and "How can I use this in my everyday life." This can be used before, in the middle and after a training activity.

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Purpose

· To create interest and to get participants motivated to take part in an activity.
· To elicit participants' expectations.
· To gain participants' commitment for an activity.

Suggested approach

1. Let participants reflect on the questions "What is my personal stake or interest in this activity? "What benefit will I get from this activity?" and "How can I use this in my everyday life?"

2. Ask the participants to write down their responses on paper and display them for everyone to see.

3. Ask each participant to choose one response that touches her/him most. (Ask participants not to choose their own output.)

4. Get the participants to share and explain their choices. Probe each person's choice until it has been explored in depth and deeper personal motivations surface. Record the responses on manila paper for easy summary so that participants can refer back to them later for inspiration.

5. Together with the participants, sum up the reasons given and express them as the group's objectives. Link it to the over-all training objective.

Example If a participant chooses "to enrich my experience," the facilitator asks, "How will you benefit from enriching your experience?" "Why is it important to you?"

Variations

· After the sharing, lead a discussion on "How could the training help the group realize their objectives in terms of the content, facilitator, participants' involvement, venue, etc. Followed this up with a leveling off of expectations.

· Objects can be used (from the immediate surroundings) to symbolize their motivations. Participants explain what the objects mean to them.

Caution Guard against the tendency of some participants or facilitators to manipulate the discussion.

Outcome

· The participants have analyzed what motivates them.

· Participants become active learners.

Example The cartoons below show a part of what happened when the WII-FM technique was used to elicit the personal motives of the participants for attending the workshop to produce this manual done halfway through the workshop. During the subsequent discussions, the following common aims were highlighted: · To learn more about creative techniques · To play a part in producing a manual that will benefit many people · To gain experience with working with other people · To gain knowledge and skills to help us in our everyday work

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Note Don Mabulay of Tandaya Foundation, Inc. pioneered this process in the development work, especially in Samar.

Further reading

Deporter, B. and M. Hernacki. Quantum learning.