Every session begins with an energiser. Usually there’s a rota showing who will lead the energiser. We have some favourite games you can play if you are stuck.

1. Traffic Jam: re-order the cars to unblock yourself
2. Telephone: draw the words and write the pictures
3. Popcorn show and tell: popcorn around the room and show one nearby object or something in your pocket or bag and explain what it means to you.

👣 Steps

If you haven’t done so already, choose someone (volunteer or trainee) to be the facilitator for this morning orientation block. Choose another to be the timekeeper.

Professional Q&A Experience Workshop

In ITP you have practised giving demos - short presentations to get practice speaking in a professional setting. Later on, during an interview, presentation, or other work discussion, you will also be expected to ask and answer questions. The goal of this workshop is to give you practice in asking meaningful questions and giving good answers.

Plan

To get the best out of this workshop, please use a short demo on a topic you are comfortable discussing. The goal here is not the quality of the demo. It is to practice questions and answers, so you can re-use a demo you have previously given.

There are 2 criteria we want to meet:

• Every listener should ask at least 1 question during this workshop
• Every presenter should answer at least 1 question during this workshop

Take a moment to read through the tips below before you begin. Feel free to refer to these tips during the Q&A if that would help.

To ensure everyone has a chance to take part, get into groups of at most 5 trainees (and ideally at least one volunteer).

Take turns:

• Each demo should be no more than 5 minutes long
• Give up to 3 minutes for questions and answers
• Try to keep questions short, take up to 1 minute to answer

After everyone has had a chance to practice asking and answering, have a discussion as a group about the process:

• How did you find asking and answering: Was there anything easy or difficult about it?
• Give each other feedback on their Q&As: Did any good examples stand out, could any have been improved?
• What would you do differently if you were in a similar Q&A situation in the future? The feedback and discussion for this workshop should focus on the questions and answers, not the content of the demos.

Tips for Asking Good Questions

• This is different to the kind of rhetorical question you might have used when doing a demo
• Unless the speaker made it clear they want you to, don’t interrupt them mid-demo
• If the speaker says something you would like to know more about, you can remember it and ask at the end
• If the speaker said something unclear, or that you disagree with, you can ask politely about it at the end
• A good question is short and to the point. Remember: as the audience you’re not the main focus

Example Questions

The best questions to ask come from ideas the demo made you curious about. If you can’t think of any, you can use or adapt one of these, if they’re appropriate:

• If you were to do it again, what would you do differently?
• What did you enjoy the most about this?
• What was your biggest challenge?
• How does this compare to (some other way of doing something similar)?
• Could you explain how (this idea) could be used or adapted for (some related setting or project)?
• When I tried something similar, I encountered (this problem), how did you overcome that?

Tips for Giving Good Answers

• Know that you will never be able to prepare for every possible question.
• Listen carefully to what is being asked - you don’t want to answer the wrong thing.
• If you did not understand the question, you can ask them to reword it.
• Take a moment to think about your answer before you start to speak.
• Repeating the question back in your own words gives you time to start forming an answer, and it confirms to the asker that you understood what they were asking.
• If you can’t think of a good answer, it is fine to say you don’t know. This is better than giving an unclear long-winded reply.

Extra resources

• Asking questions at work
• Asking follow-up questions
• Using active listening
• Answering audience questions

👉🏽 PD Session: Teamwork Project Sprint 2

Every Saturday we cook and eat together. We share our food and our stories. We learn about each other and the world. We build community.

This is everyone’s responsibility, so help with what is needed to make this happen, for example, organising the food, setting up the table, washing up, tidying up, etc. You can do something different every week. You don’t need to be constantly responsible for the same task.

Trainees

This is time for you to get help with whatever you need help with.

If you didn’t understand something in the prep, ask about it.

If you were struggling with a backlog exercise, get help with it.

If you weren’t quite sure of something in a workshop, discuss it.

If you don’t have any problems, keep working through the backlog until you need help.

It can be useful to get into groups with others facing the same problem, or working on the same backlog item.

Volunteers

Don’t be scared to approach people and ask what they’re working on - see if you can help them out, or stretch their understanding.

If lots of people have the same problems, maybe you can put together a demonstration or a workshop to help them understand.

If absolutely no one needs help, consider reviewing some PRs using the process and guidelines in the #cyf-code-review-team Slack channel canvas.

Breaks

No one can work solidly forever! Make sure to take breaks when you need.