by Caitlin K. Barthelmes

Delivering a workshop or a training to a new audience can be both exciting and challenging. After adapting over 80 SBIRT workshops, I have discovered some key lessons to help smooth out the process and pave the way for a successful translation.

1. Know Your Audience

This may seem like a given, but we are often ask to give a lecture or a workshop to a group of people we have never met before. Taking time to do some research ahead of time can really pay off for you and the trainees. Look into the organization – find out what populations they serve, their mission, their number of employees, where they are located…you can do this by a simple search online or a friendly conversation with your contact person.

2. Consider the Culture

Trainings take place amidst a pre-established culture. The culture of the audience not only includes ethnic and regional characteristics (predominately Spanish speakers or members of a tribal community for instance), but also attitudes and expectations based on the way the organization or program operates. How do they communicate with their patients? How strong is the stigma associated with the topic?  Sometimes a culture’s attitudes and beliefs align with the message of your training, sometimes not. For example, a student health center on a college campus may be practicing harm-reduction approaches already whereas a treatment center may want to embrace more abstinent-only techniques. You do not need to drastically change your message or training to fit respective audiences cultures, but rather when framing material be considerate about how the content may interact with their culture.

3. Prepare for the Number

The amount and type of interaction during a workshop may depend on the size of the audience. Smaller groups can engage in discussions more easily than larger groups. Large groups lend themselves to peer-to-peer feedback through small-group exercises.  Knowing the number of people expected ahead of time will allow you to develop a workshop with appropriate learning opportunities that help trainees stay engaged.

4. Be Flexible

Flexibility is a must. Sometimes no matter how much time or effort you put into developing a perfect training for a specific group, the day of the workshop things can change. Less people show up than expected or the audience mix is off (such as having more social workers instead of doctors). If you know your material, you can always adapt on the spot and not get shaken when things don’t go according to plan.

Edited by Llaen Coston-Clark