Designing Interactive Strategies

The best way to improve your training is to encourage participants to interact with each other, with the content, and with you. In this workshop, Thiagi reveal five secrets of effective interactive training that is faster, cheaper, and better. You will begin by rapidly exploring 60 different training strategies. Later, you will master additional details of several strategies:

• Structured sharing that helps practitioners exchange their expertise with each other
• Interactive lectures that enable you to retain control of the session while participants interact with each other
• Textra games that make your dull, dry handouts come alive
• Simulation games that use inexpensive materials and methods to reflect the realities of the workplace
• Jolts that last for a few minutes and provide powerful insights and concepts

With Thiagi's framegame approach, you will learn how to load existing templates to create your own games in a matter of minutes. You will also learn how to avoid irrelevant fluff and fun and immerse your participants in engaging activities.

Dr. Sivasailam "Thiagi" Thiagarajan

Dr. Sivasailam "Thiagi" Thiagarajan is the Resident Mad Scientist at The Thiagi Group, an organization with the mission of helping people improve their performance effectively and enjoyably.

Thiagi's long-term clients include AT&T, Arthur Andersen, Bank of Montreal, Cadence Design Systems, Chevron, IBM, Intel, Intelsat, United Airlines, and Liberty Mutual. Thiagi has worked with more than 50 different organizations in high-tech, financial services, and management consulting areas. For these clients, Thiagi has consulted and conducted training in such areas as rightsizing, diversity, creativity, teamwork, customer satisfaction, human performance technology, and organizational learning.

Thiagi has published 40 books, 120 games and simulations, and more than 200 articles. He wrote the definitive chapters on simulations and games for ISPI's Handbook of Human Performance Technology, ASTD's Training & Development Handbook, and the American Management Association's Human Resources Management and Development Handbook.

Thiagi currently writes a monthly online newsletter, Thiagi GameLetter. This newsletter, now in its fifth year, features Thiagi's training games and other creative interventions that deliver results quickly and effectively. He served as the editor of NSPI Journal and Performance & Improvement for more than 10 years. He currently edits the simulation/game section in Sage Publication's journal, Simulation & Gaming. He is also a contributing editor of the monthly journal, Educational Technology.

Thiagi has made hundreds of presentations and keynote speeches at professional conferences. At ISPI, Thiagi holds the "records" for making the most presentations, conducting the most preconference workshops, and being invited to make the most Encore presentations. Thiagi is also a regular presenter at Lakewood's TRAINING Conferences and the annual conferences of American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) and North American Simulation and Gaming Association (NASAGA).

Thiagi has been the president of the North American Simulation and Gaming Associating (NASAGA), International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), and Association for Special Education Technology (ASET). He has received 17 different awards and Presidential Citations from ISPI, including the society's highest award, Honorary Life Member. He also received an Honorary Life Member award from NASAGA as well as its highest award, Ifill-Raynolds Award.

Internationally recognized as an expert in multinational collaboration and active learning in organizations, Thiagi has lived in three different countries and has consulted in 21 others.

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