Let them begin

‘To know what you are going to draw, you have to begin drawing.’ Picasso

A perfect quote from a brilliant artist and an imperfect man.

It’s perfect for helping groups to get started on activities in my workshops.

It’s rarely a clean start.

‘What do we have to do again?’

(sotto voce) ‘What did she say? What do we have to do?’ (there’s always one 😊)

‘Can you repeat that?’

‘When you say 10 minutes, does that mean we finish at ten past or quarter past?’

‘How long do we have again?’

‘I forgot what group I’m in.’

‘Why are we doing this?’

And one of my favourites:

‘What comes next?’

I might repeat myself once but it rarely helps. I just get asked the same question another way.

That’s why my verbal instructions are always accompanied by a written set, on a white board, paper or on a card for each group.

To make it easy to get started, I bet Picasso had freshly sharpened pencils, plenty of charcoal and a pile of paper.

To make it easy for a group to get started, they need good instructions from me.

Luckily, I learned how to give clear instructions when I taught English to international students. Our trainer was tough.

‘When you open your mouth a tip truck of language comes out!’ she told us.

‘Start with imperatives and keep it short.’

I never forgot.

Imperatives are those ‘doing’ words and in a workshop, short means three. For example:

You have 10 minutes.

If there are more instructions to come, I save them. That’s the next step.

And they get started.

Some slowly. Some fast. Some start, stop and start again. Some need a jump start, like my first car, an old VW beetle.

But start they do. Their ideas emerge if I shut up and let them get on with it.

Just like the ‘ideas’ flowed from Picasso’s pencil when he got started.

Thanks for reading this far.

Stay (fl)awesome!