Are people not doing the required pre-reading for your internal courses or forums? Sick and tired of the wasted effort you are placing into teasers?
Something you do which lowers the barriers to doing the reading is something called the Questions, Quotations, and Comments Strategy (QQC).
The idea is that instead of seeking a commitment to memorise all of the theory, concepts and information (yeah right) you lower the bar by engaging people to interact with the readings, rather than solely consume.
The shortest way for people to do this is to get them to note down either a question they had about the reading, a quotation they found interesting, or a comment or reaction that they had to a particular section of their reading. Or maybe all three of those if you have a committed group!
The key is to keep it short, so that you’re not creating a whole extra task for individuals to prior to the course. It also means that you get engagement straight off the bat as you can start the course with a discussion and engage people rather than starting with a lecture (telling) of the base concepts.
If your worried that the majority haven’t done the reading, set aside the first ten minutes to review to allow priming to occur and the information to soak in then start the course. I know some companies that allocate ten minutes at the start of each meeting to review the notes prior to any discussion.
So next time don’t rethink the importance of pre-course materials, just upgrade your strategies for breaking the inertia of inaction. Identify the lowest viable effort you need and start with that. Nothing worse than starting a course where the facilitators lambasts people for not doing the reading, as it is as much their issue as it yours.
Reframe my Safety Brain 