Is this Valuable?
I schedule breaks between major sections of my workshops for two reasons. First, I don’t want to be talking 100% of the time and my audience doesn’t want that either. Second, as my audience gets settled I get to check-in with them. I usually ask some variation of: “is this valuable to you?”
Unless I’m speaking to a crowd of biology and psychology enthusiasts, I tend to cover new ground with my audiences. But I never make that assumption. This is why I incorporate pre- and post-workshop surveys to my teaching package. I want to know what my audience knows, and I want to see if what I taught and how I taught it connects enough with my audience to increase their knowledge about Mental Agility.
For the past two weeks The Complete Athlete Foundation paid for me to speak to nearly 200 student-athletes at different high school programs in Ohio, both in-person and virtually. The founder, Leigh Ann Rieth, is working diligently to obtain grants for educational and engagement events across Ohio. The folks with the money want to know that what they give will positively impact the mental health scene in their communities. Because I’m a data-hound, I’ve got the quantitative metrics that show knowledge increases along with the qualitative testimonials from many high school students who were glad to learn some practical ways to de-stress.
Let’s sink our teeth into this graphical feast.
The following charts come from compiling the pre- and post-workshop surveys from the three workshops in Columbus, OH for the boys’ lacrosse teams at:
125 student-athletes attended and 103 filled out the pre-workshop survey, giving us an accuracy rate of 82% for the entire group — a good, representative sample.
Freshman we’re the largest grade as JV programs were included.
Next comes tracking learning outcomes. Here is where I got giddy because each response total demonstrated a clear increase in knowledge. 98 out of the 103 who attended filled out the post-workshop survey, giving us an accuracy rating of 95%.
Learning Outcome 1 — Increase the understanding of the stress response.
This is a 42% increase! After this workshop, nearly all the students could explain what happens to the body and the mind while under stress. This understanding is important because it underpins why all the strategies and techniques they’ll learn actually work.
Learning Outcome 2 — Attendees can practice and select techniques to lower their stress.
A 34% increase compared to the pre-workshop survey. The vast majority of these high school teenagers could now choose and use evidence-based techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy to turn on their relaxation response and turn off their stress response.
Learning Outcome 3 — Attendees know the steps to aid themselves or a friend in crisis.
The largest knowledge increase is the most important to my work with Mental Agility, and to the goals of The Complete Athlete Foundation. A 65% increase in student-athletes who now knew the basic steps in how to ask for help and how to help a friend during a mental health crisis. That near-erasure of a knowledge gap has significant consequences in a world where suicide is the second leading cause of death for individuals aged 15-24. It means that the more this material is covered in an engaging fashion, the more likely we are to see a drop in suicide rates nationwide.
I knew the work I've done to prepare these workshops and make the material entertaining to athletes and their coaches was going to make an impact, but I was stunned to see such gains in knowledge. That along validated my efforts, and the comments left by the attendees will keep me going for quite some time:
It’s very good at becoming more in tune with yourself. - Jace
It was great and gave me a greater look into mental health. - Josh
Make sure you’re mentally ready to talk about the subjects in the presentation. - Kristopher
It is very helpful and interesting to know this stuff. - Joe
It is a good learning experience and the teamwork part was fun. - Zain
You can learn simple ways to lower stress. - Will
It’s practical. I will likely use every one of the lessons I learned today in my life. - Kaleb
Helps out a lot with understanding issues you may have. - Nathan
This information is really important to know. - Grant
It’s more than just a lecture, you will be up and moving and actively working with your learning. - Cade
For one with anxiety or depression from even the smallest levels to the most severe, attacking these issues with logic based responses is something I learned from this presentation. - Jackson
Very beneficial and helpful learning about dealing with stress. - Bryce
Very good speaker and everything he says works. - Conor
He was really great and nice and cared about his clients. I would highly recommend. - Porter
It was good to learn how to deal with mental health. - Drew
It’s amazing!! - Jack
Opened my mind to a whole different side of overall wellness. - Neal
A great course to take. - Mason
Great speaker, very knowledgeable, very influential and open, all around great experience. - Blake
Concise, accessible, honest and engaging. - Beau
Had a great balance of breaks and discussion as well as interactive activity. - Maddox
This dude is awesome, I feel as if we’re very similar in our pasts. - Caleb
Very informative and easily grabbed my attention. I believe this presentation was very effective. - Brady
I liked the breathing thing; it was good to calm me down. - Kyle
I thought this was very helpful and I learned a lot. - Zach