You Are What You Say
On December 16th, 2010, a team spanning the Cultural Observatory, Harvard, Encyclopedia Britannica, the American Heritage Dictionary, and Google published a paper describing the Culturomics approach online in the journal Science, and at the same time launched the world's first real-time culturomic browser on Google Labs.www.culturomics.org
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What’s fascinating about this field of study is that through data crunching, we can identify how society and human behavior is changing over the years. For instance, in the last 20 years in pop music, more artists are referring to themselves (me, my, I) than they have in the past.
The ongoing study referred to in the above website has also determined that the English language is 70% larger than it was just 50 years ago! Over 8,000 words were added in the year 2000 alone. Why does that concern us trainers? It’s just one more example of how what people “know to be true” is in constant flux and changing rapidly. It should make you stop, at least for a moment, to ponder if “creating training” is really a smart move.
Perhaps it’s smarter to harness the informal ways that training occurs in the workplace. Perhaps it’s smart to teach people to fish than to provide them with the fish. In other words, perhaps it’s time we concentrate on creating training processes and less on creating training content.
The Benefits of Training Virtually
We created this for a client as sort of a "thought piece" - and we thought you'd like to see it too...
Too many organizations look at offering virtual learning simply from a cost-savings perspective. And while virtual learning can save both time and money – the most important reason for incorporating it in to your learning delivery methodologies is because it has significantly better learning outcomes for the learner.
Adult learning principles, tell us, among other things, that adults prefer to learn collaboratively, prefer to learn things with immediate applicability to the work that they do, prefer their learning delivered in chunks, and learn best through application and reflection. Each of these outcomes are achieved via virtual training because participants can join a group of learners, even if they are the only person at their location who needs a particular training topic (collaboration), and, since the training is offered in smaller chunks than a classroom based course would be, participants have the ability to immediately apply their new knowledge or skills and bring back their experiences to the next session with a better understanding of the topic due to having the time to apply and reflect between virtual sessions.
Classroom Asynchronous Synchronous
Small group work often wastes time due to physically needing to move people together; if all small groups are in the same room, the volume can be overbearing; the facilitator can move to only one group at a time to monitor or assist. No collaboration.
Small group work occurs seamlessly by moving participants to ‘breakout rooms’ with their own audio lines; the facilitator and producer can easily move between rooms to assist instructionally or technically, as needed; all groups can be monitored simultaneously from the host/presenter view
Typically 4 or 8 hours, one class session.
Often what is taught at the beginning of the session is “lost” by the end Smaller (20 – 30 minute) chunks for better retention and the ability to review Typically 1 – 2 hour chunks which allows for between-session application and better retention Can teach knowledge and skills Typically only teaches knowledge Can teach knowledge and skills BUT knowledge is typically relegated to offline work so that the online time is focused solely on application and collaboration among the learners in attendance Limited time for reflection and analysis Allows for reflection and analysis but one is limited to what one knows – no ability to test one’s ideas against others Reflection and analysis occurs defacto due to multiple sessions.
Participants are able to come back (in the next session) to the facilitator and their peers with experience and questions Most group activities occur serially. For example, when participants introduce themselves only one person can speak at a time and the activity can take 40 minutes or more. Those who speak first become disinterested and impatient
No group activities
Group activities can occur concurrently which speeds up the amount of time needed to conduct the activity and ensures participation and collaboration from all. For example, during introductions participants can be asked to share their years on the job or their experience with the topic by answering a poll, responding in chat, or writing on the whiteboard –all of which can be done concurrently, and the responses can be reviewed in three minutes or less Often attendance is limited to who is ‘on site’ – participants often work with peers they already know No collaboration with others Participants can come from any area of the globe which broadens learner’s insight and perspective in to the company as well as creating broader networks of peers / colleagues
Free and Low Cost Training Resources, cont.
Day 4
Finally, the use of coaches in the workplace is a well-used training strategy. A coach is typically a more senior person who is paired with one or more junior people and who is responsible for championing that person’s professional development. For instance, a partner in a law firm would take “responsibility” for an associate’s professional development within the firm. One organization uses coaches as a way to monitor employee development by requiring the coach to sign off on any professional development requests of their coachee. In this way the coach serves as a guidance counselor or sorts, for the purposeful development of their charge.
One of the easiest ways to increase the quality of training in your organization is simply to formalize the informal training that’s already occurring on a daily basis. By implementing just two or three of the suggestions in this series, you can increase the quality of your training offerings without incurring any cost whatsoever.
Free and Low Cost Training Resources, cont.
Day 3
If you work in an industry that has a number of specialized and unique facets, consider appointing specialists so that not everyone in the organization needs to know everything about the unique process. Instead, every time a question or concern comes up from a customer or vendor, it would be handled by the specialist. For example, a risk insurer offered seldom-purchased coverage for yachts, private jets, and truck fleets. Each line of coverage had one individual who understood its intricacies and knew how to write a policy. If a “regular” salesperson encountered a client who needed coverage in one of the areas, they simply called “the specialist.”
Free and Low Cost Training Resources, cont.
Day 2
Other ways to formalize informal training are to recruit individuals to act as coaches or mentors within their work groups. These individual would have a sideline responsibility of being the go-to person for training needs in that department. They would also be charged with seeking out new knowledge or skills and imparting those to their fellow workers.
So often, on-the-job training is a version of “follow Joe around;” this means a new-hire is paired with a more senior person in the workplace who is tasked with showing them the ropes. Numerous negative ramifications can result from this approach. Skilled workers tend to forget the basics and often will concentrate on the how-to at the expense of the “here’s why.”
This results in a new-hire who does not have the ability to identify or react to anomalies because they only know how things should work. Additionally, if each new-hire is paired with a different “trainer,” each trainee will have a different learning experience, and learning outcome, simply because the trainer is left to his or her own devices to create the training content, process, and delivery.
One way to make this process more efficient is to create checklists so that you can be somewhat assured that each trainer is covering all the same information and in the same order. For instance, the retail industry has a high-level of turnover as well as the propensity to hire clerks on an individual basis. A new-hire checklist would, at a minimum, ensure that new hires are trained methodically; first in floor layout and merchandise selection, then in cash-register operation and customer interface, and finally backroom operations and stock.
Free and Low Cost Training Resources
After reading the blog article (below) regarding how volunteerism can help your organization to provide training, we got to thinking of other ways to provide free or low cost training as well. Here is a short series of ideas, to be published for the next few days...
Day 1
Did you know that 80% of training that occurs in the workplace does not occur in a formal training program? Eighty-percent of workplace training is informal training. It is someone popping their head over their cubicle and asking their office mate, “Do you know how to convert text in a table to paragraph form?” It is the supervisor taking the machinist aside and showing him a way to check the calibration on his machine without stopping production. It is the sales manager taking his fresh-out-of-college administrative assistant on a sales call so she can meet a real customer of the organization.
One of the easiest and fastest ways to provide free and low-cost training is to formalize the informal training that is already occurring in your workplace on a daily basis. Here’s a stellar example: A 700-person software company requires the sharing of knowledge and training fellow workers as part of the job description of every employee. On a yearly basis, each employee is tasked with learning something that increases their skill on the job and making a presentation to their workgroup or writing a summary of that new knowledge or technique for the company newsletter. In addition, each executive in the organization is required to teach at least four training courses, or two-hours, each year.
In addition to the formalized training curriculum such as providing constructive feedback, or negotiating a sale, the executive is able to impart his or her on-the-job experience and real-world knowledge on the topic, to the trainees.
How OTHER Organizations Can Provide Your Employee Training
Here's an excerpt from an interesting blog posting we came across recently from Realized Worth. You can read the whole article here.
Employee Volunteering programs offer companies a unique opportunity to act as good Corporate Citizens while enabling their workforce to acquire relevant work related skills. By creating opportunities for employees to volunteer in the community, companies are able to leverage one of their most valuable assets towards addressing social and environmental concerns. In the process, the employees gain experience and understandings that make them more effective in their roles with the company. Usually, employees acquire soft skills such as communication, management and leadership. Beyond individual skills, employees become better at working in teams. Barclay’s Bank discovered that of the employees who volunteered in the community, 61% increased their team-work skills. Probably more impressive, 58% of Barclay’s managers reported a visible improvement among their staff’s attitudes towards each other following a volunteer experience.
A picture is worth 1,000 words - and 65% better retention
We’ve been standing on a soapbox for years telling the trainers of the world that people learn better through visual than written or spoken word, and that PowerPoint is a communication medium, not the communication itself. Here are some interesting factoids from a recent Forbes column which bolster our position:
According to a SlideRocket survey, the top frustration that people have with PowerPoint is “too much text.” It’s easy to see why. The average PowerPoint has 40 words on one slide. Yet the most memorable presentations have fewer than 40 words on ten slides Images and photographs work because of a concept psychologists call picture superiority. If I deliver information verbally, you’ll remember about 10% of what I tell you. If that same information is delivered with a picture, you’re likely to remember 65% of the information
T4: Teeter Totter Theory of Training
Picture a teeter totter. A fulcrum, or triangle, in the center and a long board balanced on the tip, which can teeter to either side depending on the weight or force applied at either end.
Now, picture training as the fulcrum. Training is a wonderful workplace development tool. It gives people skills and how-to’s that can be applied back on the job immediately (typically). When the board tips to the left, we label it “education.” Education is knowledge sharing. It gives people information, acclimation and exposure to topics, but it doesn’t give them skills in those topics.
When the board tips to the right, we call it “learning.” When one has learned, one is not only able to do the job but also explain the why and the how of doing the job. Example: If you’ve been a trainer for awhile, you know the importance of a well-written objectives. In the beginning of your career you probably learned that objectives are the basis for good training design because they outline what the learner will know or be able to do upon leaving the training (you are informed of their purpose and value).
As you were trained in becoming a trainer, you learned that objectives start with action words or verbs (you are trained in how to construct an objective). But why is that important?
Once you have learned to write objectives well and correctly, you are able to explain that a well written objective allows an observer to determine if the learner “got it,” by identifying actions that can be seen by the observer.
Example: Participants will learn the alphabet (education) Participants will be able to recite the alphabet (trained). Participants will be able to explain the use of the alphabet in constructing words and phrases (learned)
Each of these points on the teeter totter are important and have their place. Where many training programs go awry, however, is in clearly identifying at the start, exactly what the learners should come away with. Are they to be educated, trained or must they learn the material? Knowing what your learners’ outcomes should be, allows you to employ the correct delivery method.
Play at work
Play is not the opposite of work - when people get lost in their task, time disappears.- Leighton Reed
One Idea for Developing Leaders From Within
Read an interesting article recently about the rise and fall of Circuit City. One of the things that struck us as quite brilliant (during the " rise" portion of the article) was that store managers were awarded bonuses for every store manager they "raised". What a great way to ensure you promote from within as well as ensuring that individuals do not work hard to maintain control of their "empires." The more people a store manager could groom to become a future store manager, the more money they could earn! Brilliant.
On the "fall" side of the equation, the author, who worked for decades in senior management positions at Circuit City, cautions organizations who are thinking of cutting their training offerings, to use Circuit City as an example of why that is such a bad idea. The author, (Tom Wulf), states that one of the reasons Circuit City was so successful for over 20 years was because of their extraordinary training programs. And, like many companies, when their finances began to suffer, they cut the training which - in the author's opinion - contributed even more to the decline of the organization.
Level 2 Evaluation Primer
Thanks to The one and only Kirkpatrick Partners for publishing our article Level 2 Evaluation Primer on their website and to all their newsletter subscribers last week. We garnered from their site the most one-day hits ever - over 800! You can see the article here.
ADDIE is "over the top" for SME designed training
In our 21+ years of designing customized training programs for clients, we often find ourselves working with and coaching SME's (subject matter experts) who are designing training. Good ISD principles can really enhance training which is designed by an SME, but the tradtional ADDIE approach is too "over the top.
Often, a SME doesn't need to know about Needs Analysis - they are simply told "design this training topic." SME's don't often go as far as Evaluation either. Their focus is simply on the design and development of the topic they have been assigned.
With that in mind, The Training Doctor has created a more specific, streamlined model for the SME / training designer. This model is referred to as ANWIE which stands for:
A - Consider your Audience.
SME's have much, much more information to share than their audience's can comprehend or even use. The first rule for SME-designed training is "keep in mind who your audience is, and give them the information that is 1) appropriate for their knowledge and skill level, 2) can be implemented by them.
N - What is the Need for this information?
Why is this training being designed now? Why for this audience? What is the business outcome that is needed as a result of the training? And the most important "need" - be sure to keep your content firmly rooted in the need-to-know and nix the nice-to-know (and SME's have a LOT of nice-to-know).
W - Keep the training work-related.
This is the easiest step to achieve for the SME because they are expert at the "on the job" aspect of what they do. However... particularly enthusiastic SMEs can be prone to giving background and theory that only serve to confuse the learner. Case in point: We once reviewed a SME-designed course on Project Management for a client who complained "this class is not working - please figure out what's wrong with it." In it, we found a project management technique we had never heard of. Upon researching it, we discovered ONE mention of this technique in a Harvard Business Journal article from 1991. The SME was fascinated with his topic and wanted to give a "well rounded" presentation - but it simply was too much information for the newbie project manager.
I - Implementable.
SME's often don't appreciate the fact that a new learner won't be expert the minute they finish the training. It is quite an a-ha to them that they have to mete out content / skills and allow time for the learner to master / implement before adding the next level of complexity or achievement. In other words, SME's must be taught to"chunk."
E - Think about how the training / trainees will be evaluated.
While we don't go in to the 4/5 levels of training evaluation, we do ask SME's to consider "how will you know the training has been successful? What do you want the learners to be able to do after the training? With this focus on training outcomes, the SME is better able to decide what skills to focus the training on, and the best way for the learner to learn and master those skills.
5 Keys to Facilitating Online - part 3 of 3
We all know good facilitation skills: Ask don't tell; encourage discussion among participants-not just between you and the participants; play devil's advocate to challenge people's thinking, etc.,
But when we move from the classroom to the virtual classroom we seem to revert immediately to lecture and presentation mode. If you think straightforward lecture is a snoozer in the classroom, it’s ten times worse in the virtual classroom when the only thing participants have to keep them engaged is the sound of your voice.
In order to deliver online classes that are engaging, here are five keys to better facilitation in the virtual classroom.
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4. All instructions must be written
The least preferred way for Americans to take in information is in an auditory manner and yet the virtual classroom forces 90% of our communication to be solely auditory. This heightens the possibility of participants getting confused - especially when you are asking them to complete some type of activity. In order to assist your participants, all instructions for activities should be written - preferably both on the screen and in a handout or workbook that you have provided for them. If you've not provided a written guide to correspond to your online class then, at the very minimum, activity instructions need to be on the screen and participants need to be allowed enough time to copy them so that they can refer back to them while completing the activity.
5. Keep the energy up
Synchronous Learning Expert, Jennifer Hofmann, says that teaching online is like teaching after lunch all the time. In the classroom there is a natural flow of energy from the co-mingling of your participants. But in an online class most of the participants are isolated and it is up to you, the facilitator, to keep the energy up. You don't want to be super caffeinated - that's the wrong kind of energy - but you do want to put on your “presenter’s” voice and mannerisms. If possible, stand up and move the way you would if you were standing in front of the class. Using your natural body language and mannerisms keeps your energy up and translates quite successfully through the telephone lines.
In general, the skills you have as a classroom trainer translate well to the online classroom. Don’t approach online training like a telephone conversation or radio broadcast; your participants are still out there and are desperately hoping to be engaged in your class – it’s up to you to lead the way to their success.
5 Keys to Facilitating Online - part 2 of 3
We all know good facilitation skills: Ask don't tell; encourage discussion among participants-not just between you and the participants; play devil's advocate to challenge people's thinking, etc.,
But when we move from the classroom to the virtual classroom we seem to revert immediately to lecture and presentation mode. If you think straightforward lecture is a snoozer in the classroom, it’s ten times worse in the virtual classroom when the only thing participants have to keep them engaged is the sound of your voice.
In order to deliver online classes that are engaging, here are five keys to better facilitation in the virtual classroom.
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2. Use people's namesI
I once heard a new television actor comment on his profession by saying that one of the hardest things for him to get used to was how often one referred to the other characters in the first person. For instance, Well Bob I think what Juan says is something that we should consider. Especially in light of what Lucy has now brought to the table. He also stated that in a simple dialogue you might call Bob by his name, three or four times, while speaking to him.
You may find this phenomenon to be similar in the virtual classroom. Since you've lost the ability to use body language or make eye contact, the only way to engage people in conversation is to call on them specifically. Rather than asking Who would like to comment on the case study? You'll need to change your language to ask, I’d like to hear what you think of the case study - Alison? You'll also find that you call on people randomly, usually based on whether you’ve heard from them recently or not, much more so than you would in the classroom. In the classroom we almost always have an eager volunteer, but in the virtual classroom participants need to expect to be called on randomly (“volunteered” if you will).
3. Be directive
Your language in the virtual classroom needs to be much more directive. It's impossible to ask an open-ended question and not confuse your participants. For instance, Who would like to comment on the case study, needs to be rephrased as, Who would like to comment on the case study? Raise your hand. In the classroom an open-ended question invites volunteers, in the virtual classroom an open-ended question invites confusion. Participants will think to themselves, Should I raise my hand? Should I just speak up? How does she want me to respond? While your participants are thinking through all these options you are listening to dead air and wondering if they've understood the question, if no one has an answer, or if they just don't want to participate.
As a general rule of thumb, all open-ended questions need to be rephrased as closed ended questions in order to keep the dialogue flowing and your class moving along.
5 Keys to Facilitating Online - part 1 of 3
We all know good facilitation skills: Ask don't tell; encourage discussion among participants-not just between you and the participants; play devil's advocate to challenge people's thinking, etc.,
But when we move from the classroom to the virtual classroom we seem to revert immediately to lecture and presentation mode. If you think straightforward lecture is a snoozer in the classroom, it’s ten times worse in the virtual classroom when the only thing participants have to keep them engaged is the sound of your voice.
In order to deliver online classes that are engaging, here are five keys to better facilitation in the virtual classroom.
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1. Facilitate, facilitate, facilitate!
A common complaint of new online facilitators is that the participants aren't paying attention and are frequently multitasking. That is only true if you are not facilitating. If you are facilitating your participants would be too involved with the learning process to have the time or the inclination to multitask. According to Wikipedia, a facilitator is someone who helps a group of people understand their common objectives and assists them to plan to achieve them. Another definition, also from Wikipedia, states that a facilitator is a person who makes it easier for other people to accomplish their objectives by offering advice and assistance. A common theme here is that the facilitator is not the focus of the learning event; the facilitator brings the learning about through the training participants.
The best virtual classroom learning experiences put the dialogue and the learning process firmly in the hands of the participants. If you're bringing people together online in order to simply make a presentation - don't. Record the presentation and let your participants view it on-demand. Bring people together online for the interactive and collaborative outcomes that can be achieved when we bring people together.
Social media at work and at play
Over three quarters of millennials surveyed say that the use of social media at work is either somewhat or extremely useful according to the ASTD report: Social Media, The Millennial Perspective report.
In just five years, potentially more than half of the workforce will be composed of members of the Millennial generation (born after 1981) who have grown up immersed in technology and social media. For this generation, computers and collaborative technologies are an extension of who they are.
According to the report, although overall usage for social media for work-related learning is still relatively low, the following methods are used:
Shared workspaces-69%
Wiki's-50%
Shared media-38%
Blogs-38%
The book, We Are Smarter than Me, is all about using social media to enhance a business organization. They cite that Wikipedia has managed to create an encyclopedia via social networking and mass collaboration. They ask: what else could we do? They also wisely state:
With more than 1 billion individuals around the world connected by a new multimedia high bandwidth medium of human communications, collaboration and teamwork has become the business world's biggest drivers of success.
And this just in, from Training Magazine:
Social networking has reached a tipping point. It’s transforming the way managers gather information, inform, negotiate, motivate, inspire, instruct, empower, forecast, and sell. It lets managers be here, there, and everywhere, with individuals or groups, 24/7, and at little or no cost.
If you want people to learn ... use visuals
Eighty percent of learners are visual learners. That means they take in information, and process it better, using their eyes rather than their ears. While this is a long-standing known fact, very few trainers create training materials that are visually appealing. Visuals don't only appeal to our senses they also appeal to our ability to learn.
In a study conducted by two professors from the University of California, Santa Barbara titled: A Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning: Implications for Design Principles, they speak of the principle of Multiple Representation. In short, the principle states that it is better to present an explanation in words and pictures than solely in words. When a learner sees both words and pictures, he's able to build two different mental representations-a verbal model and a visual model-and then build connections between them.
They also noted that a learner is better able to understand an explanation when the words and pictures are presented at the same time rather than when they are separated in time. This is known as Contiguity Effect - corresponding words and pictures must be in working memory at the same time in order to facilitate the construction of referential links between them.
An interesting corollary to their research is that they discovered that words should be presented verbally rather than visually. This is more related to online learning than classroom-based training; they discovered that on-screen text and animation can overload the visual information processing system, whereas narration is processed in the verbal information processing system and animation is processed in the visual information processing system.
If you want people to learn...ask them questions
If you really want your training participants to learn something, you have to do more than simply give them information. Instead of saying "It's important that we file the G. 69 reports on a daily basis," ASK "Why is it important that we file the G. 69 reports on a daily basis?" By asking questions, you cause people to think. When people think, they have to process the information. They have to make linkages to things they already know. They must consider, "What do I know about this piece of information? Where will I store it? When will I use it?"
You can even ask a question without having taught the content first. This makes people start to think critically about the content in advance of acquiring it from the trainer. If you were to ask, "Why is it important that we file the G. 69 reports on a daily basis?" before teaching the content, you might get a lot of wrong answers-but that's okay. First, you're able to gauge what the audience knows about the topic, and second, you've piqued their interest because they're wondering what the correct answer should be.
So, if you want your participants to be more engaged in training, put more critical thought in to their participation, and actually learn your content-start by creating questions that cause them to think. These questions often start with How? Why? Why now? What if? Can you?
How can employers make training fun rather than a chore?
Rule number one is to filter your content and present the most important info first. Number two is to present information in no more than 10- to 20-minute bursts. Then get people involved in something interactive like a quiz, a video, a screencast.
Mix up the content and that allows trainees to process the information that you’ve communicated already and start to create a schema around that information. They can start the process of storing it in their long-term memory so the information gets retained.
Also, build the content with the trainee in mind. Tell stories instead of presenting. Humans react well to storytelling and anecdotes and case studies that make content really relevant and successful.
Excerpted from an interview with MindFlash CEO Donna Wells
For the entire interview: http://preview.tinyurl.com/http-tinyurl-com-64vdfpc