GPS dependency and the link to performance support
Here’s a happens-every-day scenario – maybe it even happened to you, today.
We have a large population of people in America who cannot go anywhere without their GPS. Even to places in their own town that they truly, were able to find, on their own, just four or five years ago. But now, they must take their mobile performance support system with them. They have become completely dependent on “the box.”
They do not have the skills to think their way through a route by, say, using a map, perhaps they have never even learned to read a map!. They cannot get themselves out of a bad situation if their GPS leads them astray (which happens often) and they absolutely cannot get “there” again, in the future, without the assistance of the GPS again.
It is really quite remarkable how quickly (in just 4 or 5 years!) people have given over their independent thought and capabilities to a support system. Even more amazing is the number of times the support system can be wrong, and people still rely on it more than their own knowledge, skill or abilities.
This worries us when you consider how rapidly “training” is becoming just in time instruction. Yes, the proliferation of apps and help utilities are wonderful assistance, but are they training our workers to stop thinking and wait until someone or something tells them what to do? What if the server is down? Will our workers just sit there, stupefied, until the electronic support is operational again?
The impact of Millenials on workplace learning
In less than 2 years, more than 47% of the workforce will be Millenials. How will this affect us as developers of learning? Millenials take in information very differently. They scan, they look for factoids, they don’t read long texts. They are used to working in groups and working collaboratively. They THINK they can handle multi-tasking (in reality, none of us can) so they are used to more than one stream of information coming at them at one time (listening to music, chatting online and doing homework simultaneously is normal). Will we need to change our communication methods? The look and feel and dissemination of our learning materials? When will we make this move? Will we be ahead of the curve or behind it?
Training Magazine Industry Survey round-up
Training Magazine has released, in its November / December issue, the results of its 2011 industry trends survey. Some interesting factoids:
The types of training products and services organizations intend to purchase in the next year: Low: Web 2.0; High: Online learning tools and systems.
Number of trainers per 1,000 employees: roughly 10 – give or take one or two (it is dependent on the size of the overall organization – interestingly LESS trainers at larger organizations).
The only industry that reports it significantly increased its budget for training in 2011: Retail and wholesale. Most industries reported their budgets were roughly the same as the year before.
Instructor-led, classroom-based training still leads the pack when it comes to delivery modalities. Nearly 42% of organizations reported utilizing instructor-led training (up from 27% last year).
The delivery methods least often used for training purposes: PodcastsEPSS (Electronic Performance Support Systems); LCMS (Learning Content Management Systems)
The topic which utilizes online training the most: Mandatory / Compliance training
What if EVERYBODY could see our feedback?
Here's an interesting idea... Do you remember earlier this year when Dominoes posted their real-time feedback on a ticker in New York's Time Square? Real, in the moment, comments about consumer's crusts, cheese consistency and warmth of their pie would show up, uncensored, for all to see. Dominoes said it was a way to show (and uphold) accountability to the consumer.
You are familiar, no doubt, with those audience polling devices that allow us to interact with a presenter at conferences. The presenter says "Which do you think is more important to the future health of the United States? a) reigning in the national debt? b) ensuring the health of the car manufacturers?" And we, in the audience, use our "clickers" to vote A or B.
Well... what if we combined those two concepts and got our course evaluations, in real time, for all to see? Would it change or improve the way we conduct or deliver training? Would it ensure our participants gave more thoughtful, actionable responses? The responses would still be anonymous, but we would see (EVERYONE would see) the feedback about the class, the moment it is finished.
Free Blended Learning Tutorial - e-Learning
Did you know we offer a free e-Learning tutorial on Blended Learning at our website? Enjoy! https://www.trainingdr.com/trainingondemand.htm
Innovation as Improvisation: An interview with training expert Izzy Gesell
Izzy Gesell, of Izzy G & Company, is an organizational alchemist who helps individuals in organizations transform their thinking from common place to extraordinary. He is the author of “Playing Along, Group Learning Activities Borrowed from Improvisational Theatre” and co-author of “Humor Me, America’s Funniest Humorists on the Power of Laughter,” as well as a contributor of a chapter on Improvisation as a Facilitation Tool in the “IAF Group Facilitator’s Handbook.”
T/D: Today's topic is Innovation as Improvisation. Your premise is that the skills that make improvisers successful can make us all successful. How can that be? I’ve seen improvisers and those folks are amazing. They make up stuff so quickly and they’re so creative. I myself am unable to do that; how could that concept be useful to me?
IG: I think the fact is that you can do that. It’s interesting for me to hear when people describe their improv watching experience, they seem to think it’s almost like magic. How do they do that or they must have known the answers in advance. I think that people improvise all the time. Unless of course someone writes a script for you and leaves it on your nightstand, a good part of our day is improvised.
What I’ve come to understand is that we do it but, because we’re not aware of what skills these improvisers have, we don’t see ourselves in the same situation. Truly it’s a practice that you can learn and the more you do it, the more adept at it you become. It’s not about perfection; it’s actually just about being comfortable with taking a risk and not knowing the outcome and going through the process.
T/D: Excellent! Thanks for the encouragement. You use improv theatre games in your facilitated workshops to help people self-discover their impediments to success. Can you explain how that works?
IG: The skills that improvisers have translate certain qualities . Those are the qualities that actually help all of us personally and professionally. When you look at them, what you're seeing are people who understand the power of presence. In other words, they stay in the moment; they have the understanding of acceptance versus agreement and they accept reality and what they're given, even if they don’t agree with it or they don’t like it.
And a third quality is trust. What improvisers do is, they trust a process. In other words, they're okay with not knowing the outcome, but feeling comfortable that they have a way of moving forward. And because usually they’re with someone else or more than one person, it’s a procreation, so no one is by themselves and those qualities, I think, are useful for all of us; presence, being in the moment, acceptance, dealing with reality, dealing with trust, and letting go of the need to know the outcome and judge too quickly.
T/D: That’s an excellent point; presence, acceptance, trust. Could you tell us a bit more about those three concepts and how it works in improv?
IG: I’ll tell you how it works in improv and then the quick connections to how I think it works for all of us. I'll use myself as an example. I don’t have this down pat but I am learning some tools. In presence, improvisers have to stay in the moment; in other words, if they're thinking about what the future will bring, they get off track. If they worry about what happened before or go into the past, they're not able to be in the present. The idea of presence is that they stay in the moment. The way they are taught presence is through a technique called the “Point of Concentration” and that point of concentration idea is really helpful.
“The Point of Concentration” essentially means “what small bit of information do I have to focus on in order to be successful?” An example is volleyball. What do you think the “Point of Concentration” is in volleyball?
T/D: You have to get the ball over the net and have your opponent miss the ball.
IG: Exactly, the point is it doesn’t matter what else is going on, what other people are doing, as long as you know your area, all you need to do is focus on the ball. And the “Point of Concentration” for improv might be making up a story one word at a time or stepping in and taking over somebody’s actions, but it’s a small bit of information that they can act on in the moment.
The skill of “Point of Concentration” leads to focus. And you know from our busy life, it’s very easy to be distracted, focus helps us move forward. Presence comes from focus, and the skill is this point of concentration.
The second quality that we talked about was acceptance. Improvisers understand the difference of acceptance and agreement. Essentially, acceptance is acknowledging the facts. If they're given a story title and they don’t like it or they don’t feel comfortable playing the game, they accept the fact that this is what they have to do and they keep moving forward.
That’s what makes improv seem so quick. People go “how do they do it so fast?” Well, they stay grounded in the moment and they just keep moving forward. People think improv is about thinking fast and being funny, it’s actually more about acting in the moment and being real, not trying to protect yourself for all possible negative outcomes, but moving forward.
The technique that improvisers use to learn acceptance is something called “Yes, and”. which means yes, I’ll take what you give me and I’ll move it forward. Notice how different this is from the concept that most of us are familiar with, which is “Yes, but.” “Yes, but” really is a false agreement. “Yes, and” is building on something. “Yes, but” is zero sum game if one of us has to win this part of the conversation. So the cooperative nature of improv is enhanced by this “yes, and” as opposed to “yes, but.”
The third quality as mentioned earlier, is trust and improvisers trust process. Therefore, they're able to let go of the need to be in the future and to determine the outcome, because we all know you can’t really predict the future. I think it was John Lennon said, “Life is what happens to you when you're making other plans,” and that’s sort of the thing that improvisers understand. If you're making other plans, things are going to go right by you.
So they learn to trust process and thereby the outcome is that they become confident in not knowing, and it’s this ability to be confident and not knowing in the moment and moving forward that helps all of us in things like dealing with change, dealing with stress, trying to foster relationships. It has a pretty wide usability factor.
T/D: Can trainers who don't have any improv or theatre experience learn to use improv effectively in their training?
IG: Yes they can. You as the trainer, the consultant, the facilitator, anybody that works with groups, can use these games just by putting yourself in the same position as you put your audience or your participants that you don’t need to know the outcome; you just need to be part of the process.The more trainers do that, the more vibrant their presentations become because they are putting themselves on the same level as their participants. It’s not that they know the answers; it’s that they're opening up a discussion, a way for people to look at themselves in terms of risk, cooperation, creativity, etc.
T/D: I think a lot of trainers can really use that imagery in their training, thank you. Do you have any last tips or nuggets of advice that you’d like to share?
IG: The key to the improv philosophy is that it’s not about being perfect; it’s about constantly reminding yourself of the basic principles. Stay in the moment, what can I do now? Deal with the reality rather than what you wish was reality, and trust the process and be a little more comfortable with not knowing the outcome. The more you do this, I think the more confident and enjoyable life becomes.
It’s like with change, people talk about managing change, I think we need to master “changing” because change happens all the time and if you see it as an anomaly, then you have to get your defenses up. If you see it as an ongoing process, as part of your life, you become adaptable to it.
If you'd like more information on Izzy, please visit his website at www.IzzyG.com.
Training Doctor Scholarship Award Winner Announced!
The Training Doctor would like to express its utmost congratulations to our Winter 2011 Scholarship Award winner.
As you may know, 2011 is The Training Doctor, LLC's, 21st anniversary year. As such, we more than quadrupled our standard $500 scholarship to a whopping $2100 and our winner is...
.A Training and Development Manager based in Columbia SC. Enrolled at the University of Denver, working on a masters in Organization Development. He says of his goals for implementing what he learns in school:
I want to be a performance improvement catalyst, via the effective use of Instructional Design and Technology practices as well as designing effective Evaluation Protocols
(he got us with that last one) Congratulations Elmer Castro!
The Power of Teachbacks
Teachbacks can be time consuming however, they have wonderful learning outcomes.
Teaching and training involve investment, writing (or typing), organizing, discussing, reflecting, sharing, applying and practicing. They utilize all the elements of improving retention. It is impossible to teach something well without deepening your own learning and retention.
Training Magazine Sept / Oct 2010
Multi-tasking, multi-media, and our future...
A study conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that young learners, aged 8 - 18., spend more than 7.5 hours a day engaged with computers, cell phones, TV, music or video games - and more often than not, they are using these devices simultaneously (at least two at a time).
Studies have shown that multitasking can lead to faster response time, improved peripheral vision and a greater ability to sift through information quickly, BUT it also leads to a diminished ability to focus for long periods.
This worries us in regards to future doctors, researchers and other professions that require long and intense periods of concentration. What if our doctor gets bored in the middle of our arthroscopic surgery? What if our budding researcher ALMOST finds the cure for AIDS but then the coffee cart goes by?
Smaller is Better When it Comes to m-Learning
When creating mobile learning (consumed from a smart phone or similar), keep your content to 4 to 7 items and your goal should be for the learner to read it, watch it, and be able to understand it well enough to feed it back,in 3 – 5 minutes.
You Can't Argue with Free Training - can ya?
PwC Open University (Pricewaterhouse Coopers) has offered 150 of their courses to the public. The topics range from the evolution of global business services to disaster preparedness in healthcare systems. All topics are delivered via webcast, podcast or eLearning. Check it out at www.pwc.com/OpenUniversity
The Training Doctor offers $2100 scholarship!
The Training Doctor offers 2 scholarships per year, for the fall and spring semesters, each in the amount of $500. You must be a working professional and working toward an advanced degree in the field of Training or Organization Development.
BUT THE NEXT AWARD WILL BE IN THE AMOUNT OF $2100 in honor of our 21st anniversary!
In many cases $2100 doesn't help you pay tuition - it IS tuition for the semester.
Deadline is Dec 1 for applications. Award will be announced by Dec. 20, 2011.
Go to the training doctor website > About Us > Philanthropy for the application form. Good luck!
Ain't That The Truth?
SMEs are often fixated on two topics [when they design training]: The coolest thing you can do and the most difficult thing you can do.
The Importance of Reinforcing Training
Yes it's a sales pitch, but here's a great little tutorial on the need to reinforce training http://tinyurl.com/3ze2424
SC Midlands Chapter of ASTD - Thanks
We spoke at the ASTD Midlands chapter (SC) last week at their 2nd annual conference and expo. What an outstanding and professional job they did! Highly recommend you check them out next year!