Interview with Author: Kassy LaBorie
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Kassy Laborie, Director, Virtual Training Services, Dale Carnegie
What motivated you to write this book?
I have over 15 years of experience converting activities into the live online environment. I get new ideas all the time, every time I deliver an event. I didn't want to lose them or keep repeating them without the specific knowledge of how I'd done them before. I wanted to document the activities in order to archive them, grow them, and of course, share them with others!
If you could distill your message down to just one - what would it be?
So you want to engage your online attendees? Get them to interact. To ACT. DO. THINK. Engagement is not elusive if you simply permit people to be active participants to
their
event rather than passive "attendees" to
yours
How can trainers use this book to assist them in the work that they do?
Do you want to make your next online event memorable, exciting and effective? Interact and Engage! is a practical resource, full of over 50 off the shelf recipes for activities you can use right away to engage your participants like never before!
Do you have a personal motto that you live by?
Practice learning. Practice failing. Practice succeeding! Keep practicing.
Multiple Choice Tests and the Downfall of American Education
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Here is an excerpt from a rather lengthy blog post by Alex Terego. He makes a compelling point about how an educational testing process has had the ripple effect of reducing thinking skills.
In the 1960s schools found a way to grade tests more cheaply by using what we would now consider a rather dumb electronic device. It was an optical character recognition reader. As long as the student used a #2 pencil to fill in ovals the OCR reader could collect and grade the results of a test; a task traditionally performed by the teacher, at much greater cost.
There was just one issue: the OCR could only work if tests were administered in multiple choice formats. This is because an answer to a factual question has a true/false or right/wrong -objective- answer that is universally true. So, the only way to test for retention of factual information was to create tests beginning with "which of the following multiple choices is the true one?". So, the more the curriculum was based on facts the easier it was for the OCR machine to replace the teacher, and take the drudgery of test-taking and grading out of their hands and save money.
If a question or problem needed a student to use facts as just one aspect of developing a subjective opinion, to which there is no universally accepted right or wrong answer, the OCR machine had no value. So, for the past half century, in the name of efficiency and cost-savings we have been preparing students for a personal and employee life where they will be faced with issues that are overwhelmingly about subjective opinions by teaching them how to memorize facts. We opted to teach fact-memorization, and to grade our entire instructional structure based on its results.
You can read his whole post here.
Learn about the trainee's typical day
Before you design any training program, ask the requestor to tell you about the audience's typical day and overall job responsibilities. Ideally, you would like to observe the future-trainees in their day-to-day routine so that you can get the "big picture" of the work that they do and the environment in which they do it. If that is not possible, then ask for a thorough description of the future-trainee's typical work day and job responsibilities.
Very often, with this information, you can spot work-process breakdowns that are contributing to the symptoms which precipitated the request for training. Also, you are able to redirect the training or include elements which would not have been addressed had you not had the big picture of work responsibilities.
For example: A manufacturing organization was seeking to cross-train shop-floor workers in order to offset the downtime associated with machine breakdown. Because the organization had only one maintenance person, when a machine would break down, it could take a few hours for the technician to turn his attention to that machine. The intent of the request for cross-training was to be better able to utilize the machine operators during their idle time, while they were waiting for their primary machine to be repaired.
Gaining a better understanding of their overall job responsibilities, however, highlighted the fact that most machine operators refused to complete preventative maintenance and did not follow the start-up protocol which included oiling and gauge adjustments, etc., and simply switched their equipment on.
A more strict enforcement of start-up procedures, or having the maintenance technician come in an hour earlier each day to start the machines properly, was the primary solution to the machine breakdown dilemma. Without this understanding of the worker's typical day the company may have spent tens of thousands of dollars cross training their workers in order to compensate for the down-time created by the machine breakdowns.
The ultimate solution was to minimize the downtime by following company protocol, NOT providing training.
The Dark Side of Leadership
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Bold, innovative leader or r narcissistic, paranoid personality disorder? You decide.
A series of articles and research papers investigate the "dark personality traits" of leaders. While most of us are looking forward, toward ways to develop our future leaders (topics, training, experiences, etc.), some researchers are investigating the personality traits that bring our "rising stars" to us in the first place.
Leader Development and the Dark Side of Personality (Leadership Development Quarterly); The Dark Side of Trait Leadership (Penn State Psychology Blog); Dark Side Personality and Extreme Leader Behavior (slide show from Kaiser Leadership Solutions presented at the 28th Annual SIOP Conference) The "father" of the Dark Side (the Hogan Development Survey (HDS))
Scroll to the bottom of the page and you will find the top 3 personality predictors for leadership derailment, by industry (in general terms, of course).
Teaching Thinking Through Job Shadowing
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Job shadowing is often thought of as a way to gain exposure to a field or profession. Think you might want to be a police officer? Sign up for the ride-along program. Perhaps owning a flower shop is more your idea of career fulfillment? Then become an apprentice to a nursery or flower shop to understand more about the field.
These processes are spot-on for the individual who is curious and wants to learn more; but in the workplace we often slot people in to a role and leave them there. We hire accountants and leave them as accountants. We hire machinists and leave them as machinists. But what if that accountant would be better suited to being an auditor? And what if the machinist really would excel in quality control? When and how will they expand their horizons to learn about the possibilities within your organization?
Too often people leave organizations in order to expand their knowledge and skills.By instituting job shadowing as a regular developmental process you can maintain the curiosity of your employees and help them to identify their own career path. People accept responsibility for their own development when they are excited and engaged about the possibilities that are open to them.
Additionally, job shadowing helps individuals to understand how the business as a whole works. We have worked with too many organizations in which only the "people at the top" understand how each division or unit works and supports the others. Having a greater understanding of different roles within the business, and how those roles support the business, helps individuals develop critical thinking and decision making skills. For instance, a salesperson would not promise a delivery by a certain date if s/he were well-aware that manufacturing, testing, and shipping alone require at least three weeks lead time.
Job shadowing should be an on-going, planned event. It should not be reserved for "hi-pos" or instituted on a person-by-person basis. As a whole, every business will grow and benefit when every worker understands how the business works and who is impacted by various processes. And, from a developmental standpoint, as individuals see the breadth and depth of careers within your organization they will often take control of their own development and career path and mitigate the turnover issue that so many organizations battle on a daily basis.
Case Study: Bite-sized Instructor Led Training
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When we think of bite-sized learning, we often think of something that is self-paced, just-in-time, mobile or e-Learning.
We recently visited with a client that is providing bite-sized learning (10 minutes or less) delivered by live instructors. Picture this: a room of 40 trainers who sit in cubicles wearing headsets, at desks with two computer monitors. The trainees call the trainers when they are ready for their lesson. The trainees go in to a queue and any trainer can pick up the call and teach any topic thanks to a script that pops up on one screen. On the other screen they document the learner, the lesson, and the advice / next steps prescribed for that learner.
In a 10-minute-or-so conversation, the trainer and trainee discuss how the last lesson has been working for the learner, practice a read-through of the new lesson, role-play the new lesson, audio-record the new lesson and listen-back for a self-critique as well as a trainer critique.
Lessons are meted out, one-per-week, for a period of weeks depending on the topic. The learner is expected to practice one minute technique during the week and then the next technique is introduced, the following week.
Bite-sized learning? More like crumb-sized learning! And SUPER effective. Just ask their 850 clients!
What's Your Problem?
What is the problem you are experiencing?
Very often you'll get a request from a business unit for a specific type of training, for instance "My sales team needs team-building training."
Do not accept the requester's interpretation of the skills that are needed because they usually:
1 - have a myopic view of the situation (a sales manager will only see problems related to sales), and
2 - they usually do not have an understanding of how poor-performance can be manifested in different ways and that an entirely different approach might solve the presenting problem
For instance, we worked with a financial firm with salespeople throughout the United States and a sales-support staff that was centrally located. One of the problems the salesforce was experiencing, according to a regional vice president, was a lack of teamwork. His interpretation was that the support staff was not sufficiently invested in the success of their assigned salesperson(s).After a brief period of investigation, two factors came to light: 1 - the salespeople and their support person had never met, and 2 - the support staff didn't have a clear picture of the sales cycle and when they could expect requests for support (at the proposal stage, during negotiation, making presentations, etc.).
The salespeople had attended numerous training programs and the support people had attended none. So only one-half of the team had an idea of the process and expectations. The reason team training was requested was because the regional vice president of sales believed the two groups were at odds based on numerous complaints from the sales staff lamenting a lack of timely support.
So while training was indeed one of the solutions, what was delivered to this group was not what was originally requested. Why? Team building would have addressed the first problem (the "teams" didn't know one another) but would not have addressed the second (the support staff didn't understand the sales cycle and their role in it).
Always ask questions before agreeing to design, deliver or procure training. It will save time, money and your reputation!
Next month we'll look at a different question to ask.
Unconscious Bias
Bias: Prejudice in favor or against one thing over another
We've been seeing a lot of "content" regarding unconscious bias lately. We attended a presentation at Training 2016 in Orlando on the topic, given by a woman who trains judges to be aware of their unconscious bias. There was a recent article in Training Magazine on the topic, which warned: "The implications of unconscious bias are that the best and brightest talent often is made to feel unwelcome, invisible, and not important to the success of the organization. This results in employees who are detached and likely to take their talents elsewhere."
And we have discovered a fascinating free resource - offered by Harvard - of various inventories that help you think about and uncover your unconscious bias'. This resource would be a great launching pad for a conversation on the topic at your own company. Check it out: Project Implicit.
3 Tips for On-boarding New-Hires, Virtually
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With companies being so global these days, the old method for on-boarding new hires (gathering them together on a certain day of the month) is not realistic anymore. Many organizations have started to on-board their new-hires virtually, which may seem like an impersonal way to welcome someone to your company, however, when done effectively, the satisfaction rating for virtual on-boarding is just as high as for in-person on-boarding.
The Training Doctor has worked with a number of global organizations in the past few years to both design and deliver their new-hire on-boarding process. In this piece we will share with you some of the best practices we have established to ensure that your new-hires feel that they are a welcome and valuable addition to your organization.
Caveat: These tips are based on the assumption that the new hires are prepared to take this class. Preparation includes:
They have a computer / work station
They have an appropriate office set up
They have tested their a connection to the online platform
They know how to access the class
You are NOT doing HR / administration tasks
Best practice tips for on-boarding new hires virtually
Tip #1: Make the welcome memorable
Most on-boarding training, when done for a global organization, asks participants to declare where they "are" in the world. This is extremely boring and doesn't make the new-hire feel as though they are really part of a cohort. However, introductions are crucial because you don't want a participant to feel isolated. You want to hit the ground running and have people feel as though they want to participate and that it is going to be fun to do so. One idea is to put a grid on the screen, have each new-hire claim a cell as their own, and then answer a series of questions that explore their personality and uniqueness, such as: what is your current position, what was your last job, what was the first job you ever held, what was the most unique job you've ever held, one thing your colleagues would guess about you based on your work relationship (we've had some fascinating declarations to this questions).
These things get people talking, get them fascinated in their fellow new hires, (they'll start having side conversations in chat which is FINE. You want them to make connections), it makes them feel as though they "know" everybody already and that they are not isolated at their desk in East Podunk (what do you know? We just Googled that and there actually IS an E Podunk, CT).
If the facilitator is really quick, you can take a screenshot of this introductory screen and then refer to it throughout the session rather than saying "Who was that again, that won the Jr Bowling championship?"
At this point in the orientation, the presenter is the focal point, so they have to show genuine interest in everyone who is in attendance.
Tip #2: Spread out information about the company throughout the presentation
Don't spend an extended time on company information - it can become information overload and disengaging. Spread out the information in different ways throughout the session. You'll want to concentrate on things that will get people emotionally connected to the organization: things that are interesting, funny, awe inspiring, perhaps a comment from the CEO, pictures from over the years, awards the company has won, or activities that get the new-hires participating and learning about the company (like a company website scavenger hunt).
Another option for disseminating factual information about the company throughout the presentation is creating some kind of image or graphic which contains that information and have it pop up on various slides, a'la the factoids about musical artists that used to appear on VH1 music videos.
Tip #3: A message or involvement from Sr. Management is critical
This idea originated with Jack Welch who made it a point to address each management class at their Crotonville facility. Some ideas include a video from a Sr. leader of the organization, or having a leader personally appear for a period of time during the orientation. The leadership message should include information about the company such as its competitive advantage, what drives results - quality, service, low-cost, how the new-hire's job assists in achieving the above two items. Many of these topics are covered during interviews but the amount of time between interviews and actual hire is often enough that individuals forget this information. Plus, during an interview, individuals are nervous and may not give their full attention to information of that nature.
So it's always a good idea to reiterate these concepts and having a leader of the organization deliver them helps the new-hires to realize that their contribution to the organization was a thoughtful hire and is appreciated by the senior management of the organization, and that this on-boarding isn't simply an administrative task that needs to be accomplished by HR.
Contrary to what you might think, it IS possible, with planning and attention to detail, to create a welcoming and inspiring new-hire on-boarding experience. If you'd like to learn more about on-boarding new-hires virtually, please contact us. We are happy to share our other best practices.
$2500 in Scholarship Money available!
money
In honor of our 25th Anniversary, The Training Doctor is offering a $2500.00 scholarship to a working professional who is getting an advanced degree in workplace Training or OD.
Please see our Philanthropy page for the application and qualification requirements.
Deadline: July 1, 2016
Scholarship awarded: July 16, 2016
Interview with Author Yael Hellman - Learning for Leadership
Yael
What motivated you to write this book?
In my years of teaching leadership, I noticed a huge gap between leadership theory and how my students, from all walks of life, actually turn into leaders. I saw that by respecting their varied life experiences, abilities, and learning preferences, I inspired them to value those qualities in themselves AND in those they would lead.
I also saw that traditional lecturing and assignments didn't produce the self-reflection and emotional intelligence leaders need. So I created a participant-centered group environment safe enough to contain and ignite individuals' unique energies and openness to experience. Turned out, this facilitative approach (which decades of research on leadership teaching supports) actually cultivates deep, lasting leadership skills through immediate, hands-on practice. I wanted to share what I learned training leaders in business, public service, and academic settings.
So Learning for Leadership; A Facilitative Approach for Training Leaders culls my best techniques, resources, and lesson plans. Perhaps most important, it presents real-life accounts of the pitfalls and potentials of facilitative leadership teaching to inform and encourage other instructors.
If you could distill your message down to just one - what would it be?
Leadership teaching-like leadership itself--is not for the faint of heart. You must be a lifelong learner to know yourself, your triggers, and your dynamic, and then to recognize those in others in order to reach and to motivate them.
How can trainers use this book to assist them in the work that they do?
Learning for Leadership; A Facilitative Approach for Training Leaders briefly outlines how adults learn so trainers can approach them appropriately and effectively. The book offers on-the-ground activities and projects that let participants experience-and so truly learn--the instructor's points. Its concrete tips facilitate the learning AND the teaching of leadership by helping trainers meet the intellectual and emotional demands of an experiential, participant-centered group. Its clear theory and tried-and-true practices let instructors in business or any context develop profound, practical executive wisdom in their trainees.
Do you have a personal motto that you live by?
Know yourself, and know your trainees. Only then will you see when to lead and when to follow, and be able to transform learners into leaders." (Hellman, p. xii)
Big Data - Little Data
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Google "employee training" and "data analytics" and you'll find a wealth of articles and resources to assist you in analyzing the "big data" associated with managing a workforce of individuals.
This month The Training Doctor had an interesting experience with "little data." Rather than having thousands of data points and crunching the numbers in oh, so many ways, we analyzed a finite period of time (one week), across three organizations, for one specific job-task in under 4 hours, to determine:
There was a training need for the population
That need was NOT what we thought it originally to be
Management needed to be aware that the lack-of-skills in this area / population was rippling throughout the organization and causing "poor performance" in other areas
With this very specific look at the data we were able to pinpoint a problem - and solution - in a matter of hours.
Another interesting "ah-ha" moment was that analyzing the data was NOT the original approach (nor even the second approach) we attempted to conduct the analysis. This is when you need to be chummy with your IT department. Ask them - what kind of information do we collect in X area? How can we access it? What does it show us?
The data WE analyzed showed us things we weren't even looking for or expecting to find; but seeing the repetitive nature of the data made it quite apparent where the process breakdown was occurring. It was also helpful to see that same data across three organizations to "prove" that it wasn't an anomoly at one organization. The data gave us the 30,000-foot view we needed to see the "big picture" (not the big data).
Great Work Everyone! Here's an Avocado for your Efforts!
Do you regularly give out candy as a reward during your F2F training sessions? Well, you're not doing your learners any favors. Instead put out piles of beans, eggs, fish, berries and, ok, dark chocolate.
In this fascinating article (and quick read) by Jeremy Teitelbaum, he challenges us to think about our "tried and true" methods of delivering training and learning, using what we know from 25 years of brain research. Suggestions include:
Stop forcing people to multitask.
He cites research by Stanford University which determined that even when people claim they are multi-tasking, they really are not processing more than one piece of information at once.
Feed the mind to teach the mind.
The author makes an interesting point: In recent years physical fitness training has included the mind and the way it thinks about fitness, body image, health, eating habits and the like; but the opposite hasn't proven true. Nobody training the mind thinks about what the body needs to enable the mind to be successful. Hmmmm
You are unique - just like everyone else.
Brain research focuses on generalizations based on small samples of "brains." This might cause us to categorize people, types of learning, or personality factors.
Hard and Soft Skills Aren't as Important as Emotion
All learning has an emotional component - something most of us in training simply ignore as we 'get down to business.'
Brain Matters: Interview with Margie Meacham
Megan
An interview with the author: Margie Meacham
What motivated you to write this book?
I was really inspired by my clients. They were frustrated that so many articles about neuroscience didn't really provide actionable advice. They wanted something that would give them practical ways to apply neuroscience to their roles as learning professionals. After looking in vain for such a resource, I decide to write one for them.I
f you could distill your message down to just one - what would it be?
Every person alive has an amazing potential for growth and change. All we have to do is harness the power of our amazing brains.
How can trainers use this book to assist them in the work that they do?
There are two ways to read the book. You could read it the usual way, from cover to cover, or you could open it to the chapter that is most important to you at the time. The book is divided into different topics that are applicable to adult learners in the workplace, so you can turn to a specific chapter and get the information you need. I've also included references at the end of each chapter for those who want to dig deeper.
Do you have a personal motto that you live by?
My personal motto is "Survive and thrive to stay alive." It reminds me that our brains are built for survival, which explains why they work the way they do. In order to thrive, we need to remember this survival imperative and use our brains to the fullest to continue to thrive and stay alive.
Don't Touch That Stove! It's Hot!
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For 25+ years now, we have been a knowledge economy; yet we use training methodologies designed for the industrial age. Much of what we attempt to accomplish in workplace training requires thinking, reasoning, and decision-making skills.
When we teach soft-skills we are teaching reasoning and decision making. When we teach financial management we are teaching thinking and reasoning skills. When we teach how to operate a piece of equipment we are teaching thinking and decision-making skills.
There really is no skill - hard or soft- addressed by workplace training, that does not include the underpinnings of reasoning, decision making and thinking. Yet most training is fixated on the "what" and "how to," and does not include the "why," "when," or "what if?"
For true learning to occur, people need to experience the content in some way. This is often a difficult task when you are teaching a concept and not a physical skill AND it is not easy to achieve in a short time period (8 hours or 4 hours or absolutely NOT in a 20 minute eLearning "course").T
he onus is on us (trainers) to create learning environments which maximize the experiential aspect of how individuals learn. A perfect example is teaching your child to stay away from a hot stove. We've all given the "instruction" (and been the recipient of same) -
Don't touch! It's hot!
Stay away, you'll get burned!
Be careful! That's dangerous!
And yet, inevitably, every one of us does touch the stove; and THAT is when reasoning and decision making kick in. Although we understand the concepts of "dangerous" and "hurt," the actual experience of touching the stove is the time when all of those words and concepts gel together and create meaning. From that point on, we are fully capable of assessing the dangers of a hot kitchen appliance and changing our behavior accordingly (AND we can extrapolate it to other appliances like a grill or a teapot)
.In the workplace, these same types of outcomes need to be achieved through creating learning experiences that enable the reasoning and decision-making skills of our participants to kick in. As stated earlier, this is not easy to achieve and it is usually never quick; however it is always the longest-lasting of lessons.
If you'd like to brainstorm or discuss with us the methodologies behind enhancing learning through experiential learning, give us a call or download our whitepaper on thinking skills.