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I appreciated everyone’s participation and questions during last week’s HRDQ-U/Trainers Warehouse Learning without Lectures webinar. As you’ll recall, we talked about lots of ways to incorporate 6 brain principles in your training – and to let that guide you in terms of creating learner-focused training – movement tops sitting; talking tops listening; writing tops reading; images top words; shorter tops longer; different tops same.
When we began discussing ways to enable participation, the group offered tons of suggestions. As promised, I wanted to share these rich tips with you. I’ve taken the liberty to organize and categorize all the ideas, but have included only minimal editing, as needed for context.
Finally, at the bottom, I’ve answered additional questions that arose during the webinar. You’ll find the webinar handout notes here.
Gosh, we had so many ideas on participation tips and techniques. So many so that we should probably dive in even deeper next time. Until then, here’s what the group came up with in a matter of just a few minutes.
It’s true that storytelling can involve a lot talking, but unlike lecturing stories include emotion, storyline, and sometime a moral. In terms of our 6 brain-based learning principles, I put storytelling in the “Different tops same” category. Stories are incredibly effective when they touch people’s emotions and bring nuance and memorability to your content.
In your planning, focus first on essential “Need to Know” information and strip out everything else. Consider what strategies will make that information most meaningful and “sticky” for participants. If your topic requires interaction and discussion, you might want to discuss your time needs with the “powers that be,” so you can do the topic justice. Also consider splitting your material into multiple sessions. Consider the power and impact of TED Talk, which limit presentations to 18 minutes. Memorably, David Christian shared a talk on the History of the World in just those 18 minutes.
Habituation is a psychological concept that says humans experience diminishing physiological or emotional responses to frequently repeated stimuli. In other words, we stop noticing stuff that’s become familiar, like the junk in the corner or picture on the wall. Instead, we are drawn to what’s new. I would venture to guess that it’s an evolutionary trait. If we knew we were physically safe in the current situation, our ability to quickly focus on anything new, would help us to continue to stay safe in changing environments. The lesson for trainers is to keep changing our strategies so that learners always have something new to focus on. We should shift gears frequently, moving from an exercise, to activity, to discussion, to story, to explanation, to break, to Q&A, to game, etc.
Take a brain break or incorporate movement in one of your learning exercises. Ask participants to:
Consider that an image can either be a printed/flat photo or a situation that you describe. Remember that image and imagine come from the same root. So, you might say: imagine a tall stack of stack books, long soft hair, the smell of the city after a rain shower, a favorite aroma, etc. Instead of relying on a photograph, request a sound, touch, or small that learners can relate to a learning point or memory.
As with many SAAS programs, you’re likely to find a free version with less functionality. Then if you want more features or more users, you will have to pay. Here’s a link to Miro’s pricing structure, as an example.
Here are the details on integrating Miro with Google Classroom.
You would think this . . . and perhaps you wouldn’t want to overuse this technique, but the research says that interrupted tasks are most memorable. This is referred to as the Zeigarnik Effect.
Hybrid certainly creates it’s own challenges. I’d consider each activity and think about ways to maximize the experience for each group… then consider ways to tie the two together. I think you really have to break it down by segment/activity.
I’m always on the lookout for data supporting the use of active learning strategies in corporate environments. When I find studies and data that I feel are helpful, I typically write about them and post them on my WorkSmart blog.
Here are a handful I might suggest that deal specifically with negotiation and conflict resolution. In addition, there are games where teams need to build a tower or create a structure. Instead of giving teams all the parts they need, facilitators make it necessary for competing teams to share resources. Great conversations can come from these.
Once again, I want to thank everyone for their contributions during the Learning without Lectures webinar. Given the platform, which limited interaction, it was a tall order to present and facilitate a highly interactive, participatory session. With everyone’s help, I think we can say, we did it!
This is awesome! I was not able to attend the session so THANK YOU for these notes.
I am the Leadership Education Coordinator for the Kiwanis District of Florida and I will be sure to pass on many of these “gems” to my trainers.