Learning Blog

Why are we here?

2009-08-06T13:36:00.000-07:00

Sometimes what we do in "training" isn't really for training at all. We are just communicating a message, or changing people's mind. The design of the presentation is very different for each of the ends:

Four purposes of a presentation:

1. To Inform - Communication or awareness about a topic.
2. To Educate, Develop or Train - Build a specific set of skills, knowledge, or attitude.
3. Persuade - Change their minds, behaviors, or attitudes.
4. Get Action - Get them motivated and able to do something in particular.

When teaching... don't give away the punch line!

2009-08-06T13:16:00.000-07:00

When kicking off your training, start at the end!
Say... “when we wrap up today…”
BUT Don’t tell everything that you have in your brain.
AND Keep it limited... keep them waiting until the end!

I designed a training program that was presented to hundreds of people, and I built a teaser like that into the program. The instructor showed, using a 3 minute simulation, how the company could save a million dollars or more.

“When you complete this training you will clearly see how this was done, and you be able to that too!"

Tell them what they will be able to do at the end, but keep the HOW for later in the presentation. The training can reveal the skills and knowledge needed to get the WIIFM.

Giving the answers early is a big mistake, but asking the questions early is a big benefit!

Why Should You Learn?

2009-08-06T13:13:00.000-07:00

The first point of Malcolm Knowles Adult Learning Theory is "Adults have a need to know why they should learn before investing time in a training event." How can you build that into your training programs? This is what I like to do...

In the first few minutes of a training class, always ask people what issues matter to them, as related to the training. Write these down on a flip chart.

For example, I did a quick course on writing development plans this week. I asked the class "Why does training and development matter to a company like yours?" I then wrote down their responses on a white board.

Then get the learners to elaborate:
--“How many of you think that...?”
--"Of those that did not raise your hands, do you think….?”

Another training tip: You don't need to say "raise your hand if you think that"... if you just raise your hand as a trainer, the learners will get the idea!

This is your captain speaking...

2009-08-06T13:06:00.001-07:00

Always present an agenda.

On an airplane you always here something like:
“Welcome aboard flight 595 to Atlanta. This is your captain David Richards. Today’s flight will be 1 hour and 45 minutes. Our arrival time will be 4:10.” I have traveled a LOT, personally and professionally, and it's always nice to hear from the captain that you (and he!) are in agreement that you are on the right plane!

Similarly, in training you should give them an agenda:
“Welcome to Leadership 101. I am your instructor, David Richards. Today’s training will be 1 hour and 45 minutes, and we will be wrapping up at about 4 PM.” Then give them a general agenda of what their journey will look like (topics to be covered, objectives, etc.)

There's an added benefit... if a student hears the agenda and decides that they maybe are in the wrong class ("on the wrong plane") they can scoot out before the flight gets started. They may decide that the class is too easy or too hard, or in another way not what they expected. Sometimes there's a prerequisite that the student hasn't completed, or some other reason that they should get off the plane before it TAKES OFF!

Broadband Talent Management Plans

2009-08-05T12:46:00.000-07:00

Not all development plans are alike. Based on your situation and career objectives, you may find one of these plans helps you improve your performance.

Development Plan Focus on development of weak areas to bring them up to an acceptable level.
Enhancement Plan Focus on development of average areas to bring them to an above average level.
Good to Great Plan Take a strength and build it to an exceptional level of expertise.
Workaround Plan Recognize a weakness and create a plan on how to achieve good results anyway.
Substitution Plan Recognize a weakness, and create a plan to use a strength to overcome the weakness.
Redeployment Plan Use strengths in assignments/projects that play to that strength.
Capitulation Plan Choice to give up trying to improve a weakness.
Compensation Plan Plan to dampen the effect of overuse of a skill by using other compensating skills.
Rerailment Plan Brings people back into line that have fallen off the career track.
Marketing Plan Plan to inform others of the individual’s talents.
Skills Transfer Plan Focus on using strengths the individual has in one job, to a new job.
Exposure Plan Give opportunities to try untested skills in challenging new assignments.
Confidence Plan Increase confidence and self-esteem by playing to unrecognized strengths
Insight Plan. Help individual understand their blind spots
Diagnostic Plan Clarify confusion that exists around strengths/weaknesses through assessments, ratings, evaluations, etc.
Assessment Plan Discover deep underlying problems that affect performance and behavior.

Based on the book “Broadband Talent Management, 16 Paths to Improvement” by Robert Eichinger, Michael Lombardo, and Alex Stibler

Chunk and Chunking in Learning

2009-08-01T10:14:00.000-07:00

Transcript of a Podcast that mentions Chunky Learning!!!

---

Mary Kay: Hi, Dave. So, tell our audience, what are “Chunk” and “Chunking”?

Dave Powell: The term “Chunk,” a noun, refers to a distinct portion of content that often consists of several related learning topics grouped together. “Chunking,” a verb, usually describes either the action of dividing a large subject into smaller portions or of combining smaller content elements into larger groups.

Mary Kay: Thanks, Dave. As always, it's great to have you.

Dave: Great to be here, Mary Kay. Talk with you soon.

Mary Kay: This is Mary Kay Lofurno, Marketing Director at SyberWorks. Thanks for listening to episode 14 of the e-Learning Lingo Podcast.

Training Tips Blog

2009-08-01T10:06:00.000-07:00

I have started a new, parrallel blog, called Training Tips blog. I am going through some books from ASTD, and blogging about some of the key points from those books.

That blog is at http://trainingtips.wordpress.com

You may have some comments to leave on that blog! Please contribute!!!

Chunky Learning in Designing Learning

2009-08-01T10:05:00.000-07:00

“Too much information at one time creates confusion. Chunking is a term for breaking down concepts into meaningful parts. The learning professional should give the learner a maximum of three large pieces of information at a time. In a session, if the topic has three major components, the facilitator should deliver them within an hour. After delivering the three large chunks within an hour, it’s time to summarize and break.”

ASTD, Designing Learning. 2006

HRDQ - Great training materials

2009-06-22T18:55:00.000-07:00

HRDQ has some of the highest quality training material available anywhere. What makes me like them so much?

1. The material is easy to use, with complete materials for the facilitator as well as the participant.
2. The facilitator guides give the information that the trainer needs to deliver a high quality workshop.
3. The assessments are very useful and well researched.
4. The pricing is reasonable.... not cheap, but a good value for the money.

My favorite HRDQ Training Programs:

Mars Surface Rover (facilitative leadership)
I have used this program several times. Teams compete by building toy cars from a jumble of tires, screws, motors, and rods. At the end, you race the cars to see who wins! But the task isn't just mechanical... the team learns the benefits of facilitative leadership, with trust, respect, open communication and productivity. This program, and other HRDQ programs, includes facilitator instructions including handouts, PowerPoints, and facilitator tips.

Jungle Escape (team skills)
This is a program that I have used at least 20 times! The problem to solve: you are stuck in the jungle with only a bunch of plastic pieces and you need to build a helicopter to escape... and the time is running out! The team that builds the perfect helicopter wins. Lots of fun and hands-on.

Team Effectiveness Profile
A good basic team assessment, based on research on what a team needs for success: Mission, Vision, and Goals; Team Roles; Operating Processes; Interpersonal Relationships; and Interteam Relationships.

Supervisory Skills Questionnaire
The Supervisory Skills Questionnaire is a comprehensive and practical assessment tool that helps supervisors to focus on the 5 most critical skills for effective supervision: Guiding the Work, Organizing the Work, Developing Your Staff, Managing Performance, and Managing Relations.

Conflict Strategies Inventory
Conflict Strategies Inventory gives participants valuable new insights into the strategies they use in conflict situations. Presented with 10 short cases of typical, work-related conflict, respondents choose the actions they are most likely to take.

Team Conflict Strategies Inventory
Sometimes team disagreements can become serious conflicts, threatening the productivity or even the life of the group. But if a team can use effective strategies for handling conflict, conflict may afford new learning and eventually deeper, more productive relationships."

Mastering the Change Curve
Recurring change is the norm in organizational life today. Still, most of us have difficulty dealing with it. To successfully master change, individuals must pass through 4 phases: Denial, Resistance, Exploration, and Commitment. Mastering the Change Curve uncovers individual reactions to change and provides an understanding of how behavior affects success.

Breakthrough Creativity Profile
The Breakthrough Creativity Profile is based on the personality research of Carl Jung. This assessment reveals one’s dominant and auxiliary preferences among the 8 creative talents and helps individuals define what is needed to achieve their creative best.

Click here to visit HRDQ

Learn Languages using Podcasts - great idea!

2009-04-17T06:48:00.000-07:00

I have been investigating ways to learn languages and happened on a company called Praxis that has a pretty cool concept... and they have really put together a professional looking package. Bravo to the folks behind these programs.

They offer language training using Podcasts - what's a podcast?? A podcast is a way to send the learning to your iPod or other MP3 player. You can also listen to their programs on the computer, and they have some great supplementary material as well.

The programs have names like FrenchPod, SpanishPod, ItalianPod, etc.

I went and tried the FREE sample lessons thay have available and found them to be engaging and fun. There was a Chinese program, for example, that was only a few minutes long, dealing with how to wake somebody up in Chinese. It was histerical! The voices were of a native English speaker and also a native Chinese speaker... the podcast seemed unrehearsed and had a fun banter between the two that made it engaging and fun.

I also listened to the FREE French program, and the Italian program. Totally fun. The Italian one was about making Moca on the stove, and the native Italian speaker was a riot; totally Italian with a great sense of humor.

I love this learning because it is CHUNKY : it can be learned in small pieces, just a few minutes at a time, so anyone could use it. I recommend you look at the free trials, and please comment about what you think by clicking the comment button here.

Here's the Links

SPANISH: http://tinyurl.com/spanishpod
FRENCH: http://tinyurl.com/frenchpod
ITALIAN: http://tinyurl.com/italianpod
CHINESE: http://tinyurl.com/chinesepod
ENGLISH: http://tinyurl.com/englishpod

itallianpod, spanish pod, french pod, chinesepod, italianpod.cm frenchpod.cm chinesepod.cm englishpod.cm spanishpod.cm spanishpod.c0m learning languages with podcasts learn spanish with podcast learn chinese with podcast download spanish podcast free spanish podcast

Lessons of Experience

2009-04-13T06:16:00.000-07:00

How do people learn? Well, like so many things... that depends! and it depends on who you ask and how you ask it. When I ask people how they learned do do their jobs so well, I almost never get the answer "I took a class." It almost always is about experience... particularly experiences involving either working in difficult times, or starting something from scratch. And it often involves working with someone that the learnee admires (mentor or coach).

The book Lessons of Experience: How Successful Executives Develop on the Job by Morgan W. McCall, Michael M. Lombardom, and Ann M. Morrison, gives an in-depth study on the role that experience plays in the on-the-job development of executives.

Executives get development from a variety of experiences:

Setting and Implementing Agendas
Technical/professional skills
All about the business one is in
Strategic thinking
Shouldering full responsibility
Building and using structure and control systems
Innovative problem-solving methods

Handing Relationships
Handling political situations
Getting people to implement solutions
What executives are like
How to work with executives
Strategies of negotiation
Dealing with people over whom you have no authority
Understanding other people’s perspectives
Dealing with conflict
Directing and motivating subordinates
Developing other people
Confronting subordinate performance problems
Managing former bosses and peers

Basic Values
You can’t manage everything all alone
Sensitivity to the human side of management
Basic management values
Executive Temperament
Being tough when necessary
Self-confidence
Coping with situations beyond your control
Persevering through adversity
Coping with ambiguous situations
Use (and abuse) of power

Personal Awareness
The balance between work and personal life
Knowing what really excites you about work
Personal limits and blind spots
Taking charge of your career
Recognizing and seizing opportunities

In coursework, classes that provide "experience" are the best for developing executives:

a) Courses deal with issues relevant to the business, but are not restricted to newer technical aspects.
b) Some courses provide opportunity for careful self-analysis and feedback.
c) Attention is paid to timing – people attend when it fits with things on the job.
d) Attention is paid to credibility and competence of colleagues and instructors.
e) Courses are considered only one of many developmental tools and are used in conjunction with on-the-job experience.

This book works well combined with the Job Challenge Profile from the Center for Creative Leadership. With this tool the developing manager/executive looks at their current role and discovers ways to develop on-the-job through experiences that the current job presents, or through expanding their job.

What is your experience with this? Please comment

Opening Gambits for Presentations

2009-04-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

In the book "Presenting to Win" the author gives some great ways to open any presentation:

1. The Question... "how may of you know that...?"
2. The Factoid...a very striking fact.
3. Retroactive/Perspective.... "We used to do it that way, now we do it this way."
4. The Anecdote... a very short story.
5. The Quotation
6. The Aphorism (familiar saying)
7. The Analogy ... compare two seemingly unrelated items... "this project is like a house..."

Link: Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story, Updated and Expanded Edition

Try-Storming? Action-Oriented Brain-Storming!

2009-03-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

In a meeting today, one of the "lean process gurus" used the term "TRY-STORMING" which he explained is a action oriented way to do Brain Storming. Instead of just talking about things, in Try Storming you try doing them (through simulations, etc.) Sounds like a great way to learn about things, not just talk about them!

Organization Development Information?... check out odportal.com

2009-03-12T14:20:00.000-07:00

Nice to see that my organization development portal http://www.odportal.com/ is cited as a "recommended website" in the book "Managing and Organizations: An Introduction to Theory and Practice " as "a useful site with many links" (page 354.)

Check out www.odportal.com

Sustainability in Learning - The Tortoise and the Hare

2009-03-12T05:37:00.000-07:00

Fast start + Sustainable = Winning. Let me explain.

Do you remember the fable of the Tortoise and the Hare? I was just reading a blog post on the Experiential Learning Blog about how that fable is still as meaningful today as it was in Easop's time ("Leadership Consistency - The Story Of The Hare And The Tortoise")

I am not so sure these days. Sure the hare falls asleep and lets the sluggish turtle win the race, and the message is clear: "Slow but sure wins the race." And in the forementioned blog, the theme is "consistency" is valued. Sure sure sure, that is all good, but in the real world the turtle is a bit too slow and the rabbit is just plain lazy.

I am starting to think more about what we call "sustainability" in learning... asking myself if what I am doing is just the "program of the month" or if it has sustainability. Are the things that we are doing in learning leading to long term results, and long term sustained learning. Am I building in some follow up? Am I building a multi-year approach? Is there an advanced level of this learning so people feel continually challenged?

The hare did not lose the race because he was slow. He lost the race because his excellent start to the race did not have sustainability! (Fast start + Sustainable = Winning).

I can think of a lot of training we have done (some of it I delivered) that were really exciting at the time but looking back didn't really get any follow up.

What are some ways to ensure training sustainability? Your thoughts?

Flashcard Learning - why does it work so well?

2009-02-25T13:08:00.000-08:00

It seems that one of the easiest ways to learn some very complicated things, such as chemistry, vocabulary, and such, is through flashcards. Isn't it great when a low cost, low tech solution is so effective? Why do flashcards work so well?

First, flashcards are super-chunky. You learn only one chunk of knowledge at a time. That might be one word of vocabulary, one acronym, one element on the periodic table.

Second, flashcards are repetition repetition repetition. And we all know that repetition is a great way to learn. Only surpassed by learning through songs, which is just another way of repetition.

Third, flashcards are totally customizable. For example, if you go through a stack of cards with Spanish vocabulary, and discard those that you already know, you have created your own deck of cards with only those ones you need to focus on. Totally customized for you, by you.

Four, you own the learning. You are your own teacher, set your own pace. And if you get it wrong, you make a decision what to do next.

Five, it is challenging. If you challenge yourself to learn everything on 50 flashcards, approach it as a game or as a test of your mental capabilities.

Six, it is portable. You can take it with you, learn whereever you are.

So how can flashcard learning be optimized?

1. Create a set of flashcards with the the chunk to be learned on one side, and the answer on the other. Variations include a picture on one side, a mathmatical formula on one side, a sentence with a blank on one side, etc. On the reverse side put the desired response.
2. Go through the cards and sort out those that you know off the top of your head. Create two stacks of cards: "What I Got Right" and "What I Got Wrong"
3. From the "What I Got Wrong" stack, go through it as many times as needed to learn them. Some of this will be "today memory" (you will forget it by tomorrow) and some of it will be "flash memory" (you will forget it in a flash). As you memorize/learn the cards, place them in the "What I got Right" stack. Eventually your "What I Got Wrong" stack will disappear or at least get pretty small.
4. Shuffle all the cards from "What I Got Right" and "What I Got Wrong" and now sort them into three stacks: "What I am 100% SURE is right", and "What I guessed Right", and "What I Got Wrong". Get the idea? Now start going through the stacks, shuffling often.

FLASHCARD SOFTWARE

Online Flashcards takes out the cool, low tech, portable aspects of regular old 5 by 7 cards, but who doesn't like elegant technology?

There are many companies that make software for flashcards, the coolest looking one (best looking interface and graphics) being FlashMyBrain www.flashmybrain.com . Very web2.0 looking with nice features. $29.95, with no free test period. There are also a lot of other options.

For learning languages, there's a new Flashcard online option called BYKI and BYKI Deluxe. I downloaded their free demo version. Very very cool way to do flashcards online with spoken phrases, pictures, vocabulary, etc. It is from Transparent Language. The deluxe version allows you to customize your own flashcards. There's a link with coupons and right here: Transparent Language.

Learning Chunks - The History of Chunkiness in Learning

2009-02-25T12:43:00.000-08:00

Do you think that I just came up with the term Chunky Learning? of course not! Learning Chunkitude has a long history, which began with the study "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information," a paper written in 1956 by the cognitive psychologist George A. Miller (Princeton University's Department of Psychology). You can enjoy his article at http://www.musanim.com/miller1956/, (originally published in The Psychological Review, 1956, vol. 63, pp. 81-97).

In the summary of this landmark study in chunkification of data, human cognitive chunkability, and perceptually chunkiness of tasks, he states in uncharacteristically clear language that:

"First, the span of absolute judgment and the span of immediate memory impose severe limitations on the amount of information that we are able to receive, process, and remember. By organizing the stimulus input simultaneously into several dimensions and successively into a sequence or chunks, we manage to break (or at least stretch) this informational bottleneck."

What Miller observed is that people's "channel capacity" is between 5 and 9 choices, and that people can recall between 5 and 9 things.

How to Evaluate eLearning

2009-02-23T17:19:00.000-08:00

When evaluating e-learning or online courses, I look for:

content It is said that in e-learning "content is king." You cannot base an e-learning platform on anything else. Content should be new, targeted to specific audiences, and interesting.
training design How is the content presented? Do adult learners really learn that way? It should have interactivity and let people know how what they learn applies to their job.
translation Is the training translated into the languages you need? If not, what are the costs of translation?
technology Does the training work on the computers of the target learners? This is particularly a problem if the training has a lot of video content, which may not work on slower computers.
blending Does the training lend itself to blending instructor led training with the online content?
look-and-feel Does it look and feel interesting? Does it use the proper amount of white space, good design? Is it easy to navigate?
interaction Does it give the appropriate amount of interactivity for your target audience? You don't want to slow people down with too much interactivity, but you also don't want to have just reading from the screen. Look for a balance.
applicability Is it applicable to your needs? Do you need full courses, or just job aids with "chunks" of knowledge that can be quickly accessed?
tracking Does the elearning have a way to track who has taken it, how many hours they spent, and if they passed the test(s)? What kind of reporting/analytics is available?
LMS Does the eLearning work with the LMS you have? If you don't have an LMS, does the program have an LMS built-in that you like?
Cost Of course cost is a factor. In calculating the cost, the best way is to calculate the total cost per learning completed, and compare Instructor Led Training (ILT) and eLearning. Be sure to include travel costs, etc.
Pilots The best way to evaluate an elearning program is to conduct a pilot. I find that many eLearning vendors are willing to provide a couple of free licenses so that I can test out their products. I am very sceptical of companies that want me to buy their elearning without a pilot.

Strengths-Based Development - the theory of developing your strengths, not your weaknesses

2009-02-12T15:06:00.000-08:00

Over the past 10 years or so I have become familiar with the work done by the Gallup Organization around employee engagement, and on the related work by Marcus Buckingham. These have been important for me to develop an organization development, and learning, strategy, based on sound research.

A seriously landmark book for me, was "First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently ." I heard Kirk Coffman, one of the authors, speak in San Jose Costa Rica (I lived and did OD work there for a few years). This book is full of great suggestions and guidance on how to change things in your company to be more successful. The study that this book (and the books that followed) are researched to an extent that only Gallup could have done: millions of interviews with managers and employees, extensive correlation with business success metrics, and meta-analysis prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is something there in the numbers:
a) there are certain traits that make some managers more successful
b) some employees are more engaged than others, and that engagement can be tested/predicted(?) reliably using 12 questions (the "Gallup 12"). (I have practical experience with the Q12 and engagement surveys and can tell you it works.)

One of the management practices that are proposed by the series of books is "building your strengths." In a nutshell, this is what it says:
1) It is a waste of time and money to try to turn a weakness into a strength.
2) The best use of time and resources is to turn strengths into super-strengths (my words).
3) If there are weaknesses, there are work-arounds that can be found by using your natural strenths (TALENTS).

For learning and OD professionals, who have been focusing on detecting gaps (weaknesses) and then finding solutions for those gaps (training, etc), this is pretty revolutionary stuff!

While it makes sense on a philosphical level, on a day to day basis it sure seems logical to develop in our weak areas (that makes the pain go away)(and there's some real motivation there).

In my experience, there's a middle-ground and it's this:
1) Identify weaknesses that keep you from being as productive as you would like to be (and that are easily trainable/developable). Get better at those until they are no longer a barrier to your productivity.
2) Identify strengths that you naturally seem to be good at. These are those things that make you engaged and excited and full of energy. Become as good at those things as you possibly can (become the expert or the "guru").
3) Don't get stressed out if you aren't perfect at everything (nobody is perfect). You don't need to win at everything. If you try to develop areas that you are weak in, and that you really don't want to develop, you will really frustrate yourself. If those are important for your job, then gee! maybe you are in the wrong job.

Marcus Buckingham and Gallup have published several books in this vein. I recommend reading them in this order (the first book First, Break All the Rules is a great overview of the whole thing. The other books just expand on the chapters of First, Break All the Rules and give more tools and details.)

1. First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently

2. Now, Discover Your Strengths

3. Go Put Your Strengths to Work

4. The One Thing You Need to Know

5. StrengthsFinder 2.0: Online Test from Gallup's Now, Discover Your Strengths (the Strengthsfinder test is included free when you buy Now, Discover Your Strengths).

strethgsfinder, galup Q12, gallupq12, now discover your strengts, discover your strengs

"A Whole New Mind" by Daniel Pink

2009-02-12T14:30:00.000-08:00

This week I read a new book, "A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future" by Daniel Pink (Free Agent Nation). This tome gives the reader a new way to see the world, and a new way to use your brain!

A Whole New Mind kicks off with the history of "ages":

1. Agricultural Age (farmers)
2. Industrial Age (factory workers)
3. Information Age (knowledge workers)
4. Conceptual Age (creators and empathizers)

It is the fourth stage (Conceptual Age) where Pink explains how people and businesses are successful. The author points to three current trends that are guiding the business and the economy.
1. Abundance (consumers have too many choices, nothing is scarce)
2. Asia (outsourcing)
3. Automation (computerization, robots, technology, and processes).

Based on these trends and there are three questions that business-people should ask themselve in order to improve their results:

1. Can a computer do it faster?
2. Is what I'm offering in demand in an age of abundance?
3. Can someone overseas do it cheaper?

If you can answer any of these affirmatively, then creativity becomes a competative advantage, differentiating you and your company/products from comoditities. (By the way, you, the business person, are a comodity unless you diferentiate yourself, too. Ouch).

So how what do you need to know and "sense" to stand out? :

1. Design: This is beyond function. Engaging the sense.
2. Story: Stories are added through narrative to your business offerings, products, service. Not just the benefits, features, arguments.
3. Symphony: Invention and big picture thinking (compliment to a detail focus).
4. Empathy: Engaging emotions and intuition, not just logic and calculation.
5. Play: Humer and light-heartedness have a place in business and in products.
6. Meaning: A life with more empathy and play, more feelings and values, is needed to help us relax, enjoy life. This helps us fully use the capacity of our intellect. There are many approaches to life, and you should enjoy it!

"A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future" has many ideas that can help in business or many aspects of life/work.

Pecha Kucha for Chunky Learning

2009-01-30T08:42:00.000-08:00

I was just out surfing the 'net, and found some interesting stuff about a presentation technique they call Pecha Kucha

"Each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds each - giving 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. This keeps presentations concise, the interest level up, and gives more people the chance to show." www.pecha-kucha.org

Just pondering what could be the implications for training in a concise way? with Pecha Kucha the slides change automatically every 20 seconds... so it forces the story along, forces the ideas to be focused.

(This reminds me of a time back around 1995 when I was working on a project in Santiago Chile, and one of the managers was giving a presentation using PowerPoint. This was back when using PowerPoint was still novel. He had something like 80 slides, and 5 minutes, and he used the PowerPoint feature that made every slide change automatically. Do the math. Went something like this... "I am presenting today about the mission and vision of our.... ok next slide! we feel that our most important values are the values of.... sorry but it is going to fast... here you can see the list of our strategies, which are ranked here from the most ...... next slide now..." )

Got a Chuck of Creativity?

2009-01-29T17:46:00.000-08:00

I love the stuff that Roger von Oech has come up with - I have used the A Kick in the Seat of the Pants for creative ideas, and creativity and innovation training, for at least 15 years. Good thing is that because it is so old it can now be bought from Amazon.com for just a few cents!!! And the Creative Whack Pack is a deck of cards with a lot of the ideas from the book.

Now he has come up with the Ball of Whacks: A Creativity Tool for Innovators, which is a really really really cool item. The BALL OF WACKS is a ball made up of magnetic shapes, so it can be reformed into a million other shapes. I am thinking about ways it could be incorporated into creative workshops! Here are a few pictures...

More Books about PowerPoint

2008-12-17T07:03:00.000-08:00

Thanks for suggestions about other books about PowerPoints and Presentations. Your recommendations include:

Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2007 to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire

Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter)

Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story

Improving PowerPoint Effectiveness

2008-11-20T07:14:00.000-08:00

There's two schools of thought out there... (1) PowerPoint is fantastic, and (2) PowerPoint is a crutch used by poor presenters and make the presentations even worse. I've sat through endless slides in font 8 (we call them "eyecharts") and seen people read from bulleted lists and call that a "presentation" or even call that "training." People think they can overcome the boredom by animating the bullet points and putting up "cute" clip art. "Death by PowerPoint" is a cynical term I have heard.

I've got to admit I use PowerPoint, and I like it. I would say that I am an advanced-level user. As a way to improve my own PowerPoint skills I have ordered some books to help me get better at it, and in glancing over the books I am pretty impressed with what I see. As I digest the books I will give you more details. The books are:

(1) Better Than Bullet Points: Creating Engaging e-Learning with PowerPoint
(2) 7-Slide Solution: Telling Your Business Story In 7 Slides or Less
(3) slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations

Learn Languages Online - Does it Work?

2008-10-21T07:05:00.000-07:00

I was swamped with requests for online language training - "I need to learn Spanish" or "I would like to try learning Chinese online" or simply "I want to do Rosetta Stone." As my company is going global, our employees want to learn the local languages - but they don't want to go to classes -- they want to try an online solution for learning.

ROSETTA STONE

We started by trying out Rosetta Stone. This is the language program that you see advertized in airports and on TV and in airline magazines. So we offered it as part of our corporate university, and about 40 people "signed up" for Rosetta Stone in Spanish, Chinese, Thai, and other languages.

I even tried Rosetta Stone but not for business reasons. I was going on vaction to France and I needed to learn some of the language, and the folks at Rosetta Stone gave me a free license to try (which is a good way to get me to try something). I was immediately captivated by the format they use, which is unlike any other I have seen. You are asked to pick from four possible choices in a game format, and you learn by picking the wrong choice some times (in a safe learning environment, which is critical to adult learning) and getting eventually better at picking the right one. It is fast paced and for me it seemed a great way to learn. I did it for about 10 hours or so and learned a little French with it.

How did our employees do - the 40 that we bought Rosetta Stone Licenses for? They did an average of only 1.5 hours each. Only one person spent more than 10 hours. Why did it not engage them?

First of all, it is time consuming and must be done in front of the computer. For people who are already spending most of the day in front of the computer, spending even more time is not exactly appealing. They said they liked it... but didn't have enough time. So for this group of employees it wasn't a very good use of our company's money.

And I still needed to learn French as my trip to Paris was looming!

PIMSLEUR

I decided to try Pimsleur which I had heard was a good way to learn. I loved it. Pimsleur is a completely audio program, so I could do it in my car during my commute. It taught by repetition, repetition, repetition. And the situations that were on the Pimsleur audio classes were interesting - they kept my interest. One thing that Pimsleur has done is build the stories in their programs upon each other - so Lesson Two builds on Lesson One, for example. In Lesson Two you also re-learn and re-peat everything from Lesson One. So if you believe that you can learn from Repetition... this is a great way. I learned enough French to get along well in Paris! But because it is an audio-only program, I had to learn to read French on my own, but I thought that was kind of fun because I was surprised when I arrived to see how things are spelled. Now I am very fluent in Spanish, so French wasn't too much a stretch. The next year I vacationed in Rome and Venice so I got Pimsleur for Italian and was pleasantly surprised to find that it had the same format and vocabulary/grammar lessons as French. Even the story line was the same.

Bottom Line... Pimsleur is my top choice. But it is not the cheapest good option (which is Instant Immersion, see below).

OTHER OPTIONS FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING

We decided to do an evaluation/comparision of the different online/audio language learning options, and did a pilot test of Rosetta Stone, Instant Immersion, Learn in Your Car, and Berlitz . To do the pilot we selected several employees to try them out... these were employees that said they needed to learn a language for their jobs.

Upon completing the six week pilot, we found that Instant Immersion met our needs. It is the cheast option (so we can hand it out without having a compelling business case) and it is available in every language we needed, including English as a Second Language. The learners liked it because it has audio (listen in your car) as well as computer-based learning, and they said that made it more convenient. And they learned the basic vocabulary they needed. Berlitz was also good but did not get as high a rating as Instant Immersion. We also tried Learn in Your Car Spanish, which is good but does not have the computer-based part that Instant Immersion has.

PARTING THOUGHTS

I know that you can't "learn a language" using an audio or online program... it takes practice and a lot of hard work. (Language learning is something I am very familiar with as I am married to a university level language professor)(and it's taken me 30 years to learn Spanish, mostly from living overseas in Spanish-speaking countries for many of those 30 years). At my company we offer foreign language classes with real live teachers. But if you want a "chunky learning" approach - where you can learn while you commute, or learn just a few words or phrases with out much work or money, these approaches work well.

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comments:

Natalia Picado posted this comment:
Learning Spanish online works for every one. In some online courses you will have live Spanish tutor to help you learn how to speak Spanish..this is what called as conversational Spanish. If you really are aspiring to learn conversational Spanish. You can start today. Find a program that meets your needs and start learning today. program.----learn spanish online

Chunky Learning is like Spaghtti Sauce?

2008-09-30T06:47:00.000-07:00

Malcolm Gladwell tells the story about how a food industry consultant was put in charge of discovering what kind of spaghetti sauce people like to eat. When the consultant asked the “experts”, they described runny sauces as the most authentic so the most preferred. But when they were actually given taste tests, they overwhelming chose “thick and chunky” sauces. At that time, there were no “thick and chunky” pasta sauces on the market even though that is what people wanted. The consultant worked with Prego to come out with many of kinds of “thick and chunky” sauces, and no if you go to the supermarket you could find dozens of “thick and chunky” style sauces – the thicker and chunkier the better.

How is this like “Chunky Learning”? If I ask people what kind of training programs they want, they describe week long programs, and very complex delivery. But when actually given the choice between getting their training in the “chunky” format (bite size chunks of learning) and week long programs (such as eLearning or half-day programs) some reach for the chunky style.

How do people learn most effectively? Studies tend to agree that learners need to find ways to apply their learning, and that learning should happen close to the time that it can be applied. Also, retention rates of learning in a traditional lecture format are practically nil. Now there are instructors that can make lectures or week long programs very effective, but I postulate that what they are really delivering is “chunky” in that they have broken down the learning into “bite size chunks” : The learner takes a bite, then there is learner application, then another bite, and so on. Please allow digestion between bites!

Reading Today: What Got You Here Won't Get You There

2008-09-18T06:50:00.000-07:00

I picked up the book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith about 4 months ago and it is one of the few books this year that I have read from cover to cover. Now that I have read the whole thing I can attack it chunky-style, reading paragraphs here and there.

I really like Marshall Goldsmith (he is just a neat guy and speaks/writes in a gentle way)(kind of the polar opposite approach of Tom Peters who I also really really like). Goldsmith gives a lot of tips in this book for moving from point A (where you are today) to point B (where you want to be).

The book’s title sums things up pretty good, and the content is easy to follow and nicely categorized into four sections: (1) The Trouble with Success; (2) The Twenty Habits That Hold You Back from the Top; (3) How We Can Change for the Better; and (4) Pulling Out the Stops.

I have been recommending this book to leaders that come to me for advice/coaching.

Here’s my chunky review. For the non-chunky version you will have to read the book.

Section One: The Trouble With Success-- Success feels really good, and builds confidence. The problem is that it is easy to think that you are responsible for your success and that you naturally will be successful in the future. That kind of thinking can lead to failure: you need to realize that just because you are successful doesn’t mean that you will rise to the top. In fact a lot of the habits and behaviors that got you to where you are today might not be sustainable.

Section Two: The Twenty Habits That Hold You Back From the Top--Goldsmith gives a great run-down on 20 habits that we can acquire along the way, which can hold us back. When I read these I said for some of them “that’s me” and for others “that’s that other guy, he’s such a jerk.” So my advice is go down the list, pick a couple of these and work on them, and keep you self-awareness high to see if you can catch yourself behaving in one of these destructive ways.

1. Winning too much: The need to win at all costs and in all situations - when it matters, when it doesn’t, and when it’s totally beside the point.

2. Adding too much value: The overwhelming desire to add our two cents to every discussion.

3. Passing judgment: The need to rate others and impose our standards on them

4. Making destructive comments: The needless sarcasms and cutting remarks that we think make us sound sharp and witty.

5. Starting with “No,” “But,” or “However” : The overuse of these negative qualifiers which secretly say to everyone, “I’m right. You’re wrong.”

6. Telling the world how smart we are: The need to show people we’re smarter than they think we are.

7. Speaking when angry: Using emotional volatility as a management tool.

8. Negativity, or “Let me explain why that won’t work”: The need to share our negative thoughts even when we weren’t asked.

9. Withholding information: The refusal to share information in order to maintain an advantage over others.

10. Failing to give proper recognition: The inability to praise and reward.

11. Claiming credit that we don’t deserve: The most annoying way to overestimate our contribution to any success.

12. Making excuses: The need to reposition our annoying behavior as a permanent fixture so people excuse us for it.

13. Clinging to the past: The need to deflect blame away from ourselves and onto events and people from our past; a subset of blaming everyone else.

14. Playing favorites: Failing to see that we are treating someone unfairly.

15. Refusing to express regret: The inability to take responsibility for our actions, admit when we’re wrong, or recognize how our actions affect others.

16. Not listening: The most passive-aggressive form of disrespect for colleagues.

17. Failing to express gratitude: The most basic form of bad manners.

18. Punishing the messenger: The misguided need to attack the innocent who are usually trying to help us.

19. Passing the buck: The need to blame everyone but ourselves.

20. An excessive need to be “me”: Exalting our faults as virtues simply because they’re who we are.

(There’s also a 21^st habit, which is goal obsession.)

Section Three: How We Can Change For The Better-- Goldsmith gives a roadmap to correcting these behaviors and (possibly) setting yourself up for success. They are all common sense.

Feedback

Apologizing

Telling the world, or advertising

Listening

Thanking

Following up

Practicing “feedforward” (asking what can you do better in the future)

Section Four: Pulling Out the Stops-- This chapter talks about the special situations that leaders are in and their responsibilities for orchestrating change in people.

Organizational Agility

2008-09-17T07:38:00.001-07:00

I’ve been thinking about Organizational Agility a lot (as a competency and success factor) recently. An executive asked me to pull together a workshop regarding this, which he called the “ability to work through the smoke and mirrors,” or the ability to get things done amid complexity. Some of the “remedies” for this are increasing self-awareness (understanding your strengths and weaknesses in this area), and the ability to size-up the complexity of the organization, and keeping your composure when confronted with complexity/rejection.

Organizational Agility is defined by Lominger according to this map:

“Organizations can be complex mazes with many turns, dead ends, quick routes, and choices. In most organizations, the best path to get somewhere is almost never a straight line. There is a formal organization – the one on the organization chart – where the path may look straight, and then there is the informal organization where all paths are zigzagged. Since organizations are staffed with people, they become all the more complex. There are gatekeepers, expediters, stoppers, resisters, guides, Good Samaritans, and influencers. All of these types live in the organizational maze. The key to being successful in maneuvering through complex organizations is to find your way through the maze to your goal in the least amount of time while making the least noise. The best way to do that is to accept the complexity of organizations rather than fighting it and learn to be a maze-bright person.” (quote from “FYI For Your Productivity, A Guide for Development and Coaching” by Michael Lombardo and Robert Eichinger)(one of my go-to books).

What in effect Lombardo and Eichinger are saying is “business is very complicated. Work through the complexity.” When I was going to MBA School one of the texts we read started out with the line “Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we see the truth, we transcend it… because once we accept it, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters” (the book was “The Road Less Traveled” by Scott Peck) which means in effect “life is tough. Don’t expect that your life is going to be easy.” Business is no different: business is complex: if you accept that fact you can begin to find a way to work within it.

A related competency would be “simplifying the complex” which maybe I will write about another day.

Reading Today: Persuasive Presentations for Business

2008-09-16T10:57:00.000-07:00

Today (and a bit yesterday and a chunk a month ago) I have been reading a book called "Persuasive Presentations for Business" by Robert W. Bly. I ordered it from Amazon.

The reason that I picked up this book is because I had to give a presentation about change management and was frankly a bit nervious. This was a ten minute presentation to a CEO and her staff, and I was browzing the books and found this one. I am glad I did!

This book, which is written in an easy to understand style, gives some great tips on how to write the speach, how to engage the audience, etc. The author has a "number one secret" which I am going to let you in on because you are so nice in reading my blog.

"When I am speaking to a group," Bly writes, "I look into the audience as I begin talking, find one person who is looking back at me, and make eye contact. Then, I talke to just that one person as if we were having a private, one-on-one conversation. I know everyone else can hear us. But notice: I am not 'giving a lecture' or 'making a speech,' those activities that the average person approaches with fear and trepidation. Instead, I am just having a conversation with one person."

When I speak to big groups, I always like to meet people at the door, shake their hands, and try to find a person who seems genuinly interested in what I am going to talk about. That is the person who I give my presentation to: someone who I know and not to strangers.

Now I am preparing for another big presentation (this one for a group of 300 executives) and I am going to use some of the tips and secrets that I am learning in this highly readable and concise paperback: Persuasive Presentations for Business.

click here to see it on Amazon

Why "Chunky Learning"?

2008-09-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

What is "chunky learning"?

There's a joke that goes something like this: "How do you eat an elephant?" with the answer being "One bite at a time."

Same goes with learning. For me and other busy (and easily bored) people, the best way to learn is in bite size chunks. Sometimes I will learn five minutes of this, ten minutes of that, and so on. In today's fast paced world, who has the time to spend days in training?

That is one of the reasons I like this kind of learning: online learning, book summaries, magazines, and Internet searching. Now once in a while I take a "real class" (in fact once in a while I teach a class.) But most of what I learn is in chunky-format.

So I hope that you, my blog reader, will get some "chunks" of learning from my blog.

Welcome to my blog

2008-09-16T10:40:00.000-07:00

This is my first post. Welcome.

I am creating this blog to document some of the things that I do and think about business and personal success. I am an avid reader so a lot of this will be about things I am reading.

I am "Director of Global Learning" at a big corporation, which means that I am in charge of education, training, employee development, and such. I love this kind of work, with the greatest challenge being keeping focused and business oriented.

Here goes the blog!

Dave