Improving your Training delivery

You have a great opportunity at this year's Trainers Meet Trainers in Kuala Lumpur to hear experts such as Thiagi and Ed Scannel. More details from grace@smrhrgroup.com

My colleague Karen Ong runs the programme Accredited Training Professional at several venues around the world. The programme based on my book The Magic of Making Training FUN attempts to increase learner effectiveness.

I came across David Sousa’s work. David A. Sousa’s ideas are valuable for all of us who would like to accelerate learner effectiveness at the workplace. We echo all of his ideas in our programmes.

Take for example the need for the First I – Introduction, in the programme, with the use of warm ups. The main objective is to create a positive environment for the learner, to get them excited about what they are going to learn. Sousa says : Relieve stress and help people feel positive about their learning environment. It will release endorphins in
the blood, which gives a feeling of euphoria and stimulates the frontal lobes.

We continue to emphasise the need for reviewing content presented several times. Quoting the works of Amunts and others, Sousa says practice does not make it perfect. Practice makes learning permanent. If practice is stopped altogether, the neurons that are no longer being used are eventually assigned to other tasks and skill mastery will decline. In other words, use it or lose it!

The use of stories during the Fourth I – Instruction is emphasised to deliver contet effectively with greater learner engagement. Sousa says that studies show that stories engage all parts of the brain because they touch on the learner’s experiences, feelings, and actions.

Reference: David A. Sousa, How the Brain Learns, Third edition, Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, CA 2006.

Copy of session notes

To get a copy of the session notes please email palan99@hotmail.com

National Convention

It was a wonderful experience delivering the opening keynote at the PSMB 2011 National Convention. I spoke on the subject - 5 HR Best Practices. the Conference theme was an interesting one: New Human Capital - what’s beyond. Change was a buzzword. We as HR practitioners know that we need to adopt new strategies to cope with these changes. Every government talks about a high income economy – this can only be driven by quality talent.

Memories

April 19th is a day that will be etched firmly in my memory. It was a great day in my life. His Royal Highness, the Sultan of Perak bestowed on me the title of '‘Dato’' , it was a great honour.

My wife and I were extremely nervous but delighted with the recognition. It was a recognition for the Human resources community

Creative Training

I was looking at one of Bob Pike's old newsletters. He talks of the 90/20/8 rule. Adults can listen with understanding for 90 minutes. They can listen with retention for 20 minutes. We need to involve them every 8 minutes. At the end of 20 minutes learners may comprehend what is being taught but they cannot retain the information. Look at Bob Pike's Creative Training Techniques book to get more information.

Happy New Year

The use of humour to support learning is not new. John Cleese of Video arts fame helped to pioneer the use of humour in corporate training with great training videos such as Meetings Bloody meetings. He sold his training video company with all the great humour training videos for great sum of money.
The power of humour is becoming increasingly valued in the business world, and there is a growing trend towards trainers and facilitators acquiring the skills that will help them to introduce humour into sessions as they see fit, rather than simply putting on a video and sitting back to watch. Improv is a tool to help trainers learn the art of spontaneity as it is humour and not jokes that makes an impact on the learner. Visit http://appliedimprov.ning.com/profile/KatKoppett
Dawn Smith looks at the link between humour and learning, and how laughter can be used in the training room to help make the message stick. Visit http://www.businesszone.co.uk/item/172912

Making Technical Training FUN

This is the one question I get asked very often.

FUN is a facilitative factor to deliver content, a required condition.

The answer to the question depnds on how much we can redesign the content to make it interactive and engaging.

The Magic of Making Training FUN!

After a long time, I return to blogging today. The last blog I wrote seems so long ago, on April 11th, 2010. Coincidentally, the two liner I had extracted from a Chinese proverb was:

“A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study.“

The reasons for not being able to write I guess can be explained by the mad routines we force upon ourselves. We claim to be busy, I guess I was too. And, it is such a useless word when we are unable to do what we want to do.

Over the last few months, I have increasingly enjoyed the company of my four year old daughter, particularly after the very successful and hectic Asia HRDCongress 2010 Kuching, Sarawak. This evening after a long walk with my four year old daughter, I realised that I have been taking life too seriously.

I recalled the words of three friends this late evening.

Jeremy Spoor, a former colleague and a wonderful trainer from the United Kingdom used to talk about stopping to reflect once in a while. My friend Nataraj in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates always talks about the need to practice what you preach. And, Evaluation guru Don Kirkpatrick says ‘just don’t take yourself too seriously, relax.’

Just two weeks ago I experienced the joy of delivering a keynote at the Indian Society of Training & Development Conference on the subject: Leading in the Gen Y era. I recognised the fact that 80% of the audience were Gen Y. It was so much fun interacting with them.

This blog since its inception known as the Learning & Performance in Asia reflected a rather serious image. Yet, my seminal and initial work in the field was all about FUN.

The first book The Magic of Making Training FUN impacted many thousands of participants. While, my colleague Karen Ong and a host of colleagues have carried on the torch of FUN, this evening’s refection led me to believe that I have not done just cause to this undeniably important area through the blog.

Hence, I have decided to rename this blog from the original name Learning & Performance in Asia to The Magic of Making Training FUN! The Google group also is being renamed today.

From the purported Utterances of The Qaqui (Bernie DeKoven):
“Today I realize that every minute I didn't spend loving or laughing was a waste of time. It comes a little late, but I won't lose another minute by not enjoying life and the fun of it."