Over the Chinese New Year holidays, I was clearing my University papers and notes and I found some pieces of information very useful and relevant to this blog. The blog post start off with Trainer roles and deals with difficult conversations that everyone of us have to have with our colleagues and family. I have had to have them with my colleagues at work, my nephew and friends. It was and is never easy. We have great difficulty taking to bosses, colleagues and family something that we do not wish to discuss. We adopt the flight or fight mechanism.
Trainer Roles
Instructor, Trainer, Facilitator, Coach, Co-Learner are all trainer roles. They need to be viewed on a continuum, depending on the discipline, workshop objectives, personal training style and participant profiles. . Even though there is a great amount of debate among academics on the interpretation of a training role, one thing almost everyone agrees is that the role is much more than a dispenser of information. Collaborative Learning shifts the role of expert from the trainer to the learners, the one with a repository of information. The goal is to get the adult participant actively engaged in building their own minds.
Facilitating refers to arranging the learning environment to encourage self-directed learning. Some prefer a managerial definition which refers to a sequential process of setting the conditions and managing the process to produce the desired out comes. Other recent terms emphasise the social role in constructing knowledge.
Collaborative Learning requires that we be somewhere there on the continuum depending on the situation but not forgetting the need for small groups to engage in meaningful learning. This only happens when we can manage difficult conversations.
Managing Difficult Conversations
In the last two weeks, I have been disturbed by some conversations. Despite my background, I have had to take time to reflect and act on this area of having a difficult conversation. My friend Uday calls this straight talk. Nevertheless I like to share some of the thinking on this subject in this blog post.
Many of us go out of our way and take the trouble to avoid unpleasant conversations. Some years ago respected Industrial Relations practitioner Peter Rayappan and Values Consultant Yazdi emphasised the need over a cup of Malaysian Teh Tarik, the need to be straight. They said the person deserves the feedback however unpleasant it may be for the person to grow and for your organisation not to be CRIPPLED.
Managing difficult conversations is a key to effectiveness in the training room as well as at the work place. Collaboration requires we manage the difficult conversations (spoken and written) to prevent serious differences and bridge the gulf of differences in what people believe and feel. When you are able to do that, you can stand up to adversity, maintain leadership and remain in control. The words are clear and the voice is managed; there is no display of anger but the feedback is appropriately given.
When stakes are high, the outcome uncertain; people feel deeply about the issue on hand and when self esteem is affected; the issue is forgotten and the person is attacked, the conversations become difficult and awkward. Usually, people either quit or fight – the typical fight – flight syndrome that psychology classes teach us.
How do we deal with:
• A disrespectful or disruptive behaviour
• The inability to say NO
• A person who agrees to everything or disagrees with everything
• One who KNOWS all
• A person who refuses to respect the absent and insists on talking about others behind their back
• One who refuses to accept that it is my mistake
• A person who smiles face to face but is busy sabotaging you behind your back.
• One who is logical nut needlessly aggressive
• One who says YES all the time and is unassertive
While the situation maybe different, the problem is the same – how do we have a difficult conversation? A friend Zainal Abidin Alang Kassim used to say to me “it is not the subject matter that makes you nervous, it is the way you think about the issue that is a worry.”
In the Myers Briggs situation, they talk about the Thinking – Feeling part.
There is an urgent need for a new framework according to researchers in Harvard for managing difficult conversations. The typical answer to be diplomatic or stay positive may not be necessarily appropriate. There is a need to identify the common structure underlying difficult conversations and manage all the separate conversations taking place in any difficult conversation.
1. What happened conversations based on perceptions – which are right?
2. The Feelings conversation – Do I deal with them or quit?
3. The Identity conversation – Is this destroying my self esteem?
Great Managers and Trainers in a collaborative mode operate more effectively on these three realms. They avoid the blame game; they are constructive, turn sources of anxiety into sources of strength.
Getting straight to the purposes by discriminating your INTERESTS and PURPOSE is often the route to success. Framing the objective of the conversation to maximise the outcome is a key skill of a collaborator. Collaborative Trainers and Managers turn a difficult conversation into a learning situation. They reduce defensiveness and promote learning. They manage the interaction by using the power of listening and getting to the heart of the matter. Focus on the issue not on the anger or the person.
Of course collaboration requires all participate. There may be occasions when the person attacks you, does not want to talk to you, just refuses to listen to you and is uncooperative. Collaborative Trainers, managers and Leaders reframe the discussion, structure effective problem solving to find solutions. Again, collaboration requires that we work together.
While at University, I was very fond and still am of the book Games People Play. The fundamental book for Transactional Analysis outlines the games people play. I am always amazed by four statements that impacted me and is of great significance to all of us in our life:
1. I am not Okay – You are Okay
2. I am not Okay - You are not Okay
3. I am Okay – You are not Okay
4. I am Okay – You are Okay
It amazes me when we realise that many of us get stuck at level 2 or at level 3. Healthy relationships must migrate to level 4. As Managers, Leaders and being in a training role, we have a responsibility to get people to the okay stage even after a difficult conversation.
That is the purpose of collaboration.
Sorry for the long blog post.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Passion for Collaborative Learning
I was very pleased to read the comment to my last post.
It was a short but to the point response.
My comment that one person can derail was responded to by a simple statement – it may derail the train but so long as the passion to make the learning and work collaborative remains, the goal to help people learn and perform is paramount, such incidents are only rare obstacles. It may derail but the train can get back and up running very quickly with collaboration.
The best swordsman does not need to fear the second best but only the antagonist who has never handled a sword before is true for the trainer. A participant who knows more than the trainer is not to be feared, the one to be feared is the one who has no knowledge at all and is in the training room as a very reluctant participant as he or she has been told to do.
Dealing with a diversity of participants is always a challenge. It is here we address the issues of Trainer roles. Instructor, Trainer, Coach, Facilitator and Co Learner is some of the terms commonly used.
Let us look at it in the next blog post.
It was a short but to the point response.
My comment that one person can derail was responded to by a simple statement – it may derail the train but so long as the passion to make the learning and work collaborative remains, the goal to help people learn and perform is paramount, such incidents are only rare obstacles. It may derail but the train can get back and up running very quickly with collaboration.
The best swordsman does not need to fear the second best but only the antagonist who has never handled a sword before is true for the trainer. A participant who knows more than the trainer is not to be feared, the one to be feared is the one who has no knowledge at all and is in the training room as a very reluctant participant as he or she has been told to do.
Dealing with a diversity of participants is always a challenge. It is here we address the issues of Trainer roles. Instructor, Trainer, Coach, Facilitator and Co Learner is some of the terms commonly used.
Let us look at it in the next blog post.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Requirements for Collaboration - my experiences
I posted on Sunday ideas on how to implement collaborative learning.
This week Monday and Tuesday were tough days. Hence this additional post tonight.
Monday
It was a day of intense preparations by my team to the Board. We learned how the Board of Directors can promote collaborative learning. Tuan Haji Ishak Hashim., a Director on our Board emphasized the need for democratic learning and what we can do about it. Insightful ideas, incisive action plans and a day of soul searching led to very meaningful learning as a result of co labouring due to intentional design.
Tuesday
A day most INFJ Chief Executives would worry about. On the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), I am an INFJ. FJ executives tend to be more emotionally driven than TJ executives who are more logical. That is as simple as I can describe the MBTI. Suffice for now, that there is much more to be explained in MBTI but as an ISFJ, I had to grapple with decisions I had to make as a CEO.
The day started pretty good. We had the opportunity of meeting the Chairman of one of Malaysia’s leading corporations. The one hour we were with him, we learned so much due to the collaborative nature of the meeting. His remarks drawn from Napoleon Hill impacted me enormously. This is one of the reasons I am blogging well past 1200 mid night. He said:
If you want to be the person you want to be then you must WALK, TALK and BEHAVE like the person you want to be.
Powerful learning for all of us.
The second part of the day was a painful one as a young person whom I handpicked for a senior position in the future made an abrupt departure from the organisation giving us the required notice. Challenging and tough but the truth of the matter is that people change their minds very fast.
The three months training investment was gone. My recent article Does Training lead to employee attrition ( International Society for Performance & Instruction) argued for the need to train. Yes, I firmly believe so. As much as I am a firm believer in employee training, I cannot but emphsasie the need for employee retention analysis.
More tough for me was the need for me to ask the person to leave immediately. Tough but I had to make that decision as a CEO responsible to my shareholders and employees.
Collaborative Learning requires the participation of all. It does not work one way. Maybe I was not collaborative enough. That is the only self criticism I can think of.
Managing a successful business like ours is tough. And, I learned today, CEO’s are paid to make tough decisions. I still agonise as a human being though.
Collaboration is tough indeed. The passion to help people learn and perform despite meeting people like this every now and then fuels my contribution journey.
I am sure you know how hurt I am even though I have done my job as a CEO.
Lessons learned - collaborative learning requires intentional design, co - labour and meaningful learning.
One passenger can derail the train. Beware.
This week Monday and Tuesday were tough days. Hence this additional post tonight.
Monday
It was a day of intense preparations by my team to the Board. We learned how the Board of Directors can promote collaborative learning. Tuan Haji Ishak Hashim., a Director on our Board emphasized the need for democratic learning and what we can do about it. Insightful ideas, incisive action plans and a day of soul searching led to very meaningful learning as a result of co labouring due to intentional design.
Tuesday
A day most INFJ Chief Executives would worry about. On the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), I am an INFJ. FJ executives tend to be more emotionally driven than TJ executives who are more logical. That is as simple as I can describe the MBTI. Suffice for now, that there is much more to be explained in MBTI but as an ISFJ, I had to grapple with decisions I had to make as a CEO.
The day started pretty good. We had the opportunity of meeting the Chairman of one of Malaysia’s leading corporations. The one hour we were with him, we learned so much due to the collaborative nature of the meeting. His remarks drawn from Napoleon Hill impacted me enormously. This is one of the reasons I am blogging well past 1200 mid night. He said:
If you want to be the person you want to be then you must WALK, TALK and BEHAVE like the person you want to be.
Powerful learning for all of us.
The second part of the day was a painful one as a young person whom I handpicked for a senior position in the future made an abrupt departure from the organisation giving us the required notice. Challenging and tough but the truth of the matter is that people change their minds very fast.
The three months training investment was gone. My recent article Does Training lead to employee attrition ( International Society for Performance & Instruction) argued for the need to train. Yes, I firmly believe so. As much as I am a firm believer in employee training, I cannot but emphsasie the need for employee retention analysis.
More tough for me was the need for me to ask the person to leave immediately. Tough but I had to make that decision as a CEO responsible to my shareholders and employees.
Collaborative Learning requires the participation of all. It does not work one way. Maybe I was not collaborative enough. That is the only self criticism I can think of.
Managing a successful business like ours is tough. And, I learned today, CEO’s are paid to make tough decisions. I still agonise as a human being though.
Collaboration is tough indeed. The passion to help people learn and perform despite meeting people like this every now and then fuels my contribution journey.
I am sure you know how hurt I am even though I have done my job as a CEO.
Lessons learned - collaborative learning requires intentional design, co - labour and meaningful learning.
One passenger can derail the train. Beware.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Implementing Collaborative Learning
We have discussed in the last couple of blog postings on the need for collaborative learning. The discussions on the three essential components for collaborative learning - intentional design, co labouring and meaningful learning set the groundwork for our discussions.
Sometimes the research on instructional methods is highly criticized for comparing average classroom sessions with carefully designed experiential learning. Hence, the need for comparing the best classroom session with the best experiential activity. Results show greater learner satisfaction, involvement and learning based on the results. Though most of the research is often in the educational setting, my own experiences in corporate training can vouch for it - I have found experiential learning extremely powerful.
The criticism from practitioners that collaborative learning takes more time and results in the content not being followed is being overcome by the strong results. Collaborative learning when well done leads to far more effective learning results and greater ROI ( return on investment).
So in conclusion, this simply means we want our learners to actively engage in building their own minds. When the groups are carefully structured and designed to accomplish learning, collaborative learning is far ahead of the traditional methods in terms of effective learning.
Using collaborative learning techniques is a stimulating but challenging task for learners. It certainly requires advanced planning. It is certainly not about forgetting all of the familiar instructional tools of the classroom for the unknown and high risk experiential learning tools. It is also not about introducing some tools to spice up the learning event on a day when you have some extra time.
Our goal to create a productive learning environment through the use of collaborative learning groups.
The question of HOW to do this is based on several factors:
The role of the trainer,
The recent advances on the learning process, and
The perception of our learners.
Shifting the responsibility for learning from the trainer to the learner helps our participants become autonomous, articulate, socially and intellectually mature. It helps them learn the content as not necessarily conclusive facts but the constructed result of a disciplined social process of inquiry.
The terminology surrounding the trainer - coach, trainer, instructor, facilitator reflects a variety of self perceptions. Even though there are many differences among the community on what should be the name, there is no doubt that the new trainer is much more than a dispenser of information.
In the next posting, we will see what are the differences in the semantics and what are the roles a trainer needs to play in implementing collaborative learning.
Sometimes the research on instructional methods is highly criticized for comparing average classroom sessions with carefully designed experiential learning. Hence, the need for comparing the best classroom session with the best experiential activity. Results show greater learner satisfaction, involvement and learning based on the results. Though most of the research is often in the educational setting, my own experiences in corporate training can vouch for it - I have found experiential learning extremely powerful.
The criticism from practitioners that collaborative learning takes more time and results in the content not being followed is being overcome by the strong results. Collaborative learning when well done leads to far more effective learning results and greater ROI ( return on investment).
So in conclusion, this simply means we want our learners to actively engage in building their own minds. When the groups are carefully structured and designed to accomplish learning, collaborative learning is far ahead of the traditional methods in terms of effective learning.
Using collaborative learning techniques is a stimulating but challenging task for learners. It certainly requires advanced planning. It is certainly not about forgetting all of the familiar instructional tools of the classroom for the unknown and high risk experiential learning tools. It is also not about introducing some tools to spice up the learning event on a day when you have some extra time.
Our goal to create a productive learning environment through the use of collaborative learning groups.
The question of HOW to do this is based on several factors:
The role of the trainer,
The recent advances on the learning process, and
The perception of our learners.
Shifting the responsibility for learning from the trainer to the learner helps our participants become autonomous, articulate, socially and intellectually mature. It helps them learn the content as not necessarily conclusive facts but the constructed result of a disciplined social process of inquiry.
The terminology surrounding the trainer - coach, trainer, instructor, facilitator reflects a variety of self perceptions. Even though there are many differences among the community on what should be the name, there is no doubt that the new trainer is much more than a dispenser of information.
In the next posting, we will see what are the differences in the semantics and what are the roles a trainer needs to play in implementing collaborative learning.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Using Small Groups for Effective Learning
Small Groups Enhance Learning We looked at collaborative learning and the three essentials for it. Our discussions revolved around the use of small groups for collaborative learning. I had the opportunity to visit a website that detailed how small groups can lead to effective learning.
Small group work can enrich your learners’ learning experiences. Small groups are a good motivational tool because they add variety to an instructional activity and allow participants to learn in different ways. For example, by participating in small groups, some of your learners may be able to comprehend the content that they may find difficult in a lecture.
Small group activities are also important because they help your learners learn social skills such as cooperation and communication, which they are not always able to do to the same extent in a regular lecture environment.
In addition, some learners especially in an Asian situation - high context cultures, do especially well in small groups because they feel more confident about asking questions and participating in general compared to a lecture situation.
Creating Effective Groups
Some ideas from the web site give us an idea on how to use small groups successfully. The goal is to make sure that the activities you plan are well-suited for this kind of learning.
Listed in the web site are several activities that are conducive to small group learning, and that can help complement your classroom instruction:
Test or quiz prep groups –
learners can study previously or recently taught classroom material to better prepare for an upcoming test or quiz.
Reading enrichment groups –
learners can discuss a story they have just heard, and then create visual works (symbolic charades, collages, drawings, etc.) that support a theme or a main idea from the story.
Dramatic enactment groups –
learners can bring a fictional, historical or scientific event to life by presenting a reenactment to the session, or to a larger audience that may include other learners, teachers and peers.
Problem/solution groups –
learners can research a problem from a story or in a particular subject and then propose a solution by making a presentation, by writing a report, or by creating a model, a drawing or some other visual representation.
Debate groups –
learners can research different sides of a controversial issue and then argue their side in a debate.
Interdisciplinary groups – learners can attempt to solve a problem or answer a question that requires them to study several different disciplines.
Helping learners Succeed in Small Groups
Your learners need a variety of skills to successfully function and learn in small groups. Functional and learning skills include summarizing, paraphrasing and performing basic research using library and other reference resources. Social skills include listening, taking turns, and encouraging and supporting other team members. You’ll also need to help your learners learn to understand accountability—as they have both individual roles as well as overall group objectives that they’re responsible for.
Monitoring and Evaluating Small Group Effectiveness
By monitoring and giving feedback to your learners, you can help them learn how to better function in a small group. Depending on the age and capabilities of your learners, you can provide specific feedback on tasks that include how well the group divided the workload, communicated individual responsibilities, encouraged participation from each member, and accomplished its goals. This feedback is also important because it helps your learners improve their general small group skills, which include cooperation, communication, goal setting, planning, organization and follow through.
Visit http://enews.educationessentials.com/v2/i1/
Small group work can enrich your learners’ learning experiences. Small groups are a good motivational tool because they add variety to an instructional activity and allow participants to learn in different ways. For example, by participating in small groups, some of your learners may be able to comprehend the content that they may find difficult in a lecture.
Small group activities are also important because they help your learners learn social skills such as cooperation and communication, which they are not always able to do to the same extent in a regular lecture environment.
In addition, some learners especially in an Asian situation - high context cultures, do especially well in small groups because they feel more confident about asking questions and participating in general compared to a lecture situation.
Creating Effective Groups
Some ideas from the web site give us an idea on how to use small groups successfully. The goal is to make sure that the activities you plan are well-suited for this kind of learning.
Listed in the web site are several activities that are conducive to small group learning, and that can help complement your classroom instruction:
Test or quiz prep groups –
learners can study previously or recently taught classroom material to better prepare for an upcoming test or quiz.
Reading enrichment groups –
learners can discuss a story they have just heard, and then create visual works (symbolic charades, collages, drawings, etc.) that support a theme or a main idea from the story.
Dramatic enactment groups –
learners can bring a fictional, historical or scientific event to life by presenting a reenactment to the session, or to a larger audience that may include other learners, teachers and peers.
Problem/solution groups –
learners can research a problem from a story or in a particular subject and then propose a solution by making a presentation, by writing a report, or by creating a model, a drawing or some other visual representation.
Debate groups –
learners can research different sides of a controversial issue and then argue their side in a debate.
Interdisciplinary groups – learners can attempt to solve a problem or answer a question that requires them to study several different disciplines.
Helping learners Succeed in Small Groups
Your learners need a variety of skills to successfully function and learn in small groups. Functional and learning skills include summarizing, paraphrasing and performing basic research using library and other reference resources. Social skills include listening, taking turns, and encouraging and supporting other team members. You’ll also need to help your learners learn to understand accountability—as they have both individual roles as well as overall group objectives that they’re responsible for.
Monitoring and Evaluating Small Group Effectiveness
By monitoring and giving feedback to your learners, you can help them learn how to better function in a small group. Depending on the age and capabilities of your learners, you can provide specific feedback on tasks that include how well the group divided the workload, communicated individual responsibilities, encouraged participation from each member, and accomplished its goals. This feedback is also important because it helps your learners improve their general small group skills, which include cooperation, communication, goal setting, planning, organization and follow through.
Visit http://enews.educationessentials.com/v2/i1/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
