Learning: The Magic of Making Training FUN

From Bob Pike http://www.bobpikegroup.com/Resources/Articles/521 Use this opener as a fun way to introduce brainstorming, and team building. Objective: Brainstorm humorous endings to common clichés that help to describe a job, company or process. Audience: Any training audience Time: 20 minutes Group Size: Under 50 people Materials: One handout with the clichés per person or team

Interesting piece of news from the Economic Times India. Over 40% employers voted on-the-job training for increased productivity and 35% for enhanced employee morale in the organization in a survey concerning training and development, conducted by TJinsite, research and knowledge arm of TimesJobs.com. A considerable share of the surveyed employers also claimed to reduce attrition by using training and development methodology. "Training is critical for growth and development of employees in the organisation and also to retain talent", expressed Vivek Punekar, Chief Human Resource Officer-HCL Infosystems. Referring to his company's strategy, he adds that their comprehensive training programs ranging from entry level to the highest-level executives focuses on all-round development of the people. "To strengthen our process, we analyse and identify key development areas for training - skills, technical and product learning - on regular basis. New technological upgrades...

If you are having difficulty convincing your managers and peers that experiential learning and games can result in effective learning, try the arguments from the article, "The Intelligent Choice", which appeared in the March 1998 issue of Thiagi GameLetter. The Intelligent Choice When trainers challenge me with "Why should I use games and experiential activities?", I list impressive research findings from cognitive sciences. These findings suggest that traditional training is severely limited -- and interactive, experiential techniques have great potential. Here are some specific details: YOU ARE OF TWO MINDS. Professor Seymour Epstein at the University of Massachusetts has a ground-breaking theory of intelligence called Cognitive Experiential Self Theory (CEST), which suggests that we have an experiential mind and a rational mind. Our experiential mind learns directly, thinks quickly, pays attention to the outcome, and forgets slowly. Our rational mind learns ind...

Don Kirkpatrick This morning I heard news from Jim Kirkpatrick and Wendy Kirkpatrick, the son and daughter in law of legendary Don Kirkpatrick that Don has passed away at the age of 90. Truly a legend in the HRD Evaluation field. More importantly a fine man, a great human being. I had known Don for a long time if I remember it right in 1983. As a young kid I had chanced to see a brochure of his programme in my mentor and Malaysian HR Guru, the late Sam Abishegam's office. I wrote to him an air mail letter inviting him to Malaysia. Next thing I knew, he and his wife Fern were here in Malaysia. We worked with some great companies: Mobil, Genting and so on. He was very much an American and I remember he espoused Republican values and he was so fond of the late Ronald Reagan. Even though I disagreed with many of his views, he grew fond of me. It was a joy talking to him and Fern. As a young graduate, he allowed me the trust to bring him here. I had no car; yet, he did not mind the ...

A good article from thiagi.com - to continue reading please log on to www.thiagi.com How Learners Are Motivated By Matthew S. Richter My Passion I am a trainer. I have been a trainer for just about all of my career. I started in the early 90s and was inundated with all sorts of training games that used rubber balls, funny sounds emanating from trainers to participants, and EST-like connections to humanistic approaches in business. Frankly, this stuff drove me crazy and I was somewhat embarrassed to admit I was a trainer. It was at this time that I met a guy named Thiagi. Thiagi was renowned as the game guy. All of my colleagues used his games and half the games I infused into my delivery came from him and I didn’t even know it. I should say, however, that my friends and I were all misapplying his activities. And we all had the misinterpretation that training games should be fun first. When I met him, Thiagi explained that fun was not what he and his activities were about. In fact, ...

Is listening a lost art? Harvard Professor James Heskett has outlined in his HBR article his views. He says several argue that the skill of listening is on the wane. I list here excerpts from the article. He refers to Shari Morwood who said: "It starts at the top-if we as management don't listen or don't know how, we can't tap the full power of the amazing talent in our own organizations. Listening is learning." He refers to Gael who raised the question to a more universal level with her comment: "Listening to oneself requires sometimes crude and painful honesty that most people feel they can't afford." That is why, she continued, it is so important to have real friends with good memory who can be our sounding boards. "Listening to others works better if you can show empathy and put yourself in the other peoples' shoes." In his new book Quick and Nimble, based on more than 200 interviews, Adam Bryant concludes, that, among other thin...