Learning: The Magic of Making Training FUN

Yesterday we talked about the need to engage B players just as much as A players are important. Today, I like to look at the subject of weighing pay incentives. While everyone agrees that incentive plans should motivate the employees to perform at a superior level; they should not encourage them to engage in questionable behaviour. The story of fire fighters being paid incentives to respond to emergencies in a timely manner resulted in a firefighter resorting to arson to claim the incentives is a good one to consider when we plan incentive plans. While we have talked about collaboration and the need to engage employees, incentives cannot be forgotten. The first step in devising incentives is to determine whether they are right for your organisation and your employees. Several white papers have been published by the Society of Human Resource Management to guide employees.

Professor Thomas DeLong and Vineeta Vijayaraghavan in their article 'Let’s hear it for the B players' succinctly explain that though organizations downplay average performers because they lack the luster and ambition of stars, they may be the best supporting actors in times of need. I was pleased to hear that as I am certainly a B player who always attempts to hire A players. The argument that companies do not notice the importance of the B players and their roles in counter balancing the ambitions of the company’s high performing visionaries - whose esteemed strengths when carried to an extreme can lead to volatile behavior did make sense to me. With the abundance of literature on STARS, it was refreshing to read this article. The truth is that companies need to recognize their B players are not necessarily less intelligent than the STARS. While A players maybe demonstrate an achievement oriented behavior much more, the B player clearly demonstrates an aversion to calling atte...

We have talked about Collaborative Learning to some extent in the last few blogs. Contnuing our discussions from the last blog I like to highlight some principles for learning effectiveness.For people to maximise their learning, there are at least six principles: 1. Create a positive learning environment 2. Ensure learner involvement is total 3. Make it collaborative for learners 4. Use variety to appeal to all learning styles 5. Make learning relevant to the workplace 6. Make it FUN.

Herein is some information on Magnets from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnet#Characteristics_of_magnets. Continuing our discussion from yesterday on activity based events to accelearte learning and create a collaborative environment, let us see what the information is, then we will see what I learned from kids some activities that Karen used exceedingly well in her session with technical trainers. Magnets Magnets are materials that produce a magnetic field of their own. Extreme examples of magnets are (1) "hard" or "permanent" magnets (like refrigerator magnets), which remember how they have been magnetized, and (2) "soft" or "impermanent" magnets, which lose their memory of previous magnetizations. "Soft" magnetic materials are often used in electromagnets to enhance (often by factors of hundreds or thousands) the magnetic field of a current-carrying wire that has been wrapped around the magnet; when the current increases, so do...

Collaborative Learning – Learning in a FUN way My colleague Karen was running a programme on Creative Training for an electrical utility. As the participants were technical trainers, we had to think of ways and means to get them engaged. Remember the three principles of collaborative learning: 1. Intentional Design 2. Co Labour 3. Meaningful Learning While I was thinking of strategies to achieve successful learning outcomes, I recollected Dave Meier’s words – an activity based event is often far superior to a presentation based one. I learned from my niece Meena and sons Maha and Subu on how a lesson on Magnets can be conducted in a very engaging and collaborative way. Karen was very enthusiastic to use the exercise and her experience was just outstanding. I will share the exercise tomorrow. The learning point is you get ideas for a collaborative learning session from unexpected sources like kids.

Visit www.hrdcongress.com to gain more details about Asia's premier learning event.

Visit www.hrdcongress.com to gain more details about Asia's premier learning event.

Learning from my mentor Tom Antion

Conflicts and not saying NO can mess you up As I was finishing up my day today, my colleague Robert Lim gave me some important lessons in Conflict management, even though it was pretty late. He was referring to intra personal conflict, conflict within oneself. To be specific, he was saying to me that there was a need to say NO! Not too many bosses would listen to a short lecture but I did. This is something that has intrigued me all my life. My father told me to learn to say NO!. My teachers told me to say NO! Well, I will admit it. My wife and sons have told me from time to time to say NO! Not that they are pretty good at it themselves. I have lost so much money simply because I was not able to say NO. In the Myers Briggs Type Indicator there are two dimensions the T and F – Thinking and Feeling. I agonise saying NO for fear of hurting people and in the process I have hurt myself. My psychological training places so much premium on treating people well that I just cannot bring upon m...

I have been fascinated by Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat. I bought the 2005 book in 2006. I mentioned it in the Learn & Perform E News after a first reading in 2006. This morning, I had a chance to read it again. It is a master piece that no executive can afford to miss. I was at the hospital this morning for a series of check ups. In between the checks I had a re read. Oh, my goodness, it is indeed a powerful book. Full of stories and an underlying message that just does not allow you to put the book away. The hospital staff were pretty annoyed with me. And, I am sure my family is annoyed with me for staying so late to finish this blog post. I wish I had read it more times much before. The message that the world is flat, the playing field is levelled and the ten forces that flattened the world are a must to know for any executive. The Triple Convergence and the great sorting out again are powerful tips for survival and relevance in a competitive world. The words that anyt...

I had the opportunity of running a teleseminar on the subject Collaborative Learning. The discussions revolved around Active Learning. The goal is to ensure we have no passengers. Though there were no objections to that remark, there was a valid question. One of the participants asked the question - How do we manage passengers in a teleseminar? Any thoughts.

The progressive transform simple lifes into great destinies. Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Nasser, George Washington, Mohammed Yunus are some great and outstanding people who started ordinary but created extraordinary feats. How can we collaborate to be progressive?

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 . Collaborati...

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 ...

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 ha...

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...

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...

While working in small groups on a collaborative assignment, group members must increase their knowledge and deepen their understanding. The learning tasks must be structured to ensure the learning objectives are achieved. The responsibility for learning is shifted to the learners in a collaborative learning environment and the learning environment vibrates with high energy and FUN. All of this is useless if the learning is not meaningful. In summary, collaborative learning is about a small group of learners labouring together and sharing the workload equitably as they strive to achieve the learning outcomes.

All learners must engage actively together towards stated objectives. If one group member watches them it is not collaborative learning. Thiagi (www.thiagi.com) often says that there can be no passengers in a game. If there are, then the entire game becomes a flop. All students must contribute equally. If one person is watching the others complete a group task, then it is not collaborative learning. Elizabeth Barkley and colleagues (www.amazon.com/Collaborative-Learning-Techniques-Handbook-College/dp/0787955183) say that the meaning of the Latin based word collaborate shines through as clearly today as in antiquity: to co-labour. Equitable engagement is an important element. However it is useful to consider learning styles of the learners here. Whether all members receive the same group task or different tasks, all learners must contribute more or less equally. I say this because recently we had an experience where a participant dropped out of a programme that we conducted commenting ...

Collaborative Learning It is all about working with others. This is the thinking behind the 5 I’s in the book The Magic of Making Training FUN! Even though collaborative learning has been called by many different names, the essence of it all remains stills the same, working together to achieve shared learning goals cost effectively. Whatever names, it maybe called; there are three essential features 1. Intentional Design 2. Co Labour 3. Meaningful Learning Intentional Design Having a group exercise if of no use unless and until the facilitator structures intentional learning activities for the learners. Very often, I have seen facilitators give a group exercise simply to break the monotone of a lecture. There is no purpose of alignment to the learning objectives. And, the learning gained is also not processed adequately. In today’s world where there are many ready-made prescriptions available, facilitators may structure learning activities by choosing a suitable one from a list of pre...