The end of the year never seems like winding down to me. I hear my boss tell me to wrap stuff up and prepare to spend time with family. We have a few classes yet before the end of the year, which is normal. We also as a team have major projects that carry into the new year, are offering new programs, working with new vendors, and trying to get things scheduled. It does not feel down windable.
Today I took my team to the art museum for a “creativity outing.” We took in the day to enjoy the French Impressionist exhibit. The discussion was about those “dabs of paint” that close up look like colorful smears but far away are so beautiful and defined. The question we had was about how the artist had the vision in their head of what the final picture would be while doing it one paint stroke at a time; making smears of color. The smears of color is how I feel at the end of the year. So many details to be tied up, so many people to get lined up and on board with new programs in the new year. It is easy to lose track of the vision while mired in the detail.
I need to focus like the artist on carefully painting each stroke. I enjoy my work and need to embrace the small steps that lead to the overall vision. Somedays it feels like I have made a bunch of unrelated paint smears. I know it will come together and even if the results are not a masterpiece, they will have met their objectives and helped people learn.
Author: heikan2003
Conference take-aways
I worked hard. I ran over my thought map/presentation plan a few times before building my slides. I asked permission from folks who allowed me to use their work. I built the kind of session that I like to attend; one that lets me see if I can use anything talked about in my world. Along the way I shared things that I had learned from my friends in #lrnchat. People seemed to like it, were engaged in the activity, and said some nice things on the survey. I am grateful and feel good. Like most conferences, I thought we had good stuff and not so good stuff.
Why would a person talk about an eLearning tool that they have never used? That happened at our KC ASTD conference. We had an experienced mobile team give great advice to a group wanting to use mobile though too. An advanced presenter spoke about where things are headed and talked about MOOCs. 3 of us in the room knew what it was. I was honestly surprised. Becky Pike Pluth had to join us virtually due to a schedule snafu but yet the room was humming with activity. I used one of her question creation tips this week. Overall it was a good day but it proved what I have thought despite the banter at the large conferences–everyone is not “doing it” regarding eLearning, mobile learning, or using technology.
That’s ok. It gives people like me a chance to share things I have learned. Things like eLearning Brothers’ templates cut my design time in half and it is well worth the investment. Cut out people via png files from the same source or eLearning Art help you create stories people can relate to. They learn better that way. Bianca Woods let me share one of her comic book inspired slides that is so cool I cannot wait to try the look. Jane Bozarth is using Pinterest to encourage people to show their work and for those of us working on our storyboarding there were a couple of really cool methods shown there. While you are looking for inspiration, try the community page on Articulate’s website even if you do not use that tool. We do not wave a wand and our students learn. That does not work for us either. Seek out sources of inspiration via blogs, social media like twitter and linkedIn, and the friends you make at conferences. Maybe we will all walk out with a new take-away at the next conference.
Duh on LinkedIn
This week I took advantage of ASTD’s webinar series and watched Wendy Terwelp teach us the basics of LinkedIn. She is so right and so many of us are so clueless. HELLO! More recruiters and business folk look on this site more than any other social media to check out your professional chops. How many of you logged in, created an account, and followed all the basic prompts? You are so cool. You are on the trendy social media business site. AAAAAGGGHHHHHHH!!!! Stop doing that.
In short, your business title is not who you are, nor is your resume that you put in the bio area. Oh and neither the glamour shot nor the casual party shot are appropriate for your photo. 10 years old? really? Silhouette because you did not load anything? As my Danish colleague would say, “C’MON!” Note that I actually had a business head shot posted that was taken by my marketing department at work. The bio section? Ok it still needs work. And I need to fix my title headline. Wendy gave a call to action! Fix it.
Right Foot Only
Young girls are kicking a soccer ball along while doing a drill at practice. Their coach has bellowed out a few times now, “right foot only.” Alas it is not working out like he thought it would. He calls the girls in and comments, “Anyone speak Welsh? because English is not working.” I sometimes feel like this while facilitating a class. In my head I can clearly see how the exercise works. I can visualize the participants doing the exercise. They are asking clarifying questions. Some are flipping through their manuals in search of better instructions. Ah and there goes another one to the bathroom who has given up on trying to figure it out.
I have often said that giving instructions in a clear and concise manner is the hardest part of facilitating classes. During the design phase of a course, these need to be written out in detail. Get a sounding board group together to listen to you give the instructions. Did they understand or are you still speaking a language only you hear? Get your group to help you polish the instructions. Describe for them what you see in your head. Once everyone agrees that the instructions are good to go, use one more test. Tweet them, post them, send them, use whatever method of social media works for you and get reactions from a fresh audience.
Oh and our soccer coach has gone with demonstrating everything after giving instructions. It has helped a lot but is not really practical in training all the time.
Good training.
One Piece at a Time
Ever get in a hurry? Need to get an eLearning piece done like yesterday? Many of us who are one stop shops or part of a small team get a bit rushed sometimes. Problem with that is that you look at your storyboard and realize that you ran the show. The learner is asleep as the screens auto advance. Your learning objectives are crap because you left the learner out.
My daughter has been in a puzzle mania mode lately. She looks at the box to get the overall picture view. Then she gets the border done. Slowly then she puts sections together until it is the whole puzzle. Imagine her frustration when she is almost done and a piece is missing. Usually after a search conducted under the table, in the dog bed, and the surrounding floor she finds it. Wow what a puzzle master!
eLearning design takes time and has to be built piece by piece. I usually use a mind map to get the whole picture out of my head and on paper. This allows me to focus on just what is needed for the learning objective and eliminate the clutter. Then I can begin to create my storyboard. Drawing on paper what the visuals are going to be. What is the real story I am creating? Ahh there is the border. Now working in sections, I can create the piece parts of the action that needs to happen so the learner is helping make the choices of where the story goes. In the end, we will both end up at the same place–an accomplished learning objective.
Lessons in the News
My mind has been spinning over the media coverage of the historic march on Washington and Syria’s civil war. I cannot get away from the central question of “how do we treat people?” I guess I could have titled this “The Golden Rule” but I think it is more than that. The president of Syria does not want to be treated the same as others; he is president. If we are honest, none of our presidents wanted to be treated the same as everyone else either. Although the civil rights movement was (and is) an effort toward equality, I think there is an element of “respect my culture” in there. The true lesson maybe is “respect ME.”
As a new parent I quickly realized that my children would behave according to the manner in which I treated them. This is no different than my everyday interactions with people everywhere–my waitress at lunch, co-workers in the office, my boss, and my family. At conferences with workplace professionals, I frequently hear derogatory comments about “our learners.” We get a little lofty. The word “they” is used a lot and not in a complimentary way. You would think we all are super heros saving these poor, stupid people in our offices. Is that how we treat the learners in our programs? Wow. Not a lot of respect there. Ah but you say we assess our audience and tune into their “learning style” and are noting their generational differences. If this still comes from a place of judgement than I think we are on the wrong path. What happened to the lessons we learned in education and human resource classes–people behave according to how they are treated so expect the best?
Before you think me a bit lofty myself, I admit to having frustrating days of no shows, pre-work incompletions, and follow up assignment black hole experiences. Am I then lumping the bad apples in with all those who make an effort to learn? No, I am choosing to communicate expectations better, recognize achievement better, and celebrate applied learning better. Because I want to reach people where they are I will continue to try new methods in delivering training. I have so much respect for the wonderful people I get to work with at my job. My goal is to truly work with them so they reach their goals. This is my hope for Syria. A president who truly sees his people and their vast cultures that will now collaborate with others to end the violence there. It is my hope here in the US as we continue to march on for civil rights, treating one another with respect. If we only expect people to behave a certain way then that is what opportunity they will see. I vote for seeing the possibilities for everyone and treating them accordingly.
Hey look at me!
This week the media is all abuzz about an award show and a young lady who grabbed a lot of attention and seemed to be saying, “Hey look at me.” Most of the chatter regards the young lady as vulgar, crude, inappropriate for television, and how she is damaging young minds everywhere. Other people won awards. There were some great performances by other musicians. Web news, tv news, all forms of social media, and water cooler talk is about the outrageous young lady.
I choose not to follow her example to get folks talking about our employee training programs as I do not wish to be fired. What can we learn though about making a big splash with our programs? We have some good stuff in our eLearning library. We have won an award or two. Yet I do not hear any chatter about it in the hallways. The young lady surprised people. She made their minds ask why? She used props that prompted questions and efforts to make metaphorical connections. At a recent Kansas City ASTD chapter meeting the presenter showed video clips of spoofs of shows and skits that were designed to teach compliance training. Hmmm, surprise it is serious content!
Our team is going after this “surprise” element. We want to hear, “did you see. . .” in the hallways in regards to our programs. Wish us luck and note there will be no teddy bears harmed in our training.
Not Like the Others
Remember on Sesame Street when they would sing “one of these things is not like the others,” usually with 4 photos? That is what popped into my head while watching the film “The Social Network” which I had picked up at the library. There are some stereotypical characters in that film, but there is also a lead character who is a lot like some of my participants in classes. It portrays Mark Zuckerberg as the one who is “not like the others.” On a positive note that reflects his incredible intellect, abilities with computer codes, and innovative thinking which is evident in what he has created with Facebook and before it. On a not so positive it portrays him as a person who cannot truly relate to other people with empathy or in relationships the way his friends expected him to. He is seen as disloyal, a jerk, self-serving, and as clueless in the connecting area which is rather ironic.
I recognize and sympathize with that character. I have the pleasure of working with brilliant engineers in my learning & development job. Showing emotion, understanding why an action may produce a negative emotion in someone else all get in the way of creation, project management, and results. When I see the far away look on their faces, I know they are trying to figure out why it matters and what they did that caused that reaction. People skills, relationship skills, and communication skills are not natural. We learn them. Like all things we learn, we apply some skills better than others. In the movie, no one bothered to teach Mr. Zuckerberg those lessons. He is being sued and is advised to settle. In true life did he settle for the legal outcome without truly learning the social skills that would help him prevent situations in the future? I hope not. Helping these incredible minds think of things outside of themselves is what we in L&D are charged with. We should embrace those that are not like the others; challenge them; give them a chance to apply skills that will truly connect them.
p.s.
I love facebook. It has connected me with folks I otherwise would not. I stay on top of events. I enjoy the photos friends post. Mr. Zuckerberg created a space for that. I am grateful.
Training does not equal Application
I knew better. I knew how to curl, how to throw at the broom, and how to come out of the hack. I also knew that curling is harder on you physically than people may guess. Still, I went into the BBQ Bonspiel (tournament) out of shape. I had not curled the spring season. I had stopped doing yoga consistently and I paid for it with soreness.
It was a reminder that even though we learn new skills and can perform them, applying them often has other requirements. Do our students have all the resources they need to apply what they learn in class?
Training does not equal application. It is a good foundation and carries possibilities though. In this case, it also carried another lesson–the consequences of repeated rock throwing when one has not prepared their body.
Made You Look
Ever notice how many blogs, tweets, or magazine articles have titles with numbers? “The Top 5 apps for Learning” “Check out the 7 Ways to Get Ahead” “10 Superfoods to Feed Your Learning Brain” Why does this lure us in? Are you tempted by the quickness of it? If the number is larger, is the appeal that someone else sifted through the information for you? I think we have been trained well by the media and should learn something from their tactics.
Go to any checkout stand at a grocery and count how many of these types of titles you see on the magazine covers. You could argue that you only read them because you are bored waiting in line. Are you still bored when you pick up the magazine and skim over the eye-catching article from the cover? We have bored people in class all the time. There is a reason all of us in the training industry know the term “prisoner” is based on someone forced to come to class. Oh a new course title, “The top 5 Classes to Send your Prisoners to.”
Maybe not a good choice. But why are we not using catchy headlines to promote our courses? Why do we post our formal objectives in the course description as if we were still writing lesson plans for a college professor? I am going to try instead the headline method: add a number under 10, make it something attention grabbing, focus on action. Try it. Share it. Learning is not a tabloid but “made you look” appeals to me.
Hei Learning 