Leadership that Inspires, Sticks and Engages all for Success
Colin Thompson
Managing Partner Cavendish/Author/International Speaker/Mentor/Partner
Mind Your Brain Friendly Language
Successful ways;
Leadership that Inspires
Change that Engages
Learning that Sticks
Training has come a long way in recent years. Gone are the days when an instructor stood at the overhead projector, and droned on for hours on end. These days it's much more likely that participants take part in activities that involve them moving around a training room which is full of colour and life. There's a buzz of activity. Lots of laughter and music is often playing in the background. People are interacting, thinking, asking questions, suggesting answers and taking notes.
However, just because a training course is filled with fun and activity doesn't necessarily guarantee more learning. It's possible to have the sizzle without the substance. In fact, one of the reasons why trainers are put off brain friendly learning is that they try to incorporate the razzamatazz without taking care to ensure that the activity supports the learning, rather than distracts from it.
We believe learning events can be enjoyable and full of significant and long lasting learning.
Of course, the content of the Brain Friendly Learning workshop keeps evolving. We’re constantly monitoring and creating our own research about what really works to bring learning to life in business. We even have our own neuroscientist on the team, who makes sure we’re up to scratch with the latest brain research.
Yet, every time we schedule another Brain Friendly Learning workshop, I confess there’s a small part of me that thinks: “But surely everybody MUST know about this stuff by now? I’ll just be preaching to the converted. Surely, all trainers understand and apply the five principles?” If you need a reminder of the five principles, they are:
Keep it Real
Honour Uniqueness
Facilitate Creation (not just Consumption)
Make it Rich and Multi-Sensory
State is Everything!
But no. Even though 1000’s of trainers have embraced the BFL approach, and enjoyed the benefits it brings in making learning fast, fun and fit-for-purpose (and most importantly, STICKY) for their learners, the majority of corporate trainers still tell me they find the whole thing a complete revelation!
When Friendly Learning is the norm, rather than the exception – I’ll go do something else. But it’s not. And an uber-traditional approach to training is often given away in the language people use.
Language is incredibly important because it creates and communicates meaning. Here are some of the words and phrases that can give an insight into the way people are thinking about learning:
‘Course Objectives’
When I did my ‘professional’ training qualifications (Moses was still around back then, but I understand it’s pretty similar now), we were encouraged to write training objectives in the form of: “At the end of this course, delegates will be able to....” and then state behaviour, a condition and a standard for each objective. Mager was one of the gurus in those days.
Whilst I applaud the wish to create more precision, and avoid woolly thinking, we should be placing far more emphasis on the outcomes back in the business. Who cares about the course objectives? The business certainly doesn’t. They care about what the learner is going to do, think, say and believe differently when they’re back at work. The big challenge for trainers is to crack the ‘transfer of training’ problem. So let’s start by designing learning experiences with the ultimate outcome in mind.
‘Delegates’ A subtle one this. The word ‘delegate’, to me, implies somebody who’s going to a conference to absorb information given to them by an expert. Whilst there’s certainly a place for a passionately delivered (short) lecture, Brain Friendly Learning is about co-creating an EXPERIENCE for the people participating... so let’s call them ‘learners’ or ‘participants’.
‘Writing’ courses Traditional trainers use this language regularly, and those that do then often go on to show me the 146 slides of theory or ‘content’ they’ve ‘written’, which then needs to be ‘transmitted’ to the learners. The whole presupposition is that learning is the consumption of information. You write a book, you don’t write a course. You design an experience. What is the experience that the learners need to have in order to achieve the ultimate outcomes? Answering that question will take you to a very different place than sitting down and ‘writing’ the information about a topic.
‘Joining Instructions’ This term really fills one with excitement, doesn’t it? We prefer ‘Welcome Pack’. And whilst I’m on the subject, how can you design this so that it creates the state you want in the group before they even walk in the door? With recent technological advances, there’s really no excuse not to make your invitations warm, engaging and with a real wow factor.
‘Energisers’ I often see posts like this on various training forums: “I’m running a course next week and the content is pretty boring... can anybody suggest an energiser I can pepper it with?”
Also, I have nothing against energised learning. What I object to is the idea that ‘energisers’ should be added in to a learning experience, because the core of it is so dull and lifeless that people need to be woken up! Friendly Trainers design learning experiences that naturally incorporate high-energy states (and others as well). If learners are highly engaged, and have crystal clear and personally meaningful learning goals, it’s unnecessary – and perhaps even a little patronising to ‘smear’ energisers on top. You get the sizzle through the substance, and the way you’ve designed the whole experience.
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Dr Colin Thompson | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com )
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