Stand Up Paddleboards (SUPs) are quite popular where I live.

My friends have invited me many times to join them on the many rivers and lakes around where I live. But I really don’t like them. I find the paddle moves a bit awkward and there are a lot of possibilities of ending up in the water. And in this part of the world, the water is always cold. Very cold, even in summer.

So I just accepted its not my thing and that’s ok. I join the same friend for other things (like karaoke or hikes).

This is your invitation to be ok with being different from the rest of your ecosystem when it comes to training.

• If everybody lectures with slides, try using a handout or demonstrations instead.
• If everybody uses learner manuals, try a scavenger hunt or guided questions for a change.
• Instead of a 90 mins e-course, try breaking down the content in several sessions of 15 mins each.
• If the traditional way of sharing info in your world is through a presentation, try a case scenario or a newsletter.

You get the idea.

Take Action

Identify your rut and this post is your permission to be different. Be creative, try new things.

Who knows, inspiration might hit in!

Monica

(If you want some ideas on how to shake up your class with different learning activities than your regular ones, download our free Engagement Boosting Toolkit)

The post Permission to be different appeared first on Prisma Learning.

Truth: When the instructor resonates with the learner, better learning happens.

Last month I attended a training in the dread of winter (I live in the cold side of Canada), and the instructor started off with a story: “This morning I was brushing the snow off from my car when I slipped on the ice and my glasses got all covered with snow…” by this moment the erudite in front of us, was just a mortal like me, who gets annoyed at brushing off snow from his car. Plus if you wear glasses you know how painful it is to have them all covered in snow.

He ended up the intro story with a good analogy that cleverly linked to the topic of our training session.

So this person knows a lot more than me in the topic of the session, but he was vulnerable for a moment to connect with us before we got technical. Though, I don’t think he would have had the same effect had his class been virtual with people from around the world (think Hawaii or California ☀️ ).

If there is human connection, either in person or virtually speaking, the learners will be more receptive and more engaged. The pandemic years already reminded us the importance of human connection.

What connects people?

Sometimes a story, sometimes a fact, sometimes a smile….

Take Action:

Use that moment when the instructor introduces themselves to the audience to connect with the people in front of you (or across the screen). Find an intro that fits your personality. Let them see the human behind the expertise they are about to experience.

Today I want to tell you a bit more about myself, because I am also a person behind a business.

Here are 10 things about me:

1. A teacher and an educator for more than 20 years
2. ‍‍‍‍Mother to Eric and Alan
3. Have known my husband since high school (though we just decided to marry 8  years ago)
4. I’m a history geek
5. I rebalance at the mountains
6. Smile a lot
7. Dress up at the minimal chance
8. Sing whenever possible (kitchen, karaoke, in the car…)
9. Avid ice-skater
10. Have a sweet tooth for pastries

I have a few pics to share if you want to see them:

40+ years ago I was born in Mexico. A lot of my practicality, colorfulness, love for community, resourcefulness, and flexibility comes from those early days.

In 2004 my family and I immigrated to Canada and in 2010 I graduated from the University of Ottawa in Education graduate studies. My love for tulips dates from those days enjoying the Tulip Festival there every Spring.

From 2013 to 2016 I taught in Benin West Africa. I was in a high school and also ran a skills program for the youth in jail. Most of my students were a lot taller than me! I remember one girl asked me once “when is a good moment to lose one’s virginity?”. I was like mmmm… how do I answer that question and how do I say whatever the answer is in French…? Ahhh the high school years.

My favorite food in the world is the Middle Eastern food (I once taught in Saudi Arabia, where all food is delicious) and the most strange thing I have ever eaten are fried snakes on a stick in Cambodia. They were good though!

My dad and I used to run 5Ks whenever we could, now we are connected through our Garmin watches across the miles.

Nowadays Luis my husband and I have 2 little boys full of energy, and we are constantly out and about with them. I love living in the City of Calgary and enjoy very much also the mountains that are close to us.

​Know that connecting with The Learning Guru community is one of the activities that brings a lot of joy to my life too. I love writing the emails every other week and reading your replies and comments fills my heart, thank you! ❤️

Thanks for following us!

The post Connection for a safe learning environment, and a bit about me appeared first on Prisma Learning.

Just last week, I delivered a session on short and long-term memory. Virtual. The producer asked me for the slides. I said: “there are no slides, I don’t like slides very much”. He was very surprised. “Everybody always uses slides” he said. Instead, I created a job aid with 8 practical strategies that people could print, post at their work stations, and consult every time they needed to do their job.

This week I celebrated my birthday and a good thing about the 4th decade of life is that we are a lot more comfortable in our own skin. We know what we are made of, we have a better idea what we like, what we can compromise on, and what are our no-no.

Put yourself first

In training, the first step is usually the ANALYSIS of the audience, the resources, the needs… but nobody talks about analysis of the trainer. I guess it is mostly implicit, but today I want to make it explicit.

Hands up if you:

• love sharing your zone of genius with others but dread presenting in front of an audience
• need to connect at the human level with your audience before putting on your trainer hat
• find evaluation surveys boring and impersonal
• know your audience is suffering of virtual-fatigue and so are you

I have been through all of those points above at different times of my career.

At the beginning I though it was the way it was, and sucked it up.

But as time passed (with age as the saying goes), I learned to capitalize on my strengths by changing things to fit them and fit my preferences.

Do an inventory of yourself

Make an inventory of your strengths: what excites you? what are you often praised for? what do people ask you questions about all the time? what energizes you? what would you do all the time if it was your choice? what would you like to learn more about?
​Clue: Pay attention to your emotions. Yes, they have a lot to do with training.
​
Do more of what you like: because you will enjoy it more and it will show.

Ask yourself:

• Does it really need to be a presentation? Can it not be a guided personal reading with a 1 hour Q&A with you at the end? or a job aid with a 15 mins discussion around it?
• Do I need to send an evaluation survey? Can I not interview a sample of participants at the end? or ask them for an email with their feedback?
• Can I ask the audience to ONLY use the chat for questions or specific interactions? (Answer: yes you can, if its your class. If it is not only your class, suggest it to the co-presenter. Or ask to be them the chat monitors)

Take Action:

CHALLENGE THE STATUS QUO to reflect on the strengths and brilliance that you have come up with throughout the years and capitalize on it. I challenge you to change the practices that might feel routine, tradition or procedural… you know “the way it is”, for “the way you want it to be”.

The way that serves you best.

Because if you work the way that serves you best as a trainer, the results will be superior. And your audience deserves that.

But overall, YOU deserve that. We all deserve to enjoy our work.

Back to the no-slides presentation from last week, this morning I received an email thanking me for the job aid: “Its so useful, I had forwarded it to all our team for their reference”. People rarely share slides. And I didn’t have to make any because visual design is not my strength – I really enjoyed more a discussion about the points of the learning aid, which at the end covered the content and that is what matters.

The post To be a better trainer, learn more about yourself appeared first on Prisma Learning.