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.

Have you heard of the Winter Blues? Do you sometimes get it? Growing up in Mexico I had never heard of it. Then I came to Canada, where the winters are cold, dark and long, and I am now well acquainted with them. (I know Californians have “the January hill” which is the weight of all the bills from the December festivities).

I have found ice skating as a very good antidote for winter blues, which is at its peak these days in our household. Here is a picture of my kid and I at the local rink:

Myself I learned as a clumsy 30-year old falling over and over the frozen Ottawa Canal. Thankfully I had a sweet -Canadian- boyfriend back in those days to hold my hand and pull me back up every time I fell. With his help and guidance I did learn.

So I was watching my kid this past weekend how he fell, and stands up and tries again. Gets a bit further. Fell again. Stands up again, keeps going. Fell… But he is a lot better than last year when he couldn’t stand on his skates more than a minute before falling. Why? because every weekend we are out there on the ice, falling and trying again.

(unless it is one of those -40 C weeks, then we hibernate)

I’m writing this because you guys wanted me to expand more on this very topic of learning from failure from the last blog post.

A few ideas on how to include “regulated failure” in training activities without traumatizing anybody include:

• Questions: Make it safe to be wrong or half-correct. ALWAYS provide the correct answer.
• Coaching: Let them try, do it wrong or fail, and then point out the correct way of doing it.
• Scenarios: Bring out the storyteller in you: this happens… what would you do? and then always debrief what would be your take on it.
• Examples: Similar to scenarios but something already happened, so it is more of analyzing what was the outcome and how could it change.
• Simulations & role playing: combines all the above with a touch of fun and next level engagement.
• Knowledge checks, quizzes or exams: They are really questions but more formal. In order for learning to happen from them, the correct or expected answer has to always be provided after they try.
• Videos, documents produced by others: Learning from others’ mistakes also helps and takes the pressure off a bit. Add a bit of emotion with something in the line of: “imagine it was you”.
• Lessons learned sessions: If you have watched ER, Grays Anatomy or any medical TV show you have seen the townhalls where doctors talk about medical mistakes and how to prevent them from happening in the future. Team meetings and [virtual or live] classroom settings are the perfect venue for these conversations too. There needs to be a certain level and culture of comfort though, for people to be willing to talk about their mistakes or lessons learned in the spirit of collective learning.

The KEY in learning from failure or mistakes, is to always know what is the correct answer or path of action. (If not, one makes the mistake and doesn’t necessarily know it was a mistake. Or you know it was a wrong answer but you don’t know what is the correct one).

Take Action:

Plan opportunities for your audience to make mistakes and learn from them in a safe and controlled environment. Make sure you ALWAYS include debriefs or the correct paths/answers after these activities.

Wishing you a mild Winter blues / January hill season friends! As for us, we will be at the mountain lakes skating.

The post Help your audience to learn from failure appeared first on Prisma Learning.

Here’s an analogy I love from Julie Dirksen (Design for how people learn, 2016):

• A new learning is like a piece of clothing that you try on (you learn, sensory memory).
• Then you leave it on the chair by your bed – quick to retrieve though it might end up buried underneath other pieces of clothing… or a cat (short term memory).
• Eventually you move it to your closet, where it is folded and placed where it belongs: pants with pants, shirts with shirts, sweaters with sweaters; ready for when you need to use it, you know where to find it (long term memory).

Long term memory is where the learning happens. Encoding (folding) what is in our short term memory (chair) into our long term memory (closet) is the art of good learning design.

How can we help our learners transfer what they learned from the short term memory to the long term memory?

• Give your audience a chance to reflect. Ask questions like: “how are you going to use this new learning?”, “what are the advantages of using [or not] this?”, “how does this relate to anything I already knew?” and then allow for a few moments of silence for that reflection to happen. Guided reflection is like ruminating the new content and the best antidote for overwhelm.
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• Allow for practice and provide feedback as much as possible. Linked to the next one:
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• Plan opportunities for failing. Learning from failure is more effective than learning from success. Don’t give your audience all the answers, allow them to discover or guess important information. Debrief always after. And allow them time to reflect on the experience (back to point one).
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• Add emotion through storytelling. Humans are wired for learning through stories (think of our cavepeople ancestors). Associations and emotions help with retention big time.
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• Provide activities for the audience to “play” with the new content: teach it to others, research it, present it, analyze it, evaluate it, illustrate it visually, summarize it in a flipchart, make a song out of it… the more angles to interact with the content, the more it will stick.
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• Chunk down content. Easier to fold one piece of clothing at the time than a pile. Break down your content so it will be easier to digest it for your audience.
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• Time-spaced reviews. This is a big one and it has its own post that you can access here.

Take Action

These six points are already a lot, so I will leave you to try one by one to your comfort. Is there a favourite one that you already use? Would you like more details on any of them? Happy to elaborate on any, just send me a DM in LinkedIn or Instagram or an email and we’ll connect! We love talking shop and getting to know our community better!

The post How to help your audience remember what you teach them 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.

Most people say that the antidote for distraction is engagement. I don’t disagree, because engagement is to have a relationship. However, the first step to build that relationship in my opinion, is connection.

Connect with your learners.

Depending on how your learning happens, spend a few intentional moments connecting with your learners and if possible, promote that they connect among yourselves. Even with e-learning this is possible:

DELIVERY SPECIFIC

For in person training: Arrive early and don’t get busy with your phone or the projector: talk to the participants, ask them about their season, their tastes, their opinion on the local news. It will be harder for them to be distracted with somebody they already built rapport with, than with “just a trainer”.

For virtual trainings: Send an enthusiastic email before the session letting your participants know what to expect, how to get ready and anything about you as a human being. The early greeting-connection technique also applies here: log in 10-5 mins early and instead of uncomfortable silence start a conversation with whoever jumps in early until its time to officially start.
In both in person and virtually, have participants share with one another parts of the training. Allow for opportunities to guess the info before you provide it to them, have them search for it, analyze it, evaluate it… it is hard to be distracted when you are supposed to be doing something with somebody else.

For asynchronous learning (e-courses or recorded sessions): Create a wiki, or a TEAMS or Slack channel, or any venue/forum for posting comments or responses to scenarios or questions embedded in the e-course or webinar and encourage commenting on others. Reading other people’s comments on their post or counting their likes will be your learners’ main distraction.

If you are a manager or somebody who coaches or mentors your team members: Connect with them randomly and unexpectedly: a request for help or for their expertise, a personal one line email or TEAMS / Slack message asking them how they are doing, share something you read that reminded you of them… and feel the relationship grow a bit closer.

CONNECTION ACTIVITIES THAT WORK IN MOST DELIVERY OPTIONS:

• Organize a round table of lessons-learned or best practices of the year (or the quarter, or the month, or the season, depending on your line of work) where everybody has the chance to share and learn from others.
• Share stories. Nothing connects more people and promotes learning than storytelling. This can be done in any learning format.
• Provide feedback: Create a culture of authentic, honest and open conversations where people (you included) learn from them. Don’t wait until the annual review conversations in April, find something to provide feedback about now. It can be positive or an area for improvement, your choice.
• Ask them: My golden rule for facilitating is “If they can say it, don’t say it. If they can do it, don’t do it”. The more they run the learning show (with your guidance) the less they will be distracted with anything else.
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Outside the workplace, I also recommend you connect with people. A quick text or call to somebody you haven’t talked with in a long time: “hey long time! how has this year/season treated you?” or to somebody that is really close: “thinking of you, stay warm” (remember I live in Canada). Tone it to your personality and geographical location. Isolation is #1 reason for depression, chronic illnesses, suicide, and all kinds of maladies. You might or might not do holiday season, but it is always a good time for connecting with others.

Take Action:

When planning your training, be intentional about the different ways you will be connecting with your learners as people. Write them down in your teaching notes (ask this… do that…). Test and repeat.
Outside of working hours, connect with your tribe! be part of the energy.

>> You can also connect with us if you have any idea in the learning front that you would like to explore! OR, if engagement activities is what you are looking for ideas on how to connect with your audience and keep distractions at bay, download our Engagement Toolkit.

The post Use connection in your training as an antidote to distractions. 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.
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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.

Remembrance Day in Canada is a day to honour the veterans who fought in the different wars Canada has been involved in. As the history geek I am, I know a lot about many of them. So when the city library organized an activity where volunteer veterans would be available to chat with the public for 20 mins slots, I was there for sure.

One was a parachute officer.
– Do I care about parachutes? no.
– Have I ever parachute-jumped? no.
– Will I ever? no if I can avoid it.
But the emotion and his eyes telling me how he landed in occupied France, how he got tangled in the parachute, how he felt the German bullets passing him by centimeters got me obsessed with parachutes for the following 2 months. Not only that, when I found myself in a hard moment of my life a bit later, I would go back to that story and draw from its wisdom to get myself out of my hole.

Why are stories important?

Stories are powerful because:

• they convey emotion,
• they create connections,
• they relate to real life,
• and they create a connection with the narrator.

Boring content training turned memorable through stories example:
A few months ago I was in a training session about provincial legislation changes (not very exciting). The facilitator told the story about how she went to enforce said legislation to a workplace and the owner and 2 other big men chased her out waving their machetes and yelling obscenities. I laughed out loud, because she even acted a bit up the scene and I totally felt that I was there witnessing it all! She aroused emotion in us: suspense, drama, amusement… and she had our entire attention from that point and the content actually stuck well in all of our heads – because we were warmed up by a story that sparked emotion in us.

You don’t have to re-act dramatic experiences or dodge enemy bullets to use stories as a learning tool. The stories don’t even have to be true or yours. Use hypothetical examples, scenarios, or ask your audience for their stories (real or invented). If a learner can come up with a story or a scenario about anything you are trying to teach, that means they understood it well and will have high chances of sticking in their long term memory.

We are wired for storytelling!

Think of our cavepeople ancestors: we evolved to who we are today as a society by gathering around the fire and exchanging stories of how we cooked the mammoth or tied a new kind of arrow.

Think of today’s workplace employees. What do they do when they have a moment free? Go to the closest table to gather and share stories. About football, children, weekend plans… you name it.

Take Action:

Be intentional about including stories as learning tools for connection, adding the emotion factor with your audiences, and retention purposes.

Feel free to also sign in to The Learning Guru newsletter, which lands on your inbox bi-weekly and embeds stories with practical and actionable tips for becoming a more skilled trainer in your area of genius. Perfect for those growth mindsets who know the world needs their expertise and are ready to get better at teaching it.

Alternatively, download our free Engagement Toolkit, which includes stories, and also many other tools for turning dry content into a lot more relevant and engaging learning experiences.

The post Dry training is more memorable through stories. appeared first on Prisma Learning.

A person learns something and remembers 100% after your session, yeyy!
By day 1 they only remember 60%
By day 4 they might remember 20%
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The solution: time-spaced reminders. Preferably short and sweet. The ideas is that key training takeaways keep coming back to the learners after the session is finished (in different modalities ideally) and help them stay fresh and move from the short to the long-term memory.

Microlearning tools are your best friends here. They are learning activities that provide a short engagement intentionally designed to help the brain review, retain and transfer information from the short-term brain to the long-term brain.

Examples of microlearning tools and activities include:

• visuals (infographics, graphs, charts)
• job aids
• a quick discussion in a team meeting
• a strategically-placed question
• video or audio (short and to the point)
• reading a blog post (or even better: writing it)
• quizzes
• case studies or scenarios

The point is that they have to be intentional and built into your learning design.

❓ QUESTIONS ABOUT MICROLEARNING

Q. How long should a microlearning activity be?​
A. Billboards convey a message in 5 seconds. A team discussion can take 10 minutes. A video clip can be anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes long. Plus Lola will take much less time to make sense of an infographic than Katia just because she is a visual-type of person and maybe more experienced. The microlearning activity has to be the right amount of time to cover the objective while fitting in the right amount of time that the participant has.

Q. What is a common mistake when creating micro-learning tools?​
A. To focus too much in the content and little in the context. For an employee that is on the road constantly, anything that is papers or hard copy will be more of an annoyance than help. They need digitally accessible materials. For an audience whose second language is English, more visuals and less written / spoken words might work best. Go back to considering who is your audience and what is what they need and want.

Q. Are there more resources about microlearning?​
A. Plenty of them. One of my favourites is this podcast episode by Endurance Learning:
​https://trainlikeachampion.blog/microlearning-basics/​

Take Action:

Use microlearning in your training strategy as part of your Learning Guru toolkit and help your audiences retain your teachings in their long-term memory! Use your Guide with 31 learning activities that aren’t Slides for inspiration.

The post Support your learners’ retention through spaced repetition appeared first on Prisma Learning.