Training from the BACK of the Room!

For participants who have attended a 2-day “Training from the BACK of the Room” (TBR) Practitioner Class, the “real work” begins after the class is over – with “Follow-Ups,” of course!

You just finished a customer service training for a small group of your company’s employees. They listened attentively the whole time your were talking. Now you stop and ask, “Do you understand?” They nod their heads. You continue, “Do you have any questions?” They shake their heads. “Good,” you think. “They’ve got it.” Or do they?

Many of us have a bookshelf filled with our New Year’s “to-be-read” books. Here are six of mine – interesting and informative resources to jump-start 2018. All contain concepts about the human brain and successful learning. You can read or just skim them and still find something to use in your own personal or professional life. Happy New Year!

About 14 months ago I created a webinar titled “Brain-Based Presenting: Getting the Brain to Pay Attention.” I’m reposting both the webinar and bonus presentation tools here – use this post to refresh your memory or to learn about brain-based presenting.

The Arizona “Training from the BACK of the Room” class held this month has been completed and now the “real work” begins – with “Follow-Ups,” of course!

Vic Bonacci here, writing for Sharon’s blog. Are you a trainer with a passion for continuous improvement? Do you believe that lifelong learning is a key to satisfaction and success? Then read on for my “Top 10 Tips for Trainers” for 2017.

Most days I walk – sometimes a short walk around the tree-lined block, other times a mile or two along a lovely meadow. I take my mobile phone with me to track my steps and mileage. But, while walking, I find myself doing other things with the phone, as well.

Sometimes someone can take a lot of information and synthesize it into something elegant, simple, and easy to learn from. Agile Coach and Consultant Emily Webber did just that …

Need some quick, topic-related opening and closing activities for your 2016 training programs – ones that can be used with any topic and any group of learners? Here are four strategies that will energize learners while actively engaging them in making connections and drawing conclusions.

For the past fifteen years, the intersection between education/training and cognitive neuroscience has become stronger as brain scientists now have ways to monitor and record what effective teachers and trainer have known for a long time: how the human brain learns best.

On this website, you have, at your fingertips, dozens of slide presentations (“Slides About PowerPoint”) that give you hundreds of ways to create awesome slide decks, without boring your audiences to death. Here is my latest discovery – a slide presentation that is so fantastic that I had to create a new blog post just for it.

“Follow-Ups” are optional activities that help you revisit, remember, and use what you’ve learned from a class or workshop. Brain scientists call this “spaced practice.” Follow-Ups help you move content into long-term memory and help you master concepts and use them in practical ways.

I’ve posted Warm-Ups before – those pre-program activities that brain scientists call “priming.”  Warm-Ups are short, quick, optional activities that informally introduce learners to concepts that will be formally covered in traditional instruction in the near future.

Here are seven great suggestions for learning anything faster. The first one will probably surprise you. The sixth is essential. And the seventh explains something you’ve probably experienced many times without realizing it: “The Dip.”

Questioning strategies get short-changed in today’s content-driven, answer-focused, adult training world. And while adults often need to learn information critical to their job success, they also need practice in asking questions that lead to breakthroughs in thinking, creativity, and problem-solving.

I love brain stuff! Especially the brain stuff that helps me become better at what I do, both personally as well as professionally. So when I found this little presentation gem about the brain, I thought it merited its own blog post.

In this fabulous new video by “Smarter Every Day,”  you’ll see a “hands-on” demonstration (literally!) of neuroplasticity, and how your brain hardwires anything it learns to the point that it is very challenging for you to unlearn it. You’ll also see what happens when you unlearn something, then try to relearn it. This great brain experiment uses a tool we’re all familiar with: a bicycle!

Perhaps you remember the series of books for kids titled “Choose Your Own Adventure” (if not, and if you have kids, check out these cool adventure stories on Amazon). Branching stories are the adult versions: structured, self-paced, scenario-based learning experiences.

For the ATD Sacramento Super Session participants of either the “Got a Minute?” March 19th workshop or the “Using Brain Science to Make Training Stick” March 20th class, here are 5 specific “Follow-Ups” you can do to make sure you remember and use what you learned during the Super Session:

My husband and I went to see the movie “Focus” the other evening. A segment of the movie gave a vivid example of “priming” – the word brain scientists give to a concept that is really important for human learning.  

Just over two years ago my 4th son (Clay Anderson) came up with a brilliant idea. He called it “Friday Resolutions” and it worked like this:

Just about the time I’m thinking that I really need to begin a regular practice schedule – rather than hit or miss –  if I want to get really good at playing the keyboard for the little local band I’m in (and we’re playing a dance gig in March – ack!), I run across this fabulous slide presentation!

“The person doing the most talking – or moving or writing – in a class or training is doing the most learning.” And,if you observe a traditional face-to-face class, it’s immediately obvious who is doing the most talking, moving, and writing: the instructor or trainer, of course!

“Intermittent Reinforcement.” Also called “Spaced Practice” – a gift to give yourself for 2015. Forget New Year’s resolutions. Forget promising yourself that you’ll NEVER do this or ALWAYS do that. And forget about learning a new habit or behavior by repeating it again and again in one “massed practice” – one large chunk of time.

A difficult adult learner: resistant, passive. Thinks activities are a waste of time. Doesn’t really want to be sitting in a classroom with a group of strangers at all. And nothing you try in the class setting works. What do you do?

You already know that learner-to-learner interactions – paired, small groups, or class discussions about content – significantly increase long-term memory of the information being discussed. But the problem most trainers face is how to begin that kind of interaction when learners don’t yet know each other and don’t feel psychologically safe with each other yet.

You’ve just delivered some important content via a lecture to a class of adult learners. You want them to remember the content, so how do you help them do just that? Here are three quick ways to ensure that your adult learners will remember what you’ve taught them.

These questions pop up often from eager trainers: “How do I begin making changes in my training programs? How do I encourage adult learners to participate? Where do I start?” Here are a few suggestions to try – ideas that may help you get past the initial challenge of making the change from traditional training to a more learner-centered approach.

The title of this blog entry came from a friend in the speaking industry – a motivational speaker who was trying to change his own habit of speaking non-stop, without allowing any audience participation.

For those of us who have been doing this “teaching/training” thing for awhile, we often seem to base it on “Well, if learning a certain way works for me, it should work for others.” Maybe that’s the case; but, then again, maybe not.

I must admit that I check email a few times during the day – well, actually, quite a lot, if I count email check-ups on my iPhone, as well as my computer. It goes like this: Do a little work here, check email there. More work, more email. And maybe I throw in a web search or two, for good measure.