Skip to main content

Stories, Anecdotes and all that

 Until a few years back, a training could be structured like a movie. Start with some humour or entry. Share an anecdote, share some facts, quote CEOs, make a couple of discussions, encourage participation and engagement and boom you are home as a trainer. 

Give or take there are many variations of this method. You can add a dash of inspiration, razzmatazz, charisma, gift-of-the-gab - none of these make the training stick. Yes, it is great engagement scores, but little more than that. 

For a training to stick - the audience has to do the difficult work. And as learning facilitator, knowing well that they will go outside and forget it, you need to plan to bring them back in and practice. Many times. And then measure them on the practice or on the outcome that you expect or on the ultimate business outcome. Rinse repeat. 

As you do this a few times, people in the company/cohort, realise that this is the way things are learnt, behaviour is changed and people grow and companies progress. Yes, each of them is a landmine in itself, but avoid all of these and your training program wins. 

So, if you are attending a training that is structured with anecdotes and Steve Jobs did that and this, consider yourself shortchanged. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The power of jotting down ideas

 Long long ago, I always used to carry a small letterpad with me. To jot down ideas that might occur. Over the years, it has changed from a notepad to evernote to google keep, but the power of jotting down ideas is immense.  Small ideas go into keep.  Anything to be quickly typed goes into whatsapp as a self message.  Bigger or better formed ideas go into Google docs A few are still written, but I manage to copy them into a digital format sooner rather than later.  But the power of jotting down is immense. My google keep is an encyclopedia of ideas - most of which may never get implemented. 

Why does elearning exist?

 Elearning is one of those niches that does not deserve to exist. Yes, it was a novelty 20 years ago, but not now. It cannot exist. But somehow it does. Disclaimer: I used to head a content team once upon a time. And I used to ask those whom I hired - tell me the last thing you learnt from an e-learning. The answer is - pretty much nothing (and this is a good decade ago).  Why?  If you want to learn a recipe, you go to Youtube, or Reels or something like that. If you are terribly old fashioned - as in, you read - then you go to a website and read the recipe and make it.  Most other things you learn by doing or learning on the job or asking an expert.  If you have to learn something in depth, then there are other ways.  So, where does e-learning fit in all this? E-learning is one of those products that the customer hates, but has no choice, because someone has decided it is the best way. For instance, you have to learn a new CRM or some other product - you w...

And the unconference happened

 Most conferences have an agenda. No, not the stated agenda, but an agenda of marketing, airtime to sponsors, ensuring the past and future customers are invited, of ensuring that the "stars" of the industry are invited and attention showered of them. All in all it is a your scratch my back, I scratch your back syndrome. Some of these become cliques and claques and therefore the real point behind a conference is lost. And then there is the unconference - organised and run by the alumni of the ISABS ODCP program. And as the name suggests, this is truly an un-conference organised by the alumni, for the alumni. No funders - except the alumni themselves. No sponsors. Just the team.  I havent seen a more tastefully organised conference (yes, its an unconference).  To begin with - the location - not a typical star hotel, but an outdoorsy place. The food - simple. The welcome - personal. It was like a homecoming. The setting was warm and welcoming. It was a smaller conference. Ju...