spirited, and skilled trainer with a generous heart and lots of energy (and
a great Australian accent to go with). She held my hand when I decided to
take the leap and "go to the wall" for the first time, coaching me
throughout the process with suggestions and encouragement. (imagine: Aussie
accent: "could you try a fork in there?" me: "a fork?" ???? (thinking a
fork in the road). Aussie accent: "yeah, a fork." Me(thinking):
!?!?!.....huh?...... Oh! A fork!!! (duh).........and yes I could, and did!
(draw an eating fork, with prongs!)
Ok, I'm off topic a bit, telling you my short story of fear-busting
with Donna's help. It just gives you an idea of her generous spirit.
Although her topic was dead serious, she presented it with tons of humor
and good will and the whole room was laughing. And, she modeled her
presentation, involving us as she went along: to set up a "Training That
Rocks", get the people in the room on your side by expressing truisms
("here we are on day 3..."), drawing out universal experience ("how many
have ever had the experience of..."), and sharing personal stories ("on the
way to the conference..."). Donna acknowledged and normalized the
learning process of hanging out in your comfort zone, sensing the anxiety
of moving into new territory, and falling into denial, blame or
justification as a way to avoid the vulnerability of moving towards the
new. The she asked us to teach a partner how to draw something. After
poo-pooing the theory of different sensory learning styles, Donna
maintained that we all take in information through all our senses, all the
time, and she offered a 4-quadrant model for a successful (rockin!)
training strategy using the following four questions in this order:
1. Why? What's in it for the participants? How will the training enhance
their identity? What will it get them? Here is where you, the trainer, get
to be the "presenter".
2. What? Sequence the steps logically, chunk it into three bites, offer
theory and references during this phase. Your role is as "lecturer/expert".
3. How? Let them experiment, make mistakes, practice without pressure
for performance. Be a "facilitator".
4. What If/Else? Debrief here, answering What Happened? So What? What
Next? and LINK the information to other relevant stuff.
Now we were invited to go back to our partners and teach the drawing
but going through the four steps above. Although it takes more time,
there's clearly a greater chance of success and a potentially satisfying
experience for both trainer and trainee.
Although I skipped out on the second teaching round due to another
pressing need, as an educator I recognize this as an effective model for
teaching just about anything. Don't assume people are motivated just
because they show up - you really need to offer (and help them identify)
and name what's in it for them. (I suspect it's a good marketing strategy
as well.) Only a few steps make for simple and easy recall, and people all
need room to experiment on their own in order to learn. Of course, wrap up
makes a difference in finding how what you've learned fits into your life
and experience. If you start with this model, have a great sense of humor,
don't take yourself too seriously, and can stand up in front of a crowd,
you will be well on your way to conducting trainings that rock, just like
this one did!
Deborah Page
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