Columbus or Gilligan?

Judi, a friend of mine, told me about a training program she attended, Fundamentals of Finance and Accounting for Non-Financial Managers. Her goal was to learn to use financial documents to create ratios to guider her business decisions. I know, it was already a boring topic, but the presenter didn’t help things out. He was so ineffective that Judi gave up in frustration. She couldn’t learn from the subject matter expert.

She told me, “Monica, it was like trying to steer a ship without a map, and at this point, I don’t know if I’m Christopher Columbus or Gilligan!”

Judi had the desire to learn about financial statements. She needed the information the expert had to give. And she was motivated. And yet, the presenter could not give her directions she could use. Her three-hour-tour resulted in a shipwreck.

How many times have you felt the same way? You attend a seminar and leave feeling worse off than when you started? Worse yet, have your learners ever felt that way after attending one of your training sessions?!

We know that adults learn best when they are involved in the acquisition of new knowledge and skills. They must hear it, see it, question it, discuss it, and, in the end do it – to actually learn anything.

What makes totally awesome training totally awesome is if the people in your seminars and training programs apply it to their lives. But let’s be honest, how often do your attendees actually change after one of your trainings?

Yet, if there wasn’t hope, if we were stuck on this island, it would be down-right frustrating, wouldn’t it?

So ask yourself, why are your participants in your seminar or learning program in the first place? I mean really… couldn’t they find similar information online? In a book? In a webinar somewhere? Are you really that attractive and fun to be around?

Or is it something else?

The truth is – many adults prefer face-to-face training. Such training gives them the opportunity to interact with you, the expert, and with their peers. Whether they know it or not, many people like interaction and doing things with others.

But what they didn’t sign up for is hour after hour after hour of lecture. Even if participants really concentrate, they will only “hear” a small percentage of what you say. They need to process what they hear, and for that processing to happen they need time, variety, and action… and they need it in about 8-10 minute segments.

After all, we don’t learn with a single pass-over of information; instead, we need to interact with the information through different formats over and over again.

How might you involve your participants in their own learning? Can you rely less on lecture? Shall we get off that shipwrecked island with a little less talk and a lot more action?

For 50 ready-to-use ideas on how to get more action into your learning programs get a copy of Monica’s book, Totally Awesome Training Activity Guide –Put Gamification to Work for You!

About the Author:  A gamification speaker and designer, Monica Cornetti is rated as the #1 Gamification Guru in the World by UK-Based Leaderboarded. She is the Founder and CEO of the Sententia Gamification Consortium and hosts the weekly Gamification Talk Radio Program. Monica’s niche is gamification used in the corporate environment.


Connect with Monica (@monicacornetti)
www.monicacornetti.com
www.SententiaGames.com