AWESOMENESS IN DESIGN

How often have you heard, “Event is 5–10% of people can retain 5–10% of what a training imparts, it’s worth it.” What a pity! How conveniently we have accepted to be average. Have you ever wondered what is it costing you to have 90% of people only get average results?

What if you could simulate the same process the 5–10% instinctively use and teach the other 90% that way? How would that benefit you? It is time to rebalance the equation and indulge all in a rigorous, systematic process that enables all employees to confidently succeed at critical business imperatives.

Awesomeness in Design is not a random act. It is the result of a mindful, systematic intersection of people, content, and design.

Awesomeness in Design includes:

Content

• What organization situation needs to be solved through training?
• What specifically do people need to learn to be able to do that?
• What do people have to do differently in that situation from what they are currently doing?

People

• Who are the people who need to be trained?
• What are their needs?
• What is their experience?
• What are their objectives for coming to the class?
• What else do you know about them that will help accelerate their learning and tap into a deep connection to their world, so they connect to your content?
• Who are the people doing the training?
• What is their expertise?
• What do they believe about teaching and learning?
• Do they know how to teach?

Design

• Help people be brilliant in the way they are brilliant.
• Repetition enhances and cements learning so it is retrievable.
• The one who is doing the teaching is doing the learning.

FOLLOW THE 6-STEP IDEATE MODEL

STEP 1- INVOLVE LEARNERS

Involve people before the learning session starts by creating a sense of urgency with emails where a senior leader shares the organization imperative that the attendees will be solving by coming to this learning experience. Give them pre-exposure to the material to start the learning process and help the brain learn in the way the brain naturally learns, which is over time. Send books, articles, and podcasts or questions for them to interview other people about the subject.

STEP 2 — DESIGN CONTENT

You can navigate the content through interactive lectures, demonstrations, stories, handouts, exercises with card sorts, case studies, mind maps, role-plays, or mini-teaches. Your role as a facilitator of learning is to assess how your learners are smart, not wonder if they are smart. Imagine a verbal/kinaesthetic learner is asked to sit down and shut up. What a shame!

As you navigate the content, remember that the facilitator’s role is to create enough diversity of the activities to give everyone a chance to confidently learn. The more variety and revisits in the style of activities and interaction, the greater the chance that people will be able to effectively do the new behaviors.

STEP 3 — ENHANCE MEANING

Once the attendees have learned the content, move the learning from short-term memory to long-term memory, and help participants sell themselves on why the learning is important in their world by having them create flip charts about the value, benefits, and meaning of this in their lives. This will rally commitment for the next part of the IDEATE Model so that they will apply what they have learned.

STEP 4 — APPLY TO LIFE

We often teach people what we want them to know and don’t have them actually demonstrate their knowledge in the exact situation in which they will be required to use it. If you need your people to use a new learning, follow a new process, or demonstrate their knowledge of a new product as it relates to a competitor’s product, put them in the situation and have them model their ability to do the right behaviors. Create a meticulous checklist, script, and process with the adequate direction and behaviors showing how optimal performance will look or sound and have them do it! and do it again, and again, until they know they can.

STEP 5 — TEST AND CELEBRATE

Repetition or deep engagement is the secret to successful transfer from learning to doing. Your celebration of learning will give learners another chance to review what they’ve learned and create deeper neural connectivity. Your final “celebration” or test of their knowledge might be a quiz show style game or a crossword puzzle, a group mind map, or “stump the panel,” where they create the questions.

STEP 6 — EXTEND LEARNING

Lastly, you want to create a space where people consistently act on their best intentions and move the learning to action. Send reminders, and “tip of the week” refreshers, have award ceremonies for early adopters, give people a coach, or have them share a successful case study — these are but a few ways to keep the learning alive. You might even give a small reward for sending in a case study, which might sound like, “Share a situation in which you were about to do one thing, but you did another due to the learning you had in this session.”

I wish you Awesomeness in Design!