Do you look at your watch to check the time?

Time is extremely important when we are presenting. We don’t want to talk past our limit, but we do want to fill the time we are expected to fill. This causes many presenters to continually look at their watches. What this does is cause the audience members to start looking at their watches and become more concerned with the passage of time than the important information we are trying to impart. There are several ways to work around this distraction. If you have a lectern or a table, you can place a small travel clock that it easy to read from a distance, so that a quick glance will be inconspicuous.

Banish the use of filler words from your speech.

By “filler words”: ums, ahs, ers, you-knows, ands, buts, and any other word that you may be using to excess. We often are not aware that we are filling our presentations with these distracting words, so the best way to spot them is to ask someone to tape your presentation. Then listen to the tape in the privacy of your home or office. You will be astounded. There may not be any “ums” or those kinds of fillers, but you may be saying a word over and over again. Once you are aware of this habit, you just need to stop and pause for a moment to reset your word choice.

Keep your hands off and out of your clothing.

Some speakers put their hands in their pockets, while others tug and pull at their clothing. Most are not aware of what they are doing, but part of the problem arises because we either get nervous and/or uncomfortable with the clothing we are wearing. If you can find someone to video your presentation, again you will be amazed with the little habits you have acquired over the years. Be sure you pick clothing that fits comfortably and also makes you feel like a million dollars, so you will have nothing to worry about.

Avoid too much movement.

It is actually better to stand comfortably still than to get into a repetitious movement that resembles a dance. I have become incredibly distracted by a trainer who rocked back and forth – one step forward, then one back. Just remember that any movement without a natural purpose will distract the audience.

Source: http://www.creativekeys.net/powerfulpresentations/article1032.html

1) Know the difference between “listening” and “learning”.

Listening is passive. It is the lowest, least-efficient, least-effective form of learning. That means lectures are the lowest, least-efficient, least-effective form of learning. Listening alone requires very little brain effort on the learner’s part (and that goes for reading lecture-like texts as well), so listening to learn is often like watching someone lift weights in order to get in shape.

2) Know the wide variety of learning styles, and how to incorporate as many as possible into your learning experience.

We’re not talking about sorting learners into separate categories like “Joan a Visual Learner while Jim is an Auditory learner.”, or “He learns best through examples.” Every sighted person is a “visual learner”, and everyone learns through examples, step-by-step instructions, and through high-level and low-level “forest” views. Everyone learns top-down and bottom-up. Everyone learns from pictures, explanations, and examples. This doesn’t mean that certain people don’t have certain brain-style preferences, but the more styles you load into any learning experience, the better the learning is for everyone–regardless of their individual preferences.

3) Know why–and how–good stories work.

Learn as much as you can about storytelling and entertainment. Learn what screenwriters and novelists learn. Know what “show don’t tell” really means, and understand how to apply it to learning.
Humans spent thousands upon thousands of years developing/evolving the ability to learn through stories. Our brains are tuned for it. Our brains are not tuned for sitting in a classroom listening passively to a lecture of facts, or reading pages of text facts. Somehow we manage to learn in spite of the poor learning delivery most of us get in traditional schools and training programs (and books).

4) Know how — and why — good games can keep people involved and engaged for hours.

Learn how to develop activities that lead to a Flow State.

Source: http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/

We all know how boring training can be without activities, and we also know how circus-like training can seem if there are too many or inappropriate activities in a training session.

Here is a list of a two games to help facilitate more participant-centered learning in an adult environment:

The Bump: Great for review of content

• Break people into teams of 4-5
• Give each team a 1-minute timer, flipchart paper, and markers
• The object is to list single words that summarize key training points
• To win, the team needs to list the most words in one minute
• Everyone gets a marker so they can write on the team’s sheet as quickly as possible
• After 1 minute, all writing stops
• The team with the longest list of unduplicated key words wins

Step by Step: Good if you’re training on processes

• Break class into an even number of small groups
• Ask each member of the group to draw one step of a process you’ve covered in the training session
o More steps than group members? – assign additional steps to certain members
• Give each group four minutes to complete their drawings
• Pair each group up with an opponent group
• One group shows its drawings out of order while the other group shuffles those holding the pictures until all steps are in the correct sequence
• Have groups switch opponent groups and repeat the exercise

Have any additional advice to share? Please send your curious case studies and anecdotal training stories to lisaj@pathwise.com. All names, locations, and other identifying information will be removed if we decide to use it in a future newsletter.

Happy Training!!!

I can’t tell you how many training sessions I’ve sat in where I’ve asked myself one of several questions about the instructor and/or content?

• “Are we ever going to take a break?”
• “Does this guy know the person next to me is asleep?”
• “Is she just talking to herself at this point?”
• “How did we get from there to here?”
• “How am I going to remember all this?”

The brain, as it ages, gets better at recognizing the central idea, the big picture. If kept in good shape, the brain can continue to build pathways that help its owner recognize patterns and, as a consequence, see significance and even solutions much faster than a young person can. The brain is plastic and continues to change, not in getting bigger but by allowing for greater complexity and deeper understanding. In order for your participants to gain the most from your training sessions, use a simple 90/20/8 rule, which takes advantage of the natural learning process of the adult brain.

90: Adults need to physically step away from the content every 90 minutes in order for their brain to rest and review what it has just learned. This means “completely.” Avoid sending your participants off to break with an assignment. (I’ve seen this way too often.)

20: Within the 90 minute training intervals, stop every 20 minutes to check for retention. Instructors do this in a variety of ways. I’ve seen many that like to do verbal fill-in-the-blank. E.g. “When we are following the rules we are following our own what?” These are fine, but keep them limited. Not everyone responds well or quickly to audio cues, and not everyone is vocal enough to provide out-loud answers. Find ways to vary how you review content.

8: After that 20 check for retention, provide only about 8 more minutes of content, and then turn the groups to each other to get involved and review both what was covered in that 28 (or so) span of time. Games are always a favorite as long as they’re relevant and worth the amount of content covered.

A simple way to facilitate this in shorter training sessions is to provide blank pages to each participant, have them title them “Review Pages” and then at this 8 minute point have them write down as many things as they can remember that was covered (open book.) Then, direct the groups to share these, marking or highlighting ones that each person felt was key to their own success back on the job.

I was sent to a software company in 2000 to teach a group of 5 computer programmers how to use MS Excel. It was a customized course that included lessons on pivot tables, macros, high-end formatting options, formulas, functions, etc… Since I had taught advanced Excel courses many times, I walked into the training with confidence that I could field any advanced question about using the program. What I wasn’t prepared for was the 4 hours of chaos I was about to endure.

My lesson began, as most, with an overview of the materials. Everything was going smoothly; they agreed with the objectives, and were enthusiastic about learning the front – end use of Excel. As I got into my lesson, I began demonstrating some of Excel’s features. I started with imbedding an object (a picture) on the spread sheet, and then building a macro (an automatic series of functions) that would run when the object was clicked on. I was demonstrating the Excel feature that allows you to record the steps to be performed by the macro, when one of the participants asked a question. He asked if this macro could also be written in code. This wasn’t an unusual question given the audience. I replied that it could be written in Excel’s programming language called Visual Basic, and in fact, most of what we’re doing could. That was my biggest mistake. Mind you, I did not teach Visual Basic classes, I just knew that’s Excel’s programming language. Guess what happens when you tell a group of computer programmers that the point and click functions you’re teaching them can all be written using code? Yep. I was in purgatory for the next 3 ½ hours. No matter what I showed them how to do, they asked, “How would this be written using Visual Basic?” The only response I had each time was, “I don’t know.” They were disappointed at this, but nonetheless persistently asked throughout the session, hoping just once I’d have a different answer for them.

At first I was furious that this group raked me over the coals the entire session. It was a horror story I told for years to other trainers who were all empathetic. It’s only recently that I reviewed that training session again in my mind. What I’ve come to realize is that these global learners had to see the “whole” picture before they could understand its moving parts. I had focused my understanding of “global” to the front – end use of the program, ignoring the back – end, which was my audience’s strength. Rather than preparing for and catering to their learning style, I had brought my own in an applied it to them. Can you relate?

As trainers, we often use a multitude of techniques in understanding people’s motivations and self-rewards for attending training. A primary goal of the trainer is to encourage participation through open and closed questioning, discussion groups, and other opportunities to interact. The reason we do this is because the brain that’s doing the talking is the brain that’s doing the learning. When they discuss and review with both you and each other, they learn and have a better chance of retention of knowledge. When only a few participants are doing all the talking, the others lose the opportunity to learn.

Since managing tough situations is best managed before they start, here are some ways to provide equal opportunity to adapt, adopt, and apply their learning.

Over Participation

Ask closed-ended questions-Begin your questions with phrases that solicit only a yes or no answer. Do you, can you, or is it, are pos­sibilities. (“Do you plan to set requirements with your future customers?”)
Use networking-Get participants to talk, to each other rather than interact only with you. (“How do you and Terry feel about that process?”)

Ask for a link to the topic-Get the group to bring itself back on target. (“Who wants to tell me how Karen’s story relates to our investigation step?” or, “Marisa, will you explain how that fits into our overall plan?”)

Summarize and move on-Aquick tie-up of material signals an intent to continue on. Let your participants know you’ve completed your material by capturing key points and introducing the next ones. (“We’ve just completed our pre-work discussion of … and need to proceed to our next topic of ….”)

Have a story to share? Please contribute your curious case studies and anecdotal training stories in the comments section below.

In nearly every training session, there will be someone in attendance that is (or feels they are) the resident expert and will not hesitate to let you and everyone in the training session know it. These participants are often referred to as the “Know-it-All.” They will openly interrupt and debate the training for as long as it takes for them to get their point across and gain the respect they feel they deserve for their level of knowledge.

Keep in mind that these participants often don’t want to be in training. By showing you and the rest of the participants what they already know, they are trying to communicate that they don’t need the training. In some cases, they will frankly state it, but in most, their body language and comments will reflect this state of mind.

Don’t be surprised if they truly do know it all. Often, this type of participant is at a management or executive level, and for good reason. Never discount the information they have to share, but instead learn to control the way in which it’s delivered. It’s best if you can circulate throughout the training room prior to the start of training and get to know the participants. You can generally tell right away which participants are going to challenge not only your knowledge, but also your authority. One tell-tale sign of these individuals: They will generally try to station themselves as far away from the front of the room as possible, since again, they don’t really feel they need to be there. Once you identify that person or persons (yes, there can be more than one in training), engage them in discussion to gain insight of their level of knowledge. Try and use something in training you learned from them in that initial chat, whether information about operations or processes, or detailed product information. This satisfies their need to interject, and gives them the credibility they are seeking.

Remember that YOU are the trainer. Set up expectations at the beginning of the training session so everyone is aware of the objectives, how to share comments and questions effectively, and what your role as their facilitator is. This creates a sense of a “contract” with the participants, and the group will be more inclined to follow the same “guidelines” of the training session.

I was training a MS Excel course in 2001 and I had a terrible cold. I was achy and stuffy, but nonetheless training 25 beginner users of the program. For a beginner’s class, I would facilitate by having the participants build a spreadsheet with generic sales or marketing data just to demonstrate Excel’s features.

As an avid user of keyboard shortcuts, I often shared with my participants the ones that would make maneuvering around an Excel spreadsheet more efficient. In this class, I was instructing the participants to press Ctrl + End to move to the end of the data in their spreadsheet. As all of my participants followed my instructions they were surprised that the keyboard shortcut seemed to erase the information they had inputted in their spreadsheet! I walked behind the participants to see their screens, and sure enough, all their data was missing from the spreadsheet. I asked all of them to press their “undo” key, but nothing happened. The only commonality I noticed was that all of their documents were now titled “Document 2”, which is shown in the blue title bar at the top of the window.

At this point I asked someone in the class what keyboard shortcut they used. They replied, “Ctrl + N”. At this, the others in the class replied that’s the one they had used as well. Now I’m at the root cause of the problem: Because of my cold and stuffy nose, the word “end” sounded like “N”, therefore everyone had pressed a keyboard shortcut that is a command to open a new spreadsheet.

See how the miscommunication of even one word can disrupt training and drain your credibility?

Have a story to share? Please send your curious case studies and anecdotal training stories to lisaj@pathwise.com. All names, locations, and other identifying information will be removed if we decide to use it in a future newsletter.

Happy Training!!!

Millennials, also known as the Digital Generation, the Echo Boomers, and Generation Y, were born roughly between 1982 and 2002 and are most often the children of the Baby Boomers. This generation has grown up with the Internet, cell phones, and social networking, and they are fluent in the uses of all of them.

In training, they are skilled collaborators, more focused on the group experience than any individual responsibilities. In addition, they are unwilling to “waste time” in what they perceive to be unproductive activities. This is why prepping training activities and debriefing them effectively is crucial. They must have buy-in to be motivated to participate.

This generation is different from the classic “adult learner” model in a number of ways.

1. They are collaborative, team players. They like to brainstorm and share ideas.
2. They have short attention spans. Their minds are constantly multitasking.
3. There is pressure to excel, to be the best. To be “right”, as they were raised to be curious and seek answers.
4. Technology is their friend, they love using it for learning as it provides an opportunity for them to advance at their own pace.
5. They expect to be entertained. They want engaging training that is highly interactive and a trainer that can keep an audience motivated.

So what how can we train this group of unique learners? Vary how information is presented, as Millennials hate routine.

• Use visuals effectively
o Utilize PowerPoint, flip charts, worksheets/forms when available.
• Use audio confidence
o Speak clearly and with confidence. Pause at the appropriate times, and check for understanding from concept to concept.
• Give tangible examples
o Relate concepts in training to real-world examples. Avoid, the what –ifs in relaying stories. Always use actual examples over possible scenarios.

Click on the following links for more information on this topic:

http://www.wynnsolutions.com/training_generation_x_y.htm

http://www.daanassen.com/training-generation-y-the-ups-case

http://ezinearticles.com/?Training-Generation-Y&id=1291156

The FDA recently released its medical device quality system data for 2010. According to the agency, 89 Warning Letters were issued to medical device firms for QS/GMP deficiencies, with CAPA being the most prevelant subsystem noted. This slideshow offers a great overview of which CFR parts and subsystems require the most attention for medical device firms in 2011 and beyond.