Ask, Not Tell

We, as the trainers often ask the learners to write down their action items on their workbooks at the class end or at the end of a learning module.  By doing so, we hope that they can transfer their learning back to work better.

Unfortunately I have noticed that the learners are not very keen to really write down things by pens.  Some simply hold their pens with blank faces.  In addition, even if they write things down on the workbooks, I often doubt whether they will refer to the workbooks in the future.

I was talking to a master trainer the other day.  She gave me some interesting advice.   Instead of forcing them to note their action items on the workbooks, encourage them to do so whereever they like.   It could be mobile phone, laptop, PDA, or even sending an email to themselves!!  Think about it – in our own daily life, we also do not take note just on paper.   We may set a reminder on the mobile phone, for example.

I guess it makes sense from the “Generation Y” perspective.   The learners, especially the young ones, are living in a different world.   And we should cater for their learning preference.

I will conduct a class in Hong Kong this week.  Let me try it out!

I came across another interesting quote. It is useful in making your learners more receptive to new ideas introduced in classes. You first ask them what the defintion of ‘madness’ is. Let them think for a while and then you show:

Definition of ‘Madness’ = Doing what you have always done and expecting a different result.

It does make people think. They will probably realise that they need something new, and thus listen better to what you said in class. At least it did to me!

我最近在别人的课上学习到一个吸引注意力的方法，它更能有效让学员提高对课上内容的接受程度，是这样的，你会先问问学员‘疯’的定义是什么，让他们先想一会，然后你让他们看到这段话：

‘疯’的定义是你希望以一样的处事方法但达到不同的效果

这很能让人思考，你的学员很大可能意识到他们需要学新的处事方法，因此，他们会更愿意听你的课。至少对我作为学员是有这功效！