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Connection in a disconnected world: why learning experiences matter more than ever
I was in conversation with a long-time friend of RSVP Design last week, discussing the present state of workplace training; we'll be heading out to Washington DC for the ATD Exhibition this week and I was wondering what I might expect. Part of her response really stuck with me and I've thought about it a number of times since:
"We've never had a ...
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Practicing Before the Pressure: Building Negotiation Skills that Stick
The literature of Leadership Development has many advocates for an approach characterised as ‘learning on the job’. Strong voices that tell us that the best way for leaders to hone their skills is through the visceral, first-hand practice of leadership itself. I’ve got some sympathy for this viewpoint, there are some parts of leadership ...
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Are you developing teams beyond a culture of blame?
Even a cursory browse through the huge volume of literature about great teams will reveal that there's an understandable interest in how they just seem to 'get it right'. There often follows a prescription to help other teams follow that path to success. We read about aligning individual contribution, solution-focused communication, building a team...
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Do you focus on what you’ve learned, rather than what you’ve achieved?
I was challenged by a friend recently; she was making the point that we routinely ask clients to represent the complexities of situation or organisation in a way that reduces them to banal simplicity. What she asked me to do was to capture my life as it is today in a single representational diagram. I made several starts, only to abandon an attempt...
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DON'T invest in learning (invest in behaviour-change instead)
I know I've written about this before, but it's important and it keeps coming up in conversations I have with L+D people so I feel it would be timely to ask a few questions about how learning in organisations is understood. As you'll know I'm a specialist in experiential approaches to learning, so I'm going to look at the subject from that ...
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2021
Recent Posts
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Connection in a disconnected world: why learning experiences matter more than ever
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Practicing Before the Pressure: Building Negotiation Skills that Stick
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Are you developing teams beyond a culture of blame?
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Do you focus on what you’ve learned, rather than what you’ve achieved?
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DON'T invest in learning (invest in behaviour-change instead)
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How to use experiential activities for the 50% of learning that is vital to efficient performance, but can't be done 'in the workflow'
This is the third in a series of linked pieces about the deployment of Experiential Learning “in the workflow”. In the previous two pieces I’ve demonstrated why this is not a viable proposition: If it’s happening in a way that fits any definition of ‘learning in the workflow’ it isn’t experiential learning. If it fits any ...Read more -
Delivering Authentic Experiential Learning “In the Workflow” - Is It Even Possible?
In our October blog I talked about the features that allow us to recognise whether a learning environment can authentically be recognised as Experiential Learning. This definition largely depends on whether we can recognise David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle (ELT) as the core model being utilised. “The ELT is usually represented as a ...Read more -
Revisiting a definition of Experiential Learning in a world of restricted delivery
It’s clear that the past couple of years have been a massive challenge to anybody tasked with delivering learning to either adults or young people. To those of us who have a belief in, and commitment to, experiential learning, this challenge has been both interesting and somewhat divisive. There are practitioners who have become even more ...Read more -
Facilitating or Learning - are you ready to get back in the training room?
Stepping out of a training room, be it physical or virtual, with a sense that you’ve left a group of learners both happy and inspired is a great feeling, one of the professional highs that make working as a facilitator such a buzz. What’s also a buzz is leaving a training room with the sense that you’ve offered your learners a big ...Read more -
Bold gestures that support learning - interesting research for facilitators
I’m a great one for using my hands when I’m trying to communicate, and I find that the more self-conscious I get about this trait the poorer my communication gets. I was aware of this, but hadn’t given it too much thought until I recognised that one of the negative effects of the past 18 months is the extent to which the many hours of Zoom ...Read more -
Are you Prepared for Post-COVID facilitation - will it be the same but different?
The prospect of returning to face to face facilitation has been a dominant subject in the training conversations I’ve had recently. It’s a rich subject for debate due to the broad range of opinion and attitude amongst those ...Read more -
Be careful how you sell your “Fresh Start” – Do you have the tools to make it a success?
The early months of 2021 have presented our customers, and organisations around the world, with a host of opportunities to declare that it’s time for a “Fresh Start”. A performance or operational reset that allows them to put the past behind them and declare that they are ‘starting from day one’. It’s a great way to get team members ...Read more -
Can Executives Improve Listening Skills by Switching off Video Cameras and Playing Games?
A couple of pieces of research this week have made me think. The first was from McKinsey - The Executive Guide to Better Listening - https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/leadership/the-executives-guide-to-better-listening The premise is: Strong listening skills can make a critical difference in the performance of senior executives, but few ...Read more -
Time for Team (re) building? Here's some advice for selecting Icebreakers…
Just about every work conversation I have at the moment involves people from the L+D community anticipating a return to face-to-face or hybrid (face to face and on-line) delivery of learning. As I said in last month’s blog I’m counseling an approach which makes no assumptions about how employees and colleagues will be when they return - there...Read more -
What are the Implications for a Return to Work and the Time of Hybrid Learning?
There’s a definite sense that we are now entering a new phase in how the learning and development sector responds to the pandemic. The restrictions placed on face-to-face learning have, in some geographies, relaxed and made real the possibility of some return, (with appropriate practical safeguards of course). However, I’m not hearing any ...Read more