'Running, Roaring, Each Step Soaring'

Rachel Burnham writes: ‘Running, roaring, each step soaring’ comes from the wonderful lyrics to ‘Milestones’ – the tune is of course by trumpeter Miles Davis and the lyric is by Jim Britt.  

Like many people over the Christmas period, I have taken the opportunity to do some well-needed clearing out of cupboards and shelves – I’m rather embarrassed to admit that I have managed to fill 5 black sacks just from my wardrobe and chest of drawers alone!  As usual I listened to music whilst doing this and in the process heard this track again, reminding me of a blog that I had begun but never finished.  About 18 months ago, @sukhpabial set up a Carnival of Blogs on a theme relating to ‘steps’ or something on those lines  – and I planned to write a piece based on this lyric, but I got stuck, abandoned the idea and wrote something else instead.

But now I can’t get these lyrics and this tune out of my head and so I simply have to write about them.  Here’s a link to Mark Murphy singing ‘Milestones’ - why not have a listen?

I like the urgency suggested by the lyric, the emphasis on grasping the time right now, the call to action ‘Pick up your speed, it’s what you need, you can’t stay in bed!’ and the personal challenge ‘Hear that voice now, it’s your choice now’.  All of which feel right for the start of a New Year and for a profession that is under challenge and has so much to shape up to face. 

• Are we too focused on learning and insufficiently focused on impacting on performance in the workplace?
• Too many of us are still delivering only using face to face training methods and often that not done well with too much emphasis on presentation of information.
• Insufficiently agile to meet the challenges of how people actually learn at work.
• Do we have the skills, particularly the digital skills we need for the future?
• And much more!

Miles Davis is well-known for his continual ability, throughout his long career as a jazz musician, to keep refreshing and reinventing his music, changing direction and sound.  

Jazz has taken many forms since the early 20^th century and writers have commented how each fresh expression of jazz seems to have come from a revisiting and appreciation of the blues, reinterpreting this in new contexts and for each new age. So tradition can be a source of strength and innovation.  In jazz, I think there are only two constants – some element of improvisation and being polyrhythmic – everything else is up for grabs.

In L&D we need to choose what to hold on to and what to let go.  What to consciously adopt and what to consciously adapt.  What is at the core of our profession and what needs reinventing.  There is plenty of advice around to guide this thinking, but in the end each L&Der has to make their own choice and take their own action.

The singer, Mark Murphy, is one of my all-time favourite singers.  I’d love to say that I first heard him sing in a jazz club in New York on Fifty-Second Street, or in Chicago or New Orleans or even at Ronnie Scott’s in London, but the truth is that I first heard him sing in a small Friday night once a month jazz club in a basement of a pub in Stockport.   From the moment I heard him sing I was hooked on jazz.  Life changing moments can take place in the day to day of life in Stockport, Barnsley, Dundee, Tottenham, Swansea or Burnham-on-Sea.

So, whether your L&D life is based in Stockport or some other place – in the words of the song ‘Hear that voice now, it’s your choice now.’ And start working out what your L&D practice needs to be for the future – what to hold on to and what to do differently.

Rachel Burnham

3/1/16

Burnham L & D Consultancy helps L&D professionals become even more effective.  I am particularly interested in blended learning, the uses of social media for learning, evaluation and anything that improves the impact of learning on performance.

Follow me on Twitter @BurnhamLandD

This moment, this minute and each second in it...

Rachel Burnham writes: ‘This moment, this minute and each second in it’ – this phrase and the music that accompanies it have been haunting me all summer – echoing around in my head.  I have frequently found myself singing them whilst working, washing up, gardening or even walking down the street.  I couldn’t remember where they came from, but they seem to connect me to being more mindful in all that I am doing – to paying attention to what is around me, appreciating it and being fully present.

Yesterday, I picked out a CD to listen to and there it was – they are the opening lyrics to a song by Harold Arlen, who also wrote ‘Over the Rainbow’, ‘Get Happy’  and one that always makes me smile ‘Lydia, the Tattooed Lady’.   Apparently, his father, who was the cantor for a synagogue, was so proud of Harold’s music that he used to set the psalms to them and sing them in the synagogue - I’d love to have heard that!   The words to this song are by Johnny Mercer and it was written for a Fred Astaire vehicle.

‘This moment, this minute and each second in it’ is the opening line from a song called ‘My Shining Hour’.  I find the rest of the song rather schmaltzy, but this line inspires me and has clearly stayed with me.

Most recently I have been focussing on being more mindful in the sessions I am facilitating.  Reflecting on this, I find it makes me a much more effective facilitator, more attuned to the group and particularly to individuals, better able to help them to learn.  It aids my concentration and enables me to flow.  Incidentally, it helps me to enjoy the experience even more and the time just flies by.

I was recently asked about how as a trainer you can cope with and perform effectively, when you are doing the same session over and over.  My experience is that being more mindful helps with this.  By focusing on the here and now and what is actually happening with the group and with individuals, it makes every session different and unique.   By listening, observing and responding to what I notice, I am better able to co-create with the group a session that meets their particular needs – even if it is fundamentally the same material, based on the same learning outcomes.

Here are some of the things that seem to make it easier for me to be mindful when facilitating:

• Being prepared – If I haven’t done the preparation I need to for the session, then it is much harder to focus on the people I am working with and what is happening in the session and as a result I get too focused on the content and my delivery.   I work on doing enough preparation to build my comfort, so that I feel able to let go of the structure and the content and focus instead on helping the people I am working with engage with what they want/need to learn.  
  
  
• Being organised -  This is all about having all the materials, resources, IT facilities and other practicalities thoroughly set up and ready to go, so that they aren’t a distraction.   It can include making sure I am confident in any new equipment/software being used and also having a Plan B in place should things go wrong.
  
  
  
  
• Personalising and being personal – When I work with groups over more than one occasion, I like to include within my prep some time to think about the needs of each individual and also how the group may engage with the material to be explored.   This may not be terribly extensive, perhaps just in the journey time, focusing in on each individual and bringing to mind what I know about them – their role, their priorities, the progress they are making, any personal issues – not necessarily problems, it might be a holiday or house purchase.   By doing this, I think I am better able to draw upon this within the session. 
  
  
  Where I am working with individuals for the first time, it is good to be able to get chatting with people as they arrive and really pay attention to this – being mindful from outset.
  
  
• Being fully present in the session – The key thing for me here is choosing not to be distracted and to be really there with the people I am working with.  I am aware that sometimes I can get drawn into answering emails or checking social media or chatting to a colleague in breaks or whilst the group is doing an exercise – the lure of multi-tasking.  I am finding it more fruitful not to do this, but to stay focused on the group.

• Letting go – Sometimes, things don’t work out as planned – the technology for a webinar lets you down, the venue hasn’t set out up the room as requested, you’ve messed up and not got with you some prop or resource that you wanted to use, or learners are late.   And when that happens it is easy to spend time focusing on what you had envisaged and the gap with what is now possible or for feelings of annoyance or being hassled to dominate.   I am learning to move on and let go, focusing on what is possible rather than what might have been.  And that seems to be more helpful for me.


• Managing my own energy levels – I know I am a better facilitator when I am well rested, not overly stressed and feeling in good health, so it makes sense to pay attention to all these things.   On the day the things that personally make a difference to me are:
  
  
  • having a bit of peace & quiet as I get ready for the day, so I have a clear head;
  • eating well – I’m diabetic, so this is something I always have to keep an eye on – if I can feel myself getting a bit ratty or lacking in concentration, it is often because my blood sugar is a bit low, so a supply of healthy snacks is essential; and
  • making sure I get enough water to drink during the day.

You may find it helpful to think about what makes a difference to your own energy levels.

I have been finding it very helpful to focus on being more mindful, both when facilitating and in many other parts of my life.  If you haven’t tried it for yourself you might want to give it a go.

Rachel Burnham

4/10/15

Burnham L & D Consultancy helps L&D professionals become even more effective.  I am particularly interested in blended learning, the uses of social media for learning, evaluation and anything that improves the impact of learning on performance.

Follow me on Twitter @BurnhamLandD

Questions, Questions, Questions?

Questions, Questions, Questions?

Rachel Burnham writes: A common misconception I notice amongst many people new to designing & delivering training is to see training as primarily made up of presentations or talks. Many new to Learning & Development also feel that it would be easier to deliver a presentation rather than involve learners in activities.  

Learning is always more effective when learners are actively involved throughout the process whether in identifying the need, choosing learning methods, engaging with the material or evaluating the value of the learning.  And involving learners in a face to face session from early on is a very effective strategy for taking the pressure off yourself if you are new to delivery or feeling nervous at the thought of all eyes on you!

This blog focuses on the value of asking questions as a simple way to get learners involved in training sessions.  

Questions are a very flexible set of tools.  Making even better use of questions is often an easy way of improving the effectiveness of group training sessions or workshops.  Questionning is also key to many other learning methods from coaching to action learning sets. 

 

Last week I did a very simple exercise as part of a ‘Train the Trainer’ programme I was facilitating, I asked the group to note down all the different reasons that you might ask questions to participants as a trainer.   And between us, we very quickly came up with over 20 reasons for asking questions – ranging from the simplistic – ‘to find out a participant’s name’ through ‘to deepen & challenge participants’ learning’ and to ‘encourage use of the learning in the workplace’.

I think that these reasons for asking questions can be grouped  into three broad areas:

• Asking questions to develop rapport with learners – finding out information to enable you to get to know the participants better and tailor the learning even more closely to their needs.  Questions about job role & responsibilities, previous experience (good & more challenging), hopes & fears for the training can all help with this.

•   Asking questions to involve participants & manage the group – questions which raise curiosity, get participants thinking & sharing from their own experience and get the group discussing & looking at the topic from different angles all play a part.  You can use questions to draw in quieter group members, to draw out & value the experience of individuals and to keep the focus of the learning.

•  Asking questions to assess and evaluate the learning – there are so many ways to use questions to informally assess learning both during and towards the end of a programme.   Questions can be used to encourage recall & recap learning, to review learning objectives, to identify unexpected learning, to aid planning the use of learning and to encourage self-reflection.  We can seek out feedback on what worked in the training and what we can further improve.

Of course, the questions don’t have to be all one way.  Questions from learners will add further relevancy and immediacy to the session.  Participants who ask questions are worth their weight in gold because they enable you to engage with what is on their mind and with their way of seeing the world.

Invite participants at the start of the session to jot down the questions they would like to be able to answer in relation to the topic – this is another way of getting learners involved in setting the objectives for the session.  Encourage learners to reflect on what questions they have throughout the session & give sufficient time to this – perhaps encouraging paired work to identify these.  Get participants to generate their own questions for inclusion in a knowledge check quiz.

There are times when it is good to hold back from asking questions eg if participants are involved in a group activity and by asking ‘How are you getting on?’ you will break the conversation flow – but overall more questions and more effective questions will lead to more effective learning.  But do give time for responses and do listen to those responses.

If you are new to design & delivery, one tip to encourage you to make more use of questions is to prepare some questions and include them in you session plan or notes. You may not use these exact questions when it comes to facilitating the session, but you are more likely to make good use of questions if you have begun thinking about this in advance.  Where there are specific factual answers to those questions, make sure you include these in your notes – particularly if these are to be used by other trainers as well as yourself.

So, I leave you with some questions (of course) to ponder:

• How do you make use of questions in sessions you design or deliver?  
  
• Are there any gaps in how you are using questions at present? 
• What value do questions bring to your sessions – for you & for participants?  How can you build further on that?

Rachel Burnham

9 June 2014

Burnham L & D Consultancy specialises in the development of L&D professionals, blended learning and evaluation

Follow me on Twitter @BurnhamLandD

Shake It Up! Ideas for designing L&D

Shake It Up! Ideas for designing L&D

Rachel Burnham writes: Sometimes when we are new to designing L&D workshops it is difficult to know where to begin to create a programme that will really impact on performance. Or we can find ourselves stuck in a rut and turning out similar design after similar design. Or perhaps we want to challenge ourselves to design something that bit more effective? Here are some small steps to help you rethink and refresh your design and delivery.

Health warning – None of these ideas will be effective if chosen simply for the sake of doing something different.  A particular approach will only be effective if it is relevant to the needs of the learners, appropriate for the type of learning & impact on performance required and if it fits with culture & context of the organisation.  Having fun with design, needs to start with effective identification of needs, thorough discussion with stakeholders and a robust understanding of the difference in performance that it is intended to support.

Here are 10 small steps you could consider:

1.  Go without - Many of us start out in L&D with the idea that all training involves the use of slides and sometimes our organisations confuse presentations with training (and sometimes we do too!).  So a simple step, is to design a programme without the use of slides and break free of this expectation.  There are lots of different ways of bringing in a visual element – flipcharts, workbooks, props, posters, video, cards, drama – so try something different.

2.  Shake up the start of your programme – many organisations have almost a standard running order for the start of every single L&D programme, which can lead participants to switch off.  Why not rethink the running order and do something unexpected to start? Tell an apparently un-related story, show a video, have a character with a crisis to deal with interrupt the beginning of the programme (played by a colleague) & get the group to respond to the situation.  Make sure that this links to the learning focus for the programme and give time to debrief this and bring out the connections.

3.  Break the ground rules and keep the phones on! – Usually we are very keen to get learners to give their undivided attention to our programme and so ‘instruct’ learners to turn their phones off or to silent.  Why not design a programme in which learners are encouraged to use their smart phones to enhance the learning perhaps through building in activities that use their phone’s capabilities eg a research task, or taking photos eg of examples of body language, or recording an interview with a colleague?  You will of course need to think through the issues of using personal phones for work and what if someone doesn’t have a smartphone etc but there is lots of potential here.

4.  Transform the Subject Matter Expert (SME) slot – many programmes, particularly corporate induction programmes include presentation sessions led by SMEs – these can be fantastic if the SME not only has current expert knowledge but is a good speaker, but so often fall flat if their presentation skills are not up to speed.  So, why not change this session from a presentation to an interview perhaps with you acting as the interviewer – this will help to keep the session focused, break it up and maintain the pace of the session?  You could even get the participants to work in groups to identify key questions they’d like to put to the SME and then act as the anchor-person for the session.  Or turn the session into a dialogue between the SME and another colleague.

5.  Homemade is the best! – nothing goes down so well at a village fete than the homemade cake stall, so why not learn from that and bring a homemade element into your session?   Why not get the participants making their own resources eg videos, posters, photos, job aids during the session?  For example, in one programme the first part of the session introduced the organisational expectations around health & safety and in the second part, participants set off round the premises armed with cameras to document examples of good and also bad practice!  You will need to think through what happens next with those bad practices.

6.  Peer to peer partnerships – There is great value in encouraging positive and helpful learning relationships between peers on a programme.  Use techniques such as ‘teach back’, where one learner teaches another or encourage peer provided feedback (with appropriate support) and build in follow up activities that encourage participants to work together to continue their learning after the session eg paired learning review, on-line discussion forum.

7.  Work with line managers – Consider how you can work with the line managers of participants in a programme both before and after the session.  How informed are those managers about what the programme will involve and what to expect from their staff after participating in the session? What can you do to help those line managers offer useful support to their staff after the session?  Consider a written or verbal briefing prior to the programme for managers; what about a taster session for managers; or a set of suggestions & resources to enable line managers to support their staff practicing and applying their new knowledge or skills?

8.  From participant to trainer – involve the participants in identifying their particular challenges with a topic and then in groups get them to create & deliver sessions to address those challenges.  You will probably want to swap over the challenges, so that everyone works on a different challenge to their own and it is useful to have lots of resources available both physical and electronic to help this to work effectively.  You will need to be available to provide support & encouragement to the groups.

9.  Rethink your venue use – Consider the room layout, rearrange the furniture to best suit the design of the session (eg consider using a cabaret layout to enable group work, rather than a U-shape); change the way the room faces (eg from front to side); consider using different parts of the room for different activities.  Or for a complete change think about how an unusual venue could add value (see this blog post by my colleague Christine Bell on this very topic centreforfacilitation.wordpress.com - May 20, 11:25 AM).

10.  Do away with the course completely – Is a workshop based course really the best way to meet this learning need or would another format work better?  Could a number of different learning methods be combined eg a workbook, video clip combination? Or some background reading & research plus coaching combo?  Do all the participants need the same learning or would it be even more effective to include different routes through the material to suit different needs? Is it a learning solution that is mostly likely to improve performance or do we need to address other factors in the workplace?  This is a huge topic and there are lots of different issues to consider, but it is always worth asking the question whether a face to face workshop is the right approach, rather than assuming it is as we so often do.

This post has been written to get you thinking about small steps you can take to make your L&D design & delivery even more effective at meeting the real needs in your organisation and impacting on performance.  I hope it gets you started.

Rachel Burnham

21/5/14

Burnham L & D Consultancy specialises in the development of L&D professionals, blended learning and evaluation

Follow me on Twitter @BurnhamLandD