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 centreforfacilita
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
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