You should give Darth Vader a pacemaker

So, when faced with a rote or boring task, inject some fun. Be creative. Give Darth Vader a heart transplant.

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The Role of Corporate Training: Economic Downturn Edition

Shepherd, as CEO, does, though, see the near-future prospects of increased regulation and its co-committant call for training and oversight. I think, instead of furthering helpful debate, he is seeking coporate positioning.

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Writing for the Right Community

When developing training materials, keep in mind the skimming reader. Encourage, with both carrot and stick, to actually read the material. The carrot can be as simple as making the information engaging (incorporate the social side of training–scenarios, case studies, real life impact, etc.) or very, very direct (push this button and your entire warehouse inventory will be deleted from the system).

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Virtual or onsite

But, sitting in a cubicle, conference room or over-flow space while working on client work does not, on the whole, add the value that the travel expenses raise. That is, if there is drudge work to be done (working on a class, curriculum, etc.), let me do it from home, and then come in for discussion, review, etc.

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Providing course materials to your learners

One should not, though, merely print out an entire PPT presentation as a hand-out. You are, in essence, telling the student that even the transition slides or of great value. They will disagree. Rather, you can pull out a few of the more salient slides (processes, terms, etc.) and provide these to the students. This allows the content to go with them (souvenir happy) and provides a place to take extra notes (content happy).

A free pen also sits well.

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Teaching to the metrics–dangers to k-12s and business

Metrics will pop up quite often on this blog as I wrestle with just how to use performance indicators to “pulse” the learning encounter. It seems that often how to test and then how that test is used determines the outcome–Schrödinger’s Cat in training.

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