Learning Professionals

Learning and development jobs: safety net or soul killers?

simon.thiessen@reallearning.com.au (Simon Thiessen) — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 22:00:00 GMT

Is a B2B consultancy a leap you should make?

Why would you leave a perfectly good job and go into some sort of business-to-business consultancy, perhaps a corporate trainer? Well, I’m not going to give you the answers. I’m not going to tell you what you should do, but I am going to provoke you with a number of questions. After all, the key to finding good answers is to ask the right questions.

are you: a corporate trainer or learning facilitator – does it matter?

simon.thiessen@reallearning.com.au (Simon Thiessen) — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 22:00:00 GMT

9 people who make learning and development jobs challenging

simon.thiessen@reallearning.com.au (Simon Thiessen) — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 22:00:00 GMT

Strategies to make adult learning work

If you love facilitating learning – and you shouldn’t even consider a career in the field unless you do – you live for those days when you help people grow.

It is on these days that you get out of bed knowing you will make a difference; you eat breakfast thinking about the key points you want to focus on; and you drive to the venue mentally rehearsing a new activity or example that you plan to use. You know that this will be one of those fulfilling days when you will have the opportunity to really make a difference – and making a difference is what learning and development jobs and careers are really all about.

Are Corporate trainers who ignore adult learning styles just lazy?

simon.thiessen@reallearning.com.au (Simon Thiessen) — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 06:02:00 GMT

Adult learning styles: fact or fiction?

Do you believe that learning styles are legitimate and real? If you do, 90% of people, according to a range of studies, agree with you.

However, some academics and professionals (such as some psychologists) disagree. They don’t believe that models of different learning styles are valid and point to all sorts of studies and examples that disprove them.

Various theories and models of learning styles

Corporate training skills applied to the 4 stages of adult learning

simon.thiessen@reallearning.com.au (Simon Thiessen) — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 21:16:00 GMT

Blind to reality

The four stages of competence – sometimes called the four stages of learning – is a simple model that illustrates the process people go through in order to learn a new skill.

It may be simple but is highly relevant to creating real learning in the training room – a skilful learning facilitator will respond to different stages of learning by using different training strategies.

This model has been attributed to a number of researchers, including Albert Maslow. Its original focus was on learning skill – as corporate trainers, we can equally apply it when someone has plateaued on an existing skill.

You can’t deal with what you can't see

The underlying premise of the adult learning model is that a person can’t learn or improve in an area that they don’t recognise they have a deficiency in.

7 quality training techniques to deal with disruptive managers

simon.thiessen@reallearning.com.au (Simon Thiessen) — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 06:19:00 GMT

Managers who test your training skills

In past articles I have written about your responsibility as a learning facilitator to manage disruptive participants and create a positive learning culture in your training room.

But what about when the main offender is one of the senior managers in the group? If you talk with them privately are they likely to resist or could it create a confrontation with them?

The number one skill to facilitate quality training (video)

simon.thiessen@reallearning.com.au (Simon Thiessen) — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 20:35:00 GMT

The number one skill for a great learning facilitator (video transcript)

It’s a bold call but today I want to talk to you about the number 1 skill for the professional corporate trainer and learning facilitator.

My name is Simon Thiessen; I’m the CEO of the Real Learning Experience.

Now hopefully your mind is racing asking yourself what is the number one skill of a great corporate trainer. Is it listening? Is it building rapport? Is it contextualising learning? Is it connecting and really relating to the participants in the room?

All of those things are certainly in my grand final, but in my view they’re not the number one skill!

Unusual corporate training techniques for effective adult learning

simon.thiessen@reallearning.com.au (Simon Thiessen) — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 23:23:00 GMT

Are you really that silly?

Have you ever looked at someone in your training room and felt the urge to ask that question?

I know that I must never actually say it – and it isn’t one of the corporate training techniques that we recommend -but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to every now and then!

Let me emphasise that this impulse is never triggered by someone struggling to grasp a concept or by a participant asking a question with an obvious answer – we genuinely embrace the mantra that ‘the only silly question is the one you don’t ask’.

No, when I have the impulse to ask this question it is triggered by someone doing something that is so blatantly inappropriate that it is inconceivable that they thought it would be OK!

A highly disruptive training participant

The W(h)ine list: quality training techniques for people with baggage

simon.thiessen@reallearning.com.au (Simon Thiessen) — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 00:22:00 GMT

Issues that get in the way of facilitating learning

As a learning facilitator, sometimes you have a group hungry and open to learning. Other times you know you are going to be working with a group that brings a lot of baggage to the training room.

We developed an innovative strategy for a client facing some specific challenges – and I want to share a strategy with you in this article. First, a bit of background.

Where does all the baggage come from?

Corporate training excellence - walk your talk

simon.thiessen@reallearning.com.au (Simon Thiessen) — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 02:30:00 GMT

What has leadership got to do with being a corporate trainer?

Recently we have written about having disruptive participants in the learning environment. That may be a talker in the room, someone who is constantly engaging with their technology and not the learning, or one of dozens of other ‘participants’ who test your skill and your patience.

One of the most challenging participants of all is the one who constantly argues with you and undermines everything you say. However, this participant can also be an excellent opportunity to take the learning up a gear or two.

Learning facilitator as leader of learning

As a learning facilitator, you are responsible for the performance of the group of people in your training room – just as any manager is responsible for the performance of the people they are supervising at any time.

Of course, each individual is also responsible for their own performance – whether it be on the job or in the training room.