Learners Learn Best In Context

“Here’s your tip – Learners Learn Best In Context.”

OR

“Have you ever been in the situation of having to offer content and your learners just don’t seem to be interested?  Well, after reading this tip you’ll find it easy to:

• Grab your learners attention.
• Get learners buy-in for any topic you want to uncover.
• Keep your learners with you from the start the content piece.
• Aid transfer of learning into the workplace.
• And it’s as easy as answering one simple question …

Right now, as a trainer, which of these two appeals to you more?  I’m guessing the second version.  Why?  Because you know what you’ll be able to do as a result of reading the rest of this tip, it promises to answer a common trainer issue plus you probably want to know what the simple question is.

Start by ‘Answering One Simple Question’

The secret to getting learner buy-in to new content is … To answer the What’s In It For Me from their perspective.  NOT from the organisations perspective.  NOT from your perspective.  BUT from THEIR perspective.  Tap into your learners drivers and put the content into context for their world.  After all, learners learn best in context ie when they can see what, why and how it affects them.  Eg (With the following examples I’m using generalisations):

When working with sales people

Sales people’s drivers tend to be around money, targets and time.  So instead of introducing a Listening Skills module as:

“The next thing we’ll do is a module on listening skills”

Try

“I want to let you into a little known secret that will increase your sales, help you reach your targets and save you valuable presentation time – and in fact, you don’t actually have to do anything – except listen.”

When working with people from a charitable organisation

People here have different drivers to say sales people.  Here peoples drivers tend to be towards fundraising for the organisation, getting recognition for a cause, stopping injustice etc so instead of introducing a Selling Membership module as:

“So let’s go through how you can sell membership to the general public”

Try

“Imagine you want money to fund your next campaign or project.  That money has to come from somewhere and the two main places it can come from is via the money we raise at fundraising events or from the money we raise via membership sales.  You know your projects are important to the well being of …. so that’s why membership sales are so important to us and why they are part of your role.  It’s not about selling, but about painting a picture of what the membership money actually does to aid our cause.  I want to show you how to paint that picture and how to ask people to buy into that picture.”

Sometimes there may be no direct identifiable drivers for example mandatory training such as Financial Crime Prevention.  In which case, identify what the consequences of not doing something might be and then turn them into positives eg

When working with people that have to implement the Data Protection Act.  Instead of:

“Now to the Data Protection Act and the legislation behind it.”

Try

“I want to make sure that you are never dismissed from your position, taken to court and fined or even jailed when handing other peoples private information.  It’s easy, practical and it’s how you would want other people to handle your information.  Not only that, it keeps us safe within the boundaries of the Data Protection Act.”

In other words, when starting any new piece of content, grab your learners attention and build buy-in by putting it into context and outlining the WIIFM from your learners perspective.