What Would You Want?

Research from the world of neuroscience suggests that if we can get learners thinking, reading, discussing content prior to their arrival for their workshop, it can increase the potential for retention by up to 34%.  This is due to the building of connections in the brain to the content that we can then build upon (instead of building) during their workshop.

As training facilitators we tend to send out pre-reading but we all know how difficult it can be to get learners to read this. Likewise, if we ask learners to think or send their objectives for the workshop they often feel ‘threatened’, that somehow these might be used against them or they simply don’t know and don’t like to ask.

Here’s an idea that might help get them discussing the content in a non-threatening way:

Send learners your usual welcoming information but also ask them to think about the content but also bring with them one or all of the following:

• 3 questions colleagues would like answered about the content (this gives them a mission to find out more about the content during their workshop BUT, they are only the messenger. So any threat is minimised because it’s not them asking the question it’s their colleague.  Although, I’m sure they will find the answers of value themselves.
• 3 things their manager would want from the workshop if they were taking part (this is an inverted way of getting the manager to say what they expect of the learner upon their return).
• 3 ways a colleague is already using the content of the workshop (this puts the content into context for the learner and they can see that it’s already being used in their world).

You could then use this information to form your opening for the workshop by getting learners to share their findings (and if someone didn’t manage to do the work, this gives them valuable real-world context). Teams could outline these on flip chart sheets and share their findings with the rest of the group.  You could also come back to these at the end of the workshop to form a close around the answers to the questions and what actions learners were now going to take.

Research reference

• Gratton – Optimising the use of information – Journal of Experimental Psychology – 1992
• Bower and Mann – Improving recall by recoding interfering material at time of retrieval – Journal of Experimental Psychology – 1992
• Weil & Murphy – ‘Instructional Processes’ – The Free Press 1982
• Lozanov, Georgi – ‘Suggestology and Outlines of Suggestopedy’ – Gonlan & Breach 1978