Hot Tips for Training
Home
Top 10 Training Quotes
Spotlight Theme: Learning
Use the following quotes in training materials, e-learning modules, on handouts or job aids, or as laminated wall charts, flipcharts or PowerPoint slides.
"You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives." Clay P. Bedford
"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts." John Wooden
"A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study." Chinese Proverb
"When the student is ready, the master appears." Buddhist Proverb
"Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned." Mark Twain
"Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." Oliver Wendell Holmes
"I don't think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday." Abraham Lincoln
"Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere." Chinese Proverb
"The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live." Mortimer Adler
"I am defeated, and know it, if I meet any human being from whom I find myself unable to learn anything." George Herbert Palmer
TPC Training Process Focus
Spotlight Theme: Storytelling
10 Ideas for Using Stories in Training
This month, we focus on the training method of storytelling. Here are 10 ways of implementing storytelling into your training. Storytelling is an Auditory process, so add Visual and Kinesthetic methods where possible to help balance adult learning.
1. Pre-Course work: Ask participants to read the text of a story before they come to the training course. A couple of warnings: make sure the story is appropriate and remember to refer to the story during the training.
2. At the beginning of the training course: Used in conjunction with the Icebreaker and/or Connect Activity an appropriate short story (approximately 30 seconds) will encourage the group into a positive frame of mind which sets the tone for the rest of the training course.Often appropriate stories for this timeslot are personal stories. Rather than reading a story, it is best to tell the story from memory.
3. During the day: Use stories to inject color, emotion or humor to change the pace of the training or to encourage those taking part to see concepts with more clarity.
4. As a case study: Read a scripted story aloud. Then hand out copies of the story and allow small groups to analyze the story and establish their own links to it. Then, debrief the activity and write the findings on a flipchart for posting around the training room and as a point for future reference.
5. To illustrate a difficult concept: Albert Einstein - so the story goes - could only develop the theoretical equations for his theory of relativity after he had imagined the concept visually; he dreamed up a personal story of himself riding beams of light, surveying things below him, and wondering how observers from other points might view the same things.Attaching complex methods and theories to stories, has proven to increase learning. When participants are tested in groups (learning with and without stories), the participants who had been taught with stories had learned significantly more than students taught in a traditional way.
6. Post-lunch activity: Choose a longer story (5-8 minutes). Look for a story that starts calmly and fairly quietly and then progresses to a more upbeat energy level. Use a handout of the story for more in-depth analysis, or group work.
7. e-learning modules: Use a story as a case study where participants analyze the story and answer a series of multiple choice or short-answer questions on completion.
8. Starting a story and finishing it later Our brains naturally seek out pattern, completeness and wholeness. Stop the story half way through, ask the group what they think will happen, and then stop telling the story. Complete or progress to the story later in the training finally completing the story and make the point - therefore heightening the learning.
9. At the end of the day: Use a motivational story as a powerful close as well as creating a powerful bridge or a 'future pace' back into the workplace.
10. After the course: As post-course work, send a story to participants to read and evaluate in relation to the topic of the training they have completed. Have participants create their own stories to illustrate a particular point. Post success stories of how participants have implemented their learning on a central site, or as posters on noticeboards.
TPC Trainers Tales
Spotlight Theme: Toll Collector, Pike & Minnow
The following Training Tales are stories that have been used successfully in TPC training programs. We welcome you to download the story, add a meaning that is relevant to your subject matter and participants. We've even given you some hints on types of training programs where these stories could be used! Enjoy!
1 - The story of the toll-collector
Uses: Perception, Customer Service, Positive Thinking, Prioritization
The story is told of a toll-collector on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
The traffic authorities couldn't explain why there was always a long queue of traffic at this one particular gate. Upon closer inspection they discovered a young man who had pop music blaring away as he danced in his booth and greeted early morning commuters with a cheery word and smile. It didn't take any more time than the other lanes but motorists intentionally changed lanes to get a good start to their day.
After interviewing motorists to determine there was no dissatisfaction (in fact, the responses were quite the opposite), the authorities approached the young man to ask why he seemed to be having such a good time in what they say as a mundane job. His response staggered them. It was along the lines of:
"Hey man, me and my music are having a party here with all these nice people. One day, I want to be a dancer but in the meantime, I can practise my rhythm and make people happy while I collect their money. Look at these other toll-takers. It looks more like they're in vertical coffins, than toll booths. Happy? Yeah...why shouldn't I be happy? I've got a corner office with glass on all sides and great views that many executives would kill for. Of course, I'm happy in my job. What's the point of being miserable?"
2 - The Pike and the Minnow Story
Uses: Perception, Management, Organizational Behavior, Sales, Leadership, Creative Business Thinking
An example of how perception can affect behavior was dramatically illustrated in an experiment with a fish: A Pike was placed in an aquarium with many Minnows swimming around it.
After the fish became accustomed to the plentiful supply of food, a sheet of glass was placed between the Pike and the Minnows.
When the Pike became hungry, it tried to reach the Minnows, but it continually hit its head on the glass.
At first, the strength of the need for food increased and the Pike tried harder than ever to eat the Minnows. But finally, its repeated failure of goal attainment resulted in enough frustration that the fish no longer attempted to eat the Minnows.
In fact, when the glass partition was finally removed, the Minnows again swam all around the Pike, but no further goal - directed activity took place.
Eventually, the Pike died of starvation while in the midst of plenty of food.
In both cases, the fish operated according to the way it perceived reality and not on the basis of reality itself.
