Knowledge management – how about a ‘to-consider’ list
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development, Training & development
I’m all about learning, about soaking up new knowledge and creating a sumptuous, creative smorgasbord of learning opportunities for my workshop participants. I have lists of books that I’ve read, dog-eared, highlighted, scribbled in and otherwise marked up for how to transfer the knowledge they contain. I use Delicious, youtube, and flickr to help me corral my learning resources. Clients appreciate being able to get videos I use in training and other resources easily through surfing my social media sites.
Being able to catalogue, remember, sort and sift through knowledge so that key points are where you need them, when you need them can be a bit daunting however.. As trainers we’re not paid to spend hours looking for information we know have …. somewhere.
As a result I am focused on knowledge management – how to sort, sift, catalogue and otherwise remember the new things I learn and be able to pass them along to clients.
I wrote a series of posts about my to-do and to-done lists. You can get the links to them at the bottom of this post. I’ve been thinking that I missed something though. The ‘to-consider’ list.
The to-consider list is an art. It’s elegant and streamlined, graceful even. It waves its attention wand in your face but gently, much more gently than the commanding to-do list. The to-consider list is a walk through what’s possible, what could be. It’s a place to capture ideas without having to commit, kind of like a first date.
You can try the ideas on without having to invest energy and resources. The to-consider list has less pressure than the to-do list. It’s like sticking a bookmark in a book, it’s a placeholder which says ‘hey, don’t forget me, I’ll be here when you’re ready to consider….’
So, what’s on your ‘to-consider’ list?
Tags: catalogue, course design, insructional design, knowledge, knowledge management, learning, learning & development, workshop design
Doing things differently gets attention- even when it comes to saying thanks
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development, Training & development
I’ve been on a roll with two prior posts about how we as trainers can do things differently, in order to help prime our participants for learning. I think being creative and doing things differently is critical to being a great trainer.
If participants don’t want to learn, if they’re not paying attention (to us and each other) then no amount of great content is going to make a whit of difference. Doing things differently can certainly help with priming folk for learning.
This extends to saying thanks.
I recently taught a workshop on Life Lenses™ in Ojai, California.
Life Lenses™ is a self-assessment that looks at what comes onto your radar naturally, easily and comfortably, as well as it identifies what you tend to miss. Life Lenses™ is about identifying where you shine and where some polish might be needed in order to let the light (and a fuller perspective) in.
It’s all about perspective, or as Tom Peters says: “I tell it like it is.” Baloney! “I tell it like it is [as seen through my narrowview lens].”
I had a such a great time with the group that I sent them a customized video. In today’s hustle bustle world I really wanted to show appreciation for people showing up, participating, getting engaged and having fun. It was fun to make and didn’t take much time. Here it is for your viewing pleasure.
Here’s one participant’s resounding response to it:
You are cute, funny, specific, flowing, easy going, detailed, squishy, timely and lovely. The thank you video is WONDERFUL!!! You are brilliant and a treasure to behold. Dyana Valentine
Tags: creativity & innovation, learning, life lenses, thank you, tom peters, trainer
Doing things differently as a trainer gets attention
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Creativity & innovation, Training & development
Learning can’t happen without attention. Our brains have to be sitting up, ready to absorb, in order to learn. One way of getting our participant’s attention is by doing things differently. By doing things creatively.
How much have the estimates changed of how much oil is pulsating into the Gulf?
A lot. Loads. More than you can imagine.
Paltry descriptions these. They don’t have any teeth, they don’t resonate, they’re bland.
How about this …
April 25- estimates were at 1,000 bbl. a day
April 28- changed to 5,000 bbl. a day
May 27- increased to 19,000 bbl. a day
June 10- revised to 30,000 bbl. a day
June 15- doubled at 60,000 bbl. a day
Okay, fair enough, but how about showing me in pictures (Rorschach test notwithstanding)? See picture on top of post. That’s when my brain sits up and says ‘wah! you gotta be kidding!’
Interestingly the numbers are from Time’s website, the picture is from the magazine.
How can you do things differently as a trainer to get your participant’s attention?
Caveat: if you take the Rorschach test from the link above and don’t like your results, see this link. Doing things differently.
Tags: attention, development, gulf oil spill, Human resources, learning, oil spill, powerful learning, rorschach, rorschach test, training & development
Doing things differently gets attention
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Training & development
I’m all about creating a sumptuous banquet of learning opportunities that participants can’t help themselves but dive into. One way to do that is to do things differently.
Doing things differently gets our brain’s attention. “Hey you gray matter – pay attention – something unusual is happening.” Synapses fire, eyes sparkle and our participant’s attention is in the bag.
Here’s one way to do things differently as a corporate trainer – put your learning on a map or a graph.
How would you diagram the line between power and compensation? Try this.
What about how creative destruction can be fun or awful? See this graph.
All graphs are from This is indexed – originally “a little project that allows Jessica Hagy, the author, to make fun of some things and sense of others without resorting to doing actual math.” You can even buy a book of postcards with the graphs and venn diagrams.
Apparently doing things differently gets attention as the site’s not so little anymore.
What can you do differently in your training?
Tags: corporate training, creativity & innovation, education, graph, jessica hagy, learning, this is indexed, training & development, venn diagram
The pros and cons of training stubborness, from a baboon’s point of view
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Training & development
As a trainer you’re likely passionate about your content matter (if you’re not, uh, maybe you shouldn’t be teaching it). You probably have tried and true methods that you’re confident in and killer hip pocket activities that you have at the ready.
Great! Really. These are good signs of being assertive, on track and stubborn (in a good way).
As a trainer you likely also have things that you’re hanging onto … well … because. Things that you’re stubborn about in not a good way. Things you’re unwilling to try, people you don’t like to work with, activities you shy away from.
Some of them likely have good reason.
The trick is telling which are good to hang onto and which, as a good trainer who is constantly growing and developing, which you should let drop.
Here’s the same thing, told from a baboon’s point of view. Hanging onto the seeds got him captured (not so good). Hanging onto the seeds led the bushman to water (very good thing). Stubborn? You bet! Should he have dropped the seeds?
You be the judge. What are your training seeds? Things that you could let go of to avoid an imagined negative consequence?
Tags: change management & wellness, stubborn, training & development
We find what we’re looking for
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Communication, Training & development
Attention: if you are a monk, currently in a sensory deprivation chamber or on a deserted island there’s no need to read this post. Really. Please go back to what you were doing.
If none of the above apply to you please read on.
Our brains aren’t sponges they’re sieves.
Unless you fall into one of the three categories above, you are constantly bombarded with things vying for your attention. So many things that it’s a sheer impossibility to pay attention to it all. From ads, emails, tweets, congested traffic, meetings, music, background conversations … our brains are constantly filtering out what isn’t important or urgent.
As a result we pay attention to what we think is important, relevant or urgent.
This is helpful. It focuses us. It saves us from the insanity of trying to read, know, be, do and have everything.
Alas our sieve can get ripped and let important things through. And then, unless we’re on top of it, we’ll only find what we’re looking for. And that’s dangerous.
One of my first jobs was working retail. We went through a lot of managers. All types from the guy who got so angry he pulled his phone out of its socket and threw it across to the room, to the guy who seemed to think it was funny coming onto a young girl.
Then there was ‘Mr. Chart’. In his wisdom he had a large chart drawn up, with all of the employee’s names across the bottom and increments of moola along the other axis. Our task? As employees we were to watch our fellow employees for mistakes they made. Then we were to calculate how much money we’d saved the store by pointing out the error and that sum would go on our chart, by our name.
It was a race to the bottom. Everyone got busy backstabbing and spying. General mayhem ensued.
The result? We only found what we were looking for. Mistakes. Errors. Gaffes.
We missed all the opportunities to find out what was working, the examples of great customer services, employee suggestions for new ways of doing things that would add to the company’s development.
Nope, none of that. We were focused on what we were looking for.
What are you looking for? As a trainer what do you look for – in your participants, in your content, in learning opportunities? And in the process, what’s escaping your sieve?
Tags: attention, brain, brain based learning, focus
An older woman who dares sounds a lot like a fantastic trainer
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Human resources, Training & development
Tags: africa, dare, daring, first, older women, program evaluation united nations, sam crespi, tanzania buffalo, trainer, training & development, uganda
Who am I? That’s a good, albeit tough, question
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Communication, Human resources, Training & development
Recently I wrote a post about two scenarios:
1. social media as a halloween grab bag, where you reach out into the dark and don’t know what you’re going to bump up against or
2. social media as a place to meet, connect and build relationships, like meeting in a gorgeous field of flowers.
Regarding the latter I’ve made a wonderful connection with a woman named Sam who, after I’d asked her what she’s about and she responded, she asked me of the same.
Here’s your reply Sam.
I am more than the sum of my parts.
I am the crossroads, where family, friends, travels, education, authors and even strangers have brushed their influences upon me.
- I’m as comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt working with people in poverty as I am in a suit in the C-suite (no heels, come on I’m 5’10”)
- I work with professional comedians, because I believe humour is a gateway to powerful learning
- I was born to teach and train, it’s in my blood. I enjoy nothing more than setting a smorgasbord of diverse learning opportunities that’s so sumptuous that participants can’t help but help themselves
- I once lived in a house that had a jail cell
- I went to school on a ship that sailed around the world
- I’ve worked with the former President of Mozambique, the Honourable Joaquim Chissano, the United Nations, and the Olympics
- When I was young I worked with people who were autistic, people in a psychiatric boarding home, sex offenders, severely physically challenged folk, and French kids in a daycare (no better language teachers).
- I’ve always been fascinated with all faces of diversity which, decades ago now, convinced me that becoming a fashion designer wasn’t the route I should take (though I was accepted into fashion design school).
- I was an entrepreneur at 13 when I started selling boxwood to clients
- I know what the term Lusophone means
- I have been inside the ring of a camel wrestling competition
- I have been a single married mama
- I lost 30 pounds more than 2 years ago and along the way learned much about the process of change & how to affect change
- I am delightfully public and intensely private
That’s me.
And you? Who are you?
Tags: introduction, social media, who am i, who are you
A trainer’s tale of a Social Media Halloween grab bag
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Communication, Training & development
While much of the planet is now accessible via social media it still feels like a Halloween grab bag. You remember the kind when you were a kid? You’d reach into a dark space, touch something (usually spaghetti masquerading as brains) and you’d have to figure out what it was.
That’s what social media can be. Reaching out into the dark, not sure what you’re going to bump up against. Endless forays with little, no or questionable ‘return’.
That’s one scenario.
If you are strategic however social media can be an entirely different scenario, like the field that ancient philosopher Rumi (1207 to 1273) speaks of:
Beyond right and wrong, there is a field. I will meet you there.
Here is an example of how to take the Halloween grab bag and make it into Rumi’s field, where you can connect, listen and build relationships.
I recently sent out an e-newsletter with a contest, saying the 10th person to sign up to receive my blog would win a gift certificate (Amazon or ITunes, their choice).
I saw that the 10th person was someone named Sam who I emailed to say they’d won. I wanted to announce who’d won in the next newsletter. No response. I emailed again, saying I’d need to move onto the next person if I didn’t hear back, which would have been a shame. To my delight Sam emailed back, which started a lovely connection.
I asked her – “And you? What do you do, what are you about?”
To which she replied –
“Who is Sam? Grew up in the 60s and am in my 60s. Highlights of Sam’s past, include exec and producer in Hollywood, child violinist, opera student, actress, show girl, countess, multi lingual world traveler, mother of a beautifully realized, happily married and creative daughter.
Have long been an activist for social justice and the environment. My writing has been published in local papers, and have done pr, marketing and business writing. Currently, and despite being technologically challenged, I have a wee blog that’s targeting older women; a drop in place for crones/seekers in search of making a difference through choices made with life supporting values. It needs work. Up til now, my posts have drifted in too many directions.
It’s been a long road, sometimes uphill, sometimes the wind’s been at my back! I remain ever hopeful, sometimes foolish..”
She also said “When you have time, it’s your turn to tell me who Lee-Anne is!”
That’s for the next post.
In the meantime, thank you Sam, thank you for connecting, for sharing and for turning a Halloween grab bag into a field of lovely wildflowers. I’ll meet you there.
P.S. All info about Sam shared with her permission.
Tags: crones, older women, rumi, sam crespi, social media, strategy
Curiousity may have killed the cat but it’s a trainer’s best friend
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Communication, Human resources, Training & development
The saying, curiousity killed the cat, means if you’re too curious harm may come to you. That’s true. In some circles curiousity causes problems (say if you’re a bank teller trying to figure out how to steal money) but in the case of corporate training curiousity is worth its weight in gold.
Curiousity opens the gate to learning, it primes participants for wanting to slough off indifference and dive into learning.
Our brains are built to not only be curious but to satisfy that curiousity. It’s called the knowledge gap (read more about it in Dan & Chip Heath’s Made to Stick book). The knowledge gap is what keeps us awake late at night when we know we should go to bed, watching the end of a particularly bad TV show …. simply because we want to find out what happens – who killed the guy, who won the race etc.
A great example of creating curiousity is from the Fast Company article ‘How to Make Corporate Training Rock’. In it, the trainer creates videos, similar to The Office to, get this, help ‘redesign the company’s ethics-and-compliance training program’. Compliance? Snore! Yawn! Yet through the use of humour and pop culture (in this case video clips similar to The Office) they created a knowledge gap that employees were ridiculously keen to fill, vying to be the first one to see the next video installment.
How did it affect compliance? Unfortunately the article didn’t say, however my guess is that with that kind of priming, that kind of curiousity, the cats were sitting fat and pretty.
How can you create more curiousity with your training?
Tags: bearingpoint, chip heath, corporate training, curiosity, curiousity, dan heath, fast company, knowledge, knowledge gap, made to stick, russ berland