Training from the Back of the Room!: 65 Ways to Step Aside and Let Them Learn

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Sharon practices what she preaches by facilitating highly-interactive, informative, and unforgettable learning experiences. Whether the format is a conference keynote or breakout session, a half-day, full-day, or multi-day training, or webinars and other online learning venues, learners never sit long: they actively participate throughout the entire learning event. The experience is always EPIC: emotional, participatory, image-rich, and connected to their lives. Over two days, this interactive in-person course runs from 9.30 am to 5.30 pm (UK). We allow for regular breaks throughout each day. Please note that each course date’s start and finish times refer to the GMT zone.

I will write in more depth about how to create engaging training with the 4Cs and the 6 Trumps in future posts, but I feel it is important to give a brief overview here. The 4Cs 4Cs MapAs of now, the dates for the April 2018 Trainer Certification Course are sold out. However, there is a wait-list and, if enough people are interested, the sponsoring company ( The Braintrust Consulting Group) may open up another Cert Course day. We should know by the end of December 2017 whether we have enough interested people to consider doing this.

C3 – CONCRETE PRACTICE: This step goes hand-in-hand with the one before it. As the brain learns new information, it immediately begins the trial-and-error application of that information to the physical world. How did that ice-breaker make you feel? Can you remember a single thing that anyone else said? Did the activity make you feel connected to the other learners or to the topic of the class? Did it make you feel safe? In this 2-day in-person TBR Practitioner Class, you’ll explore how the human brain really learns, which is very different from traditional assumptions about learning. And you’ll be introduced to “cognitive neuroscience” concepts – the brain science behind all effective instructional design and human learning. Your brain is hardwired to learn in certain basic ways, regardless of age, gender, nationality, or culture. Here is an excellent summary of the hardwiring:

That's the whole book really, though it does have lots of “ways to step aside an let them learn.” Out of the 65 activities, I connected with (and will try to use) about a dozen. Ten-Minute Rule: Divide your material into short segments of about ten minutes in length. This ensures increased attention, motivation, and retention of important information.

For you, this means you’ll try to fit any new information into the cognitive, emotional, and physical world you already know. There will be a struggle inside your brain until you can find that fit between what you already know and what you’re learning about.In this practical and interactive 5-module virtual class, you’ll explore current “brain science” as it relates to human learning in virtual environments. You’ll discover 6 specific brain-science principles and a 4-step instructional design model that you can use in your own virtual teaching and training. And you’ll leave with dozens of new ideas, activities, resources, and a new “Gold Standard” for virtual instruction and learning. A basic familiarity with the software platforms that will be used to deliver the class: (list apps here). If these apps are new to you, please consider viewing one of the free introductory tutorials on YouTube: (include links here). Or set up your own free account for each app and "play" with its features until you get a sense of how it works. InfoQ: What are your suggestions for turning workshop insights and learnings into takeaways and actions? The beginning of a TBR-styled course utilises activities and content that do these 2 things. With one or more C1-Connection activities, we prepare people to learn. We help learners become comfortable with the peculiar environment that is a formal classroom or training room (usually a roomful of strangers).

Enlightening, memorable, and thought-provoking. Worth its weight in gold!” Brad Streets, Retail Sales Trainer, LG Electronics Find ways to mobilize attendees- ie stand or change position,so they get oxygen and their brain works InfoQ: Right now many workshops are being given remotely.How can we keep people engaged? What should we or shouldn't we do in virtual classes? Design retrospective techniques– Acquire the knowledge and understanding to use and design retrospectives techniques depending on a team’s context, enabling learners to build trust and work through common pitfalls. Each team has a different context, needs and personal preference, therefore as facilitators of a system design workshop, you should all keep your eyes open and look for solutions and ideas that fulfill their needs. Sometimes you have to look “beyond” kanban categories or find a compromise and roll out a Proto-Kanban implementation instead.

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Brain Activating tools – game prizes, training souvenirs, and learning aids – that can be used in the participant’s own training Pindel: It happens. Very often this exercise turns into a blame game or a compliment contest. Facilitation is key here. We want to give everyone space to express their dissatisfaction (for some team members, it can be the first time ever), but on the other hand, we don't get bummed. My suggestion is to keep in mind Mike Burrow’s FOTO (From Obstacles to Outcomes) exercise and try to navigate the conversation in a more solution-oriented tone.Following Mike Burrow’s instruction of a 15-minute FOTOusing Clean Language, you take your team from the discussion about obstacles to the discovery of outcomes. Increase learners’ attention, retention and engagement with learning activities that engage the whole brain. Create training classes and programs that combine your own topic and materials with the brain-based concepts and strategies from the program. During the training, teach them only what they need to know, keep each part very short, then break it up with an interactive exercise.