Brain in Business

Hi everyone,

Once again, it was great to see a mix of old and new faces at yesterdays meeting.

In this meeting Russell Oliver-Brooklands shared with us his ground breaking and innovative research on "The Mind's Voice" and the triggers that can make an audience switch off.

ROB's brain friendly approach ensured that we all 'experienced' these hidden triggers ourselves and helped us to identify and avoid them when communicating with others. It certainly gave us food for thought and I for one will review my communications more carefully! - Did you spot any triggers here?

In the Clinic in the afternoon both Rob and Shelley put forward projects that they are working on for discussion and they will be posting further details on the forum.

Pictures of the meeting will be available shortly.

We look forward to the next meeting in the North West (near Chester) on 26h June and in the Thames Valley (near Reading) on 18th September.

Best wishes

Hello everyone. I have finally got around to posting the challenge that I raised at the learning clinic on June 8th. I know it is a long time ago!

The Challenge:

I have a rollout of the new Apple Mac operating system plus a shift from one email and calendar system to a new one. There will be approximately 70 delegates and it will run in three two hour sessions.

I asked the group for help with this as I don't want it to be a "death by PowerPoint" exercise, even if my PowerPoints are quite nice!!Suggestions I received were:

A picture gallery when the learners enter the room

Spot the difference - pictures of the old and new systems side by side

Whats in it for me

Key Differences Acronym

Asking them how they learn at home - transfer to work

Create a floor puzzle

Ask them to find three differences

Well I have taken it all on board and whilst away on holiday sitting in a lovely air conditioned room overlooking a beautiful hot mediteranian garden I finally worked it all out.

I am delivering the session on Friday of this week and will report back on how it all went with a summary of which things I used.

Many thanks to all those who helped.

Dear All

My report back on which of the tools shared I used and how it went.

I created several A3 sized posters of screenshots of the desktop and various programmes which look different in both systems. These were on the wall as the learners entered the room so that they could look and compare. Most people spent a couple of minutes looking at the pictures.

I enlivened the presentation aspect by asking lots of questions and also by demonstrating in the live software so for example people could see my own real emails and some appointment to get a sense of real life use.

We also had a big What's in it for me poster on the wall and when asked the learners were able to come up with most of the answers to the WIIFM question.

I also created a sequence of A4 laminated icons and folders to show how to get an icon from a folder on to the dock. I asked for 6 volunteers and assigned each a role. I then asked them to physically perform the action of getting the icon from the folder and dragging it to the dock.

Sadly this last bit did not go down so well and I was aksed not to repeat it in the second or third session that I ran. I think this is down to a few reasons:

a) I did not explain it properly
b) The IT Manager was in the room and he told me that people felt silly and don't do that bit again
c)Everyone is very busy and some were in quite a hurry to get back to work.

So there we have it.

If nothing else I had a very valualble Learning Experience and I have gained confidence to try new things even if they appear a bit "silly"!

My thanks to everyone who spent time with me on June 8th and gave me valuable suggestions which I will find a place to use in future as well.

Have fun everyone!

Shelley

Hi Shelley,
It sounds like you transformed what could have easily been a dull Death by PowerPoint into something lively and interactive and far more brain friendly.

Just a few extra thoughts on the laminated cards that you were asked not to repeat:
1. sometimes it just happens that way and it's the right thing not to do it again.

2. sometimes it's the environment (physical, emotional, psychological) isn't quite right for people to step out of their comfort zone to do these things and some of the things you can do to change this are
a) if possible get everybody volunteering in some way - that's a bit of a challenge with 70 - but sometimes the other 63 can be asked to be observers or helpers and to look out for something or split everyone up into groups and ask each group to work out what to do
b) I've found it can really depend on how much people have been physically moving before as to how keen they are to get up and participate - so if possible include some other movement earlier on so they are not wedded to their chairs.

3. always practise any exercise like that before hand in the comfort of your own office - just to find out where things could go wrong and to get your instructions clear

4. especially when people are in a hurry it can be worth testing before and after so they can see the difference an activity like that can make - or provide a real incentive to stay - amazing the power of chocolate and small prizes.

5. Next time make sure it's the IT manager who's one of the volunteers. Then afterwards talk to them about what they thought, and why they thought it and asking how they would improve the exercise whilst still encouraging people to physically get involved. After all you're the one who knows about learning whilst they are an IT expert.

6. Keep up your confidence levels because if you treat it as completely normal they are less likely to feel silly - never underestimate the huge influence you have as the trainer (having said that I remember feeling horribly mortified when a senior training manager followed me around one day when I was still pretty new to training - completely destroyed any credibility I had and my confidence.)

Thank you so much for the update SHelley - see you again soon. And I just know you're going to love the venue we're hoping to use for the next meeting.

Warm regards,
Stella