HANDLING QUESTIONS RESPECTFULLY

In all of our Langevin courses, we address the topic of questions as a part of our housekeeping. We invite the learner to ask questions and even challenge us respectfully. We also post a parking lot, a technique used to “park” questions that can be dealt with at a later time. I often tell participants that I respect that some people may be shy and perhaps not comfortable posing questions in front of a large group; so I invite them to write their question(s) on a post-it-note without their name, if they prefer to remain anonymous. We also offer learners additional time after class to ask questions. Obviously the learners’ questions are important to us and, therefore, we must inform them that questions are not a sign of ignorance, but an indication that they want to broaden their scope and sharpen their skills.

On the flip side, as instructors, we need to examine our own feelings about learner questions. Often we are concerned that we may not have the answers and for some reason feel that we are supposed to know everything. Obviously we should know what we are tasked to train but it is inevitable that there will be questions that we cannot answer. The text book approach clearly states, “Don’t fake an answer,” as this will surely damage the instructor’s credibility. It is best to be honest and transparent when you don’t have an answer and to do your best to get an answer to the learner as soon as possible. Another technique for dealing with questions for which you may not have an answer is to relay the question; many times other learners may have the answer. Remember, they are adults who bring experience with them to the classroom. Not knowing the answer provides a teachable moment for us as instructors to broaden our knowledge and scope. I am always picking up new information and nuggets from our participants. And, if the same question is posed again in another class, guess what? I’ll have an answer.

A good training environment should create a climate where there is two-way communication and mutual respect. Questions keep us in touch and represent an opportunity to create and build resources. We truly want to avoid the scenario that my friend experienced, so let’s embrace the who, what, where, when, why and how and, as the proverb states, never lose our way.

Linda

But NOTHING is more valuable to me than learning whatever I can about the people who are in attendance as early on in the workshop as possible. Finding out as much about my learners is of greatest significance to me because it helps me to create the best possible learning dynamics and experience for everyone in the classroom. What information do I look for?

I like to find out each learner’s role in his/her organization, challenges he/she is interested in discussing during the workshop, and what he/she would like to get out of the training he/she is attending. Finding out what workshops or skills training he/she has had in the past gives me an idea of his/her disposition towards the current training, what he/she should already know a little about, and what modules may be of higher interest to him/her.

Knowing that someone has been exposed to certain concepts during previous training sessions, or is currently dealing with certain frustrations that the course content addresses, opens the door for me so I can let him/her shine by sharing his/her experiences and achievements and/or challenges and frustrations during the course. This will almost always motivate other learners to share, ask questions, or shift their level of involvement in the course.

The more I know about my learners, the better equipped I am to help them succeed in the classroom and in their on-the-job application of what they have learned. This is why the opening introductions, warm-up activities, and general “schmoozing” with participants before and after class, and during breaks, are so important to me.

What are you doing to get to know your learners before, or as, they arrive in your classroom? Write to us and share your techniques, strategies, and tricks for getting to know your learners early on and how that has opened doors for you, and your learners, in the classroom. I look forward to your comments.

José

As instructors we work hard to learn our course content. During this process we may get very attached to our content and feel like we own it and that our way is THE way. If we teach the same course repeatedly, we may become even more entrenched in our content. It then becomes very easy to fall into the trap of believing that our content should be adopted without question by our learners. In some cases (when safety is involved) that may be true, but when teaching conceptual content there could be other, equally valuable, points of view.

Novice learners typically, but not always, accept the knowledge and skills that we give them without resistance because it is new. However, when teaching an experienced group of learners, you may face a situation that happened to me not long ago. I was teaching instructional design to a very knowledgeable and experienced group of instructors. At one point in the workshop I introduced a key concept to the group. Instead of the group shaking their heads in agreement, which is normally the case, one learner shouted out quite loudly, “I disagree!”

Needless to say I was taken aback. After a short pause to collect my thoughts, I nicely and diplomatically said, “Oh, it’s interesting to hear a different perspective, would you like to share your thoughts?” The learner stated his position and why he felt that his way was THE way. The group and I patiently listened and although his perspective was different from what I was teaching, it was no less valuable. That moment paved the way for a meaningful discussion where everyone offered their points of view on the subject.

After the discussion came to an end, it remained clear that he was going to hold firm to his position while I needed to stick to my content. As the workshop continued over the next few days, I re-emphasized the concept often because it linked to other pieces of knowledge and skill that came later in the course. There were times when I gave specific examples of how to apply this concept during the instructional design process and again why it was important although I remained mindful of other points of view.

At the end of the workshop when the participants had completed their evaluation forms and were leaving the room, I received a surprise. The gentleman who had disagreed with me came up to me and said that, after finishing the week, he now agreed with the important principle that was taught.  He came to appreciate how valuable it truly was and he gave me an appreciative hug!

So I learned something very important that day about teaching: Whether a learner agrees with you or not is not the important thing. What matters is that they learn from you!

Lynne

While thinking about this quote, I asked myself, “Why did Cupid rely on what he knew instead of what he saw?” Because appearances can – and often are – deceiving. What may be apparent to the eyes is not always a fact – and this can also be true when it comes to training. All too often we may have participants who have seen, or been exposed to, less-than-desirable training and, from that point on, these participants believe that what they have seen honestly represents us and our industry. This often results in them appearing as “prisoners” or “vacationers” in the classroom.

To these learners, training is often perceived as a waste of time and no amount of knowledge and skill will divert them from their convictions that previous training experiences have given them. So it is up to us, as Training and Development specialists, to be skillful in aiming our best “arrows” at their hearts with the intent to rekindle their passion or interest (at minimum) for what training has to offer them.

When we examine what Malcolm Knowles has taught us about andragogy (the art and science of teaching adults), we discover that the learning environment may become a very intimidating one for adults, especially if they have been previously subjected to a poor learning experience. As Training and Development specialists, we must also recognize when a learner’s behavior or demeanor is based on negative earlier negative training experiences where his or her needs were not met or his or her self-esteem might have been ignored. The learner might have created a thick skin so he or she won’t be exposed to another less-than-positive experience. We MUST be sensitive to the possibility that there might be a reasonable reason for a learner’s negative behavior.

There are 7 arrows we can steal from Cupid to help reframe the adult learning environment for these individuals:

1. Use the experience learners have had in the past – positive or negative – and have the learners share them the classroom. This involves them, lets them realize they are an intricate part of the learning, and it also reduces the amount of time we lecture to them (which, of course, can be a drag).
2. Ensure we make them feel good about their contributions. Like Lorenzo Lamas said in the ‘80s “you feel good, but you must look good too. And baby you look MAHVELOUS!” We have the ability to protect our participants’ self esteem by validating them and encouraging them to share – from a positive perspective – even their worse memories.
3. Cover topics that are relevant to their jobs. Never assume the learners make the connection between course content and job performance. Make it clear for them.
4. Acknowledge that that the phrase “what’s in it for me?” does contain the words “company,” “team,” “division,” “boss,” “industry,” or “client”  Learners need to know how the training content benefits THEM directly.
5. Concentrate on what the learners need to know and do NOW, not 7 months after the class. If adults can’t immediately use what they learned, they will forget it or classify it as unimportant.
6. Be as inclusive as possible in all activities. Adult learners learn by doing not by being told. Active participation allows them to formulate relevant questions and focus on the knowledge and skill they’ll need to succeed.
7. Strike them with the arrow of autonomy. Customize the training session based on their input and performance.

What are you doing to change your learners’ hearts about training? These are times when people are looking for solutions, job security, added skills, improved performance, or even just the chance for survival.  Take a shot straight for their hearts and sting them with the elixir that will once again make their hearts open to what training has to offer. How are you using your design and/or delivery to win their hearts?

Write me and share with our readers your best “arrows” (techniques) to change the hearts of those who have fallen out of love with training. I look forward to reading your ideas.

José

I asked for a closer look at the package, specifically, the return address. I discovered it was sent by a friend of my husband’s who is doing international volunteer work. Sensing my hesitation, the mail carrier informed me that I could refuse the package and it would be returned to the sender. Guilt set in – it wasn’t even addressed to me, after all. Just then, I remembered a jar of spare change my husband keeps on a small table by the front door (where he empties his pockets each evening when he comes home from work). I scrambled to dig up the ransom and was eventually able to produce $2.35 in exchange for the mysterious package. Once in my hands, I felt compelled to open it. Inside was a small book about…storytelling! As I flipped through the pages, the message became clear. LIFE is an epic tale and we all have a role in that tale. A couple of lines in particular jumped out at me, “stories are equipment for living,” and “story is the language of the heart.”

So, just what does my story have to do with training? The power of storytelling has been known for thousands of years. Whether you’re a new Trainer or a seasoned professional looking for innovative ways to get your message across, stories are a wonderful tool! Stories help facilitate the learning process and make it more pleasurable for your learners. They can help you, as a trainer, bring your content to life. When I teach our How Adults Learn workshop and we come to the section on The Process of Learning, I always say “the mark of an advanced Instructor is one of being a good storyteller.” I once had a boss who said, “a good artist copies, but a great artist steals.” What she meant was when you hear or read a good story, take it and make it your own! Stories serve as ready-made resources to use in a variety of ways. I have several personal stories and anecdotes I already use, but am always looking for more. One of my favorite resources is, “Tales for Trainers,” by Margaret Parkin. It’s a “must-have” for Trainers, as it gives an anthology of 50 tales, wide-ranging in style and content. Perfect for those who need to “steal” a story and make it their own.

I’d love to hear about some of the stories you’ve used with success in your classes. Tell me, what’s your story?

Melissa

Job aids can take many forms such as checklists, worksheets, tables, and flow charts. Your content drives the form the job aid will take. For example, if you are teaching a process, a flow chart makes sense. If you are creating a job aid to help a supervisor oversee someone’s work on the job, a checklist makes sense.

Job aids are an instructional designer’s best friend. Why you ask? I love them because they save you both design and development time if you use them to replace or supplement formal training. If you base some or all of your training on job aids then all you have to do is teach people how to use them!

Here is an example of how you can use a job aid to save training time: Let’s say the Human Resources Department asks you to design some training for new hires on how to log in to the company’s computer system. Rather than designing time consuming instructor-led training, design a one page, step-by-step job aid with graphics and include it with a new hire packet of materials. You can leave your name and extension at the bottom of the job aid giving employees an opportunity to call you if they need further assistance. Training is done!

So when should you use job aids anyway? Use them if:

1. The tasks you teach are performed infrequently on the job

People forget what they do not use often so create them a job aid to help them remember!

2. It is critical that the tasks be performed correctly

If someone is working with heavy machinery, power tools, or electricity then job aids can help prevent injuries.

3. Training cannot be done in a timely manner

If you are teaching software, for example, and the version is not going to be released immediately after training, learners will need a job aid to refresh their memory on how to perform key tasks once the software is ready for use.

Job aids are really fun to develop if you are a creative person. Keep these tips in mind when designing and developing your tools:

1. Keep them short, 1-2 pages is fine – Learners won’t use a job aid if it’s too long.
2. Use graphics and text – Pictures with text will aid retention and help the visual learners, too.
3. Use plenty of white space – Learners can add additional notes if they wish.
4. Number your steps clearly – This format will promote the correct application of the task if sequencing is important to the task at hand.

I hope that you will consider using job aids to replace or supplement every training program you design. They are huge time savers and learners will love them! If you are not convinced that job aids can leap tall buildings in a single bound, try assembling that new barbecue grill or home gym equipment by yourself without any instructions!

Do you have any job aid tips you’d like to share?

Lynne

Well, we got through another holiday season, and the month of love (February) is now in the record books. So now we can look forward to another reason to celebrate and have fun – St. Paddy’s Day! After all isn’t everyone a little Irish on St. Paddy’s Day? (I know I am!)

Training should also be a reason to celebrate and have fun. As we all know, when learners are having fun, they learn more easily, and retain more information as well.

Here is something I do to have fun, in the classroom, and it does not involve kissing the Blarney Stone!

How about creating theme days in your class? For example, I have food themes where I use food-related puzzles for course reviews. When discussing key points, I also will use quotes, analogies, and stories that all relate to food. You can even draw pictures of food on your charts to add some fun. You can go as far as you want with your theme. For example, you can serve snacks, decorate the room, or even dress-up/wear some type of outfit. Remember, it is your call, and the more creative you get, within reason of course, then the more memorable your training can become – and the greater the learning.

So now that St. Paddy’s Day is approaching, how about getting out those green markers, practice drawing shamrocks, and try to create some training memories for your learners.

Lastly, for all you web designers, creating themes can also make a huge difference between having just another boring electronic page turner, or making your e-learning a very powerful and memorable training experience.

Ooops – I remembered another one: When Irish eyes are smilin’!

Ron Ron the Leprechaun

I called a break and asked my class clown to join me for a cup of coffee. After a bit of small talk I said, “I’m really enjoying your sense of humor, but I’m beginning to get a bit sidetracked when you add a comment after each of my key points.” He pondered that for a moment and then replied “I’ve always taken on the role of class clown; I’m constantly telling jokes at the office and no one seems to mind.” He then reflected on the situation a little bit more and continued by saying, “Sometimes they ask me to tone it down. I guess I’m being a little over the top here.”

He assured me he would keep the jokes to a minimum from now on. I thanked him, but I also asked for his help with a mock interview I was planning on introducing after the break. With his outgoing personality, I knew that he would be perfect for the role. He was delighted to help me and did a fantastic job playing his part.

As I think back on this situation, I think was important to address the situation before my frustration built up even further. However, it was just as important to remain respectful and encouraging to my class clown. Taking his outgoing personality and channeling it into a positive rather than negative purpose allowed him to maintain his self-esteem while at the same time giving him the “air time” he seemed to need.

I think Mama would agree with the approach taken, do you?

Jim

I had two such individuals in one of our advanced courses a few years ago. These two participants came on their own, did not know each other, yet – interestingly enough – gravitated to each other from the very beginning. They did not share with anyone but each other (especially once they realized they shared the same energy). Over the period of 3 days, these two participants became the worse clients I have EVER had to deal with in my years with Langevin. (And just a minor note about our clients – they are all training professionals and are expected, you would assume, to be more conscientious about their learning surroundings than someone who has never worked in our industry.)

From the very first hour on day one, these two individuals spoke and conducted themselves with arrogance. They constantly made faces or verbal comments about how “elementary” the contributions of the other participants were, somehow believing that this made them look more advanced than the rest of the group. They constantly interrupted other people, including me, made negative comments about the course content or items on the agenda, and persisted in their efforts to convince me to customize the agenda to fit their personal schedules. I attempted to explain to them that the extent of customization that they wanted was not possible in a public workshop, however, this did not seem to matter to them.

When lunch time came around on Day 1 – aware that I really had no desire to put up with their behaviors for three days, and having already had personal interventions with each of them to encourage an improvement in their behaviors – I spoke to them before they left for lunch. I explained that if this course was not meeting their expectations they should not feel bad about leaving, as Langevin has a 100% satisfaction guarantee and that they would not lose their money. Unfortunately, they did not take the bait and they both returned after lunch. During the remaining two and a half days, their behaviors deteriorated to such a degree that at one point they were left sitting alone at one table while the other participants sat noticeably away from them.

I gave a great deal of thought to how I wanted to deal with these participants. After careful consideration, I decided to focus on the other participants who were there to learn and share, and who were appreciative of what the course and I had to offer them. Those clients had a fantastic learning experience because we decided not to buy into the drama and negative energy of the two negative participants.

When the time came to collect evaluations for the course, I was glad to see that the participants who were engaged and working together rated both the course and me very well and made some fantastic comments about their experience, even mentioning my attempts to satisfy the needs of very “self centered” (as they expressed) attendees. It was interesting to notice that after they turned in their evaluations and collected their certificates they all left rather rapidly as if they sensed I was going to have some serious words with the two offenders. Once the other participants left the room, I approached my two rude and difficult participants. They proceeded to tell me the course did not meet their needs and how it really should not be considered an “advanced” course. They went on to provide some more negative feedback which had no merit at all. Then they left.

I managed to put that negative experience out of my mind until two weeks later. I was teaching a different course, in a different city, when I noticed that one of the participants who would be attending the course worked at the same company as one of the previous negative participants. I braced myself for the worst, but this time I had a plan on how to deal with the negative behaviors should the new participant display any. So, you can imagine my surprise when on Day 1 of the course, this participant came to apologize and explain she would have to step out of class for an hour that day because she had a mandatory conference call she had to attend at 10:30 AM. This conference call was organized and scheduled by her team leader, who just happened to be one of the two offenders from the advanced course! He wanted to share with his team some BEST PRACTICES HE HAD PICKED UP at a course he attended, two weeks earlier!

See? There is hope even for those who are blatantly negative about their training experience! They may come to realize it was more beneficial to them than they may be willing to share with us – and, in most cases, we may never find out that we actually positively impacted the most unlikely person.

Why some people have the need to be negative and display less-than-desirable behavior in the class is completely beyond my comprehension. A few weeks after this experience, a friend recommended a fantastic little book that was just what I needed at the time. The book recommends that to live a happier life we should consider applying the following four things to our lives:

• Be impeccable with what we say
• Never assume anything
• Take nothing personally
• Do our best at all times

As a facilitator, I have found that this is some of the best advice I can use when I encounter rough times and negative behaviors.

José

There have been a couple of times when I have had to approach a participant individually and have that dreaded conversation addressing a particular problem or issue, however those occurrences have been rare and have never resulted in a participant’s dismissal from class.

As an instructor, I subscribe to the theory of “Prevention and Intervention.” In other words, if you can prevent bad behavior from happening in the first place, try that. However, if bad behavior does occur, sometimes you have to intervene.

Addressing housekeeping or administrative issues at the beginning of a course is the best tactic to prevent poor behavior in the classroom. In my opinion, most adults like to to do what’s expected of them. Typically when you give them a request, most adults will do their best to comply.

However, as I reminisce on one of the more unique disciplinary issues I’ve encountered, I’m not so sure I would have even had the foresight to address it in a preventive way.

In this particular occasion two of my male participants enjoyed chewing tobacco while in class. While the act of chewing the tobacco was not all that distracting, the constant spitting into an empty soda can quickly became disturbing.

At the beginning of the workshop I covered all the usual housekeeping issues: cell phone usage, punctuality, participation, etc. Somehow, I forgot to include anything about chewing tobacco in the classroom!

Since I did not have the foresight to use preventive measures to avoid this situation, I soon realized that I would have to intervene. At first I gave the situation some time to self-correct. I hoped (and prayed) the guys would get their nicotine fix and that would be the end of it. To no avail, they kept plugging and spitting. (Sorry to be so graphic!)

Finally, during a break, I approached both participants and told them (in a very tactful and diplomatic way) they had to refrain from using the chewing tobacco while in class. I started by comparing it to cigarette smoking. Working in a professional environment, I assumed the prohibited use of tobacco products was understood. Our training facility did not allow smoking in the building; therefore we could not allow the chewing of tobacco either.

Thankfully both learners apologized and did away with their chewing tobacco habit. The issue never blew up nor got out of hand.

Moral of the story: When dealing with difficult participants, try prevention tactics first. If that doesn’t work, realize that as an instructor you must sometimes intervene. Just do so with confidence, tact, and diplomacy. Good luck!

Langevin Team