Training Delivery

Stand Up-Sit Down Meeting Energizer

September 20, 2011

If you’ve ever hosted a day-long meeting or workshop, you know that even the best gatherings sometimes experience a dip in energy. To reboot the vigor in the conference room, here’s a quick and easy “energizer” that helps revitalize people without being too cheesy. It works best with a group of at least ten people. It’s called [...]

Read the full article →

Fun with Factoids Icebreaker

April 5, 2011

As a learning facilitator, I have a toolbox full of ice breakers, team builders and group facilitation techniques that have served me well over the years. Just the other day, I freshened up one of my favorite standbys called “Fun with Factoids” with the addition of audience voting technology. It worked so well that I [...]

Read the full article →

My Take on “If I Could Change 1 Thing About HR . . .”

February 14, 2011

About a month ago, Michael Carty, editor for the United Kingdom’s XpertHR Employment Intelligence blog reached out to introduce himself and inquired if I would contribute an article to his blog series “If I Could Change One Thing About HR. . .” I asked if he would consider a contribution that explores training and development. [...]

Read the full article →

What We Teach How We Learn

October 21, 2010

I’m pleased to announce the launch of a resource that focuses on my core passion: helping people grow professionally. Learning and development professional Benjamin McCall has launched a new e-book called What We Teach How We Learn. The book features ten essays from people in the world of learning and development. Inside this book, you [...]

Read the full article →

Leaders: Maximize Employee Training

September 24, 2010

“How do we begin to change the culture of expectations in our organizations where instead of being held accountable for participating in learning and development activities, people will be held accountable for applying and using and changing their job performance?” –Robert Brinkerhoff This quote appeared in the August 2010 issue of T+D magazine. Brinkerhoff [...]

Read the full article →

Using Toys for Childlike Learning

September 3, 2010

Today I’ve got my Corporate Trainer hat— if you do too, I want to know: Do you use toys in your classroom session? I’ve been bringing what I call Fiddle Toys to my classroom learning sessions for nearly 20 years and they’re always a hit. I find that giving learners something active to do with [...]

Read the full article →

Managing Large Group Discussions

August 26, 2010

ENLIST YOUR AUDIENCE TO MAKE THE LOAD LIGHTER Ever go to a conference break out session and experience 90 minutes of lecture, paired with the never-ending Power Point slide deck? It’s not a very engaging experience, is it? Now, imagine attending a four-hour conference break out session, with 70 other people in the room with you. [...]

Read the full article →

Roles Plays Are OK

April 19, 2010

Over at the HR Bartender, Sharlyn Lauby has declared role plays in the training classroom passé, declaring Nobody Likes Role Plays. I agree with her assertion the traditional format in which the trainer announces, “Now, let’s put what we just learned into practice” and calling up two training participants to the front of the room [...]

Read the full article →

Leadership by Design: Intersection of Art and Science

April 1, 2010

Yesterday I was talking “shop” with two colleagues. We’re all in the business of helping develop leaders and the talk turned to instructional design. One of us asked, “How do you go about finding an instructional designer who also has deep experience in creating leadership programs for senior-level staff?” We noodled this idea around [...]

Read the full article →

Boo or Yay Manager?

September 20, 2009

One of my favorite experiential activities for management training is an oldie but goodie called the “Boo/Yay” exercise. In it, two volunteers separately try to guess a per-determined task such as walking to the front of the room and picking up a marker. The audience is instructed to give the volunteers feedback to help them [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries