A warm welcome to 2012 to all our customers, (and potential customers!). As this is the season for resolutions, I can share with you that ours is to widen our circle of contacts by asking our customers to recommend their colleagues and associates to register on our website. In return we will reward our new contacts with some free resources and regular information which we hope they will find useful, and our existing clients with several incentives on purchasing our products. If you are visiting this site or blog for the first time, we hope you’ll consider registering by clicking HERE. We are fortunate to have a large number of customers who have been very positive about our products and our support for their work; and we are grateful that they are responding so well to help us achieve our 2012 goals.

We also plan a number of new product launches in 2012 both in the ‘physical world’ with RSVP Design and in the ‘App world’ via our sister organisation Mobile Learning Design. If there is a tool, activity or mobile device application you’d like to see developed for a training need, then please email your suggestions to graham@rsvpdesign.co.uk and we’ll consider it as part of our product development planning process.

business development, design client, Experiential Learning, facilitator, learning, learning challenges, Learning Design, Learning Games, learning tools, simulations, Training Games, Training Tools Hide

This question was asked in a discussion group on Linkedin this week, along with another similar one about your favourite team-building activity.

It was great to see that without any input from RSVP Design, two of our activities were mentioned: Challenging Assumptions was described as a ‘go-to’ activity by a training consultant from Australia and a number of people in the USA cited Colorblind (even if they didn’t spell it correctly!) as their favourite (or favorite) ever tool.

It is great to know that these products are now being used and recommended around the world and it made me think of my favourites from our portfolio, apart from the obvious pair mentioned above.

I guess there would be three more that I’ve used more than any others and that still give me a buzz every time I see people learning from  them.

1. The first has to be Images of Organisations. These cleverly designed and produced cartoon images of the feelings people experience in a range of organisational situations are so versatile and open discussion on everything from teamworking and leadership to change management and training itself.

2. My second choice would be Webmaster – a challenging exercise that brings large groups together in a problem-solving and process improvement activity that represents a wide range of organisational challenges. It offers masses of opportunities to learn about teamwork, planning, supervisory leadership – and appeals to all those learners who like a real ‘hands-on job’ to get stuck into!

3. My third choice would be a less well-known product: the T-trade toolbox that combines two great inter-group activities – the tough negotiation exercise that is T-Trade itself and the fantastic accompanying exercise, PosT-iT. Despite seeing this activity hundreds of times, I never cease to be amazed at the patterns of human behaviour it illustrates and the potential for conflict, competition and collaboration that it raises….

If my favourite activities have triggered your interest, read more about them through the following links.

http://rsvpdesign.co.uk/shop/colourblind%C2%AE-p-13.html

http://rsvpdesign.co.uk/shop/challenging-assumptions%C2%99-p-27.html

http://rsvpdesign.co.uk/shop/images-of-organisations%C2%99-p-70.html

http://rsvpdesign.co.uk/shop/webmaster%C2%AE-p-26.html

http://rsvpdesign.co.uk/shop/ttrade%C2%99-p-12.html

Please let us know your favourites and how and where you use them!

Best wishes,

Ann

energisers, Experiential Learning, icebreakers, introductory team activities, learning tools, Training Games, webmaster Hide

I always treat new ‘research findings’ with a degree of scepticism but I have to admit that I found this article and the associated research fascinating.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15693508

Is our ability to empathise with others and develop strong social and inter-personal skills genetically pre-disposed? If it is, what implications does this have for those of us involved in the design and delivery of training and learning in the skills associated with relationship building and ‘soft skills’?

This research leans towards an argument that some people may have more natural, inborn empathy, and attract higher levels of trust, than others because of the presence of a specific gene.

I guess we all know individuals who transmit warmth, empathy, care and concern and seem to be naturally good listeners. We probably also know others who find making emotional connections difficult and struggle with developing and maintaining close personal relationships. So, if this research suggests that there is a genetic link, is it possible to develop and enhance these important inter-personal skills in those who don’t seem to have this inherent ability?

And is this linked to Emotional Intelligence? Are we likely to find that there is a genetic connection there, too?

The principles behind NLP suggest that the observation and understanding of excellence in communication allows for replication: ie. if we study great communicators and model our behavioural and thinking patterns on them, we too can demonstrate the ‘magic’. Does the same apply here? If we pay close attention to what the ‘natural empathisers’ do, can we all learn to relate to others in the same way?

Many of RSVP Design’s practical learning resources and experiential activities are designed to highlight and reinforce skills of listening, effective communication, awareness of the needs of self and others and contributions to the development and maintenance of effective teams.

I’ve always used the activities such as Colourblind ( http://rsvpdesign.co.uk/shop/colourblind%C2%AE-p-13.html ) to help people to observe and investigate effective behaviours, identifying what people say and do that achieves the results they want and strengthens trust, confidence and inter-personal bonds in the process. I’ve also worked on an assumption that with practice and support, everyone can develop these important skills.

This article brings us back to the age old debate about ‘nature’ and ‘nurture’. If it is true that some people have more inherent ‘empathy’ than others, perhaps it is even more important that we provide more structured support and rehearsal opportunity for those for whom ‘soft skills’ don’t come naturally!

What do you think?

Ann

communication skills, empathy, Experiential Learning, facilitation, interpersonal skills, people development, soft skills Hide

We are looking for some help in having some consultants/trainers/facilitators trial some new products that we are close to launching. If anyone is interested in joining such a group, and would be willing to provide some feedback ( in exchange for getting access to some new materials, and a good deal on purchasing a commercial copy ) please email graham@rsvpdesign.co.uk

Experiential Learning, learning tools, Training Games, Training Tools Hide

RSVP Design was delighted to establish a new distribution relationship in 2011 with Experience Corner, based in Warsaw, Poland. Experience Corner is the first on-line store in Poland offering interactive training tools from globally known brands, and following an invitation from colleagues at Experience Corner, last month I made my first visits to and Krakow and Warsaw to introduce some of our products to their customers. It is always exciting to travel to a new city and although I had just returned from a visit to the USA, I was looking forward to seeing Krakow and watching the reactions of the Polish audience to our products. Alicja and Joanna from Experience Corner met me on the first evening I arrived, but by then I had already had the chance to wander around the main square in Krakow and begin to sample what was clearly a popular and vibrant city!

Experience Corner have translated all the facilitator manuals as well as the delegate briefs for several of our learning tools, so I although I would have an interpreter with me during the events, her main role would simply be to help me understand what was being said in Polish as the groups worked with their own language version materials. The Krakow event was held on a large converted Dutch barge on the river, and I was pleased to see that Experience Corner, like RSVP Design, believes that the learning environment is important in making events memorable for participants! It was a wonderful old vessel, and I could have happily sailed along the river on what was a beautiful sunny day! The delegates were a mixture of internal training specialists and other training consultants, and were extremely enthusiastic in their participation. I used our Images of Organisations™ metaphor cards to open the session and to get pairs and triads discussing what their training challenges were, and I was delighted to see that Polish people have no problems in working with metaphor in this way. We then had a group play Colourblind® with a number of observers and again, not only were they enthusiastic, but very disciplined in their problem solving approaches, which helped them reach a successful conclusion fairly quickly. To show how RSVP Design would sequence activities we then introduced Simbols™ (using the Team Version) to show how we might build on similar behaviours using a different activity, and finished with Challenging Assumptions™ – again it was comforting to see Polish people make exactly the same assumptions in this exercise as other Nationalities we have tried it with around the world!

The following day (well, very early in the morning!) we took the train to Warsaw where I presented to a larger group (some 45 people) in probably my most unusual training venue ever – the deep end of an old swimming pool (thankfully undergoing a conversion to an arts venue!). I was interested to see if our dinner discussion the night before about Polish stereotypical group behaviour suggested by my hosts as being  ‘a lot of heated discussion, but when agreement is reached there will be a uniform acceptance of the new direction – perhaps to the detriment of thinking about alternative strategies’. During this larger session I decided to use Webmaster® to see if these behavioural stereotypes would play out. Whether by coincidence or as a reflection of these stereotypes I did indeed witness a lot of heated discussion after the initial problem-solving portion of Webmaster® (creating the first construction). I observed lots of discussion with many overlapping conversations, and several people taking a lead as to how they though they could best achieve the team performance increase required (i.e. complete the whole construction in under 2 minutes, from an original build time of 25 minutes). None of the available exercise time was used for further practice or rehearsal purposes – it was all used for ‘discussion’. Eventually as the time limit began to expire (somehow!) the group agreed on a strategy and every one of the 30 strong group delivered on that strategy and managed to achieve the objective! There was a lot of discussion following this activity (most of which I was unable to understand!), and I get the sense that Webmaster® could become a popular activity in Poland!

Although this was a very short trip I saw enough to know that I want to go back and experience more Polish cooking, Polish beer, Polish socialising and Polish customers, and I look forward to a successful partnership between Experience Corner and RSVP Design.

Graham Cook

communication skills, energisers, Experiential Learning, facilitation, learner engagement, Learning Design, learning events, Learning Games, Learning Mindset, learning tools, simulations, Training Games, Training Tools, webmaster Hide

It is always rewarding to see great professionals working and to learn from them.

At this year’s IAF Conference in Istanbul, I was fortunate enough to take part in a great facilitated session that drew on techniques and methods that are consistent with those we use at RSVP Design.

The first session was called ‘Consensual Circle’ and involved using images to help a group to move towards consensus – a point at which everyone in the group contributed to a decision that every member agree with – or at least was prepared to live with!

The process involved everyone working in one group. At the beginning of the session, each person was asked to draw a picture representing their individual interpretation of ‘Facilitation’. Each picture was then presented and explained.

When everyone had presented their images, each person was ask to choose the one that they liked best. They could, if they wished, choose their own but most people did not.

A simple tally was then taken and the image that received the most votes was selected.

This image was then re-presented to the group and every member was asked to score the image on a scale of 1-5, depending upon how satisfied they were with it as a representation of the theme. A simple show of fingers was used, in which the numbers meant:

5 – I am extremely satisfied: this image represents everything I want it to represent

4 – Generally very satisfied – there may be some minor changes I would make

3 – I can live with this, although it is not what I would have chosen myself

2 – Dissatisfied – I have many concerns  about this

1 – Extremely dissatisfied – I would fight hard to resist this image being chosen

When the ‘scores’ had been given, the facilitator went to the person who had given the lowest score and asked that individual to explain his/her concerns. This was done with everyone listening and with no response.

The facilitator then asked, “So you have given this image a score of 2. What would have to change in the image to move you to a 3?”

This was explored and the participant described changes that would make the image more acceptable. These changes were then offered to the group with the question,

“Would anyone have a problem if we made these changes to the image?”

If the answer was, “yes, “ the attention moved to the person with the concern and the same question was asked again, “So, is there any way you could suggest a change that you could agree to and that would also be satisfying to everyone else?”

The change was made to the image and the scoring process was repeated.

The aim of this process is to reach a solution which everyone scores at 3 or above. In our group this happened within an hour: the facilitator explained that in his experience of working in organisations the consensus was usually achieved even faster than that.

Of course, working with a graphic facilitator or live artist would be the ideal solution but as I worked on the process I recognized the simplicity and power of the process and also how it might be a perfect application of  RSVP Design’s Images of Organisation or Dialoogle cards.

Using these images as the start point removes any concerns individuals may have about their ability to draw and offers a range of possibilities to stimulate thought. It is also a perfect chance to begin to explain the thinking….eg.

“This picture isn’t exactly right, but with these changes it would be perfect….”

For more information, ask Ann!

http://rsvpdesign.co.uk/shop/images-of-organisations%C2%99-p-70.html

http://rsvpdesign.co.uk/shop/dialoogle-2008-pocket-set-p-55.html

concensus, consensus, Experiential Learning, facilitation, Learning Experiences, Learning Games, learning groups, Training Games, Training Tools Hide

I read a really interesting BBC article describing how there is strong evidence that universally praising children can de detrimental to their growth, and encourages a ‘fixed mindset’ rather than believing they have the capacity to grow and learn (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13128701 ) . Of course the ELLI research ( see http://rsvpdesign.co.uk/trainer-training/ ) supports this article (both for children and adults) and we are heartened by the almost universal interest in ELLI from any organisation we speak to. There is also good research from other areas that children who value the idea of ‘I am someone who can learn’, and that ‘I can learn from mistakes’, are motivated to ‘grow and learn’ and ‘resilient’ when it comes to challenging learning situations. These type of children grow into valuable employees. I know some educational colleagues who wish they had praised their own children more for effort when they were younger, and now choose to celebrate ‘failure’ as a learning opportunity, even as their children have grown up.

It has prompted me to continue to think about how organisations can generate the same motivation to learn as the people who have all the successful and well researched characteristics of effective learners. I’m convinced that this motivation has to come from an organisational culture that respects individuals as capable of learning and change, and that their leaders should behave in a way that is consistent with that. This would mean abolishing ‘lists of approved training courses’, educating managers and individuals about the science behind effective learning, paying more attention to informal learning than formal learning, re-writing the charter for L&D & OD (or even seeking to phase them out, and give their responsibilites to line managers), and using ‘learning language’ in business contexts so it is seen as being fundamentally critical to achieving any organisational mission or goal. In fact research seems to suggest that’s what organisations who ‘thrive’ actually do – now we just need some good tools to help organisations achieve this …

RSVP Design has created a new joint venture – Mobile Learning Design – and we hope to create some tools that take advantage of the personal nature of mobile devices (smartphones, tablets etc.) to provide formal and informal learning support when people need it, rather than when it is offered. Please get in touch with us if this subject is of interest!

change management, cultural adjustment, effective lifelong learning, leadership, learner engagement, Learning Design, Learning Mindset, learning styles, learning tools, motivation, teaching, trainer training, Training Tools, whole brain learning Hide

Very often, when I describe and demonstrate RSVP Design’s range of experiential learning activities to L+D professionals, consultants and HR advisors, they respond in a predictable fashion. Something along the lines of…

“Yes, I do use games and learning activities like these with some groups but I couldn’t possibly offer these to some of my clients – they are much too senior.”

There seems to be a belief that the more senior a leader or manager in an organisation, the less likely they are to respond positively to learning through the ‘metaphor’ that a well-designed learning activity or simulation offers. It is perceived that these activities add value, for example, to a team-building event or to a management skills workshop for young employees but that they are, in some way, inappropriate for more senior leaders. There is a fear and anxiety about offering a form of learning that is seen as too trivial for senior executive education.

“I couldn’t offer that at Board level – they simply wouldn’t engage with it…..”

Our experience is exactly the opposite. The more senior and successful leaders are in a business environment, the more likely they are to engage with the learning activities we offer and to play, experiment and challenge their own learning and performance. They ‘get it’. They have the ability to see beyond the presenting activity and understand the processes it mirrors. They are also confident enough in themselves that they have nothing to prove – they are ‘comfortable in their own skins’ and able to demonstrate a willingness to step outside of their comfort zone -even if it means short-term failure – in order to develop their own, and their organisations’, performance.

Ben Bryant, a skilled and experienced psychologist, is  Professor of Leadership and Organization at IMD. He commissioned RSVP Design recently to work with him on perhaps the most senior programme we have ever delivered. The participants built geometric shapes out of plastic construction components, raced wheeled vehicles along the floor and connected complex webs of coloured ropes in order to solve a puzzle. They were completely engaged and immediately able to make the connections between what they were doing and the leadership capability they were at IMD to develop.

Ben explained this to us from a psychologist’s perspective. He confirmed that it is all about ego. These leaders are so senior they’ve left their egos behind. They don’t have to prove themselves – their track records stand for themselves. They can make the connections, see the big picture, be confident in their own abilities – confident enough to allow themselves to play, get things wrong, make a fool of themselves, knowing that that is crucial in learning and innovating. They can see the parallels in the ’simulated world’ and the ‘concrete world’.’

In contrast, we experience much more resistance from more junior team leaders and managers – the very people for whom these activities are often chosen. Many of them are likely to be working from a position of uncertainty and anxiety and they need to keep proving themselves to their teams and colleagues. They are reluctant to step into the unknown – concerned about losing the respect and confidence of those they manage. Asking them to leave ‘ego’ behind is a much bigger challenge. So, offering an experiential exercise becomes high risk for the facilitator and participating is high risk for the manager. It may be rejected as ‘demeaning’, when in fact it is just too scary!

Knowing this can help the learning designer to choose and frame appropriate activities and consider the appropriate level of ‘confrontation’ that the activity, and the facilitation, offers. The more successful and senior your team, the more likely they are to respond positively to the challenging experiential learning opportunities you offer. For all sorts of reasons, primarily to do with organisational politics, senior leaders are starved of in-depth, unfiltered, authentic feedback. Well researched, well-designed and well-facilitated experiential learning provides a rare opportunity for senior leaders to tap into the support and challenge that they are hungry to receive.

For more information about RSVP Design’s work with Senior Leadership teams, please contact us via the website

http://rsvpdesign.co.uk

creative leadership, Experiential Learning, facilitation, leadership, learner engagement, Learning Design, Learning Games, simulations Hide

Everything that I am reading at the moment from the ‘movers and shakers’ in the world of organisational, management and leadership learning convinces me that there are some exciting new insights that are going to bring about a real revolution in our understanding of training and learning in the workplace.  Here are a few , probably contentious suggestions I’d like to make, based upon the trends that I’m hearing and reading everywhere, that might help us to move this revolution along!

1. Recognise that informal learning is significantly more powerful, and more highly valued than formal learning. Therefore, shift the investment (both time and finance) away from the design and delivery of formal programmes (face-to-face or online) and transfer it to creating and supporting informal learning.

2.Remove the word ‘training’ from your corporate vocabulary. If the concept of ‘training’ goes, so does the idea of learners being controlled and  ‘processed’. We train animals for obedience: we engage human beings by helping them to learn.

3. Embrace new technology but don’t impose it: create multiple ways in which people can easily access and use a variety of media to gather the information, knowledge and expertise they need, when they need it. Divert your training budget to create multiple informal spaces and learning environments. Create resource centres, both physically and on-line, filled with versatile materials that are freely available to individual learners for use whenever they need them. (cf. Apple’s introduction of itunes university). And believe that anyone using these is ‘at work ‘….not playing truant or abdicating their responsibilities!

4. Ensure that Performance Management is a developmental, learning process: link learning and performance by setting goals that use the framework,   “I need to learn X in order to be able to do Y”.

5. Only appoint managers who understand and use effective developmental coaching. No matter how good their technical skills are, if they don’t have great people development skills, don’t promote them into managerial positions.

6. Replace formal conferences with open space, cross functional gatherings, with specific outcomes, and facilitate groups as they  they tackle issues of real organisational importance in an innovative atmosphere.

7.  Measure project success against performance and learning criteria. Build learning reviews into every process. Ask, “What do we need to learn to be successful in achieving this project? How do we incorporate that into our plan?”

8. Scrap any meeting that is a presentation or exchange of information available through other media. Replace these  with ‘learning exchanges’: group reviews of learning, how to share and apply it and how to impact anyone who would benefit from it.

9. In a market place in which more and more potential employees are well-qualified and ‘certified’, start to focus on learning with new employees before they join. Interview and recruit with a focus on what candidates have learned, how they learned it and how they will continue to learn throughout their employment. Select those who understand and are motivated by learning. Take every new employee through a personal coaching session around their own Learning Power: create a personal learning record that stays with the learner for life and replaces the CV.

10. Remove any responsibility for L&D from HR. The functions are fundamentally different. Create a ‘learning support’ function staffed entirely by skilled facilitators and coaches and give them free rein to create personalised learning programmes. Integrate personal learning goals into daily work.

OK – there are a few details to work out, I concede……

What do you think?

business development, change management, effective lifelong learning, Experiential Learning, learner engagement, learning challenges, Learning Design, trainer training Hide

As you may know, RSVP Design are great fans of the HBDI ‘metaphor’ of the 4 quadrants of the brain and the thinking styles we associate with them. We’re always interested in relevant and scientifically based validation of how we use our brains to receive and process information about the world around us and I was fascinated to watch this video clip from the RSA. in it, renowned psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist talks about how the ‘divided brain’ has profoundly altered human behaviour, culture and society. I found it fascinating – especially in relation to ‘attention’, ’simplified reality’ and the difference in right and left brain focus.

Have a look – the first few minutes are a little slow but then the pace picks up and it really stimulates some new insights.

http://www.thersa.org/events/vision/vision-videos/iain-mcgilchrist

brain based learning, Experiential Learning, learning, motivation, thinking styles, whole brain learning Hide