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

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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

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Corporate Universities are, almost exclusively, found as appendages of big corporations. In the USA the HR-driven corporate university has represented to a very high degree the choice of large organisations that need to process a large number of employees through diverse learning experiences. Over the past 20 years I’ve worked with many of these institutions, developing new learning content, introducing experiential methods and working alongside faculty to better target specific learning outcomes. I’m currently mid-way through an extended project with the CU of a major food and beverage multinational, creating experiential practice-fields for the leadership models they are introducing.

A brief down-time in this project recently led me to consider what characterises the way that CU’s approach the business of learning, the “What’s good and what’s not?” of Corporate Universities.

Top of the “what’s good?” list is the way that CU’s live and breathe their corporate culture. Learning happens in an environment which always feels like the concentrated essence of their corporate culture, an immersive learning environment that lives and breathes company ways of working. As an outsider it’s always a little daunting to first step into these unique environments, a state that I can describe in this way:

I’ve been invited here because of what I know i.e. I’m an expert, but this whole experience places an emphasis on what I don’t know i.e. I’m an alien in this place.

At this point I know I’m going to have to bring my ‘A-game’ to this job.

The result of this situation is that the learning that happens in a CU needs little translation or adaptation to be applicable in the operational part of the business. It was conceived, developed, delivered and evaluated in an environment that is totally geared towards the business of the parent company. People leave knowing what they have to do to deliver what their company wants them to deliver.

What this means for my work is that I will be given very clear design direction – I’ll be told very clearly what learning outcomes are needed, and given very strong feedback around whether my designs are a good fit with ‘how we do business’. As a designer I enjoy the challenge of very quickly assimilating the corporate culture and language, and producing seamlessly compatible designs – “going chameleon” I call it.

The flip side of this is that the walls (physical and metaphorical) around many Corporate Universities are pretty high and not easily breached by new thinking and new ideas. Let me say up-front that this is a generalisation, I work with some institutions that are extremely innovative and open to best-practice thinking. Indeed I can cite instances where particular CU’s actually lead the field in innovative learning practice: but for many their approach to corporate education demonstrates all the negative effects of “limited gene-pool learning”.

At RSVP Design we specialise in learning innovation, and that is, in most cases, why clients buy our services. We bring new ideas, new approaches, new thinking. And that makes it pretty disappointing when we can see where our approaches would breathe fresh life into some dated and tired situation, only to be told “that won’t work here” or “that’s not how we do things”. These situations, (and work with CU’s often produce them), are typified by a strange paradox:

“We’ve asked you to use your unique expertise to design something that we can’t, but we can’t accept your design because it’s different to what we do.”

I’m happy to say that my current work hasn’t encountered this paradox, it’s going well and the pilot programmes suggest we’re ready to deliver something special. The culture in the CU is strong, but open to well-informed, well-presented influence, just about the ideal situation.

Now if all Corporate Universities could hit that happy medium………

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I am delighted to announce that Interel Inc. from San Francisco and RSVP Design Ltd. are forming a new partnership that will see their respective product portfolios merge and both organisations work together to continue to support customers around the world with the most effective activity-based learning tools and learning design support. Although RSVP Design and Interel have worked together informally for several years this is a new development in formally providing all shipping and logistical support for both sets of products. Interel in the US will support all US customers and RSVP Design in the UK will support all non-US customers – both sets of products will be available for purchase from either location.

Key product designers Boyd Watkins, Geoff Cox and Ann Alder have worked together before but this announcement signals an intention to provide a truly global and probably unparalleled level of experience in designing effective learning environments.

You can download the official press release here: RSVP Design & Interel Press Release

Please visit the RSVP Design online store to see the additional Interel experiential learning devices now added. Larger scale devices like Pyramid, Network and Mosaic provide some fantastic new tools for large group meetings and for use in outdoor environments.

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We have been struggling for several years to adequately describe what we do in terms of our ‘30 second elevator pitch’. It’s that horrible bit when an acquaintance or even a close friend/relative says ‘Graham, what do RSVP Design actually do?’ We use terms like experiential learning or activity-based learning – but these typically only work for people who are immersed in learning & development and understand this jargon. I was glad therefore to read a couple of articles recently which describes some of what we do in more plain English terms. The first was the wonderful Thiagi (see http://www.thiagi.com/index.html ). Thiagi was talking about ‘Jolts’ – short pieces of activity/games/training that can be used to ‘wake-up’ delegates and remind them that things were not what they thought, or to ensure that they are ready to accept a change in pace, direction, content or some other move in terms of the training programme. What I love about Thiagi’s philosophy is that he still maintains that you spend every second you have with your learners focused on delivering the required learning outcomes (even although he sometimes uses some very simplistic ideas that I think might not work with a typically cynical UK senior management group). This is in contrast to many US-based trainers who still use rubber chickens and a host of other childish ice-breakers that they genuinely believe will somehow make people more responsive to their forthcoming, and finally relevant, learning content!

I think a ‘jolt’ is a good example of what we provide through some of our learning tools and helps people understand what we mean by creating ‘learning tools that are effective and engaging’. I’d consider tools such as Challenging Assumptions, Images of Customer Experience and Seeing the Point as successful ‘Jolts’ . Although Thiagi maintains Jolts should be short in time duration, I’ve also seen many wonderful insights created through a  Jolt delivered by a longer experiential activity like Colourblind that can take 30 minutes to complete. I do think people often need a good amount of time to really reflect on the ‘Jolt’.

The second article discussed the ‘triune brain theory’ (also important in Whole Brain Learning Theory) and the fact that although humans have many specialist parts of our brain, a lot of training seems only to be aimed at particular parts. The triune brain theory model considers our brain as evolving from three distinct parts – the reptilian brain, which manages typical ‘fight or flight’ responses; the mammalian brain or limbic system which manages emotions and memory; and the neo-cortex or ‘upper’ brain which deals with logic, analysis, synthesis etc. A lot of training aimed at the so-called higher-order thinking processes can forget to include key areas such as emotion and memory – much of which makes learning ’stick’  and therefore be more likely to be applied, and is key in behavioural change. This article can be found in the October 2010 edition of Training Journal: ‘The Three Brain of Training’. There are a lot of tips and techniques for trainers that we would certainly agree with – and would also suggest that well designed experiential activities can provide the necessary engagement with all three brains:

1. They can provide that ’safe’ environment necessary for rehearsing new skills and behaviours, satisfying the reptilian brain

2.They can provide the emotional engagement for the mammalian brain through providing engaging and elegant game play that can provide a memorable ‘anchor’ for later recall and application

3. They can provide the necessary challenge required in adult learning that is also clearly linked to workplace issues,  to satisfy the upper level thinking processes for the neo-cortex that allows for generative learning where participants can integrate their new learning with old models.

I’m happy tell people that ‘we design games that engage each one of your three brains!’

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I’ve had a number of conversation recently around the subject of change. These have ranged from clients looking to drive change through fairly typical ‘large group meetings’, to struggling how to get people to change behaviours at all, and then how to consistently deliver change management across geographically dispersed groups.

In my opinion all three relate to the same thing: getting people to ‘learn’ and then practise the required new behaviours. As all the ‘learners’  in this case are adult learners then the first issue is to ensure that they understand why they need to ‘change’. Simply telling people is not enough and engaging them in an experiential activity that can sensitise them to the need for change can be a useful way to do this, so

1. Get the large group meeting to do an activity that is aimed at demonstrating ‘How our Customer needs have changed’, or ‘Why identifying and challenging underlying assumptions can be difficult’ is probably better than listening to the CEO tell us something whilst watching 40 Powerpoint slides for 2 hours in a large Hotel Conference room …

2. Consider the learners – their learning styles, learning power, environment, culture and the change management challenge. Give them some ‘rehearsal space’ where they can practise the required behavioural change. Use professional actors to obtain ‘real’ feedback; use experiential activities where the unfamiliar but safe environment won’t prevent people from taking risks they might otherwise not; provide coaching, support and feedback as learners enagage in the repetitive actions that will make them confident and make the new behaviours ‘comfortable’. Behavioural change needs not just the understanding of what the change is but to actually learn and then apply that change in practice – the real workplace is the most difficult place to begin to apply that behavioural change.

3. Don’t rely on the varying quality of ‘message transmitters’ across the world, or individual interpretations of written/emailed statements/briefing documents- use the same experiential activities in each location that will provide a shared global context for the change, yet allow debriefs, reflection times, and generative learning to take account of local issues. Colleagues from around the world can then share their experience of the same experiential environment and use that as a means to explore local implications of global change.

Of course in each of these contexts RSVP Design can provide the tools and learning design skills to help create these change management programems with clients, and hopefully soon I can talk about whether some of these specific conversations have led to successful change management projects!

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I read the recent Chartered Management Institute Review which stated some interesting and disturbing statistics for UK managers:

CMI recently questioned UK managers to find out which aspects of management they thought they were best at. Of the 2,158 managers polled, almost half (44 per cent) said they excelled at managing people. Twenty-one per cent were target-busters, 19 per cent believed they were strongest at managing themselves and just 14 per cent felt they were born to lead.

CMI has since put those perceptions to the test by inviting UK workers to use a specially-developed self-diagnostic tool to work out where their strengths and weaknesses lie. The results strongly contradict managers’ perceptions, revealing that, in practice, UK managers are best at getting results (41 per cent) and strong leadership (37 per cent). Just 14 per cent of the 6,056 people who used the tool excelled at people management and a paltry eight per cent proved to be best at managing themselves.

See http://www.hrreview.co.uk/articles/hrreview-articles/hr-strategy-practice/half-of-managers-misjudge-their-workplace-performance/10058

I wondered when I read that where do:

1. Most managers go to find out more about their own learning strengths/preferences and personality/thinking preferences? As little of this is taught to most undergraduates where else can ‘ managers’ get this insight, except through their organisation’s L&D team-building or other activities? Should this be mandatory on all undergraduate courses?

and

2. Managers (new or experienced) go to ‘practise’ their management skills? So much of what we see in corporate/organisational L&D is about presenting theories, models, competency frameworks, performance monitoring etc and less about offering these delegates the chance to practise new skills or behaviours. Group learning through experiential activities is a great way to offer people a non-contentious and safe ‘practice field’ for a wide rnage of management and ’soft skills’ rehearsal – but how do we get employers to provide more of it?

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A great question is the facilitator’s most powerful tool. The questions we choose have very different purposes and lead us to very different results – so how do we go about crafting questions that will generate the responses we are seeking?

If you ask many people to describe to you different types of question and their effect, their responses are often limited to references to ‘open’ and ‘closed’ questions, sometimes with an implication that open questions are in some way ‘better’ than the closed type. When pushed on the question of ‘types of question’, the respondents may extend their thinking to include rhetorical and hypothetical questions and even the idea of ‘the daft (stupid/foolish) question’!

In reality, effective communicators frame questions in many different ways to help to enhance their own communication and to help them to understand the people they are communicating with.
Most of us recognise the impact of a really great question: we are stopped in our thought processes, challenged to analyse our response and given a new perspective on the ‘habitual’ thinking we are engaged in. Equally, most of us recognise the frustration of being asked endless questions, typified by the young child’s repetition of the single question, “Why?”

Too many ill-considered questions cause us to become disengaged, superficial or defensive in our responses but, as any good coach or counsellor knows, the right question at the right time can unlock extensive dialogue and change an individual’s view of the world.

Those of you who read my last post, about using our ‘Whole Brain’ in thinking, will see the link when I describe to you what I see as four valuable categories of question – each related to one of the ‘Whole Brain’ quadrants.

Our ‘upper left’, logical analytical brain leads to questions which are designed to build understanding of processes,
systems and problems.These are often questions of analysis and logic. They are the questions which help us to
understand ‘cause and effect’ and to build convincing arguments and business cases. These questions are objective,
business-like and neutral: they gather information and data and process it effectively.

In contrast, our ‘upper right’, imaginative and synergistic brain provokes questions which are designed to extend our thinking, develop new ideas and approaches and stimulate innovation. These are often questions which ask us to imagine or visualise something new. They often focus on the future rather than the past and on ideal situations rather than ‘real’ ones. They are of enormous value in breaking habits in thinking and encouraging a different perspective and new ideas.

‘Lower left’ questions are designed to create order, control and structure and to help us to plan activities.These are often questions which begin, “How, what, when, who?”. They are questions which organise and categorise our thinking. They
ensure that we pay attention to detail and think through our ideas before we commit to them. These questions are essential in confirming actions, checking understanding and planning.

Finally, lower right questions are designed to build understanding of feelings, beliefs and different interpersonal styles and perspectives. These are often questions which seek to explore people’s feelings and understand their responses.
They are the questions which help us to build strong relationships and to offer empathy to others. They enable us to
anticipate reactions to suggestions and to understand personal problems.

Developing the ability to formulate these questions appropriately is a learned skill. If you play around with the categories you’ll find some much easier to work with then others!

I’ve developed a set of facilitator guidelines and resources that enable you to run an interactive, 2-3 hour skills development workshop around the ‘Art of Great Questions’. If you’re interested and would like more details, contact RSVP Design through the website : www.rsvpdesign.co.uk and ask us questions about questions!

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Welcome to RSVP Design’s website and online shop. We are designers, authors and facilitators of a wide range of activity based learning tools, resources and programmes.

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