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!

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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

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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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This was the question I was asked this morning by an interviewer who telephoned me and wanted to include my response in an article for a training journal.It was 1130 and she wanted to go to press by lunchtime, so I was asked to think on my feet!

She modified her question and said, “What are the five most important things Learning and Development specialists can do to ensure that the training they offer is really learner-centred?”

In the 10 minutes I was allowed, I came up with the following five. I wonder what yours would have been?

1. Understand how learners really learn. The work the University of Bristol has been doing on ELLI seems to have defined the key dimensions of learning: everything effective learners do. Tim Small of ViTaL Partnerships said of the lead researcher Ruth Deakin-Crick, “If there was anything else that effective learners do, Ruth would have found it. We believe this really is the ‘DNA’ of Learning”.

2. Make learning problem-based and purposeful. Adult learning needs to be relevant and useful to the learner, helping them to solve problems, generate innovations and make their lives more rewarding. Tap into the desire to solve relevant problems and use these as the basis for your learning design.

3. Identify and use past and current experience. Link new learning to what is already in place. Identify if and when it conflicts with what is already ‘known’: explore how to integrate new pieces into old patterns.

4. Use simulation. Simulations allow us to explore and rehearse in a safe environment, encouraging experiment and risk-taking. What we learn in the ’synthetic’ world we can transfer to the ‘concrete’ world. In relation to this, there are some interesting figures related to computer based simulation in the report below. Dr. Geoff Cox’s doctoral thesis suggests this is also true of behavioural and ‘physical’ simulation, although the figures given here only apply to computer simulations.

Overall, declarative knowledge was 11% higher for trainees taught with simulation games than a comparison group; procedural knowledge was 14% higher; retention was 9% higher; and self-efficacy was 20% higher.

For anyone wanting to review the whole paper you can find it here: A Meta-Analytic Examination of the Effectiveness of Computer-Based Simulation Games

5. Attach emotion to learning. Emotion drives behaviour. If we attempt to learn in an emotionally ’sterile’ environment we are unlikely to become engaged and motivated enough to press for real behavioural change. This is why experiential learning – with its associated frustrations, anxieties, challenges, satisfactions and passion – remains such a powerful technology.

I’d be interested in your additions to my top five!

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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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It isn’t often that a TV programme inspires me to write a blog but I found myself watching ‘Gareth Malone’s Extraordinary School for Boys’ on BBC with an increasing mix of frustration and envy. If you haven’t seen this programme, it shows Gareth Malone, an engaging young musician and choirmaster who has had great success in inspiring young people to achieve success in the performing arts, attempting to improve the literacy of primary school boys by offering them a different type of school curriculum. He is clearly onto something: he recognises that many boys strugggle with traditional classroom based lessons and wants to offer them outdoor, energetic, competitive, high risk activity to enhance their motivation and engagement. He works with a class of boys, with the somewhat reluctant support of the headteacher, over a term and has permission to create his own learning environment and activity design.

That’s where my envy came from – what an amazing opportunity in this age of highly regulated education! I’m with him so far – then my frustration kicks in because as far as I’m concerned there is a blindingly obvious missing link in what he’s doing. And it’s a gap I recognise because I’ve seen it so often in learning and development in adult learning too. It is the gap between activity and learning purpose.

Let me give you some examples. The boys run competitive races and charge around in the local woods. They chop trees and have fights. They then take part in a formal debate, supposedly to improve their confidence at speaking aloud. Where is the connection between the outdoor activity and the debate? It’s not there. In another example, the boys are given swords, shields and freedom to act out a Roman battle. They have a wild and chaotic time. They are then taken into the classroom and asked to read and complete worksheets about Roman battles – presumably because their interest has been fired by their re-enacted battle. Do they read? Not really. Well, of course not. There is no connection between the need to read and the activity they’ve just taken part in.

So how could it be different? Let’s suppose we want to inspire the boys to speak and read and also allow them to be outdoors and re-enact a battle. So, let’s design it differently. Let’s make them need to read and speak, in order to achieve the the fun and thrill of the search and the battle. Here are some possibilities. They divide into two teams. Each team needs to read out written clues that will lead them round a pre-defined trail in the woods. They need to pass the instructions between sub-groups (in secret, so the enemy doesn’t hear them) so they need to set up a communication system. To do that they need to read the map to find the components and instructions to build and operate a field telephone. They need to crack a code to transmit secret messages. The written clues lead to their stash of weapons and the ‘battle plan’. To win the battle they have to follow the general’s orders – which arrive in writing, of course…..

I hope by now you see where I’m going. Good learning design, whether in a school for boys or a corporate environment, has to have a clear and strong connection between learning purpose, desired outcomes, learning process and learning activity.

At RSVP Design we are experts in how to link learning purpose and learning design. We create powerful learning environments in which the connections are clear and obvious. We may not be working with school children but we could certainly point Gareth Malone in the right direction!

If you are interested in creating rich, powerful , purposeful learning environments for your adult learners, let us know and we’ll send you an invitation to our Creating REALS workshop, specifically designed for L+D professionals who want to improve their learning design skills. We look forward to inspiring you!

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Here is a fascinating presentation on an alternative way to teach! It certainly support the move from teaching to facilitating!

Click here

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In a press release to promote their upcoming Content and Collaboration Summit 2010 (London, UK, September 15-16) Gartner Research forecast 10 key changes in the nature of work through to 2020:  “Work will become less routine, characterized by increased volatility, hyperconnectedness, ’swarming’ and more,” said Tom Austin, vice president and Gartner fellow. By 2015, 40 percent or more of an organization’s work will be ‘non-routine’, up from 25 percent in 2010. “People will swarm more often and work solo less. They’ll work with others with whom they have few links, and teams will include people outside the control of the organization,” he added. “In addition, simulation, visualisation and unification technologies, working across yottabytes of data per second, will demand an emphasis on new perceptual skills.”

We agree with the predictions, and see it as a continuation of change we are already seeing in organisations; and with it will come some major challenges for L&D/OD departments. Here are the ten key changes Gartner forecast, and where we think L&D professionals should be considering a response.

1. De-routinization of Work – the obvious response here is the de-routinization and individual personalisation of training. We look forward to when “Here is the list of available training courses” is accepted as an outdated and wasteful use of trainer and delegate time & resources. I suspect the public sector in the UK has some way to go on this …
2. Work Swarms – workers need more insight into how they might work effectively with others who think differently or have different problem-solving approaches etc. Tools like HBDI or Effective Life-long Learning Inventory will be useful in being able to quickly work effectively in ’swarms’ of people you don’t know well.
3. Weak Links – formal and informal networking will become an even more important skill in the future, and not just for salespeople! Consider how and where social and business networking sites can and should be used during worktime. Is time spent networking on Facebook helping to build weak links, or just chatting with friends? Will updating my blog be considered as vanity or essential to developing these weak links?
4. Working With the Collective – Perhaps ‘influencing’ will become the most desirable skill of any business leader as we move to a position where ‘the collective’ replaces any internal hierarchy? This suggests more  prefered ‘right-side’ thinking style in the HBDI model than the traditonal ‘left-side’ found in many management positions today.
5. Work Sketch-Ups – ‘Designing-in-flight’ or ‘managing in ambiguity’ requires a very different set of skills and behaviours than that typically suggested by teaching through a ‘case-study’ method. How will our Business Schools and academics respond? Will we move to more activity-based learning facilitation than ‘teaching’?
6. Spontaneous Work – This suggests creating the type of corporate culture where this is not only desired but encouraged. How do you build this culture? Contrast this with today where most ‘leaders’ set the work agenda – how do you lead/manage people who develop their own work activities and priorities?
7. Simulation and Experimentation – of course we believe that activity-based learning provides the ideal ’synthetic’ environment to experiment and simulate behaviours. That’s why we create tools to help organisations build their learning environments!
8. Pattern Sensitivity – See Ann’s forthcoming book:  Pattern Making,  Pattern Breaking
9. Hyperconnected – in a hyperconnected world there is probably no time for formal contracts and agreements. Does this suggest an increase in the importance of ‘Trust’ and a requirement to better understand how to build and maintain it? Is it hopefully the end of long-winded tender processes?
10. My Place – how do we deliver training at ‘My Place’  (the workplace may be virtual, may physically be at home, or indeed may change on a daily basis)? Will it be more ‘edutainment apps’, delivered outside of the normal working hours, paid for by discerning individuals (who want to build their learning power) out of their own pocket (or personal learning account)?

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Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory (ELLI)

One of the most exciting pieces of applied research we’ve come across recently has come from The University of Bristol.  We think it adds huge value to our understanding of how people learn – and how we can support them in individual and organisational learning. We have been working with the research team for more than a year and we’re delighted that we are amongst the first people in the UK to be accredited to use ELLI in our learning design, coaching and trainer training. We are working closely with ViTaL Partnerships and the University of Bristol to help them to develop applications of ELLI beyond schools-based learning and into learning and development in business, and we’re really excited about our plans to launch a variety of applications soon for use in commercial (non-academic) organisations.

ELLI is:

1. A well-researched set of ideas about how people learn most effectively
2. A self-assessment instrument to aid self-analysis, diagnosis and strategy
3. A tool to empower people to bring about change, individually and together

The ELLI research team at Bristol investigated what it is about some people that makes them effective lifelong learners.  Seven dimensions of ‘learning power’ emerged, via factor analysis, each with elements of  ‘thinking, feeling and doing’.  The seven dimensions are:

changing and learning – a sense of myself as someone who learns and changes over time;
critical curiosity – an orientation to want to ‘get beneath the surface’;
meaning making – making connections and seeing that learning ‘matters to me’;
creativity – risk-taking, playfulness, imagination and intuition;
learning relationships – learning with and from others and also able to manage without them;
strategic awareness – being aware of my thoughts, feelings and actions as a learner and able to use that awareness to manage learning processes;
resilience – the readiness to persevere in the development of my own learning power.

The ELLI profile gives powerful insights into individual and organisational learning patterns. It creates opportunities for in-depth coaching and mentoring conversations that focus not just on what people need to learn, but how they can build their learning power. It allows learning designers to consider their chosen delivery methods and match them against the needs of their learners. It allows an exploration of available learning tools and technologies and helps individuals to develop personal learning strategies that will support them in achieving their learning goals.

If you are interested in learning more about ELLI, we will shortly be delivering both an introductory one-day workshop and an extended (additional 2 days) accreditation workshop that would allow licensed trainers/coaches to then use ELLI within their own organisations & clients. For more information please contact us on +44 141 561 0387.

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