In spring 1998, a young, brash bureaucrat at the United States Office of Personnel Management delivered a presentation on the federal government’s early retirement policy. It was his first presentation and as the room cleared out, someone pulled this young, brash bureaucrat’s boss aside and asked: “Who’s the asshole?”
It was me. And apparently I didn’t quite hit my first presentation out of the park. I’ve learned a lot over the past 17 years. Here are a few of those lessons learned, in no particular order:
- Learning doesn’t really happen unless the audience is engaged.
- Learning and engagement is nice, but results are even better.
- Malcolm Knowles is all right… Jane Vella seems to capture the spirit of adult education in a less academic, more accessible way.
- Flipchart is the second best invention ever.
- Mr. Sketch markers are the first. And they still sell them!
- Even the best-designed training in the world won’t necessarily lead to better outcomes.
- Sometimes training efforts are foiled by an apathetic or cynical manager.
- Sometimes it’s not a training problem (and no amount of training can fix that!).
- There are so many other options beyond “training” (see this model by Jane Hart).
- If you’re in to elearning, you should be following Tom Kuhlman on Twitter.
- And Nicole Legault.
- And David Anderson.
- Heck, pay attention to the entire eLearning Heroes community.
- Back to Twitter and eLearning… definitely follow Melissa Milloway.
- And “award winning” eLearnist Tim Slade.
- Come to think of it, Twitter is a pretty powerful professional development tool… there are lots of smart people who post really good, thought-provoking content.
- Icebreakers should always have a learning purpose, otherwise they’re kind of a waste of people’s time no matter how fun they are.
- Speaking of “fun”, some people view it as a 4-letter word in the training room… but it’s really not a bad thing as long as there’s a purpose to the fun.
- Training and presentations are about the learners. Learning is never about the presenter.
- PowerPoint is not evil.
- The way many people use PowerPoint is extremely evil.
- Blogging is a great way to reflect on what you’ve learned or how you’ve taught something.
- Blogging 2-3 times a week forces you to constantly reflect on your art form.
- If you’re in to amazing visual aids, you should be following Nancy Duarte on Twitter.
- And you should own at least one of her books.
- PowToon is a pretty cool tool for microlearning or for creating a promotional video for your training.
- Want 99 other cool tools? See this list compiled by Jane Hart.
- Actually, just follow Jane Hart on Twitter.
- It’s amazing how many conference presentations are so poor.
- Even in conferences full of learning professionals like ATD or the eLearning Guild.
- It doesn’t have to be that way… especially if presenters paid attention to lesson #19 (above).
- And #21.
- Converting an in-person session into elearning is trickier than you may think.
- Same goes for converting an in-person session into a webinar.
- Designing a webinar using break-out rooms ought to be done with a lot of planning (or it ought not be done at all).
- I find I get more out of a webinar if I attend it with someone else.
- Sometimes I learn more from the chat section of a webinar than I do from the presentation itself.
- TED Talks can be a great source of inspiration for what’s possible when it comes to a presentation… like this one that incorporates magic or this one that just encourages really smart people to talk nerdy.
- Sometimes inspiration just comes from a shirtless dancing guy.
- Combining instructional design with game design elements can be an incredibly effective way of engaging learners.
- If you’re interested in gaming, research on gaming or just want some good energy in your Twitter feed, then follow Jane McGonigal.
- And check out her TED Talk if you want to add 10 years to your life.
- Any presenter worth his/her salt should have their own remote to advance slides.
- Of course, sometimes PowerPoint doesn’t work… so have a Plan B!
- Want to engage your audience in a non-threatening, mostly anonymous manner? Try PollEverywhere.
- The most common mistake I’ve seen presenters make is to launch right into content, assuming the audience knows/cares about the topic at hand.
- Anchor activities are a good place to start, before launching into content.
- Some learners are auditory learners.
- Others are visual learners.
- Others are kinesthetic learners.
- Actually, items 48-50 have been totally de-bunked. Train to the learners’ needs and gaps, not their “learning styles”.
- #51 isn’t an excuse to just lecture at people. Vivid imagery and active learning are important engagement strategies to prevent your learners from falling asleep.
- Sometimes learners will fall asleep no matter what you do. When this happens, sneak up behind them and drop a really heavy book on their table or on the floor right behind them.
- When you’re on the hunt for a new training job, who you know is at least as important as what you know, so networking is pretty important.
- Just because you know someone doesn’t guarantee you’ll get the job. You still need to prepare and bring your A Game to the interview (I’ve disappointed many a contact by flubbing many an interview).
- Even if you flub an interview, the sun will still come up tomorrow.
- You probably didn’t want that job anyway.
- Same thing goes if you screw the pooch on a presentation… there will be more presentations in your future.
- Just don’t make the same mistakes.
- If you’re still stuck on this whole PowerPoint thing, here’s a great primer for improving your slides.
- If you want to improve your slides and you’re really not much of a graphic designer, maybe this will help.
- When in doubt, put on a coat and tie.
- The shinier the coat, the better. Always.
- It’s helpful to keep a trainers’ emergency kit in your bag that includes some markers, tape, scissors, post-its, name tags, and in case of a particularly tense situation (or if someone asks a question you can’t/don’t want to answer): a stink bomb.
- If you’re out of stink bombs and someone asks a question you can’t answer, try the boomerang technique.
- Incorporating metaphors into a lesson can lead to some great discussion.
- If you’re an L&D professional, there should be no end to your learning and no limit to your creativity. At least no end to your learning and no limit to your creativity if you’re a good L&D professional…
How about you? Do any of these resonate with you? What are some lessons you’ve learned along the way?