Table of Contents

Is Lecture the Root of all Evil? My Position is Evolving.

Recently I saw my picture in a newsletter.  The caption under the photo read: “Picture shows participants listening as Brian Washburn delivers a lecture.”  Delivers a lecture?!  I don’t lecture.  I facilitate.

For years I’ve crusaded against the all-lecture format.  I’ve never found any research that suggests even auditory learners retain information through lecture better than through a more interactive format.  How can a lecturer tell whether or not the audience gets it, let alone whether or not they’ll be able to do something better or more easily?

But there’s something about some of my favorite TED talks that is compelling.  And TED talks are 100% lecture.  Last week in response to a post I had written, instructional designer Kirby Crider posted a link to this video.

https://www.g4tv.com/videos/44277/dice-2010-design-outside-the-box-presentation/

It’s 100% lecture, yet I hung on every word.  I still remember some of the major points.  And the speaker’s 8 minute riff on the future of gamification and how it just might be integrated into everyday life both amused and haunted me.

What Lecture Can Be Good For*

Maybe, just maybe, it’s ok for people to come together, invest their time (and often their money) to attend a presentation without being able to do something differently.  Perhaps some presentations aren’t as much about learning in the moment, but rather being introduced to a topic, being excited about a topic, being inspired to go out and discover more about that topic on your own.

In the “Design Outside the Box” presentation posted above, the speaker does an amazing job offering some context and painting a picture of what might be possible.  He uses a few well-placed and well-designed slides with limited text in order to illustrate his points.  He doesn’t overdo it, he doesn’t rely on stale templates with lots of bullet points.  He’s obviously invested significant time preparing what he wants to say.

The Asterisk

Sometimes presenters – subject matter experts, keynote speakers, employees who have been asked to address their colleagues or some other group on a topic – mistake the time and effort invested in preparing a presentation (which ends up being lecture-based with lots of slides and lots of text) with good design.  Just because a presentation took 8 or 12 or 20 hours to prepare doesn’t mean it is a good or useful presentation.  And herein lies what I feel gives lecture such a bad name.

When the forum or format allows only for a lecture-based presentation, I appreciate the “SUCCESs” model espoused by Chip and Dan Heath in their book Made to Stick.  A compelling, inspirational, memorable lecture really needs a combination of the following elements (many of which were demonstrated in the “Design Outside the Box” presentation/lecture):

  • Simple
  • Unexpected
  • Concrete
  • Credible
  • Emotional
  • Stories

The Train Like A Champion Blog is published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  If you think someone else might find this interesting, please pass it along.  If you don’t want to miss a single, brilliant post, be sure to click “Follow” at the top of the page!

Articles Similar to Is Lecture the Root of all Evil? My Position is Evolving.

instructor becomes the pupil with kassy laborie and zovig garboushian
Brian Washburn

Turning the Tables: From Trainer to Student

As people who have designed and delivered effective training, Kassy Laborie and Zovig Garboushian know a thing or two about good learning experiences. So what nuggets have they gleaned from a 9-month course that they’re both attending, and that all of us should consider when designing our own programs? Today’s podcast answers that question.

airline flying through a sky with palm trees
Job Aids
Brian Washburn

3 Job Aid Design Lessons from a Beach in Hawaii

An effective job aid might be able to replace the need for actually training someone. At the very least, it can be distributed as part of a training to help people remember a rule or how to do something new. Drawing inspiration from “job aids” we see every day when we walk around can make our job designing effective job aids easier.

Better PowerPoint
PowerPoint
Erin Clarke

Creating Better PowerPoint Slide Decks, Faster

PowerPoint can be a very powerful visual aid and important tool for training… if it’s done well. Creating a better PowerPoint Slide Deck is about organizing your thoughts before you even open PowerPoint on your computer.

facilitator competency rubric
Facilitation
Brian Washburn

Training Delivery and Facilitation Competency Rubric

A rubric is a way to assess performance with a standard set of evaluation criteria. The next time you need to assess the performance of someone delivering training (even if that someone is you), you may find this rubric helpful.

How to create a training plan in under 10 minutes

Using a lesson plan template (which is the most downloaded resource from this blog) can help give you structure. Using Soapbox can save you all sorts of time (and still give your presentation some structure)!

Subscribe to Get Updates from Endurance Learning

Brian Washburn, Author

Brian Washburn
CEO & Chief Ideas Guy

Enter your information below and we’ll send you the latest updates from our blog. Thanks for following!

activities cookbook

Download the Training Activity Cookbook

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the Endurance Learning Activity Cookbook.

training facilitator evaluation rubric - page 2

Download the Facilitator Evaluation Rubric

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the rubric to help you assess the skills of someone delivering training.

Download the What's Possible in L&D Worksheet

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the What’s Possible in L&D Worksheet.

What's possible in L&D

Let's Talk Training!

Brian Washburn

Brian Washburn
CEO & Chief Ideas Guy

Enter your information below and we’ll get back to you soon.

Download the Feedback Lesson Plan

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the lesson plan as a PDF.

feedback lesson plan
MS Word Job Aid Template

Download the Microsoft Word Job Aid Template

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the Word version of this template.

Download the Free Lesson Plan Template!

Enter your email below and we’ll send you a Word document that you can start using today!

free lesson plan template
training materials checklist

Download the Training Materials Checklist

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the Training Materials Checklist.

Subscribe to Endurance Learning for updates

Get regular updates from the Endurance Learning team.