[Focus On Training] Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks

We all have an opportunity to provide a learning experience, whether it’s sharing an impromptu pest solution tip with a customer, giving a presentation during a conference or even developing a training course. Good learning is the result of intelligent effort, with the teachers doing their jobs and the learners being responsible to do theirs. Teaching old dogs new tricks is a classic axiom. Although good training solutions never really go out of style, this axiom is only partially true today. A pest management company can have three generations working side by side with each generation having different attitudes about their work. The younger workers are coming into today’s workplace with online technology, instant information and a global-mindedness that their elders could not have imagined years ago. Teaching a young dog with old tricks is another approach, even in the face of today’s technological change. Adults learn much differently than children! There are more things to consider than participant buy-in when creating learning activities. In the end, it is often a balance between the old and the new that leads to learning effectiveness. If you are putting together a brief talk or a day-long training program, here are a few considerations.
An overlooked adult training technique is the use of informal learning as a part of the formal learning process. Informal learning is more popular than most people realize but it requires guidance from the trainer. Adults are experienced; they want to be treated as such and many want to share. On-the-job work experience and informal conversations with peers are probably the most important informal learning activities. However, don’t allow past ineffective practices to become future practices. When you build key informal learning activities such as “homework” assignments into the process, you can improve the learning curve. Another type of informal learning is a “directed self-study” approach. Directed self-study occurs when a manager directs an employee to a specific “approved” resource, perhaps  one that is found online. Decisions need to be made between topics best learned by an instructor and those to be saved later for independent work.

HOW ADULTS LEARN. Adults tend to learn using the following three styles:
Visual — Seeing it.
Auditory — Hearing it.
Kinesthetic — Doing it.
We all rely on each of these styles, but to different degrees. Some learners retain more if they see a demonstration. Others learn better by listening, and some learners do best with hands-on practice.
When designing a short talk or a training course, it is important to provide a variety of activities in all three styles. If young learners are involved, the visual style can be a simulation along with an auditory in more of an MP3 approach, such as with a kinesthetic hands-on computer game, especially for team building and problem solving. This approach is an example of teaching a young dog with old tricks; tricks that are tailored to their generational interest. Another adult learning tendency is to receive the training message from “the horse’s mouth.” If you are an expert on a topic, deliver your message by touching each of the three learning styles. Using pictures, telling stories and providing hands-on game exercises will enhance any message that you are offering. Avoid that death-by-slides presentation that is pretending to be a learning experience.
“Knowledge must come through action.” — Socrates. Adult learning with action is an effective method and can be a fun way to train. Since there is so much information at the tip of one’s fingers, knowledge is in need of a focused clarification. Adults tend to prefer learning the why before the how. Since they take a “WIIFM” (what’s in it for me) approach, provide them some up-front individual benefits. Good training programs guide learners to good resources to analyze, synthesize and make the right choices from a rich depository — the Internet.
Another adult learning tendency is MBT (maximum brain/butt/bladder tolerance). Depending upon the time of day this tolerance can be as short as 10  to 15 minutes and usually is not longer than 45 to 50 minutes. I think this tolerance is the result of television programming. MBT can be recognized during conferences especially when giving a presentation and can be used to make friends in the audience. Have you listened to a lecture during a conference with your brain going somewhere else? Think about your learning audience and plan to do something different at every 10 minute interval. Vary your delivery to reflect the three learning styles. Many conferences create a single event learning “brain crash.” The movement from data to information to knowledge to wisdom requires time to think, question, percolate and apply. Therefore, it’s important to allow frequent breaks and continually engage the audience with interaction activities.

A FIVE-STEP APPROACH. A standard model for structuring any formal learning usually requires a five-step approach:
• Rationale — explain why learners should learn this material and how it applies to their work.
• Objectives — convey what learners will be able to do at the session’s end.
• Activities – identify interesting things for the learners to do directly attaining objectives.
• Evaluation – check to see whether they have learned using key questions and/or criterion reference tests.
• Feedback – identify feedback from the learners to correct, confirm and reinforce the training.
As you structure your training, try to think like a learner. Adults want to be treated as independent, capable people. Give them the freedom to make mistakes yet build in evaluation and feedback steps assuring their learning is meeting the desired objective(s). You will be successful with your efforts and may even be considered a star trainer. Hidden within this article are four key adult learning principles. Adults expect their training to utilize their experience (informal learning and engagement), readiness (WIIFM), action (on the job application) and autonomy (freedom to make mistakes).
A wise man once said that we hear 50 percent of what is said, we understand 50 percent of what we hear, we believe 50 percent of what we understand and we remember 50 percent of what we believe. This indicates we retain 6.25 percent of what is said. This wise man apparently was not a professional instructor, as 6.25 percent is not acceptable. Teaching an old dog new tricks and teaching a young dog with old tricks have played an important role in our lives for many years. Our job as educators, instructors, trainers and even speakers is to help adult learners learn. Their success is our success and together we achieve more.

The author is a certified professional instructor and a certified instructional designer and can be reached via www.qualitycenteredconsulting.com or by calling 816/436-1627.