I’m currently taking some leave on a farm in Virginia, East Coast U.S.A. It’s a lovely spot; all organic produce, far enough away from the training environment and the hussle and bustle of cities, and with some of that southern charm that comes naturaly to places round here.
There’s something about digging around in a plot of earth – getting your hands dirty – that get’s you back to basics, back to what’s real.
The same can be said for how participants express themselves in a training session. Our job is to get them back to what’s real, back to basics.
Think about it; with all the complexity of life in organisations folks just want to dial it back a bit. And our training session is a good chance for them to stop, take stock, and figure out a better way of doing things.
Give them that chance; take the pressure off, make the learning fun, make it easy for them, and find a way to re-connect them with their true nature – not the corporatised drone’s they might feel like sometimes.
I love this quote from Ellen Glasgow
“He felt with the force of a revelation that to throw up the clods of earth manfully is as beneficent as to revolutionize the world.
It was not the matter of the work, but the mind that went into it, that counted — and the man who was not content to do small things well would leave great things undone.”
So, try come back to basics, find the small things that make the biggest difference in your training and focus on them;
- Easy, engaging begginings
- Informal discussions
- Fun activities
- Long breaks (if you can)
- Consider scenarios outside work where the training might help
You may well find more humanity coming to the learning space; a different pace; a creative place.
Comment below and share any other ideas you have for bringing the training back to basics.
