Guest Post: Putting the “How I See It” Activity to Work in a Virtual Environment

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Mark Nilles is someone I’ve know for a while. He has a long career in roles in which he’s worked to make the world a better place through learning initiatives – from the Peace Corps to Humentum (which is where we first met) and now with EnCompass. Recently he sent me an email sharing how he’d modified an activity he learned about through this Train Like A Champion blog into a virtual activity.

I was so fascinated by the way in which he used different technologies to make the activity work that I asked if he’d be willing to write a guest post. Whether you might be able to use this activity as he’s modified it, or if you’re just looking for a new tool to help you engage your virtual learners, Mark’s experience might be of service to you!

Here is Mark’s experience, in his own words:

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Making a career pivot toward corporate training?

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Asha Aravindakshan is the best-selling author of Skills: The Common Denominator. We had a 16-minute conversation about her research that focused on how people have successfully used their skills and experience to land the job they truly want to be doing.

During our conversation, we spoke about whether people should apply for a job they’re interested in even if they don’t have all the skills that are required in the job description, how to brand oneself to be best positioned to land their dream job and how to transition from someone’s current role to a role in learning and development.

We also talked from a hiring manager’s perspective and where hiring managers should be looking for higher quality talent.

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Taking Virtual Training to the Next Level (A Conversation with Cindy Huggett)

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I had the extreme pleasure of meeting Cindy Huggett in person at a networking dinner during last summer’s ATD International Conference and Expo. If you’re unfamiliar with Cindy’s work, she’s literally written the book(s) on virtual training. Her books include:

During our conversation, we not only spoke about some fundamental things we can all be doing to tighten up our virtual training delivery (I know it’s been 19 months and we feel like pros at this by now, but there are definitely some habits we can still clean up), and we also spoke about some things that more advanced presenters have done to take their virtual training to the next level.

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Participants should get some of your assessment questions wrong

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As I was driving my kids to school on Tuesday morning, a local radio station asked for a contestant to call in to be part of the Puget Sound Showdown. Basically, it’s a lightning round-style radio quiz competition in which two listeners (one from the north Puget Sound area near Seattle, one from the south Puget Sound area) compete to answer random trivia questions correctly. The first contestant to answer five questions correctly is the winner. So I called in (on a hands-free device, of course, because I was driving).

“What was Peter Parker’s day job?” was one of the questions.

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Coaching Lessons from The Seduction Expert

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Be bold and speak up. Be confident. Be charming. Be present. Be vulnerable.

These are the top five pieces of advice that The Seduction Expert, Amber De Vos, offers to her clients who have been de-railed in their search for The One because of bad or ineffective habits.

In today’s podcast, we dive into the similarities between coaching someone on the art of seduction, and coaching someone on the art of just being better at work.

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Help! I need some priorities for an L&D podcast.

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The Train Like You Listen podcast will finish a second year of conversations and interviews with authors, thought leaders and frontline L&D practitioners in December, and I’ve been thinking of changing the format up a bit.

I’ll still have plenty of episodes featuring interviews with some really smart people who have some really fresh ideas to share when it comes to honing our craft as L&D professionals. I’m also going to have some shorter-form podcasts in which I’ll be sharing some experiences and insights on some specific instructional design practices and skills.

Then there’s a third format that I’ve been kicking around and which I’m really excited about. I’m still working through the details, but the format will be more story-based. It’s this third idea that I’m looking for some help when it comes to prioritizing topics. I have a whole list of topics that I’ve brainstormed, but where should I focus?

Please help me out by identifying which of the following would be the most interesting and/or helpful for you to learn more about.

Which of the following would like be most interested in learning more about?
Vote

Thank you for your help, and stay tuned for some very different podcasts in 2022!

What can L&D professionals take away from successful YouTubers?

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When you think of “YouTubers”, what comes to mind? I know many of us have a kneejerk reaction to the title “YouTubers”, but YouTube is a vast platform with tons of content that is actually quite helpful if you’re looking for something specific. Need to know how to unclog a bathroom sink? There are a number of plumbers who have quite a following who can teach you how to fix things in a matter of minutes. Want to learn how to use all the different features that you’ve paid for on your iPhone, cook a quick and easy dinner to impress your partner or need a more visual explanation of how to put together your Ikea furniture than simply following the instructions that came in the box? There are YouTube videos for all of these things.

Recently I had an opportunity to sit down with Matt Pierce from TechSmith (makers of Snagit and Camtasia) to hear what YouTuber best practices he felt people in the L&D field should be incorporating into their training programs. If you have a few minutes before your next meeting, go ahead and give it a listen.

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Setting SMEs up to be more successful presenters

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Subject matter experts (SMEs) bring deep technical knowledge to any training program, but when they’re asked to put a presentation together and deliver it to an audience, many SMEs struggle to keep their audience engaged. While some SMEs may appreciate the idea of learner engagement and the application of adult learning principles, it’s a fool’s errand to try to turn SMEs into de facto instructional designers through train the trainer programs.

Should training professionals simply step out of the way and allow an SME to get in front of an audience of eager learners, simply hoping that the SME can be charismatic and the learners arrive ready to hang on every last word? Probably not.

If you think of the array of elements available to turn any learning experience into an engaging and effective program, there are a number of things that training professionals can do to help SMEs be more effective. In today’s post, we’ll examine one very short combination of these elements.

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Freeing Up More Time To Spend On Better Instructional Design

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Have you ever wished you could have more time in your day to develop better, creative, more engaging and effective training programs?

The laws of time dictate that there can only ever be 24 hours in any given day, but Megan Torrance has some ideas on how you can save time during the development of training programs. She’s literally written the book on integrating an Agile process for instructional design, and recently she spent some time explaining where she sees time being “sucked” away and how instructional designers can be more efficient in their craft.

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