Just-In-Time Training

Just-In-Time Training in Group Facilitation - An Affinity Diagram That Really Works!

By Deborah Laurel


"Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea." Jim Rohn
In the past, whenever I heard about "just-in-time training," I assumed that it only pertained to specific technical job skills. A web search for "just-in-time training" uncovered a number of e-learning and computer software offerings.
However, a recent classroom training experience showed me that my perception of "just-in-time training" was very short sighted and incomplete.
All of the training programs that I design and deliver are intended to build or strengthen practical skills. The programs are always highly interactive and participant-centered.
Unfortunately, it is often the case that the participant employees learn the skills, but their supervisors and managers are not there learning along with them. As a result, the participants leave the training without any guarantee that their new skills will be valued and supported. As a matter of fact, it is fairly typical to hear participants comment that they like what they have learned, but they won't be allowed to use it when they get back to their worksites.

So imagine what can happen when an entire intact work team that includes both supervisor and employees not only learns new skills but also actively incorporates them into their team goals and work relationships!
You might attribute the effectiveness of the training to the reality that the entire work team was present and participated. But this is not the first intact work team that I have facilitated, so I know that this is a necessary element but not conclusively sufficient.

What made the difference in this case was the fact that each member of the team was truly committed to learning and applying what they had learned- and their supervisor was incredibly thoughtful and focused on the immediate significance of every concept and tool.
As a result, they took the training content and ran with it, applying it in deeper and more complex ways than I had ever planned or imagined.
Let me give an example.
The training focus was group facilitation skills. Because the team members were already relatively experienced facilitators, the training challenge was to introduce and model specific facilitation tools that would be new to them.

An affinity diagram was one of the tools I chose to include. It was introduced in an early training module as a way for the team to identify different facilitation challenges. Later in the program, I planned for them to apply other facilitation tools to determine how to meet or manage those challenges.
The participants were asked to write down current and/or anticipated facilitation challenges on large post- it notes, one challenge per note. The group was then supposed to create an affinity diagram, working together to identify categories of like challenges on a flip chart laid out on a table.
I had intended for them to create and label the categories based on the type of facilitation challenge, such as "interpersonal conflict" or "time management." But gradually, as I watched in awe, the team recreated and relabeled the categories on the basis of what would solve the issues!
The previous day, during a team building workshop, the group had learned the importance of establishing team operating principles that set guidelines for how the team members participate and interact with each other.

When they worked with the affinity diagram, they placed the following four challenges: "all bosses on the team," "positional power interfering with process," "group wants decisions made but does not present decision options," and "participants are not forthcoming with comments nor actively participating" under a category titled: "Operating Principles."
Talk about "just-in-time training!" They were able to take their new knowledge of team operating principles to solve real pressing facilitation challenges.
What a thrill to have every single participant eagerly absorb the content, seriously discuss its implications, and then intently apply newly learned knowledge and skills to work through real work issues.
That is the best gift that trainers can receive: to actually watch their training make a visible, significant and positive difference in the attitudes, capabilities and actions of their participants.
Deborah Spring Laurel has been a trainer and a consultant in the areas of workplace learning and performance improvement for over thirty years. For sample team operating principles, please visit her website at http://www.laurelandassociates.com.

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What is K-12 Education

By Jitesh Arora


K-12 education is an innovative learning technique being adopted by several leading schools, college and University. This method of learning puts more emphasis on thinking and reaching own conclusions over conventional learning tactics. Learning is actually a process of transferring knowledge. There are actually three levels involved in the act of learning-namely, the thinking and executing of ideas.
Many teachers erroneously believe that giving assignments or worksheets are learning opportunities. But they are simply tools that aid in reinforcing what has already been taught. K-12 education is a process of giving a student real learning opportunities. The thinking capability of a student determines his or her learning aptitude. The teacher is just a guide here, a facilitator who provide with learning opportunities only and the student himself is responsible for his success.

K-12 classrooms are unlike any conventional class where students sit and copy what is taught. Here, the students are encouraged to come up with their own ideas and views. Divergent ideas coming from different students may make the classroom noisy, but at the end of it, all the students are left with a through knowledge of all the aspects of the particular subject. Critical thinking is the essence of brain power. However, the teacher's ability to mould the discussion and direct if into a positive realm is very important for the success of this innovative learning strategy. Students, especially adolescents and teenagers of college & university tends to be more assertive in their views and it is the teacher who have to foresee that no tempers are frayed and only positives come out of the productive discussion. In between the discussions, the teacher can make instant assessments by asking questions etc.

Student cooperation is also of paramount importance here. They have to make use of the opportunity provided by the teacher to speak their minds out in a productive way. Students should make conscious efforts to connect what he or she knows with what they do not know. This provides better understanding. This kind of thinking ability is essential for developing life skills, which are the determinants of success or failure in life. Students should ask questions, collect data, analyze the available information and arrive at a logical conclusion. K-12 education provides the students with a platform to perform all these in one go.
It is no wonder that K-12 education is being employed in many of our schools and colleges. The conventional learning styles have their own merits, but this new and innovative education technology is superior in that it makes students work independently and find solutions on their own. This strategy makes students independent, reliable and understanding. It further improves the relation between the teacher and students and improves the classroom atmosphere. Such a harmonious atmosphere can create geniuses who, in the long run, can become assets to the society as a whole.
If you are looking for more information then feel free to visit k-12 Education [http://www.mssarma.org] and College and University [http://www.mssarma.org].

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A Knowledge Base Economy

Are the Civilizations of North America Moving Towards a Knowledge Base Economy?

By Lance Winslow


Many economists, capitalists and government agency experts are watching manufacturing industries dwindle as they are unable to compete in world markets. It is therefore theorized by academics, policy makers and many economists that we must reposition ourselves and prepare for a knowledge based economy.
The Online Think Tank is also quite concerned. Personally, I tend to agree that as an economy that we do not produce a whole lot except hamburgers. Having extensively traveled to every city in the US and Canada and observed the Manufacturing sector go from 50-35-17-11 percent in many areas, that bridge is burned and all the supply chain as well, (mines shut down and raw materials) thus, game over.
Whether through over regulations, what Adam Smith warned us about, organized labor, attack environmentalism or just plain stupidity of how things really work in vibrant economies, indeed here we are. And it does not matter now, who you are or how you got here, because there you are! Knowledge Society may not far off?

I realize people do not wish to hear this, in fact I recall many years back that when Al Gore said that students should not expect to work in farming when they grow up. He told them this when he visited an ID and Montana schools during his VP term and said you kids need to study technology, because there may not be jobs for you.
People were very upset and it made national news, but in reality the days of the Family Farm are still shrinking and with robotics and other technologies we will need less folks. In a knowledge economy, there will severe competition and fewer jobs too. Also other economies like India and China are moving the same direction. Someone recently said, we will create it, they will build it, yet they kind of fancy doing both and have the school discipline to do just that.

In fact they are learning from us in our Universities their entrepreneurial skills and they have fewer barriers to entry (rules and regulations) and willing to exploit to a much larger degree borrowing from the environmental health and wealth of their nations. Eventually, the economies of China and India will come up with an enormous middle class and they will turn into the buyers of everything.
Here is a very serious comment; Can The World Handle That Many Consumers?
Dear Citizens of North America, we need to plan for the future and we need to move towards a Knowledge Based Economy for a large segment of our population. We cannot wait on this.
I certainly hope this article is of interest and that is has propelled thought. The goal is simple, to help you in your quest to be the best in 2007. I thank you for reading my many articles on diverse subjects, which interest you.
"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

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Knowledge Economy Rule Number One

Knowledge Economy Rule Number One - Only Smart Companies Win

By David Grebow


There have been three economic paradigms in recent history. They started when there was a break from things made on a small scale. They started when the things made and sold by artists, craftsmen, masters, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, family farmers, merchants of handmade goods, etc. were replaced by things that were mass produced and mass consumed.
The key point is that mass production is the cornerstone of all modern economic paradigms.
First it was food that was mass produced. So the first economic paradigm was the Agricultural Revolution.
For the first time in history, many people had enough to eat. They stopped worrying about food, did not farm their own crops nor raise and slaughter their own livestock. The mass production of food marks a turning point in history. It gave people something they never had as hunter-gatherers: free time. The ability to move about and travel, even live in new places. Leave the farms and come to what were becoming the first cities.
Owning land became the key to wealth, since land used to grow food was the key to the Agricultural Economy. Land Barons were born. The landed gentry was created. Kings gave land as the highest boon for services rendered. Kings were kings because they owned all the land which is why they could give some of it away. Private property was born. My land was fenced off from your land. New nations opened up huge tracts of land because they knew that making that land productive was the key to prosperity. We managed muscles because farming was a hard, back-breaking job, even for the oxen and horses.
Next came the Industrial Economy. I believe it started with the printing press in the mid-15th century. I also believe it created a period of transition that has occurred with each new economic paradigm.

The Incunabula
The incunabula was a period in which the church still controlled the written word and, until the printing press was invented, 'books' were in limited supply. The idea of providing the masses with ideas was heretical. So the church decided that it would use the printing press for God's work and take the illuminated manuscripts from the Scriptoriums in the monasteries, where all bibles were created and print out the words and send these first 'forms' back to the Scriptoriums for illumination. So the monks took the forms and added colorful pictures of devils and angels, ivy and floral scroll work, visual 'job aids' for learning about right and wrong and what happened to you if your strayed from the path of righteousness.
The pictures were important because most people alive then could not read. These first printing press books are called incunabula. They represent a paradigm shift that ultimately effected everything - your work, your play, your family, your thoughts, your life.

Once the Industrial Economy really started to steam ahead, again it was all about mass production, only this time it was the mass production of things. We managed hands.
The first things to become 'industrialized' were farming tools - cotton gin, land tillers, tractors, and more. Other things began to become mass produced as well. Cars. Trains. Ships. Stuff people needed and bought out of the Sears catalog. Typewriters, a personal printing press when you added carbon copies (the origin of cc). And so much more stuff that we not only became consumers of food but consumers in general.
The capitalist world was all about moving capital around to further the production of things (including the industrialized production of food) in order to create wealth. The wealth of nations, as recorded by
Adam Smith, was built upon a culture and political system that supported mass production and mass consumption of things.
Owning the means of production was the key to wealth. The great wealthy dynasties of the industrialized world were created at this point in time. If you look at America, you see people with names like Ford, Dupont, Getty, Rockefeller, Kennedy ad infinitum owning the means of production and becoming the industrialist kings of this era.

It also meant we needed to make sure the culture of mass consumers was healthy and working. According to John Taylor Gatto, public schools were created for this very purpose. We did not want a critically thinking, independent population focused on anything other than acquiring things. Work to spend. Spend more and work harder. Make the rich richer while you enrich your life with things. Towards the end of this economic paradigm, we invented the credit card, one of the greatest boons to mass consumption imaginable.
Since we had, in the countries that had embraced and were in the lead in these economic paradigms, all the food we could want (can you spell obesity?) and all the things we ever hoped for, we were ready to move on into the next economic paradigm.

And the Knowledge Economy was born. Peter Drucker in the late 20th century, was prescient enough to see what was coming next and named the people who labored in this new economic paradigm Knowledge Workers. What they mass produced was Knowledge. New ideas. Innovations. Know-how. They spent their days thinking, writing, communicating, meeting, disseminating, rethinking, researching, creating, innovating, designing, reading, listening to the ideas of others, sharing, collaborating. We are managing minds.
The Knowledge Economy is so new that I think we are in that incunabula period of changeover, when we know that there has been a sea change, and most of us are just not sure what it is.
I say most of us. Not, for example, Bill Gates. The mass production of software is knowledgework. The people who make it are not producing food or cars or toasters (unless they are flying across your PC and I assume you are reading this on your PC). They write code. The meet and talk about features and functions. They compile code. They debug code (or let you play with it and debug it for them). Bill Gates is the richest man (so far) in the new Knowledge Economy because he either smart enough or knew in his gut that they key to wealth in this economic paradigm was the mass production of knowledge and the tools that enabled as many people as possible to produce knowledge for a living.

Several years ago I gave a presentation to the annual gathering of CIO's at Boeing in Southern California. As the top CIO was leading me into the conference room she told me that the building itself has an interesting history. Originally an orchard grove for oranges, the building was first used as a giant manufacturing facility for the production of airplanes. When the demand for planes was reduced, the building was divided into floors, offices and cubicles and people spent their workdays in front of computers producing, refining, defining, revising, discussing, an communicating ideas. Ideas for new planes. Ideas for improving production of planes. Ideas about related projects that had something to do with planes. One piece of land, three economic paradigms.

The point is all they did all day was produce ideas, work with ideas, think about ideas, write and talk about ideas. There were still a small group of people who ultimately made those ideas into things - planes. But they were followed by the people who had more ideas about how to market it, sell it, teach people to fly it and so on and so on. So the Knowledge Economy is all about the mass production of ideas. Success in the Knowledge Economy is the ability to sift through all those ideas to come up with the ones that can be produced and sold. Turning ideas into money.

Now I wonder myself why is this any different that the previous Industrial Economy? Someone had the idea for the Ford. Someone had the idea for the mass production line. Someone even had the idea of the color choices of the Model T - black. Why were things and the mass production of things the underpinning of the Industrial Economy? Because it only took a few ideas to make a lot of things. And once we all had, in the advanced and advancing industrialized countries, all the things we needed, ideas became the currency of choice. Ideas for new ways of doing things. Ideas about ways to employ new technologies which were new ideas in their own right. Ideas about how to 'converge' the things that were created as a result of the new ideas. Ideas about how to change the old analog world into a digital world.
Here's another example of ideas becoming wealth in the Knowledge Economy. Steve Jobs and iTunes. Technology changes everything and digital technology changes everything faster. So someone(s) had the idea for the iPod and someone(s) else has the idea that music consumers really wanted to have the choice to only buy the music they wanted. This was a whole new idea from the old model. The old model, from the Industrial Economy, forced music consumers to buy the thing, the CD, with lots of tunes they did not want and only a few they really wanted.

The new digital model was one tune at a time. No CD. Download it directly. Pay as you go. Music on demand. A 1:1 relationship between the consumer and the producer. Only on a scale that was mass. So an entire industry was reshaped by an idea. It's happening to television, photography, medicine, and other industries that are artifacts of the Industrial Economy.

So if you want to be wealthy in the Knowledge Economy you need to be able to produce great ideas, or have people working for you who can produce great ideas. Then be able to make them real products or services, or have people who can help you make them into products or deliver them as services. Then market and sell them. And, according to Thomas L. Friedman, since the world is now flat and becoming flatter, and ideas know no boundaries, need no passport, travel in the air without wings, and can just pop into anyones brain anytime and anywhere, being able to compete in this new Knowledge Economy is not easy. The brains of creative people are the key in this new paradigm. And the brains that take what they imagine and turn it into some thing or some service (or some experience as the Disney Imagineers do with Disneyland and Disneyworld) are the wealthy. They own the mass production of ideas.
David Grebow
KnowledgeStar ([http://thefourthwave.typepad.com/knowledgestar])

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Rethink the Knowledge Economy and Value Chain

Author: PC Teoh


If you remember when we learn value chain in management classes, textbooks always talk about value creation in a value chain. Many of us are familiar with how values can be created when recourses such as, land, labor and capital are invested to convert raw materials into final products. Companies are responsible to create values to the materials through design and manufacturing processes until they become commercial products that customers are willing to pay for.
You may also heard about people talking about "moving up the value chain". When a company has successfully moved up a value chain, for example, from manufacturing to Research and Development (R&D), we expect the company to gain higher returns, and become more competitive in the market. However, is R&D the ultimate upstream that we can reach? What are the resources for a design creation? In order to create a new design, we need people, tools and capital, but we think a little bit further "upstream", we need the knowledge that enables people to become designers and to create tools and processes for design activities. This knowledge is coming from the "knowledge workers" who enable knowledge to be channeled through the designers and tools into the final products.
As we are evolving into the so call "Knowledge Economy", many gurus have predicted that knowledge will be the dominant factor that brings higher value to the products in the market. In addition to physical products that we are familiar with, we have products in terms of knowledge intensive services that bring even bigger returns to the investors. Dr Peter Ducker believes that "knowledge is the only meaningful recourse" in the new "Post-Capital" era. Traditional factors such as land (natural resources), labor and capital have become secondary due to the evolution of our society.
However, the vision of  knowledge as the "raw material" that creates values to the products seems to be very elusive. We are still unable to grasp the concept of knowledge, and how to manage it as the resource for our products. Knowledge is not something we can keep, manipulate and use like other physical things. It moves easily from one point to another and we are not able to control how and where knowledge should "flow". Hence, even though many people talk about knowledge management and value creation, there is still no viable process that we can use to clearly demonstrate how we can reward the knowledge workers who have created knowledge that eventually creates value to the products. The people who have largely benefited from the value creation are still the capitalists or investors, and not the knowledge workers.
The knowledge workers that I am talking about can be teachers, trainers, lecturers, consultants, supervisors, writers, thinkers, parents and any experienced people who are responsible to transfer their knowledge to researchers, designers and design processes. They are definitely at the "upstream" before any design and development process. If we really value knowledge more than capitals, shouldn't the profits created through the products been shared with these people too?
In the past, we can argue that we are not able to do that, as there is no way to track the contributors of knowledge in the value stream. However, I think it is time for us to rethink about the possibility. We can see that more and more people are "registered" online, and we have created online identities that track our presence, activities, financial accounts and many more using online technologies (what ever you want to call them). I believe we are approaching the capability (in terms of technological and cultural maturity) to track our knowledge contributions. If we are able to do that, then we are really evolving into the real Knowledge Economy, and Dr Peter Drucker's vision will become a reality.
If you imagine knowledge flows in the form of an abstract network, you will be able to visualize so many "channels" being connected to you. Your parents, teachers, supervisors and friends could be the channels that provide input knowledge to you, and you are also supplying output knowledge to people around you. If any of the parties uses specific knowledge to work on, or add value to something that enable them to receive monetary returns, certain amount of these returns should be channeled to the people upstream, who have responsible to bring the knowledge to make this value creation activity possible.
You may think this is too ideal, too complicated and it's an impossible process. How about visualize it the form of a collaborative network? What if your social networking accounts are included as a part of a collaborative network? How about a network that linkages are clearly defined, and we are able to record our transactions with others' accounts through the network? After all, every single thing of our activities is actually a result of collaborative efforts.
I think it can really impact the way we live and resolve global problems we faced today. We will truly need to work collaboratively for our mutual benefits rather than merely meeting individual desires. The aged communities will be rightfully rewarded with passive incomes due to their past contributions that bring values to our current needs. We can really see rewards being channeled through knowledge networks and everyone can share the benefits of the value creations.
It is my hope that we can work together to create real collaborative networks that bring well-deserved rewards to our knowledge workers and realized the dream of a collaborative world. Then, we can confidently say that we are in the age of Knowledge Economy.
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About the Author

The author is the owner of the website: www.chrysalisjournal.com
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What Do We Really Know About the Knowledge Economy

What Do We Really Know About the Knowledge Economy
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Elaine_Wood]Elaine Wood

Call it the Knowledge Economy or the New Economy ... do we really understand what it means for our children's education, our businesses' future growth, our community's priorities? That might be like asking a farmer 75 years ago how the Industrial Revolution would ultimately change our lives. It's difficult to envision and to see the full impact when you're standing in the middle of it. But it is to our region's economic and cultural benefit to at least dispel some of the common myths about the Knowledge Economy.

Myth #1: Knowledge workers are a specialized category of people with high technology skills. The truth is, knowledge workers are quickly becoming infused into all industry sectors representing nearly all job titles. You can hardly find a business anymore that doesn't depend upon a work force that is intellectually agile, tech savvy, idea-prone, and fast to shift gears. Creativity, versatility and innovation are prized assets for most businesses these days.

Myth #2: Knowledge workers don't create products, and the Knowledge Economy is replacing manufacturing. The truth is, product development is as critical as ever to the country's economy, and manufacturing is perhaps the sector in which new levels of knowledge are most crucial. The production jobs that required very little education and relatively low skill levels continue to disappear. The knowledge levels needed now to design and produce American-made goods are much higher than ever. Manufacturing workers must be integrally involved in higher-order problem solving processes, fast-paced technological changes, and complex learning situations. Manufacturing is not dying; it is evolving and transforming. And that evolution is punctuated by the need for employees to be knowledgeable on many fronts.

Myth #3: Every young person now needs a Bachelors Degree. The truth is, every person now needs some kind of post-secondary education or training resulting in a credential of value, but not necessarily a traditional Bachelors Degree. Most people finally understand that our kids can no longer walk out of the high school and into the factory where they will earn a good wage and benefits for the rest of their lives. Eighty percent of the fastest growing occupations now require some kind of post-secondary education. But the assumption that every single person now needs a traditional four-year college degree is not accurate.

First, every student needs solid foundational skills in reading, writing, math, history, science, social studies, and problem solving, which they should be receiving in the K-12 system. Depending upon the individual's career interests, the next route can often be specialized career training that could take anywhere from several months to several years. Some of our economy's best-paying positions - ones that employers can't readily fill - require specialized credentials obtained outside the traditional college avenues. Ask yourself why a Cadet can graduate from the Great Lakes Maritime Academy and walk straight into an $80,000 position, or why several local, thriving companies cannot fill $50,000/year jobs in advanced machining, or how a savvy young entrepreneur is making $100,000/year after a year or two of web design courses. For many people, the traditional four-year Bachelors Degree is still the best path to a rewarding career, and there's much to be said for the overall value of a liberal arts education for many great careers. We just miss the mark by thinking it is the only road in the post-secondary journey of the Knowledge Economy.

Yes, this economic transition is as significant as the one from the agricultural age to the industrial age. No, we do not yet fully understand it. What we do know, though, is that the term "economic capital" has taken on tremendous new meaning. It's no longer primarily the building, the machines, and the working cash. Although those elements are still important, the most important ingredient now is the talent of the workforce. Today knowledge is the currency that drives business and industry, and gives companies - and countries - the competitive advantage.

Elaine Wood is Deputy Director of the Northwest Michigan Council of Governments which administers programs for the ten counties of Northwest Michigan. Primary service categories are: workforce development; business & economic development; regional planning & community development; community safety. For more comprehensive information about NWMCOG programs, visit our Web site at: http://www.nwm.org

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Learning & Training for Supervisors

Learning & Training for Supervisors
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Michael_Brooke]Michael Brooke 


The author has spend years training supervisors, generally in manufacturing. With whatever curriculum he used he would add a chapter on adult learning theory. With this as a framework, he believed that trainees are far more receptive to the training as they have some understanding of why and how the program is constructed to benefit there growth.  Very rarely do training facilitators take the time to explain the basics of adult learning to class participants. Indeed, if he has limited facilitator experience the facilitator may not even know the basics of adult learning himself. 


The Supervisor: A Key Position


From the outset you need to know that there is no other job more important than that of supervisor. It is the supervisor who helps staff work at their optimal levels. It is also the supervisor that helps make management's work smoother and more trouble-free than it would otherwise be. But developing the necessary skills to be successful in this pivotal position is a real challenge and does not just happen because the new supervisor used to be a first rate tradesman! 


The new supervisor probably has the potential to be an excellent supervisor otherwise his boss would not have appointed him. But it is too much to expect you to "pick up the supervisory skills on the job." This is why the boss normally provides supervisory training. When and if this occurs, the new supervisor owes it to himself, his boss and the training facilitator to do the best he can to participate fully in the session discussions and other learning activities.


As a prerequisite to training, the new supervisory  needs to understand how best to get the most of any supervisory  training he may receive. 


1. Learning Activity: The Benefits of Training to You and Others
Or: What's in it for Me (WIIFM)!


Firstly, we need to consider the importance of participating in supervisory training.   "Because the boss wants me to" is an incomplete answer. To get the most from it and, in turn, be prepared to put a lot into it, the new supervisor needs to see the importance of it and the benefits to him, his staff, his boss and the company as a whole.


Here is a partial list of the importance of undertaking training. 


It will help you become :

A better communicator


Know how to develop a more  positive work environment


More cost-effective


More satisfied on the job


Develop more  productive workers


More confident in your abilities


More self-aware and self-confident


A person with better morale


Increased in skills and make so fewer errors


A better leader able to gain respect  and discipline others respectfully


A better problem solver


More stree free


A more collaborative team leader


A strong team spirit developer


Less likely to face personal liability lawsuits


Better respected by staff


A better time manager and more highly organized




2. Basics of Learning


It is important to know how you learn for at least two reasons:
When you proceed through a training experience, you will have a better idea of what is taking place in the learning process and you are therefore more likely to respond positively to the experience.


Good supervisors are also coaches and trainers of their staff. Therefore, it is essential for you to understand basic training theory and practice so you can increase your training skills.


A.Learning as Change


The objective of learning is to bring about changes in your behavior so you can do things differently. Learning can be transformational--it can change your life forever. As you acquire new knowledge and skills, you begin to see new potentials and opportunities that you perhaps had not thought possible beforehand. Learning can be a difficult experience as you strive to break through old prejudices and habits, but it also can bring many rewards.


The focus in a training  program is on your learning. The flip side is that the  person standing up front is a facilitator of your learning, more than he is a teacher or a trainer.
The focus, therefore, is on you, the learner, not the facilitator (trainer).


B.Active and Positive Participation


People learn in different ways, but one thing is clear: one of the best ways that all people learn is through active and positive participation, i.e. doing, discussing, listening actively, talking, being keen and enthusiastic about what you learn.
It is important that you become actively involved in what happens during the training. Being active and positive will ensure you learn close to 100% of what there is to learn. Being passive, not participating, listening with one ear, day dreaming is a waste of your time, the facilitator's time and the company's money. You need to make the effort for learning to happen.




C.Self-Directed Learning


A component of learning is the concept of self-directed learning, that is, a student has "learned on his/her own." Research has shown that 75% of the learning that adults do is self-directional as opposed to institutional or employer provided learning. Write down the many things that you have learned on your own:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


In an training  course, because of the limited amount of class-contact time available,  you must use your initiative to determine what additional, related knowledge or skills you want to acquire, as we are not going to be able to cover "everything there is to know about effective supervision" in class.


Resources abound  and we need not deal with these hear. Suffice it to say your local college,  library are two main sources, and of course you need go no further than The Internet.  


D.An Inquiring Mind


People who have an open, inquiring mind, ready and eager to continuously learn new things are far more likely to live satisfying and successful lives than those who close their minds to the opportunities, challenges and new ideas they may encounter. 


Here is a story:
John Black, a forty five year old supervisor working in Victoria wondered why he never got promoted or increased responsibilities and he asked to see his boss. The boss invited him to meet at the local pub for a beer where he bought a jug. They began chatting and then the boss started pouring the beer into John's glass. He poured it full, and then kept pouring. John watched the frothy overflow with amazement until he could restrain himself no longer. "Can't you see, the glass is full? No more will go in," he exclaimed. "Like this glass," the boss said, "you are full of your own judgements, opinions and prejudices. I cannot help you get ahead until you empty the first glass."


A person with an inquiring mind thinks mentally and emotionally "out of the box." Try this exercise:
Connect all nine dots by drawing four straight, continuous lines without lifting your pencil or retracing a line.
· · ·


· · ·


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E.Spaced Repetition


Learning , and the behavioral change that goes with it, takes time. You have to review what you have learned time and again if you are to learn to do it well. Learning something may take weeks--sometimes months--especially if it is complex. You must repeat the process again and again with some time lapse in between. This is called "spaced repetition," and if you do review and practice, you are far more likely to significantly increase the level of your learning achievement and to "push" your new knowledge into your long-term memory. That is why  good training is usually conducted over a number of weeks , not crammed into 2-3 intensive days. 




F.Reflection and Thinking: the Importance of Doing "Nothing"


We are a nation of eager beavers. We are active all the time and feel guilty when we are not. However, an under-recognized yet invaluable way of "getting our act together," of growing and allowing ourselves to be creative, is to spend time reflecting on what we do, how we do it now, and how we can improve. There are times when it is appropriate just to sit and think!


G.Learning Domains


Learning domains are the areas in which learning takes place. When we learn, we learn three types of things:
1. Knowledge (cognitive) learning: e.g. recalling information, using rules, comparing and contrasting, problem solving.


2. Skills (psychomotor) learning: e.g. performing gross motor-skills, steering and guiding, position movement.


3. Attitude (affective) learning: e.g. learning to be empathetic, understanding, supportive.




H.Learning Techniques


There is no one way to learn. People have their preferences. Some prefer to read books, others prefer multi-media or audio-visual materials. Some like to learn in groups, while others prefer to learn at their own pace on their own.
Also, learning techniques will vary, depending upon whether you are learning new knowledge or new skills or new attitudes. If you want to learn about  welding, for example, you might best acquire new knowledge about it by reading a book or listening to a tape or a lecture. Welding skills, however, are better learned by demonstration and hands-on practice than by only reading a book.
Learning to be a more effective supervisor requires both knowledge about what you need to do, and you need to practice what you have learned to turn that knowledge into skills.
In most training  program, a number of techniques are  used. 


They are all essential to your successful learning. They include:


· Discussion and group work;


· Readings and learning activities from a  workbook and  handouts;


· Work-place skill-development activities;


· Short talks by the Facilitator.


I.Program Details


Content Areas


The following two major content areas will be emphasized:


1. Managing yourself, your work and your life in general. It is essential that you get your act together before you can help others to get their act together.


2. Helping your staff to manage themselves, their work and their lives 


J.Program Objectives


At the end of this program you will:


1. Have a clear sense of what your supervisory roles and responsibilities are and feel confident in your ability to implement them.


2. Have acquired significant new knowledge and skills in how to conduct yourself as a supervisor.


3. Be able to work effectively with other participating supervisors in a team atmosphere.


Remember before you can get full benefit from training you need to know how you learn. This short introduction may help you and others.


Michael Brooke, Ph.d is a retired university senior administrator, adult educator, corporate trainer and recruiter and published author. He spends hours a day learning from the Internet and running his businesses , the main one being Prosperity Automated System which you can see at http://www.ehomebiz.org


Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Learning-and-Training-for-Supervisors&id=107202] Learning & Training for Supervisors