Use Validated5 Activities as Templates
Recently, at a train-the-trainer workshop, I conducted an activity called the Top Response. This is what I did:
I asked the participants to briefly write an eager expectation they have for the workshop on a piece of paper. They should fold this piece of paper to hide what they wrote and exchange it with someone else. Without opening the paper, they should continue exchanging the folded pieces of papers with others. After about six exchanges, I asked the participants to stop what they were doing, open the folded piece of paper they are currently holding, and silently read the expectation written on it.
For the next step, I asked the participants to make a prediction of what would be the most frequently written expectation. This need not be what they wrote or what was written on the piece of paper they are holding. I encouraged any volunteer to stand up and announce the prediction. After this, I asked the participants who had the same expectation (or a synonymous statement) on the current piece of paper to raise their hand. I quickly counted the number of raised hands and announced the result.
I did stop there. I invited anyone else who was convinced he or she could make a higher-frequency prediction to stand up and make an announcement. I repeated counting the participants with this expectation. I repeated inviting more predictions for six or seven rounds.
Finally, I collected all the pieces of paper and explained why I conducted the Top Response: It was my sneaky approach for a quick needs-analysis. I reviewed the top predictions and conducted a discussion on how I and my participants could collaboratively reach these eager expectations.
Rehash
A week ago, I did a training session how to give effective feedback. I began the session by asking the participants to write an expectation on a piece of paper, fold the paper, and so on. You can predict what I did later in this activity.
A few months ago, I moderated a panel of experts on immunization for eradicating maternal and neonatal tetanus. Before the session began, I asked each participant (a medical officer from a developing nation) to write a pressing question to be answered by the panel members during the presentation. When I completed the Top Responses activity, the presenters had a good feel for what the audience members wanted to know.
Save the Activity, Change the Content
Early in my naïve youth, I collected as many different training activities as possible. Several years later, I discovered an important principle: I should not count the number of training activities, but I should make a few effective activities count. I began searching for activities that the participants enjoyed and learned from. I saved the structure of each activity and changed its training content. The activities became templates for different versions that incorporated different training topics. This is what happened in the case of the Top Responses variations presented above.
Other Variations
Switching the training content is one approach for making maximum use of an activity. There are few other approaches:
Chronology. We can make minor changes in the structure of an activity to use it at the beginning of a training session as a preview or needs analysis as in the above samples. We can also use the activity at the end of a training session to provide a review or action planning. Logically, we can slightly modify the activity for use in the middle of a session to review what happened before and to plan what should happen next.
Logistics. We can tweak a training activity for use with large groups, small groups, or individuals. We can reprocess the activity to work as a team game. We can compress the activity to be conducted in 5 minutes or expand it for an hour.
Delivery System. We can facilitate an activity in an instructor-led session. We can also use the activity in a training webinar as a virtual classroom exercise. We can also use the activity as an asynchronous e-learning exercise.
Getting Redundant
Let me rehash the point I am making: If you take a single validated training activity and multiply it into hundreds of useful variants by switching the content. You can also increase the use of the original activity by tweaking its mechanics to accommodate available resources and constraints. In my website, you will find about 400 training activities. If you deconstruct the core structure of each and play with this structure, you may end up with 4000 personally useful designs.
Let me repeat the principle I use (and train others to use) in designing training packages in a faster and cheaper fashion to produce more effective learning and application: If you have discovered an effective training activity, repurpose it to content other content and modify it to handle other contexts.