Matthew Richter posts daily comments in LinkedIn—well, almost daily. You can follow him and join the conversation by going to http://linkedin.com/in/matthew-richter-0738b84.
For the benefit of our readers, we decide to compile and reprint some of his provocative pieces from the past. Let us know what you think.
Design by Committee
How many designers does it take to create a course? More and more I am running into design-by-committee projects. Rather than let a single designer create a course by themselves, using their analysis and years of experience, clients are now assembling groups of people to build a course as if it were a complex bit of code. These groups often work on consensus decisions and the course take months to design. The costs in time and resources become ridiculous, and the return is slight. First, for a professional instructional designer, rarely does a course design and development take that long. Secondly, why add complexity when none is needed? Thirdly, when you have too many chefs in the kitchen, no one cooks the dinner. I say, tell the instructional designers what you want, let the designers do whatever analysis they need, and then leave them alone until kick-off day. Getting everyone's input just muddies the picture and devalues the impact the designer can have.
Death by PowerPoint
The cliché, “death by PowerPoint” certainly has quite a bit of truth to it. Even activity-oriented trainers still rely too much on slides and visuals. If I am activity focused, I don’t need PowerPoints except as directions for the activity. My last workshop in China was a day-long program on how to innovate. There were 24 managers and executives in the room. No slides were shown and the participants at the end of the day solved a huge business issue they faced using the innovation process we shared with them in the form of a job-aid. By keeping the session completely experiential, participants were utterly engaged and we were hired on the spot to run more sessions. Slides can become a crutch to avoid facilitation. They can also become a stimulus leading to more lecture time. In summary, use slides only to facilitate engagement.
Participant Materials
How many of you as participants after a completed workshop actually refer the binders, books, or handouts given during the program? My guess is that the number will be higher than more typical audience members, but nonetheless low. I certainly understand using handouts and references during a program, but I question the tradition of killing trees for the sake of a takeaway that will eventually just collect dust. Clients, however, pay significant amounts providing these materials and I think we are doing them a disservice by selling the materials or adding them to our program cost. Especially with the simplicity today of websites and document management systems that can house reference materials at little or no cost. Materials are often distractions for stakeholders making buying decisions. Rather than focus on the experience, decisions often come down to the slickness of the workbooks. This is a wrong focal point.