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.
Logistics
Training logistics get in the way of good training design. Too often, I encounter limitations in time, space, location, and of course, money before we even have a conversation about the desired outcomes for the intervention.
“Matthew, we need a program on this topic on this date for three hours at this location within this budget.”
This is foolish. Sure, I understand that logistics pragmatically will have their effect on design and delivery. Of course. But (and this is a huge but)they should never enter the conversation until the outcomes have been identified. They should, only be discussed after the ideal design has been created. Once the design exists, then the designer should consider how resource constraints affect the program. Logistics should never dictate design.
Five Tips to Overcome Boredom
1. Turn it into a game. Make the boring lecture an activity in your head. Count the times the professor says a certain word or see if you can anticipate the next sentence or subject of the boring lecture.
2. Create a set of five or more follow-up questions that dig deeper into the topic. You may never ask them, but the act of creating them will focus you on listening more.
3. Identify the value to you. Now it is a game to figure out why you care. Take this seriously!
4. Ask questions. Whether you use the questions developed via Tip 2 or come up with immediately relevant ones in the moment. the act of asking questions will keep you engaged.
5. Acknowledge you are bored and get over it. Accept the reality and don’t make excuses. So, you are bored. Now pay attention! S
These are the five tips I shared with my daughter. What tips do you have?
Boredom
Earlier, I shared some tips for the learner that I gave to my 14-year old daughter. “Accept being bored” was one of them. While I tell trainers they better be interesting and fully engage learners, I strongly believe that if learners cannot learn when bored, they are doing themselves a major disservice. Not all worthy educational endeavors will be engaging. The trainer or teacher just won’t do it. Or, the material is intrinsically painful to learn. Regardless, the good learner will accountably manage her ennui and muddle through somehow. Boring is all around us. We are too stimulated by our phones, the internet, serial TV, and so many other things, that what was once mildly interesting can in contrast now be extremely tedious. Learners still need to own their own education and find ways to focus. I would never advise trainers and teachers to kill their participants through tedium. But I will tell learners that they will have to deal with bad teachers and horrible trainers and painful instructional design. But these facts don’t limit their inherent value sometimes. So to all of us learners, deal with boredom!