They each had a list of steps to follow.
- Read the instructions
- Decide roles
- Lead the group through the instructions
- Debrief the activity
- Twenty-five people joined breakout rooms to decipher my instructions. Their task? Lead class for the rest of the day. The next six hours would be guided by their choices. They would start the activities. They would field questions. They would decided when things were done. They would have guidelines and timelines and suggestions. I would be there. But what would they do?
They went to their break rooms and I held my breath waiting to see what would happen. How many requests for help would I have? Would they even know what to ask? Was this a really bad idea?
Telling Ain’t Training
It’s easy, especially in the virtual training environment, to confuse presenting information with training people how to perform their jobs. We know better. We’ve know for years that Telling Ain’t Training. (Read the book, it’s a classic.)
Letting a group with disparate experience, skill, and knowledge take over class was stressful. It wasn’t without mistakes and missteps. But that was also the point. We don’t learn to do something until we do that something.
The person doing the most talking, or moving, or writing, is doing the most learning.
Sharon Bowman
The first group set the bar for the rest of the groups. I provided feedback to the entire group, not pointed at the first group because I knew the next groups would struggle with some of the same things the first group did. That’s learning.
In his book, Beginners, Tom Vanderbilt says that a toddler learning to walk will fall an average of 17 times.
Handing class over to participants gave them opportunity to fall. How I handled that falling was my most important job of the day. It was my responsibility to ensure they felt safe to fall. No reaction. No cushioning them. Just a little coaching when it was necessary. A little reassurance that they could try again. And again.
Prepared To Make Mistakes
The greatest gift of the day came in our final debrief. Someone chimed in that having made a number of mistakes, she felt more prepared to make the same mistakes with an audience.
Yes!
Trying something in training that you’ve never done before is a humanizing process. It’s a reminder of just what. you DON’T know as well as reassurance that you aren’t in it alone. The solidarity of beginners trying things to gather makes it safe and real and success more likely.
Flipping the classroom or just handing over one activity for learners to lead can create opportunity for learners to more deeply engage with content.
Let Them Fail
Trainers like you and me often work to make things easy and safe. In doing that we are also missing the opportunity for our learners to fail. That failure is critical to their success. Research reveals it over and over and over again.
In the wise words of Sharon Bowman, “the person doing the most talking, or moving, or writing, is doing the most learning!”
Are you giving learners an opportunity to fail? How can you build in more failure opportunities in the classes you lead?
