team building Archives - Empowered Development Consulting

To Truly Understand Some Lack of Embarrassment is Key

February 6, 2023December 21, 2022 by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments

Why are kids so good at asking why? As adults, we also want to know why, but crucial differences between kids and us get in the way of really understanding why (or why we don’t) seek the answer. So whether you want to know why visitors to your museum are not coming back after their first visit or wonder why employee satisfaction is down, the keys lie in cultivating our inner child to get to the answer to both simple and complex questions. Kids’ lack of embarrassment is a key factor in their strengths in exploring the world around them. Toddlers and small children are not embarrassed about not knowing something. We, as adults, are terrified to look stupid in front of others. We are socialized to think that we are stupid if we don’t know something. Unfortunately, years of schooling and working in teams have provided plenty of experiences that enforced this idea. We may remember once asking why and...

I Ask AI for the Top Ten Tips to Train Your Employees

January 23, 2023December 21, 2022 by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments

Read the full post here. I recently wrote about what AI (ChatGPT) thinks are the ten most important practices in program evaluation, and when doing that, I was surprised at how accurate I found the results. This got me thinking. What would AI say are the top ten tips for training your employees? ChatGPT is a chatbot that uses GPT-3, a large language model developed by OpenAI, to generate natural-sounding responses to user input. It can engage in open-ended conversations on various topics and provide information on specific subjects if trained on relevant data. Here is what it said when I asked it the following question: “What are ten tips for training your employees?” AI's Top Ten Tips for Training Your Employees Clearly communicate the goals and objectives of the training.Make sure the training is relevant to the employees’ roles and responsibilities.Create a positive learning environment.Use a variety of training methods to accommodate different learning styles.Provide ample opportunities for employees to practice and apply...

The Myth of Learning Styles

June 20, 2022June 6, 2022 by Meghan Schiedel1 Comment

Have you ever been taught something that seemed to make so much sense, and you accepted it as the “truth” only to later find out that it was false? I recently had that realization with Learning styles. When I was in grad school in 2008, learning styles were taught as the gospel truth. They are now so widely accepted that we don’t stop to question them when they are referenced. Did you know there is no credible evidence that learning styles exist?! In their article, The Myth of Learning Styles in Change The Magazine of Higher Learning (Riener, Willingham August 2010), Cedar Riener, assistant professor of psychology at Randolph-Macon College, and Daniel Willingham, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, break down this deeply held educational myth. It has me questioning everything! Not only is there no actual research supporting learning styles, but they also support racist, classist, and ableist views of learners. So why have they persisted for so...

Reflecting on Practice

June 7, 2022June 6, 2022 by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments

Recently, I held up my clock to a mirror. It was time for reflection– I am sorry; I couldn’t help myself! I have often been thinking about the role of reflection in training and staff development. This winter, I completed a professional learning program called Reflecting on Practice(RoP).* This program aims to allow informal educators to dive into the latest science on learning within a cohort model. The RoP project’s goals are to put research ideas into practice, transform its participants, and promote a culture of learning. This train-the-trainer model allows the program to reach millions of people in out-of-school settings like botanical gardens, museums, national parks, nature centers, and zoos every year. I found this program to be transformative because it fully embraced the social aspect of learning and professional development. The cohort model allows for many opportunities to interact in small groups or one-on-one with peers. The framework that they present is social as well. Educators are encouraged to enable...

How to Develop Training Objectives

May 9, 2022April 6, 2022 by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments

After reading the last post on the power of objective-based training, I hope I have you convinced it is worth your time to create and use objectives to drive your training. You might now be asking yourself, “how do I start when writing training objectives?” You want clear, concise objectives; for this, I love the ABCD model presented by The University of Connecticut’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. This acronym stands for audience, behavior, condition, and degree. Audience When thinking about your audience, you will want to consider who is coming to your training and what are their academic and experience backgrounds. You may also want to consider what are their cultural and linguistic backgrounds. For the objective statement, you will most likely use a noun like participants or attendees. Behavior Behavior is the part of the objective that describes what you will observe and measure. You want to strive to use the most accurate and specific verb. Vague verbs like know or understand are nearly...

The Power of Objective-Based Training

April 25, 2022April 6, 2022 by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments

How many times have you been to a training where the instructor or facilitator dives right into the material, and you are so confused about what will be covered and why you are even trying to learn this in the first place? I know I have been to many of those and have, unfortunately, probably led a few of them too. That was before I started using objective-based training. Objective-based trainings are trainings designed around desired outcomes or objectives. These trainings clearly state the goals, identifying what trainees should be able to do after completing the training. Here are the three reasons I love this style of training so much. First... Objectives force an instructor to get real with the constraints they are dealing with for a specific training. Many outcomes that you might want are entirely unreasonable if you do a one-hour virtual training. The outcomes shape what you will teach, but the constraints shape your results.Things to consider when looking...

To Remote or Not to Remote; That is the question.

February 28, 2022February 21, 2022 by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments

As the COVID-19 global pandemic continues to shift and change, companies are left wondering whether or not to allow teams to continue remote work or to mandate a return to the office either in a full or hybrid model. A recent study in the journal Nature Human Behavior explored remote work's impact on over 61,000 Microsoft employees. Here are some of the key findings: Organization-wide remote work reduced the collaboration network of workers.The reduction decreased new connections and worsened "siloed" connections. The timing of communication shifted from synchronous communication to more asynchronous communication. The issue is complex. Although the study discusses some significant limitations and reinforces the need for future research, it is clear that these three critical challenges with remote work may make it harder for employees to collaborate. The end goal of the collaboration is the ability to acquire and share new information across the network, and this study indicates the changes that exist in this area. Companies must also weigh the benefits of remote...

Improv’s “Yes and…” to Improve Brainstorming

February 14, 2022February 14, 2022 by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments

I have always loved brainstorming. There was a time when my team seemed to sour on brainstorming, and I was heartbroken. I was determined to understand why. With a few minor tweaks, I improved the quality of our brainstorms and decreased resistance to them. Have you ever been in a brainstorming session where ideas seem to propagate more great ideas, and the energy in the room feels like it is sizzling? Picture that brainstorm session, and now picture a brainstorm that you have been at that felt awful. When done poorly, brainstorming sessions can drain the energy from the room and have a lasting impact on morale. How do you develop a team that is good at brainstorming? Here are a few of my favorite ideas: 1. Practice “yes and” skills through improv. By playing improv games that encourage your team to practice a “yes and” mentality, you will create a team that can take risks and is resilient when brainstorming. This article lists some...

Barriers to New Things

January 31, 2022February 1, 2022 by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments

Recently I tried a new product, detergent strips. They were great, and I think I’m a convert from conventional liquid or powder detergent. I couldn’t help thinking, why did it take me so long to try these! They are much more environmentally friendly, extremely efficient, and take up hardly any space on my laundry room shelf. So why did it take so long to try them, and what can we learn from this when thinking about training and staff development. Knowledge of a Different Way The first thing is the knowledge that there is a different way of doing things. These laundry strips are not sold at the grocery store and are still relatively unknown. Because of that, one of the barriers to starting to use them was even knowing they existed. I can’t remember where I heard about them first, but the company had to spend money to help get the word out that this even was an option when thinking...

Improv to Build Resilience

December 27, 2021November 16, 2021 by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments

With the rise of social media, we forget how edited everything that we see often is. It appears that creators are doing one take, and they're done, right? My husband is a social media content creator. He often gets a lot of criticism that his job is easy and he should be putting out more content. What they don't realize is that it usually takes hours of multiple takes and then lots of editing to create the final product. TEDx and standup specials are also great examples of media that we are exposed to subconsciously erodes our confidence. TEDx and standup specials are highly scripted, rehearsed, and edited but appear off the cuff or improvisational. These polished final projects that we are bombarded with constantly eat away at our Resilience. They send our brain the message that you should present to peers or clients flawlessly every time. The truth is that you will make mistakes when giving, and it is...