Training and Patience

My neighbour loves dogs. Unfortunately she doesnt know how to handle them. As a result she keeps them tied up because she doesnt have the patience to deal with unwelcome behavior. The key with all kinds of training is patience. The problem with the human and other mammal brains is that our existing cognizance is always at war with new information and hence the methods that we adopt to introduce new information is critical.

I've often met other trainers who feel an obligation to pack an overdose of subject matter into the space of 1 hour. The problem is that considering that the brain needs this information in a variety of formats, (visual, hearing and feeling) an overkill of information, presented without stimulation is often ineffective.

The secret of "learner centered" training is for the trainer to remove the hat of an SME and wear the hat of sensitive facilitator for a while. To be able to adjust to mixed ability and to recognize need to consider stimulation for visual, auditory and kinesthetic intelligences is key whether the training is for dogs or for human beings.

I have been extremely passionate about recognizing the need to create intrinsic motivation amongst students by first satisfying their extrinsic needs. A simple analogy I make is my method of training my dog. Sparky loves food and would do anything to get a treat. I keep giving him treats while training and he is quick to understand that if he learns a skill quickly enough, he'd get what he wants. His extrinsic motivation for food, drives his intrinsic motivation to learn. While that may be too generic an example to apply to adult learning, it still underscores some of my strong beliefs about training and education and my passion for being able to fuel training based on collective WIIFMs of participants.