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Acknowledgments
This book would not be in your hands without the resourceful people who took time to share 101 of their most creative ideas. Thank you to all contributors. Sharing your best inspires me and will motivate readers to incorporate your activities into their learning sessions. I am pleased to publish your name on your contribution's page.
An extra special thank you goes out to the Above and Beyond Band of Achievers (ABBA) who tweeted, texted, and called their colleagues; contributed extra activities; volunteered to help; and were involved in 101 other ways: Wendy Axelrod, Peter Garber, Barbara Glacel, Karen Lawson, Lynne Lazaroff, Dawn Mahoney, Renie McClay, Kella Price, Kimberly Seeger, Tracy Tagliati, Shannon Tipton, and Amy Tolbert. I appreciate your extra help to make this volume excellent.
The Wiley people who are behind the scenes but up front with expertise include Matt Davis for reviving the series and production editor Chaitanya Mella.
Introduction: Getting the Most from this Resource
You can tell people what they need to know very fast. But they will forget what you tell them even faster. People are more likely to understand what they figure out for themselves than what you figure out for them.
—Mel Silberman
It's been 10 years since Mel Silberman's second edition of 101 Ways to Make Training Active, and exactly 20 years since the first edition. So it is fitting that 2015 has been selected for the third edition.
Mel's staunch advocates are still following his active learning concepts and contributing to the profession to ensure that participants have the opportunity to figure things out for themselves and transfer their knowledge and skills back to the workplace.
Mel's unwavering support is based on the fact that his concepts work. Training is “active” when the learners do most of the work. Learners consider the content, solve problems, make decisions, and practice the skills. This ensures that they are ready to apply what they learned once they return to the workplace or wherever they intend to use their newly acquired skills and knowledge.
What's new? All of the activities are new. Unlike editions one and two where many of the tried and true activities and tips were the same, everything in edition three is new. We've tapped the experts in the field to help. Due to the unwavering support of Mel's concepts by a legion of followers, we have invited others to contribute to this book and join in sharing how they make training active. Facilitators, coaches, designers, e-learning experts, trainers, and others responded and contributed their techniques to this book. Many have come full circle, giving Mel's concepts and ideas credit for the spinoff idea. You will find their names associated with their contributions.
What is “active” training? You can tell you are in an “active” classroom because participants are out of their seats, moving about, sharing ideas, and totally involved—both mentally and physically. Active training is fast-paced, fun, and personally engaging for learners. 101 Ways to Make Training Active contains specific, practical techniques that can be used for almost any topic area. The activities are designed to enliven, engage, and ensure that learners are involved in their own learning.
When well-developed, a live-classroom environment has the ability to motivate learners in special ways, including a personal engagement with a caring facilitator, the social recognition and reinforcement of the learner's peers, and the dramatic presentation of content. Yet, most of us no longer rely on only classroom delivery, so the online learning that we all deliver also needs to be active. With a bit of tweaking, other formats can be equally enhanced with the techniques in this book.
Although this collection is based on learning in a classroom, many of the activities and tips also work in an online setting. In some cases the contributor shares that information. Because classroom delivery is not the only option, a second companion resource, 101 Ways to Make Learning Beyond the Classroom Active, focuses on alternative learning events that occur outside a classroom setting: coaching, online, informal, and others.
How This Book Is Organized
Top Ten Lists
The contents begin with Mel's famous “Top Ten Lists.” Like edition one and two, this edition features 200+ all new tips. We are excited that Karen Lawson, who worked on the first two editions, was willing to go back in time to reminisce about Mel's favorite tips. It's a great way to start this section. The rest of the list is arranged to some degree in the order that you, as a facilitator, might use these tips starting with 10 tips to open an active learning session to 10 options to close an active learning session. Between you will find 10 tips to become an engaging facilitator, 10 storytelling tips, 10 strategies for forming groups, and 10 ways to address challenging situations. You will also find these lists on the matching website so that you will be able to download them and keep them within easy reach while you are designing or while you are in front of a classroom.
101 Ways
The 101 techniques described in this book are divided into five sections. Each is described here to help you know where to find the technique that will be most beneficial. Again, the techniques are arranged to some degree in the order that you, as a facilitator, might use the techniques.
Open Every Session Actively
This section contains icebreakers, introduction techniques, ways to identify participant needs, and other kinds of opening activities. These activities provide you with techniques to start your learning sessions off right—with participants taking an active role right from the start.
Icebreakers and Introductions: introduces participants to each other and the content; reveals participant expertise and experiences with the content; offers opportunities for participant to be involved and speak early.
Identifying Participant Expectations: facilitates cooperation and understanding of participant attitudes and current level of skills and knowledge; helps to clarify what will and will not happen in the session; tips off facilitator about the potential need to adjust the delivery plan.
Delivering Active Learning
This section contains techniques that can be used throughout a learning session. The activities remind you of the critical elements to keep learning active: how to get participants involved, tie the content to the real world, allow for practice, and encourage participants to share what they know with their peers.
Connecting Learning to the Workplace: ensures that throughout the learning session you have ways to remind learners that it's all about what they take back to the workplace that counts.
Engaging Participants in Learning: reminds us that engagement equals learning and that using unique techniques is a great way to garner engagement.
Enhance Learning with Practice: acknowledges that practice is the best way to enable learning, especially when you are able to set up the classroom with practical situations that learners will face upon their return to the workplace.
Learn with Your Peers: recognizes the value that all learners bring to the classroom based on their expertise and experience; helps participants sort out what they understand, what they still need to learn, and what questions they may have as they lead their own learning.
Content to Support Active Learning
This section presents specific content for the most common topics delivered: communication, diversity, leadership, and teamwork. The content works well as a part of a session with the same title or built into another type of learning session. For example the communication activities could be a part of a managerial skills session as new managers learn the import part that communication plays in their role as a manager.
Communication: offers content ideas and twists to the one skill that most of us still need to work on; introduces the importance of stories and words in communication; expands awareness of generational differences and challenges we all face.
Diversity and Inclusion: provides new ideas and activities for a topic our organizations continue to struggle with.
Leadership: suggests ideas to develop skills for leaders at all levels; addresses a topic plaguing most organizations with a shortage of prepared leaders for the future; offers a mix of skills and reflection.
Teamwork and Team Building: provides a nice mix of skill development, knowledge of teamwork, and building a team when things are not working as well as they should.
Tools to Facilitate Active Learning
This section offers an assortment of tools that can be used in almost any area and with any content: energizers when energy is lagging, experiential learning to allow participants to experience the learning, feedback to give and receive advice and opinions, ideas to stimulate discussion, and tips for the logistics of juggling a successful classroom.
Energizers: ideas to keep learners active and participating, even during the afternoon doldrums with unique ideas you won't find anywhere else.
Experiential Learning: develops your repertoire of methods to give learners opportunities to experience the learning; easy to adapt to any topic and still maintain the format.
Feedback: offers means to build learners' skill by receiving recommendations and advice to improve in a safe environment.
Manage a Classroom: addresses challenges of every sort including moving participants into groups, bringing participants back on time, addressing difficult participants and situations, and facilitating an environment that considers learners' needs.
Stimulate Discussion: introduces ideas to encourage dialogue and conversation to help participants sort through what is meaningful to them and what to implement upon the return to their workplace.
Closing and Follow-Up for Active Learning
This section goes beyond the classroom. It ensures that you have ideas and tools to conclude a learning session so that participants reflect and review what they have learned and how they can apply it back on the job. Numerous ways to practice, analyze, and internalize the content are presented.
Application: delivers creative ways to help learners determine how they will apply the knowledge and skills from the session; offers support and planning for the return to the real world and challenges them to think through the possibilities.
Closing Practice and Review: offers one last time for learners to review what they learned or practice skills before returning to the workplace; offers approaches that work for various types of employees.
Closing Summaries and Evaluation: presents ideas for how to bring it all together and to prioritize critical facts and ideas; ensures that themes are clarified and feedback is offered about the session.
Transfer Learning Actions: transfers support after the session is over through groups, pairs, and other ways to keep the learning alive; ensures that what was learned is not “shelved” for implementation at another time, but applied immediately.
Activity Design
Each of the 101 strategies is arranged in a similar format, making it easy for you to go directly to the element that you need. Six elements describe each of the 101 activities:
Overview: a statement about the purpose of the strategy and the setting and situation in which it is appropriate.
Participants: number of participants that the author suggests is appropriate for the strategy and in some cases a definition of the type or level of employee that is required.
Procedure: step-by-step instructions about how to use the strategy and things to remember to make it successful.
Debrief: suggested questions or actions you can use to bring the activity to a close. This may be the most important part of the activity. The debriefing should ensure that participants understand the content and are able to transfer it to the workplace.
Variations: suggested alternatives for ways to use the strategy.
Case Examples: situations in which the strategy has been used to help you visualize how it can be implemented.
Whether you use the 10 Tips lists or the 101 strategies, they serve to build a range of “active learning” methods and offer tools to design the best active learning sessions possible.
200 Tips to Make Training Active and Learning Successful
