One of the best training exercises I ever witnessed involved a young group of MBA students at a prestigious university. They were given 15 minutes and the challenge of teaching an eight-year old to count to ten in French. Few of the MBA students knew anything about child development or French, so it was a fun scene to watch!
Where would you start with that challenge? Offer a prize to the child? Make it a game? Talk with them first to learn about their world? Start by defining the task and outlining learning objectives?
What I clearly recall from that day is that each trio of MBA’s planned their strategy and then proceeded to bribe, convince, and experiment with different learning techniques. As you can imagine, those who threatened or coerced did the worst. Those who walked along side of the student and made it into a game with small achievable goals did the best. When they celebrated counting to three, then six, then nine and finally to ten in a foreign language, the results were amazing.
Our newsletter this month is about growth and learning. As you think about leading your team toward better horizons, think about those innocent eight-year-olds. Make the learning interesting, challenging and fun. Break the learning into small components and remember to celebrate the small victories along the way!
Bon Voyage on Your Learning Journey!
Tom
