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Showing posts with the label Learning and Development

How I Turn From Learn Nothing to Learn Everything

There's a Zen story in which a professor visited a Japanese master to inquire about Zen. The master served tea. When the visitor's cup was full, the master kept pouring. Tea spilled out of the cup and over the table. "The cup is full!" said the professor. "No more will go in!" "Like this cup," said the master, "You are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?" If you want to understand and learn, you need to empty your cup.  So how do people empty their cup when they go for training courses?  From experience in conducting in-house trainings for over 440 companies and over 81,131 people in 14 countries since 1996, there are 7 ways to empty your cup:  (click here for list of courses) (For slides, read here ) Learn with an Open Mind . Do not hold any fixed ideas before the course.  Like the parachute, the mind is only useful when it is open.  Opening your mind also mean...

Hard and Soft in Training and the Best Training Structure

People often asked me how a good training program be structured. To me it should be 70/30: 70% hard, 30% soft.  Hard means the tactics and detailed how-to while soft means the motivational and inspirational aspects . For we know that without the motivational aspect, the trainees would not want to take action.  Without the detailed 'How-to', they too cannot take action, that's why you need both.  For example, our typical sales training (like How to Close Every Sale ) will include 89 tactics to overcome objections and close sales.  However, it also covers the inspirational aspect, the 'why' and purpose of sales closing.  Experience shows that this approach will satisfy 80% of the attendees, while the remaining 20% people need different structure.  No matter what, a good training program should cover the following structure: Current challenges faced and the root cause of the challenges Why this approach can help to resolve the challenges Definition o...