What I Have Learned From Puppets and Why Use Them for Learning - Workshop Tip #229

Oh boy, oh boy, I must be losing my mind. I have been caught up with a lot of puppets. In fact, I am building my own! So, where is my fascination coming from?

I have been studying puppets and contemplating how they relate to stories and how we are able to use them in our learning designs.

A few days ago, I found this funny series of YouTube videos by Awkward Puppets. Its cast consists mainly of puppets and each video features stereotypical situations and experiences of Diego, a regular American-Mexican guy. In this one particular video, it showed how he was able to earn easy money when he was mistakenly thought to be the guest performer at the Bar Mitzvah. Click here to play video.

So why do I think puppets can be highly effective tools in teaching and training? Let me share with you my insights.

1. Puppets directly represent real people and our stories - the light and the dark ones. They are often used in parody or satire because it feels “safer” to do so. Oftentimes, it is easier and more palatable for people to watch puppets discuss delicate and sensitive issues when wrapped in exaggeratedly humorous skits. The topics that puppets can get away with are those that we usually can’t when we use actual human beings because they may be too controversial or negative for some.

2. Using puppets allows you to organize and manage the learning experience.  Planning and implementing a well-thought-out script can help you to have a better control of the session flow. During the planning stage, you get to decide on a theme, what persona to use, your tone of voice, timing and delivery, and other facets of the webinar. It is a medium for enhancement. Employing puppets in your webinars helps learners learn better as it facilitates faster and easier delivery of your messaging.

3. What I have learned from building and studying puppetry is that it is a real and elegant form of art. Working with puppets and the process of facilitating learning and training are very similar. They both require methodology, technique, and skills that need to be learned and practiced.

Bringing puppets into play can help boost the entertainment value of your webinars. But personally, it is so much more than that. Puppets enable us to express our human desires, vision and passion, frailties, challenges, and crises that we go through in a safe mode. Therefore, it promotes a more open and free discussion, sharing of insights, and learning. Let us explore how puppets can be our tools in story-based design, virtual training, and in other learning platforms.

Ray Jimenez, PhD

Vignettes Learning

"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

Make Your Learners Happy - Workshop Tip #225

During webinars, we listen in and learn with a closed group of people, yet establishing a connection is difficult. Moreso, for virtual trainers. When I say connection, I refer to engaging conversations, building rapport and trust, and expressing empathy. How do you think the ability to truly connect with others affects one’s learning process?

Technology has paved the way for people to “connect” with each other, regardless of distance. It opened a lot of easy, fast, and cost-saving opportunities to communicate, build networks, learn, and do work. But it is not without a downside. In her book, Alone Together, Sherry Turkle describes how technology has dramatically changed how we do and define social interaction. We seem to have fallen prey to the illusion of quantity instead of quality relationships and connections.

We are naturally built to interact with other people and benefit from these social interactions. David Brooks in his book Social Animals believed that most of our skills are learned from each other. Knowledge is handed down from one generation to the next through socialization. Understanding the importance of socialization and learning how to incorporate it into our webinars can immensely benefit trainers. It positively impacts the way they conduct webinars and ultimately the learners. But with the very limited time that we have, are we really able to socialize and build trust?

Why is socialization important?

In all my years of experience in doing webinars or virtual training, I realized that utilizing the usual tools in webinars like chat, annotation, polls, video, and others can engage learners. However, there is so much value in adding learning moments through pre- and post-webinar activities. I want to excite learners! I want to make it a fun and memorable learning experience not just for them but for me as well. I discovered that these learning moments are great ways to stimulate and prepare their minds for the key topics (pre-webinar activity) and to boost engagement during the webinar. Likewise, it encourages them to reflect and focus on the application of ideas learned (post-webinar activity). In between these activities is the perfect opportunity to “loosen” up the learning and work on socializing, building trust, rapport, and expressing empathy and encouragement.

We learn better

In a study done by Prof. Matthew Lieberman from UCLA, he discovered that when we learn with the purpose of sharing the knowledge with others, we learn better than when we try to learn just for ourselves. According to his research, being more social is the secret to becoming smarter, more productive, and happier. Notice how team collaboration and brainstorming especially in small groups often produce better ideas and solutions. It’s the same thing when we blend in group discovery challenges or break out Zoom sessions for a smaller group of 3-5 participants. You’ll discover more opportunities for socialization. Ideas are more focused. The discussion is more open.

We build relationships

Socialization, whether it’s in-person or virtually, helps in building our own trusted networks. It also strengthens our existing relationship with family, friends, peers, bosses, and others. Consequently, built relationships enjoy more meaningful conversations and context is easily understood. It is only through close encounters and conversations that we develop empathy, rapport, and trust. Socialization helps us to reach a certain level of comfort where shared ideas and knowledge are easily transferred and understood. Mentoring sessions for projects is another method that I use in my virtual training/workshop sessions. Everyone is assigned a mentor to check on their submitted projects and to guide them by providing feedback. They also motivate and challenge learners to try other approaches to applying ideas. This process of mentoring or apprenticeship, exchanging of inputs and experiences, challenges participants to finish their own projects. It is so engaging and powerful because it creates a natural bond between mentor and mentee.

Smaller groups, deeper connection

Click here to zoom image

The illustration above sums up the gist of this article. Bigger doesn’t always mean better. Break down the number of learners in smaller groups while inserting the most appropriate learning moments to open up more opportunities for deeper connection and socialization. Work on establishing their trust and your relatability through sharing of experiences and engaging learning activities, then you become more credible as a trainer/facilitator. It makes it easier for learners to relate to the lessons and ideas. For them, the information you share is considered reliable. Therefore, knowledge learned is no longer superficial but rather deeply embedded to their minds that when the need arises, they could easily refer back to it and use it. Excite their minds and reinforce learning by adding these learning moments to your next webinars.

Ray Jimenez, PhD
Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

Overcoming Pre-Work Avoidance Syndrome - Workshop Tip #224

Have you ever been on an airline flight where you are crammed in between other people? Do you feel like you’re sardines in a can, just waiting for the plane to land so you can get out?

Likewise, when we cram loads of content into our learning sessions, it leaves no room for our learners to mentally “stretch their legs” and reflect on what they’re learning. This “sardine can effect” restricts a full learning experience.

Pre-Work Avoidance Causes

Learners typically avoid doing any sort of pre-work. Why is that? One reason is that we have created a culture of events-based learning. These learning events are conducted outside of the workflow with a start and stop time. Training classes and webinars are examples. Events-based learning creates an expectation that learning takes place only during the learning event.

The Cure

Michael Allen and others assert that learning extends beyond formal training events. There is a need to support spaced learning to allow time for reflection, application, contextualization, and reinforcement. Moving beyond the events-based approach gives learners time to consider:

• What am I going to learn?
• What problem, opportunity, or improvement does it address?
• Where/how can I apply what I learn?

As trainers/designers, we need to shift our mindset from only focusing on the learning event to creating ways to provide learning moments that highlight learner expectations. This includes:

• Understanding our role in helping learners solve problems
• Ensuring we give them the answers and solutions they need
• Reinforcing ideas so learners can apply them successfully at work

How to Structure Your Webinar

Structure your webinar into three phases in order to add activities for maximizing learning.

Phase 1: Pre-Webinar: Identify the problem

Phase 2: During Webinar: Discuss and focus on how to figure out the solutions

Phase 3: Post-Webinar: Ensure they are able to apply the ideas

Make your activities intentional, relevant, and fun. Name your activities pre-webinar and post-webinar. Pre-webinar activities help learners identify the problem and reflect on potential solutions by drawing on their own insights and experiences. Post-webinar activities allow learners to find ways to apply what they’ve learned.

Tips for your next webinar:

• A short burst of provocative knowledge prior to the webinar includes a two to three-minute video or short reading. During the webinar, connect their insights to the key ideas of the lesson.

• Immersive learning asks learners to delve down into more in-depth activities that take 30 minutes or less.

- Self-Assessments

- Games

- Critical thinking

- Small projects

• Incentivize learners by recognizing small efforts for completing the pre- and post-webinar activities. Applying the “nudge theory” helps foster a culture that is open to learning and feedback.

- Award certificates or badges

- Announce completion of tasks during the webinar

- Use their insights to illustrate a learning point

• Alerts work best when doing a series of webinars. Alerts are triggered when a learner comments on an activity. The alert is sent to all participants. Alerts stimulate conversations and provide recognition for the learners.

In summary, pre-and post-webinar activities allow learners the freedom to learn independent of the event. The activities must be structured so learners can reflect on and apply what they’re learning. In doing so, we avoid the “sardine can effect” of content cramming and apply a practical cure for “Pre-Work Avoidance Syndrome.”

Ray Jimenez, PhD
Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

Why Keeping Your Language Casual Works in Webinars - Tip 214

The 2018 State of Attention [Infographic] by Pezi, shows that 95% of business professionals say they multitask during meetings. Over 4 in 5 business professionals shifted their focus away from the speaker in the most recent presentation they watched. Presentations are what make or break events. How do you keep your learners hooked to what you’re saying?

To be able to engage the participants and to get your point across in the most impactful way possible are the ultimate goals of every virtual presenter, trainer or facilitator worth his salt. Unlike in-person or face-to-face presentations where we can employ eye to eye contact, facial expressions, hand gestures or body movements to effectively communicate our ideas, we are limited to visual aids and our verbal communication skills. This is exactly why during virtual presentations, we need to be mindful of our tone of voice and most importantly, the type of language we use.

Formal vs. Informal Language

We apply formal and informal language in different situations. The tone of formal language is less personal, rigid, and systematic. Whereas, informal language is casual and more personal. In doing my webinars, I prefer the usage of informal language because it makes it easier for the participants to relate and engage with me on the topics I’m presenting. Can you imagine how awkward or difficult it would be to establish rapport with your audience or show your personality to them when you speak too formally?

Why does casual, informal language work in webinars? Here are my thoughts.

It sparks conversations

As Leech and Svartvik (2002) put it, “informal language (also called colloquial) is the language of ordinary conversation.” The reasons why I advocate the use of interactive stories and thought-provoking questions are the same reasons I encourage keeping the language casual during the virtual presentation - to spark conversations and to initiate virtual engagement through experience sharing. Master virtual trainers and presenters know how to make their audience feel as if they are just having a friendly conversation with friends but at the same time are able to achieve the learning objectives of the session.

It facilitates faster exchange of ideas

Maintaining a casual webinar environment where informal language is encouraged facilitates a faster exchange of ideas. Simplify ideas by using keywords. Bring context by sharing everyday real-life stories. Also, narrate relatable anecdotes. People respond better when you "speak in their language." Formal terminologies and highfalutin words may make you sound clever but will they help in sending your intended message across? Most probably not. It should always be about effectively communicating content and bringing context to your audience. Not them, spending unnecessary time and effort on the correctness of their language.

Conclusion

A master virtual trainer or presenter has to be agile, flexible and relatable. Never mind the small imperfections or the informality in language because most of the time, this informality is the appropriate solution to avoid your audience being “lost in translation.” But of course, too much of anything can have its downside. Therefore, find the right balance between keeping it casual and still having a strong virtual presence so you don’t lose control of your session. Let me know what you think. Share your insights and comments below.

References

[Infographic] The 2018 State of Attention

Geoffrey Leech, Jan Svartvik (2002).A Communicative Grammar of English, Third Edition

Tip #137 - How to be a Kung-Fu Webinar and Virtual Trainer Master

Ray Jimenez, PhD
Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"