I cannot help writing about ARL again. See my previous post Forget about ‘Training’. The more I think about it, the more I find it making a lot of sense. What I mentioned in previous posts is what I learnt from the ARL facilitator in action. Now, let me share more on why ARL itself makes a lot of sense to me:
Straight-forward Justification – In the past few years, I have been thinking various ways to justify or demonstrate the value of training classes. Nail the learners down with action items. Make them write to me the progress copying their line managers. Get them into post-workshop review sessions. Collect success stories from them. Conduct post-workshop self / line manager evaluation…….
Perhaps you have tried some of these as well. I have not found the above very satisfactory. I managed to draw some linkage to result but not very strong. What is interesting about ARL is that we work on real issues with the participants and help them to learn from them, Learning aside, the project result can already be a good justification to resources spent. For example, in applying ARL to strategy planning, the intervention can at least come up with a strategy. And on top of it, the participants can learn about leadership / team processes / influencing skills – whatever is intended.
Just-in-time learning rather than Just-in-case learning – As said above, ARL makes people learn by doing. ARL coaches will introduce or bring out skills / knowledge / attitude as needed depending on the progress of the real work. It is Just-in-time learning. Comparatively, traditional training classes introduce skills / knowledge / attitude – just in case the learners may need them in the future. There is a huge difference of WIIFM / buy in from the learners. We all know that people learn better they have a strong WIIFM, and it would be the case when they work in real issues. The key word is ‘real’.
Enable equal-opportunity conversation with conscious use of space and time – This is how I summarized the ARL coach’s key responsibility at the end of the workshop. I find it to be very true. A facilitator is to create a safe and open environment. He / she achieves so by putting in place pre-workshop and during-the-workshop processes, controlling the pace, varying the use of space, etc.
Comentarios