4MAT for Design

Last summer, my husband purchased a Coaster bike. It’s a cool throwback to the bikes we had as kids-back-pedal brake, wide handlebars and a wide seat. I didn’t think much about our Coaster until I read Tim Brown’s book, Change By Design.

Tim is CEO/President of IDEO, an innovation design company that created the Coaster bike. IDEO leads the pack in the science of design thinking. What can training designers learn from the Coaster? In Change by Design, Tim describes the process of innovation that led to the Coaster capturing a new market-the 90% of adults who no longer ride bikes. Tim described the innovation process used to create the Coaster. Here’s what it looks like through the lens of 4MAT:

Why do adults no longer ride? We all have fond memories of tooling around the neighborhood on our Schwinn, so why do 90% of adults no longer ride? Tapping into this uncovers the true need.

What new category of bicycling might capture the imagination of the consumer? IDEO identified a need for a bike built for pleasure not sport. What does this look like? Big handlebars, no cables, comfy seat and little to no maintenance.

How? The how moved beyond how to manufacture the bike to how to tell the story of the Coaster. Development of a brand that defined coasting, in-store retailing and collaboration with local civic associations were all part of this process.

If? The process began here. What if a bike manufacturer moved from struggling to slice off a fraction of a percent of the existing market and instead expanded the market? What would this look like? New possibilities emerged and the performance metric was defined-capturing the 90%.

The 4MAT Design process applies to innovation at all levels—from the innovation stage to the implementation stage. Creating a culture of innovation and performance begins with the language of design.

Power Phrases for Effective Training Facilitation

Last week, I received this photo from a former colleague. A team of us just happily completed a low ropes course–including  the “spider web” in the photo. (That’s me in the lower right hand corner-circa mid 80’s). The spider web metaphor in this training is powerful.

I often think of the process of facilitating learning as weaving a web. As a facilitator, you draw people into the conversation and link the emerging thoughts together. You redirect the conversation, based on the common objectives the group has defined. You help the learner to see the emerging pattern of thought.

The language you use helps weave the conversation together. Here are some power phrases I’ve heard and often used that work welly:

“Susan brought up a great point. Specifically, the point you raise about ….is relevant to our conversation today.”

Here the facilitator acknowledges the value of the contribution. This encourages further sharing by the group. Notice how one, specific point was acknowledged, isolated and linked to the relevance of the learning conversation.

“Let’s talk about your expectations today and see how we can customize our time together.”

When you begin a learning design with an activity that defines expectations, you build collective ownership in the learning process.

“Let’s go back to our expectations mindmap and see how we are doing.”

A clear set of expectations will help you manage side-bar conversations. If the dialogue starts to move off-track, you can lead the group back to the expectations. This will help the group table conversations that are not immediately relevant to the learning objectives.

“Is everyone feeling comfortable with this? Are we ready to move to (applying this, the next piece of information)? Is there any part of the conversation that needs to be revisited?”

These questions allow the facilitator to check in on the comfort level. Notice there is no mention of “Do you understand?”  Many learners are not comfortable acknowledging that they are confused.  

“That’s a great question. Does anyone want to add to this or respond to Mike’s question?”

Here the facilitator is thrown a question. The facilitator’s response expands the dialogue to the larger group. When a learner asks a question, repeat it for the whole group or pose it to the group. Otherwise, the conversation narrows to a one-on-one and everyone else checks out. 

What works for you?  Share any questions, phrases or techniques that work well for you.

Are you crafting experiences or making some “thing”

“Simply roasting coffee, brewing it, or pouring it into a cup for someone is merely the performance of a simple service. In the absence of a wider, experiential understanding, all you’re doing is putting a hot liquid into a mug.”

-Lewis P Carbone, Clued In:  How to Keep Customers Coming Back Again and Again

If you had to describe how you want your customers to feel after an interaction with you or your company in three words, what would those three words be? We are talking about how they feel, not what they think about the interaction.

Training and Development is focused on impacting behaviors that drive business results. When training is primarily focused on doing, we miss the biggest part of how consumers evaluate an experience with a company. To craft a brand-defining experience, every employee must have a concrete understanding of  the bigger concept of what is being delivered to the customer.

Apple understands this concept. I have lost count of how many times I have heard the word “cool” used by a Mac owner to describe their brand experience.

What words would your customers use to describe their experience?

What is Learning?

 

We all perceive and then process our experiences, along with the information gained from the experiences. The differences in thewe approach these two activities define our learning style. 

Perceiving: how  we take in information-through experiences, reading, listening, visualizing or other sensory modes

Processing: how we determine the meaning, store and retrieve information-reflecting, watching, jumping in and doing, sitting back and observing

 These differences define our learning style.  Type One learners are feelers and watchers. Type Two learners are watchers and thinkers. Type Three learners are thinkers and doers. Type Four learners are doers and feelers. Your learning style influences your communication, coaching, leading and training style.

Learning is so much more than classroom instruction. Reading an email,  meeting, coaching, communicating are all learning processes. Our preferences impact how we engage and disengage in every situation that involves taking in and processing information.

What Would Google Do… with learning design?

 

I just finished reading Jeff Jarvis’ book, What Would Google Do? Jarvis does a great job of moving the learner from passive reader into engaged learner by asking questions.  What Would Google Do? has us ponder what we might learn from history’s fastest growing business. Jarvis suggests that involving your audience in the creative process is a key element of the success of Google.

Communities exist within your company and within your customer base. They exist to facilitate their mutual interest(s). The question isn’t how to create (learning) communities, the question is how to help them do what they are doing better. What forum can you provide that makes connecting and learning more accessible. 1

Questions to ponder:

How can we enable stakeholders to talk, share what they know, support each other, create together?

How do we synthesize all the content “out there”? How do we make it easily findable?

How do we create the ability to “mash-up” content and customize it, as needed?

How do we involve our audience in helping us create content?

 

 

How are you involving the learner in the creative process? What tools are you providing for the learner community to connect, share and create with? Would love to hear from you.

 

1Jarvis, Jeff. What Would Google Do? New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2009.

Accountability and Commitment in Learning

” …people will be accountable and committed to what they have a hand in creating. This insight extends to the belief that whatever the worlds demands of us, the people most involved have the collective wisdom to meet the requirements of that demand.”

-Peter Block, Community: The Structure of Belonging

There is a false belief that the trainer must embody the wisdom needed to meet the demand of learning transfer. Not true. The collective wisdom is held within the group of “learners”.  To access that wisdom, the learners must become the “most involved” members of the learning process.

Here we go…

Co-author, Hold On, You Lost Me! Use Learning Styles to Create Training that Sticks

Greetings!

I frequently have the opportunity to connect with learning professionals in our 4MAT live and web workshops and the consulting work we do.  The conversation begins with the application of 4MAT, a model for understanding different learning styles.  Inevitably, the dialogue  centers around  questions on how best to apply brain-based design to real-world leadership and learning issues. As learning gurus, the questions that we collectively seem to be most interested in:

How do we engage learners in the content we are sharing?

What are the best practices in training design and delivery that we can learn from?

What’s the best examples of elearning that truly addresses the way the brain learns?

Where can I find examples of powerful activities that engage different learning styles?

Any new, interesting technologies out there that can make design simpler and delivery more engaging?

The intent of this blog is to ponder these questions and create a forum to share the answers we are discovering.  I hope you join the dialogue.

Cheers,

Jeanine