Linda asked:
>I've been approached by a friend who is an well-known expert in his
>field but has great difficulty teaching others (and his ineffective
>teaching is consistently reflected in his evaluations :-( ). He's asked
>me for advice on improving his teaching style and methods of
>presentation.
Linda,
I've had some fair success helping technical experts with poor training
skills become good trainers (among other things I do train-the-trainer
training. Maybe that experience will help your situation. It wasn't
clear from your message whether your frienc is "training" or "educating"
(as we have been debating here of late). One story: Once, I was
teaching/training construction project management with a very skilled,
very successful project manager -- who was a HORRIBLE teacher/trainer,
so bad that after the first day of a multi-day course the client forbid
him to help with the rest of the course. Of course, his selection as a
trainer in the first place was the Peter Principle in action. He was
the best project manager, therefore, he was tapped to teach the new
folks. Anyway...
I could see that my friend really knew his stuff, he just had a bad
"model" of what training should be. He essentially decided to teach as
he had been taught (in college): hour after hour of dry lecture, *even
though he was personnally uncomfortable with this style.* Now, I'm not
bashing university instruction; like training, some is good and some is
bad, but the standard (?) passive-lecture-with-notetaking just isn't
effective in corporate training. So, I volunteered to work with this
guy, partly because I felt sorry for him, partly because I could sense
that he could be a good trainer and partner in this endeavor. So, what
did I do (and recommend to you)?
1. Determine what, EXACTLY, is annoying and distracting to students in
his presentation, and fix it. This should work irrespective of whether
your friend is in education or training. The "diagnosis" can't be vague
("you're boring"). My friend *knew* he was boring. And the diagnosis
has to be honest. I told him that he had a habit of dropping his voice
and staring at the floor. Very simply -- DON'T DO THAT! I gave him
some tips about maintaining eye contact, and varying his delivery
(including making large notes to himself in his instructor notes that
included LOOK UP AT THE STUDENTS AND ASK A QUESTION RIGHT NOW!). If
your friend has several annoying or distracting habits, don't try to
change them all at once. Pick one or two a week to work on.
2. Second, get your friend to use an instructional style that he is
comfortable with. In my case, I urged my very experienced project
manager to get out from behind the podium (always good advice, by the
way), and wander around the class. I also urged him to share some of
his (on-topic) personal experiences with the students, almost in a story
fashion. (Caution here, I've seen some experts take this advice to an
extreme and the course degenerates into an equally boring series of
mildly relevant war stories). In your case, maybe your friend would be
more effective by facilitating in-class exercises, or sponsoring
debates, or any number of other things that to the best of my knowledge
are neither illegal or immoral.
Following this approach my colleague, now my friend, has become an
in-demand trainer. Different folks will require different changes. The
bottom line is to try to do as thorough an analysis of the problem as
possible, and then to focus on the *actual behaviors* to be changed or
enhanced to improve the performance. From my experience, I am pretty
well convinced that most people who do not have a true phobia for
speaking in public can be helped to become adequate (not necessarily
great) trainers.
Good luck!
Michael S. Cook, Ph.D.
Colleague Consulting
8318 Gentle Brook Court
Laurel, Maryland 20723
USA Tel: (301) 498-6719
michaelscook@hotmail.com
Project management system assessment and training
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