It’s almost like asking “have you had a chance to sit and think today?” Blogging can be a quiet, thoughtful activity. It requires one to put their thoughts about a topic down “on paper”.

I’m actually hand writing this blog first on paper to transcribe later. I’m at a pool with my son Matt and his friend Nick. It’s a spectacularly beautiful Sunday afternoon in Southern California. The sun is shining, the sky is blue and there are big, puffy, white clouds floating gently. I’m writing as the sun warms me. I’m writing as I listen to the happy chatter of children playing in the water. Blogging is an activity you can do anywhere, anytime.

In Training Activities That Work (TATW), I wrote about blogging as a review activity (Activity #103, page 276). Blogging is a perfect, ongoing bridging task for participants. It could be a public or private activity.

A public blog is a great way to post assignments and ask for feedback from the class. It’s a great way for the class to learn from each other.

In our public blog on the TATW website, we’re blogging about our experiences in publishing the book. I find it’s a great way to tell the story and collect memories. I love reading the posts from my fellow co-authors. I marvel at all the writing talent in our group. It reminds me of the awe I feel in all that’s been accomplished. For me, it’s also a fun way to re-live this life changing event. I’ve gotten so much joy from this experience and I want to share it with others.

Learners may feel the same way. For someone who loves to learn, learning something new is exciting. Sharing what you’ve learned with others can be uplifting. Looking back and seeing your personal progress makes the hard work feel worthwhile.

Getting feedback from others expands our own thinking and bank of ideas. You never know what will flip the switch on for that light bulb!  But you might need time to think and reflect for the light bulb to turn on, brighten or change color. Blogging gives participants that time and space to think and reflect.

For participants to feel more comfortable expressing their thoughts and ideas maybe a private blog would work best. This is where blogging could serve as more of a learning journal where key ideas can be collected and an action plan can be developed. The missing piece is feedback from other participants. I feel feedback from other participants is an important faucet of learning. I’ve learned so much from learning or review activities I’ve completed with other participants sharing their thoughts, ideas, areas of expertise have enhanced and expanded my learning experience. Some of my favorite learning activities have been with some of my fellow co-authors.

In researching for this blog I came across some other ideas. Use someone else’s blog as a learning or review activity. You could use a blog in the same way you’d use an article or written piece of content. It’s another way to expand or collect other views on a topic. You could create a training activity where you ask participants to read a blog and then post comments back to the class. You could do this online – on the blog posting – or privately amongst participants. You could ask participants to review multiple blog postings on a topic and compare and contrast.

You could ask participants to search out and review various blog postings. Who would they want to follow and why? Do they want to learn more from this person? If yes, what? Or do they prefer to research opposing views?

An article on blogging and learning suggests following an industry leader for personal development. This article talks about reading blogs, writing blogs and wikis and through writing blogs and wikis becoming a thought leader in your field.

As you can see, there are lots of possibilities in how blogging can be used as a training activity or for personal development.

What do you think? Have you blogged today?

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There on her desk was the book – Training Activities That Work. I noticed several sticky notes along the side. I asked Alex, “What are all those stickies for?” Alex replied, “Those are all the training activities I want to try.”

It was so cool to see that someone was really using the book! I didn’t have time to ask for details. I was just getting up to stretch and I had a meeting coming up. I had to get back to my desk but I’m going to schedule lunch with Alex and ask for more details. Which training activities did she pick? Why did she pick them? What training does she hope to use the activity in? I want to follow-up with her to see how the training activity actually went – was it a training activity that worked for her?

It’s thrilling to see the book in action. If you are reading this blog and have the book, what’s your favorite training activity so far? Are you marking up the book? Are you using stickies? Which activities do you want to try? Have you tried any training activities yet? Which one did you use? How’d it go? We’d love to hear from you! Send us an email or enter a comment to this blog. I’d love to interview you like I’m planning to interview Alex. If your local, I might even buy you lunch.

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There was tension in the air. It was the start of something special. We all could feel it.

It was the first morning of the Learning Technologies Expo in London. Our stand was set up and looked GREAT. We were all very pleased with the stand. Aly and I marveled at what Catherine and Mel were able to accomplish in pulling the stand together. Pulling all of it together really. I’m still amazed.

That morning, we were trying to perfect our icebreaker and book pitch. We practiced with each other. We ran through questions we might be asked. We were all feeling a little nervous. None of us knew how this day was going to go. We were trying to push the fear of the unknown out with the excitement of the possible.

It was the start of something special. We all knew this for sure.

Then there was no more time to wonder or worry. Conference participants started to wander through the stands. We found that our icebreakers were working. We had about 1,000 big, bright, brilliantly-colored lollypops to give away. We asked, “Would you like a lollypop? We are collecting a gold coin donation for Great Ormond Street Hospital.”

The icebreaker was a hit. Conference participants knew what Great Ormond Street Hospital was all about. The hospital treats sick children and has a school so they can continue their education through their hospital stay. Some conference participants ask for more than one lollypop. They want to be able to bring them home for all their kids.

(My favorite story related to this: Aly was talking with a conference participant. This gentleman wanted 5 lollypops for his 5 children. Aly replied, “Well that’s just irresponsible.” When Aly recounted this story at dinner that evening … I almost snorted I laughed so hard.)

We raised a total of 226.54 pounds!

Once we were able to break the ice, we were able to share the book. We learned early on, not every participant was interested in hearing about the book. (What?!) And we learned that’s okay. We were looking for the participant who was interested in hearing about the book. We wanted that instructional designer looking for inspiration. We were looking for that manager of a training group that wanted to help their staff add engagement and Training Activities That Work to their training programs. The more no’s and cold shoulders we got, the closer we got to what we were looking for.

And when we found that one participant that wanted to hear about the book … sharing the book was pure joy. We’re so excited and proud of the book. Finding someone to share that with was wonderful.

We shared the story of how the book came into being (see Page 11 of the Sneak Peek). It was our bridging task for the final course – Platinum – of the ID9 Certification Program. We shared how it all started with the Silver Certification and the Learning Short-takes Fast-Track Instructional Design and Adult Learning Principles I. Then with the second course of the certificate program – Gold – we continued to dive deeper into Adult Learning Principles II. We dove deeper still into Adult Learning Principles III in Platinum.

Those Learning Short-takes sold like hot cakes! We sold out before the 2 day conference ended.

We were able to share how we applied all that we learned of Adult Learning Principles into our training activities. Talk about Bloom’s Taxonomy at work! Each of the 127 learning and review activities has the Adult Learning Dashboard. The Adult Learning Dashboard is a quick reference for instruction designers looking to add balance to their training program. Are they looking for an activity for global or specific learners? Do they need to add an activity for the auditory, visual or kinetic learner? What about going higher into left and right brain and multiple intelligences? That’s in the Adult Learning Dashboard too. All this to help the instructional designer really increase the likelihood of a balanced learning event.

Day 1 was amazing. It was so much fun to share our book as well as Catherine’s many other books. The response was great. Conference participants were saying there’s nothing else like this available. They shared it was just what they were looking for. Some participants even went and grabbed their managers and brought them back to our stand to buy the book for everyone on their team!

It was the start of something special. A life-changing event. One I’ll never forget. An event that I’m still basking in the joy of it all. (Thank you Catherine!)

Lessons learned from Day 1:

• Selling is hard. I have a new found respect for folks in sales. It is not an easy gig.
• Icebreakers are important! First impressions and getting your foot in the door are necessary to pitch your product.
• Practicing your pitch is imperative and helps increase confidence.
• Its takes many (and I mean MANY) no’s to get to a yes. Hang in there. No’s are okay. No’s are not personal. No’s get you closer to a yes.
• Comfy shoes are critical! My feet hurt so bad I wanted to cry by lunchtime. I even paid 10 pounds for the short (and I mean SHORT) cab ride to the hotel and back to put on my tennis shoes. There I was … the rest of Day 1 in my business outfit and tennis shoes … lovely … not quite the signature look I was going for.

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You can imagine my relief when I see Catherine and Emma in the lobby of the hotel as I’m walking in with my luggage. Whew! Again, things are just falling into place. It’s the start of something special … I can feel it!

Emma had a meeting to go to and I needed to clean up after traveling for 24 hours. (I’m sure I’m making that up but that’s what it felt like! And I’m sure that’s what I looked like!) Catherine and I agreed to meet for lunch in a bit. We had a lovely lunch at the Hare & Tortoise across the street from the hotel. At this point, I still can’t believe I’m in London! The cars are driving on the other side of the street! It’s drizzly and cool – nothing like the sunny and warm Southern California I just left. It’s the start of something special … I can feel it!

Catherine and I return to the hotel after lunch. We meet up with Aly and Mel. This is thrilling for me since this is the first time I’m meeting Aly and Mel in person! We’ve been together for ages virtually but meeting in person for the first time is something special indeed.

The four of us are in the lobby. 27 boxes of the book have been delivered to Aly’s house in Cambridge. She swears she hasn’t even peaked. We all believe her and marvel at her dedication as we all swear we would have had to peek! We open one of the boxes and each of us sees the book for the very first time … together. It was amazing! We had this tangible thing in our hands with our names on it! Emotions welled up in each of us. Joy, pride, excitement … to name a few. We all squealed with delight! It was like we were the only 4 people in the lobby at that moment.

It was the start of something special … I could feel it!

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As I write this blog, I am sitting down on my cosy sofa at home in Cambridge after sharing a delicious Sunday roast with my boys (partner Joseph and son Jamie) and Mel, a dear friend of mine, and co-author of Training Activities That Work.

Mel flew over to the UK from Cyprus on Friday afternoon and we are spending some “down time” before the madness commences!

Madness? I hear you ask – Yes, on Tuesday morning 28th January, we will be driving down to Olympia 2 to set up stand 76 at the Learning Technologies Exhibition @LT14uk. The stand, number will be our home for the Conference on 29-30 January.

On the 29th we will celebrate the launch of “Training Activities that Work”. You will find four of us there, Catherine Mattiske, Alison Asbury, Melanie Barn (Mel) and myself.

Not only will we be networking with Learning professionals and trainers, and promoting this fabulous book, but we will also be collecting for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (GOSHCC). The hospital is just up the road in Russell Square. Donations to the charity allow the hospital to buy equipment, fund research and provide better facilities that would otherwise be unaffordable under the NHS. Staggeringly, Great Ormond Street Hospital deals with over 220,000 patient visits every year.

As we are involved in Learning and Development, we especially want to collect for the Hospital school that the children can visit if they are well enough.

Anyone who visits stand 76 at the Exhibition will get the opportunity to dontate to GOSHCC and in order to thank you, we will give you a colourful, swirly lollipop!

Having never been in this position before, launching a book as a co-author, my mood is swinging from excitable intrigue to nervous anticipation! It’s the unknown of how it will all go. What I do know, however, is that once the week is over, that I will have experienced something amazing!

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During this conversation I shared how I wanted to provide Certified ID9® Professional – Level 3, Platinum participants with something tangible during their training program that would potentially change the trajectory of their careers, just like I had been offered in 2001 with my first book Train for Results. The idea struck me: during the ID9® Platinum course participants would consolidate their learning and together we would author a book and publish it.

All of my eight co-authors of this book embarked on ID9® Platinum as trainers, managers, career women, subject matter experts in training, specialists within their chosen industries and Certified ID9® Professionals – firstly at a Silver then at a Gold level. Each brought into the program their wealth of training experience.

All of my co-authors have other roles in life including mother, sister, daughter, wife, friend, colleague, manager, leader, niece, granddaughter, team member, neighbor, volunteer … the list is endless. They juggled all of these roles to carve out 12 weeks to focus on their own training professionalism, while still managing to achieve full-time jobs, full-time families and full-time friendships during the same 12 weeks. Furthermore, some of them simultaneously provided ID9® coaching to participants beginning their ID9® certification journey at the Silver level.

Now, these eight talented women, Alison Asbury, Melanie Barn, Denise Gaul, Susan Giddens, Emma Lambert, Diana McLeod, Aly Rumbelow and Elizabeth Tighe are now Certified ID9® Professionals – Level 3 (Platinum) and have become published authors in the process. Training Activities That Work is the tangible result of the ID9® Platinum course which is the tangible evidence of their effort and most importantly the application of their own learning and wisdom.

Training Activities That Work is designed as a book that you can either read cover to cover or use as a reference guide to spark ideas for learning and review activities. I hope that you will find that each of the chapters in Training Activities that Work like a Pandora’s box of ways to spark new ideas, save instructional design and training time and create highly engaging learning that results in a high degree of learning application.

Training Activities That Work will be launched at the 2014 Learning Technologies conference in London on 29-30 January. Alison Asbury, Melanie Barn, Aly Rumbelow and I will be at the conference signing the book, which is hot off the press!

Training Activities That Work will be on sale from January 29th, 2014

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We kicked off the first class of ID9 Platinum talking about time.  Catherine knew our biggest hurdle to completing this challenge would be our perception of our lack of time.  We are all super busy professional women with careers, families … you know … all the general chaos and calamity of life.  She challenged us to eliminate the word “time” from our vocabulary.

I remember one Saturday being at a lacrosse tournament in Sacramento, CA with my oldest son, Zac.  He had a game at 9:00 am and we had to be at the fields for him to warm up by 8:00 am.  There I was, in my car, working on my chapter while Zac was warming up for an hour.  That’s how I did it.  I stole moments.  Even if it was just to re-read and re-read my chapter again and again to edit my chapter.

During one of our coaching sessions, Catherine told me that when she sits down to write she starts at the beginning and re-reads through what’s she’s already written and edits as she goes.  I tried to do this consistently and it really helped me.  I think it helped inspire me and helped me keep a consistent tone in my writing.

The lesson on language around the word “time”, helped me with creativity as well.  I would often hear myself say, “I’m not feeling creative right now.”  I would have to correct myself with “Oh yes you are.”  That’s when I would just sit down, open my chapter and start reading from the beginning.  There were times I wouldn’t add much that was new but I would edit, tweak and become more satisfied with what I had accomplished so far.  It kept me going when I didn’t think I could.

“Oh yes you can!”  That’s what I’m telling myself now.  Thanks Catherine! 

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I realized the immense personal value of Training Activities That Work when recently sitting at my desk writing two 3 day training programs. I’d written several parts of each course and included some of my more ‘standard’ repertoire of activities. It’s following ID9®; it’s looking good so far…. But now I’m in need of some extra inspiration and pizzazz!

Then I had an idea… I went to my ID9® Platinum course folder and opened the last draft electronic file of the book that we had; thinking maybe it might give me a bit of a kick-start. Armed with a cup of tea and my trusty notepad and pen, I began to scroll through the chapters.

Having been so engrossed in producing my own chapter, and while I had worked in close partnership with the rest of the co-author team throughout the entire writing process, I had never really before taken the time to look at Training Activities That Work as a whole from 30,000 feet and try it out as a reference for myself. I was in for a very pleasant surprise.

After just 10 minutes of scanning the chapters I needed for activities, I realized that I’d struck gold! There in front of me was a short list of at an additional 12 activity ideas that I could take and easily adapt for my course with minimal effort: I had ideas for start of day, end of day, mini reviews, several post lunch reviews and overnight tasks; Plus a few extra ideas to add more spice to both my learning activities and the pre- and post-course work.

Using the different headings for quick-reference, the activity pages were really easy to scan and pick out. The hard work had already been done for me. I just needed to decide what would work for the course and then copy and paste the ‘how to run’ instructions and debrief questions into my Trainer’s Guide, with only a few edits to customize.

Ever since, I refer to it regularly. I cannot wait to have a big, orange copy to put sticky notes over and make dog-eared with excessive use as I gratefully draw inspiration from the creativity and experience of my co-authors.

I’ve always thought there was the need for a trainer’s reference book like this, and now it’s here for us all to share. So move over coffee coaster, Training Activities That Work is getting pride of place on my desk the second I get back from the launch in London! I hope that it does the same for you.

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