Yesterday I found myself reminiscing about live human interaction…fond memories of gathering with others…
It was a large L&D conference. I was taking a break with a large cup of joe, and had just settled into a chair when two gentlemen ran into each other right by me. I could not help but overhear their conversation…
Mr. Heide: Dr. J! I didn’t realize you were going to be here.
Dr Jaycel: Bob…good to see you. Yes, I’m here presenting a recent study of mine; Transference Rates of Learning Foreign Languages while Scuba Diving. And you?
Mr. Heide: I’m here to see if there’s anything that can help kick-start my employee-training program. Just seems like we’ve gotten stale.
Dr Jaycel: Oh, I know just the thing…there’s a grad student facilitating a discussion on her study of Emotions of Players using Avatars in MORGs.
Mr. Heide: MORGs?
Dr Jaycel: Multiplayer Online Role-Playing games. Fascinating stuff…even if she did it computer simulations.
Mr. Heidelberg: She used computer simulations to study how people pretend to be make-believe characters in role playing games?
Dr Jaycel: She had issues with their Institutional Review Board…but still…very interesting….
Mr. Heide: But…I…umm…never mind. I’ve got a staff of 60 providing training to employees scattered around the world. Some of the stuff we need to bring folks to our facilities for hands-on training…other stuff we’ve been using more computer based…
Dr Jaycel: Hey…next session has a presentation about the Impact of Font Colors on Memes. By varying the color of the letters in memes, they found they could get different reactions from viewers.
Mr. Heide: Well…sounds interesting…but not quite what I’m looking for. I’ve got an instructor corps that needs some help on how to do something other than lecture to PowerPoint© slides…and I need to justify to my Vice President the value of my training department. You know of any sessions on Return on Investment?
Dr Jaycel: I’d have to check the program…but I don’t think I saw anything about that. Oh….here’s one…a Study of Emojis used in Synchronous Training…an international survey was conducted of over 1,200 high school students regarding their perceptions of the meaning of the emojis used…
Mr. Heide: No..not what…
Dr Jaycel: But look…it’s longitutal study going back 14 years. They go back to when everyone used emoticons. They have a partial listing here in the abstract…turn the program on it’s side…see…there’s a smiley face 🙂 and a winking face ; – ) and a…
Mr. Heide: Yes I see it…almost as interesting as the presentation I saw earlier…the Time Value Study of using “Magic 3-D” Images in Training…
Dr Jaycel: Oh I love those pictures…they look like some pop art piece until you relax your eyes and see “through” the image…then “POOF” you see it…so cool…
Mr. Heide: Yeah, except they used the technique on every PowerPoint© slide in their presentation. Half the audience got migraines, the other have never “saw” the slides.
Dr Jaycel: Oh…sorry I missed it. But listen…I’ve got to get going…
Mr. Heide: Oh I’m sorry…do you need to get ready for your presentation?
Dr Jaycel: No, I don’t present until tomorrow. It’s just that there’s some colleagues of mine presenting their findings that validate a new measurement instrument they’ve developed.
Mr. Heide: Oh…something like Kirkpatrick’s levels? Or…
Dr Jaycel: Oh my no…this is much more cutting edge…they’ve created this tool that gauges the impact weather has students’ perception on the equity of grading scales.
Mr. Heide: And it’s starting now?
Dr Jaycel: It doesn’t start for another fifteen minutes…but I want to go now to get a good seat. You see, in a humorous twist of irony, they conducted the study using only meteorological students. (Pause) Don’t you see? A study about how weather influence students studying weather…(Giggling)…I suspect many of us will be rolling in the aisles.
Mr. Heide: Well…I wouldn’t want to keep you. I’ll see you later at the dinner.
Dr Jaycel: That sounds delightful.
And so, the two went their separate ways, and I felt a bit guilty for eavesdropping. But I had to finish my coffee…I wanted to get to that session on weather….
Conferences are a great way to learn new things. So is reading blogs. Check out Craig’s blog on process improvement where he talks about facilitating events, running organization’s programs, and even training. Read “A Facilitator’s Blog” at https://www.afacilitatorsblog.com/
Author: Craig Plain
https://www.afacilitatorsblog.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigplain/
Craig “Doc” Plain, Ph.D. is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, an award-winning Speaker, a Shingo Prize Winner, a retired Lieutenant Colonel, and tenacious practitioner of magic. Doc has over 20 years of process improvement experience. Additionally, he has been involved in training development and delivery at Fortune 50 companies, the military, and several universities. Doc’s dissertation was on the impact implementing process improvement programs has on the social capital of an organization, such as training. Craig was the Air Forces first Instructor for their Black Belt program. He has also been guest lecturer at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Purdue University. Doc has presented conferences for International Society for Process Improvement (ISPI), Academy of Human Research Development (AHRD), and American Society for Quality (ASQ). Doc is capturing various stories of facilitating and training at “A Facilitator’s Blog.” (https://www.afacilitatorsblog.com/)