The Ontario Broker - April 2018 - 37

LEARNING
TRAJECTORIES
KEVIN O'HARE, EDUCATION SUPERVISOR & INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER, IBAO

I

n education, growth is often thought of as a
linear outcome for the students. But when
an instructor opens themself up to learn
from their students, it can promote further
development for all involved.

In business, acknowledging that no one invariably
has all the answers frees it to build from only what
is vital, and allows the end product to determine its
own shape.
In a classroom, there's always a wide range of
personality types, learning styles and skill levels.
With so many different needs to serve, course
relevance can be a real concern when it comes to
meeting each learner's objective. Will the course
actually help them? Are the activities too basic? Will
these people fail because they didn't put the work in
or is the instructor too confusing?
Too frequently what's not considered is how well the
course is professionally developing the instructor. A
common perception of an instructor is as a master,
like Einstein. They have the answers and the learners
are blank slates. It's rarely believed that an instructor
is learning at the same time as the learners, but
my experience has taught me that quite often the
instructor is developing just as much as the learners
are.
Years ago I ran a course for new aerospace engineers
working for the Japanese equivalent of NASA,
JAXA. I taught a one-week, 35-hour course on
intercultural communication and formalized
business presentations skills. Only the brightest
aerospace graduates are hired at JAXA - these were

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not your average teenagers. Early on, I realized that
I knew what it felt like to be a character in Star Trek,
but not on the ship, on one of the primitive planets
they visited.
Day one, I could tell my standard course material
wasn't going to be enough for them when I saw how
fast they absorbed everything I presented. Hearing
how they instantly applied new terms and vocabulary
was impressive, but it meant that I needed to find a
different way to engage them. If I continued to use
a Master/Blank Slate approach, I'd be useless before
the end of day two.
At lunch, I noticed all the students getting into deep
conversations about culture, thermodynamics and
thrust versus gravity. As they explained their points,
they'd sketch on scrap paper or use utensils and
lunch trays to act out their ideas. They were clearly
committed to this course, but it was only during
lunch that I saw how naturally they presented their
ideas. Our course's formulaic presentation model
was stifling these brilliant minds. But, presentations
can't be just anything, they need structure, right?
To collaborate with them, I really had to know what
point to make and be as direct and clear as possible,
because they were going to show me how they were
going to learn. I started by boiling the course down
to its essence - all an audience needs is a clearly
organized message, delivered concisely, with content
that develops towards an impactful conclusion. As
long as presentations accomplish this, the audience
gets the message. That was what our course needed
to become, because that's what these learners
needed.

37

Removing the constraints of the course brought new
challenges. It meant not only that the learners had
freedom to create, as facilitator I had to adjust what
to do to help them create something meaningful
outside the classroom.
The results were remarkable. One group created
a skit, acting out and singing an original song that
demonstrated thrust versus gravity principles in
rocket propulsion. I saw all the elements of a solid
presentation, but they elevated it with a creative
spark. In 20 minutes, I learned what a rocket requires
to leave the rotating earth to reach the rotating space
station with only a directional error of 0.0001 degree.
I laughed, my mind was blown and I can still hum the
tune they made up to remember gravitational terms.
Steve Jobs once said, "Everything around you that
you call life was made up by people that were no
smarter than you and you can change it, you can
influence it, you can build your own things that other
people can use."
It's amazing how the people you spend time with can
shape your professional growth and development.
Each person presents a new opportunity to rewrite
the rules of why things need to be a certain way.
In business, recognize that having all the answers is
not necessary for success. Personal growth allows
businesses to stay nimble, maintain a clear focus
and meaningfully collaborate towards individual and
shared goals. That can only happen when everyone is
committed to trying things they haven't done before.

APRIL 2018
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Ontario Broker - April 2018
