Chief Learning Officer - August 2008 - (Page 35)

hen you ask people what the Olympic Games mean to them, you’ll hear things such as friendly competition, breaking records, being the best, striving for perfection, winning and being honored just to compete. But the Olympic spirit goes beyond just competition and record setting. It engages the body and mind in a quest to set a lofty example and elevate the human spirit. According to the Olympic Charter, “Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.” As learning architects look to build effective learning models and methods that deliver results and create learning that lasts, they can take a cue from the Olympic games by creating their own learning olympics. The learning olympics model of training brings with it all the good attributes associated with the real Olympics and gives people a structured forum to learn, build teams, compete, feel challenged, have fun and experience a sense of accomplishment in one training package. Growing up, many of us enjoyed games, everything from hide-and-seek to cards to monopoly to sophisticated video and online games. Then there are sports. The focus was on enjoyment, the experience, bonding with others and, of course, winning. If important competition was involved and prizes awarded, memories of those games often are indelibly etched in our hearts and minds. Competition is deeply embedded in our way of life. Whether you call them games, activities or events, companies are beneﬁting by adding more of them to their mix of training methodologies. Learning architects can incorporate the Olympic spirit into a learning olympics that, when implemented effectively, can enhance training results and lead to signiﬁcant behavioral and organizational change. Sitting in a traditional, static classroom setting observing a trainer who is using text-saturated PowerPoint slides cannot compare to the kinetic experience of a live, team-oriented challenge in which competitive, fast-paced action and learning gets the blood rushing and the neurons ﬁring in new ways. Even well-designed and delivered Web-based instruction cannot generate the excitement of a set of engaging, team-based activities. Learning olympics, however, is not designed to replace valuable traditional instructional methods, but to supplement them. W Learning olympics is a training platform that appeals across generations and personality styles. The Learning olympics building blocks can be applied to just about any work discipline, including sales and marketing, customer support, engineering, manufacturing, administration, leadership, quality improvement, productivity and research and development. Design Elements of a Learning Olympics Making events challenging and competitive is the core of any learning olympics-type event, but so is creating an engaging learning experience. Here are other guidelines and ideas on designing learning olympics: Events and duration: The real Olympics have numerous events in which individuals and teams compete in a variety of sports activities. In an Innova- Sitting in a classroom cannot compare to the kinetic experience of a live, teamoriented challenge in which competitive, fast-paced action gets the blood rushing and the neurons ﬁring in new ways. tion Olympics learning event, for example, six team events each lasted two hours. This was an ideal maximum time frame to experience learning and skills and keep excitement and attention at a peak. Depending upon goals and the activity, organizers might choose to allocate 15-30 minutes or less for each event and allow teams the choice to participate in several or all events. In the Innovation Olympics, each event built on the previous event’s learning or skills development objectives, yet was ﬂexible and independent enough to allow people to pick and choose which events to compete in. Setting performance and learning goals: Each event should have at least one core performance goal and one core learning goal, along with subordinate ones. For example, in one part of the Innovation Olympics, teams were given a package of wooden sticks, paper clips, string and two hot-glue guns. Their performance goal was to construct the tallest freeChief Learning Ofﬁcer • August 2008 • www.clomedia.com 35 http://www.clomedia.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Chief Learning Officer - August 2008

Chief Learning Officer - August 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Connections Business Impact Trends Best Practices Effectiveness High-Octane Leadership Development Leadership and Personality CLO Profile Discussion Groups: Harvesting Value from Real-World Experiences Kimpton 2.0: Discussion on the Web Learning Olympics: Development Through Competition Bypassing the Obstacles to Change Listen Up: A How-To-Guide for Podcasting University of Toyota: A Success Story in Podcast Implementation What Stinks About Webinars? Webinars for Learning Professionals Case Study Business Intelligence Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - August 2008

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