Celebrating ABWA’s Women in Business® - 11

ABWA PERSPECTIVES
STRATEGY
3
USE MULTIPLE
CHANNELS to CEMENT
LEARNING
I showed her how to do it, she did it, and now she's
trained. Maybe that's true for the simple stuff, but for
the complex processes and procedures, multi-channel
encoding reigns supreme.
For example, show learners in real-time how to complete
a process. Then do it again, at the same time providing a
narration track while the learner takes notes. Next, have
the learner read aloud the notes she's taken. Finally, have
the learner demonstrate the procedure.
The multi-channel approach allows learners to see, to
hear, to write, to speak, and to do whatever process they
are learning. Depending on the learner, some senses may
be more powerful than others. And in rare cases where
there is no preference, repetition wins the day. What can
you do differently to engage more senses?
STRATEGY
4
TEACH with
REFERENCE TOOLS
What can you do
differently to engage
more senses?
It's one thing to conquer a task during class or one-onone
job coaching, but it's entirely another to reproduce
those results on the job.
People who have mastered the training function know
to develop and teach reference tools in addition to
processes themselves.
Ask yourself what kinds of support you need to develop.
Decide where you need to incorporate them in your
training plans. Those who learn how to solve problems
themselves are worth their weight in gold. In addition to
strong productivity, these people are also usually happier
and more motivated than those who don't have the tools
to stand on their own feet.
Those who learn how to solve problems
themselves are worth their weight in gold.
RESULT
Four strategies and none hard: make training
relevant, connecting to why, repeating information
using different channels, and incorporating the tools
learners should use to solve problems back on the
job. If done deliberately and with routine, you will
almost certainly get a good result.
KATE ZABRISKIE is the president of Business Training Works, Inc., a Marylandbased
talent development firm. She and her team provide onsite, virtual, and
online soft-skills training courses and workshops to clients in the United States
and internationally. For more information, visit www.businesstrainingworks.com.
A publication of the American Business Women's Association (ABWA) www.abwa.org ©2022 ABWA Management LLC
5TH ISSUE 2022 11

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Celebrating ABWA’s Women in Business®

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Celebrating ABWA’s Women in Business®