Light Speed Idea #21 – 23 (Continues)

21.     Focus on 100%80%, 90% and certainly 95% are good test scores.  However, that’s a lot of errors and mistakes on the job.  For example, you wouldn’t stay in business long if you got 80% of your orders right.  Also, that’s only one test.  In addition what you don’t get right on one test accumulates test after test.  Just image the sheer number of question a student got wrong from K-12 if they missed 10% on every test.  Instead, it’s important to focus on a 100% and to keep working toward mastery.  It’s also good to make sure the tests are accurate and students are simply missing the trick questions or ones the instructor got wrong.22.     Practice SpeedAn important part of being fully up-to-speed is being fluent and confident.  It’s one thing to be able to answer questions on a sale call if given enough time and another thing to be able to provide answers quickly because you really know them.  One of the best ways to develop this level of competency is to practice with the clock ticking.  See how many answers you can get in 60 seconds.  As you practice, you will get better and better, and any test will seem easy.  23.     Try Speed ReadingSpeed reading is one of many fast learning tools that make everything easier.  Most people learn to read by sounding out words either out loud or in their head.  As they get better at reading, they recognize whole words or even phrases.  Speed reading on the other hand uses visual learning to see whole sentences and paragraphs without sounding out the words.  Since you can see much faster than you can speak, speed reading can easily double or triple reading speeds.  This helps you read more information faster or to reread something in the time you could read it once.  Speed reading in many cases can also improve comprehension.  Speed reading requires a lot of practice which is something few people work at in the traditional way of reading.

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Light Speed Ideas #17 – 20 (Book Continues)

1.     Don’t Forget the Big Picture

All too often education is presented in pieces and parts.  Everything is done as building blocks toward something that is larger.  However, it’s harder to learn without knowing the big picture and how things really go together.  Think about how much faster it is to complete a jigsaw puzzle when you know what it’s suppose to look like when you’re done.

2.     Play a Game

Learning doesn’t have to be dull and boring.  In fact, playing games is not only fun, they can also help integrate a range of skills and knowledge together.  Games also make it easier to spend the hours and hours of practice required to master many skills.  Games that simulate real situations are often the most effective.

3.     Find a Mentor

There’s no reason you have to figure everything out on your own.  That’s really the slowness of trial and error learning.  In many cases, mentors have already made all the mistakes and can help a student avoid them. 

Even just skipping one or two of the most time consuming and costly mistakes can really speed up the learning process.  A good mentor can also help structure experiences so that students learn what they need to learn quickly.  Finally, being a mentor is another way to improve your own knowledge and understanding.  It’s part of teaching to learn.

4.     Think Quantity Before Quality

Building classroom, online or self-study courses can be very expensive and time consuming.  There is usually a trade off between more courses or better looking courses.  Unless all the bells and whistles speed up learning, it’s better to look at getting more done than making things look pretty.

Copyright Learning Paths International 2008

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Light Speed Ideas #13 – 16 (Book Continues)

Uploaded by camTrails

1.     Blend Hard and Soft Skills

In most organizations hard (technical) skills and soft (people) skills are taught separately.  This is because the experts in area aren’t the same.  That’s why engineers get a bad rap about their people skills.  However on the job, employees need to be able to use all these skills at the same time.  Teaching them separately doesn’t mean students will ever be able to use them together.  A better and faster approach is to teach them together in the way they are used on the job.

2.     Skip Knowledge Tests

In the workplace you often see a difference between test scores and performance on the job.  Many people think this is due to test anxiety or poor study habits.  However, that doesn’t explain why people who do well on tests often don’t do well on the job.  That’s because the job isn’t to recall knowledge.  Even in a job like an answer line, the job is more complex and involves doing several things at the same time.  For the answer line, besides knowing the answer, the employee also needs to ask good questions, interact positively with the customer, use the computer and the phone system.  Therefore, you can cut classroom time by eliminating knowledge tests and get a better idea of what someone has learned through direct observation and feedback.

3.     No More Sink or Swim

Throwing students into the deep end works well for the swimmers.  However, it’s really hard on the sinkers.  In fact, there are usually a lot more sinkers than swimmers.  This is a very popular method for a lot of sales forces.  The training consists of here’s your desk, here’s your phone, go to it.  When you think about the cost of hiring people, this is a very expensive way of doing things.

4.     Add More Reality

The great philosopher Mike Tyson once said, “Everybody’s got a plan until they get hit.”  All the role plays, simulations and practice can go out the window when an employee faces the reality of the job.  Take a customer service rep who learns how to deal with problems in the classroom and then faces a real angry customer.  To speed up learning, it’s critical to build in these real situations.

copyright LPI 2008

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Light Speed Ideas #9 – 12 (Book Continues)

Uploaded by jpctalbot

I’ve finished some one paragraphy descriptions of ideas to speed up the learning process.  I’m going to post them in bunches.

9.       Teach the Way You Learn

There is usually a big difference the way people are taught versus how the actual learn something.  When you think about being taught, you usually think about someone telling or showing you something.  When you think about how you learn, you usually think about a discovery you made or the hours of practice you invested.

Teaching the way people learn often means setting up learning experiences where others will discovery what they need to learn.  You find these experiences by asking top performers how they learned something and often they will tell you about these experiences.  This also means setting up enough structured practice to ensure that learners get enough repetition to make things stick.

10.       Know Your Learning Style

We all learn in slightly different ways. Knowing your own style or the style of your students and adapting really speeds up learning. Some people will tell you that they need to write things down before they learn them while others have to try things out before they start to learn. Some people learn really well from seeing a demonstration on a video while others simply won’t get what you’re trying to do.

As a teacher it’s hard to adapt everything individually. The answer is to use multiple methods of teaching and experimenting to see what works best. As a student, it’s to your advantage to pay attention to how you like to learn and then seek out that type of instruction.

11.       Focus on Speed

This may seem odd as a suggestion but the longer it takes to learn something the harder it is to keep the learner motivated.  Looking for ways to increase speed actually will increase speed.  As you set up a measurement system for training, try adding a speed measure such as time to proficiency. 

12.       Teach in short segments

People tend to remember the first and last parts of any lesson.  With short segments, you have more firsts and lasts.  Once things go beyond about 30 minutes, you’re starting to lose effectiveness. 

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Light Speed Idea #8: Eliminate Waste

Uploaded by Malingering

One of the key activities in improving quality is to eliminate waste.  You may have been part of a Kaizen event that did this.  Waste can be anything that isn’t necessary and in particular in speeding up learning, you’re looking for things that are a waste of time.

So where is the waste in education and training.  One major source of waste is everything that is taught one day and forgotten the next.  Think about your K-12 years and even your college years.  How much were you taught that you no longer remember.  For most people it’s a staggering amount.  I took three different languages in school and today I can’t speak or translate any of them.  While I might have had a good time in class, I consider it a waste.  I guess I could have been wasting my time with something else.

But there’s more..books than noone reads, DVDs that noone watches and lectures that noone stays awake for. 

Speeding up learning requires looking at each course or training event and looking at the retention rate.  If it’s low, you need to toss it out or try something else.

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Light Speed Idea #7 – Teach the Way Your Learn

Uploaded by engrgoddess

There is usually a big difference the way people are taught versus how the actual learn something.  When you think about being taught, you usually think about someone telling or showing you something.  When you think about how you learn, you usually think about a discovery you made or the hours of practice you invested.

Teaching the way people learn often means setting up learning experiences where others will discovery what they need to learn.  You find these experiences by asking top performers how they learned something and often they will tell you about these experiences.  This also means setting up enough structured practice to ensure that learners get enough repetition to make things stick.

So as you are about to teach someone else, think about how you learned something not how you were taught.

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Light Speed Idea #6 – Know Your Learning Style

Uploaded by lookbook

We all learn in slightly different ways. Knowing your own style or the style of your students and adapting really speeds up learning. Some people will tell you that they need to write things down before they learn them while others have to try things out before they start to learn. Some people learn really well from seeing a demonstration on a video while others simply won’t get what you’re trying to do.

Here’s a couple of quick examples of the difference. Some people can learn to play golf by watching great players swing a golf club. They can see body positions and tempo and then replicate what they see. Others see what others do but can’t replicate it. Instead they need help to actually feel what their body should be doing. They learn from the feel of a good shot. Golf drills and training aids work better for these people.

As a teacher it’s hard to adapt everything individually. The answer is to use multiple methods of teaching and experimenting to see what works best. As a student, it’s to your advantage to pay attention to how you like to learn and then seek out that type of instruction.

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Light Speed Idea #5 – Remove Topic Silos

Uploaded by ShimmeeGrrl

Math, history, geography, team building, sales, political science and dozens more are popularly taught topics or subjects.   If you asked the question, why is education divided into these topics, the answer is probably… it’s seems logical, it’s one way to divided up everything or it allows teachers to specialize or I don’t really know.

These are silos of knowledge and skill.  In the academic world, it makes sense to separate them because it’s easier to teach.  However, in the real world things aren’t separated like this.  What’s missing is all the connections and links between topics which makes them easier to actually use. 

A faster way to learn is to forget about topics and start to think about outcomes or what you want to be able to do.  Then work backwards across topics and subject areas to come up with a better curriculum.  For example, if you want to learn how to manage your personal finances so you can have the type of lifestyle you want, you need to apply a lot of different skills to achieve this outcome.  It includes math, planning, budgeting, maybe a little history and more.  You learn quickly because you have a stake in the outcome and you don’t have to figure out how to put together all the pieces and parts.

 Copyright LPI 2008                     5 of 101

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Light Speed Idea #4: Storytelling Is Better than Telling

Uploaded by Gaelic Arts

Storytelling is a much more powerful way of teaching and learning than straight lecture or reading.  It’s effective for two key reasons.  First, it provides a structure that is easier to remember than straight delivery of facts and information.  Second, it provides a unique context for the new information that adds heavily to understanding.

If you’re ever read the Joys of Yiddish, there’s a very unique approach that helps with the understanding of the language.  Instead of providing a direct translation, every word is described with a story.  The story is much richer than the definition.  For example, there are two companion words Shlemiel and Shlimazel.   The simple definition is that a  Shlemiel is a clumsy oaf.  A Slimazel is someone with constant bad luck.  By tomorrow, you’ll forget these words.  However, if I describe them as the Shlemiel is the one who always spill his soup.  The Shlimazel is the one he always spills it on.  Better understanding and better retention.

So if you want to learn faster and retain more, tell and listen to stories.  It really works.

Copyright LPI 2008         4 of 101

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Light Speed Idea #3 – Teach to Learn

Uploaded on January 7, 2007 by PaleFires

Sitting in a lecture or watching a video or even reading text from an elearning screen is a fairly passive activity.  They are one way information dumps.  It’s like turning on the fire hose and asking you to drink.  You’ll get something from it but your retention rate will be very low. 

How many times have you heard someone say, “how many times do I need to tell you, if I’ve told you once I’ve told you a thousand times.” 

Being told is a very slow way of learning especially if we aren’t paying attention. 

Now let’s reverse the situation and now you’re in front of the class.  There are two things that make this a really valuable and intense learning experience.  First, you need to be able to organize the information and thoughts so others will understand.  As you do this, you will increase your understanding.  Second, there’s a big difference between what’s in your head and what happens when you try to say it. 

So here’s a good learning activity.  Take a reading assignment.  Divided up between the students and tell them to prepare a 2 to 5 minute lesson on what they’ve read.  You’ll also find that students will pay more attention to the other students presentations than the teachers.

Copyright LPI 2008                      3 of 101

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