Welcome to HRDQ’s Insight Newsletter, focusing on our newest catalog, newest products and trends in the training industry.
PUTTING THE POWER OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION TO WORK
Studies show that learning accelerates and deepens when the whole brain is engaged. Yet most training tools on the market today rely on the rational part of our minds - mainly verbal communication exercises - to approach learning.
In This Issue:
PUTTING THE POWER OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION TO WORK
WHAT MAKES PEOPLE ACT THE WAY THEY DO?
A NEW WAY OF MEASURING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
WHY EVERY TRAINER SHOULD KNOW THE VALUE OF THEIR TRAINING
Visual communication is a different approach trainers can use in the classroom. You’ve heard the saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Visual communication works because it builds a bridge between the right and left sides of the brain. It enables individuals to bring forward deeply-rooted beliefs by tapping into both the conscious and subconscious parts of the psyche. In addition to accessing a richer set of personal data, you’ll also find that participants think the learning process fun, engaging, and tremendously insightful. Using visual communication in the training classroom has many applications, including team building, strategic visioning, goal setting, conflict resolution, and diversity.
VisualsSpeak is a highly effective new training tool that is based upon visual communication. Here’s how it works: As a facilitator, you start by giving participants a specific framework to work with or a question to respond to. For example, in a team-building setting, you might ask your audience, "What do you bring to this team?" Responding to this question, individuals select photographic images that carry meaning to create a story-telling collage and then they provide a verbal interpretation of the images they chose. In addition to surfacing diverse points of view, beliefs, values, and assumptions, as a trainer you will notice that the way participants approach the process provides you with as much information as the images themselves. The result is an abundance of personal and/or group information that leads to greater empathy and understanding, richer group interaction, and a more unified group.
The next time you facilitate a learning event, consider employing a visual communication approach. It is an interactive and effective training method that leads individuals to deeper discoveries about themselves and their teams or organizations more quickly than is possible through verbal dialogue alone.
What makes one person jump at the chance to do public speaking while another avoids it? Why do some people focus on facts and details while others operate at a broader level? There’s much debate about what drives human behavior. But one thing is certain - research shows that personality plays a major role in how we choose to act when given total freedom to do so.
Personality style affects everything we do. It affects the way we behave. It affects our interactions with others. And it affects our ability to be successful, both professionally and personally. As a trainer, helping individuals and teams understand the basics of personality style is the first step toward improving many facets of organizational life, including communication, leadership, people skills, and more.
The concept personality style and its basic dimensions date back to Jung’s 1914 work. Since then, many well-known researchers have expanded upon his findings. Although each individual person is unique, our personality can be classified into one of four basic styles. Research has found that these four personality styles are determined by a combination of two dimensions - assertiveness and expressiveness.
Assertiveness is the effort that a person makes to influence or control the thoughts or actions of others. People who are assertive tell others how things should be. They are task-oriented, active, confident, and ambitious. Conversely, people who are not assertive ask how things should be. They are reserved, easygoing, private, and deliberate.
Expressiveness is the effort that a person makes to control his or her emotions and feelings when relating to others. People who are expressive display their emotions. They are versatile, sociable, and extroverted. People who are not expressive control their emotions. They are dogmatic, controlled, and quiet.
Four basic personality styles result from combining varying levels of assertiveness and expressiveness: Direct, Spirited, Considerate, and Systematic. Each style has its inherent strengths and weaknesses. Helping individuals understand their personality style allows them to better anticipate their actions and the behaviors of others - and create greater success in their lives.
The Emotional Intelligence Skills Assessment is a new way of measuring one of the key indicators of success. HRDQ asked co-author, Dr. Derek Mann, about his experiences in developing this breakthrough evaluation tool.
Q: Why did you develop the Emotional Intelligence Skills Assessment (EISA)? A: We were interested in developing a tool that would increase awareness of emotional intelligence (EI) and accessibility to EI measurement and development. Most of the available Emotional Intelligence models are geared towards audiences with very specific qualifications, and many require certification or prior training. With the EISA, there is no prerequisite, which makes it an ideal EI introductory tool for use by any human resource or training professional in a broad range of development and coaching situations.
Q: What does the EISA measure? A: The five factors in the EISA model are ones that most people can readily observe. Two factors are what we call primary emotional abilities - the ability to perceive and manage emotions – and three are emotionally-driven behaviors: decision-making, achieving and influencing. It’s helpful to understand the relationship between the primary (or internal) emotional abilities and how these affect our external behaviors. Take the ability to influence others, for example. If we are more effective at portraying positive emotions, others are more inclined to want to work with us, so we more easily gain access to people. And this in turn increases our ability to influence others.
Q: There are a number of EI assessments on the market. What’s different about the EISA? A: I think it’s fair to say that some people struggle to get their head around emotional intelligence. Some see EI as a nebulous concept. What we set out to achieve with the EISA is a model for working with emotional intelligence that takes into account all the significant models of emotional intelligence. At the same time, our goal was to offer an EI tool that can resonate with everyone and particularly those who are new to the concept of EI. It’s true that there are many EI-based assessments in the market place – those with less scientific rigor may be less predictive of one’s performance in the workplace. Those with more scientific rigor require specific training for their implementation and interpretation. In essence, the EISA offers a very practical tool for introducing the concept of EI. It has the value of being scientifically based in its development, but it is designed to be easily implemented, interpreted, and applied.
Q: What are some of the applications for the EISA? A: Relationship Development: The EISA has direct implications for relationship enhancement, so it is a useful addition to any program that focuses on interpersonal skills.
Leadership Training: For organizations interested in developing leaders, improving skills in one or more of the five EI factors will increase leadership effectiveness.
Team Building: The EISA is an ideal tool to promote discussion around team dynamics, especially communication, and influence within and between teams.
Q: How informed about EI do you need to be to work with the EISA? A: You certainly don’t need to be expert or even proficient, in EI to facilitate the EISA. A detailed Facilitator Guide for the trainer and a Participant Workbook for the learner supports and encourages learning. The Facilitator Guide is geared towards the human resource and/or training professional and includes two pre-designed workshop templates, one for a half-day, and the other for full-day of training.
We also provide scripted language to aid facilitators who are unfamiliar with EI. These scripts cover topics such as what is EI, why it is important, and how it impacts the workplace. The scripts serve as a useful and practical roadmap for facilitators and trainers, regardless of their level of experience.
For the learner, the EISA Participant Workbook provides development strategies for each of the five EI factors, including a number of activities that the participant can engage in, either on their own or with a group.
Q: What you would say is the primary benefit or learning outcome from using the EISA? A: After taking the self assessment, a participant will achieve greater awareness of their ability to manage and perceive emotion, and understand the implications of their emotions on themselves and others. This awareness opens the door to increased emotional and social functioning by directing one’s developmental efforts to the areas of greatest opportunity and potential for growth.
About the Author Derek T.Y. Mann, PhD, is a performance enhancement consultant and co-founder of the Performance Psychology Group, LLC (PPG), an organization responsible for providing coaching services to athletes and corporate executives across North America. Dr. Mann spent several years investigating the impact of emotion on human performance with elite populations. He has been published in The Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, The Sport Psychologist, and the Journal of Human Movement Studies. Dr. Mann also served as a contributing editor to several leading academic and professional journals. He is currently a senior research associate at Multi-Health Systems (MHS), where he has contributed to the growth and accessibility of emotional intelligence through assessment, training and development, and professional presentations throughout North America.
WHY EVERY TRAINER SHOULD KNOW THE VALUE OF THEIR TRAINING Do you evaluate the results of your training efforts? Surprisingly, not many trainers do. At least not beyond the ubiquitous smile sheet. Why? There are lots of reasons – from time constraints and limited resources, to lack of skill and desire. But as Dr. Travis Russ states, it’s more important than ever to prove the value of your training. "As organizations continue to scrutinize processes and budgets, building a strong business case for workplace learning has become increasingly important," he says.
Evaluation expert and creator of the Four Levels of Evaluation, Dr. Donald Kirkpatrick created The Kirkpatrick Express Evaluation Toolkit together with Dr. Russ. In the toolkit, they identify the top five reasons why learning professionals like you should evaluate the impact of your learning programs:
1. To determine whether the learning objectives were achieved. Evaluation results will tell you if a program’s learning objectives were achieved. With this knowledge, you can determine if you should continue the rollout of the program as-is or make necessary modifications.
2. To identify a program’s strengths. Evaluation results can help you determine a program’s most effective elements (Formative Evaluation). This information can help you repeat success with the existing program and future offerings, as well.
3. To identify a program’s improvement opportunities. Collecting systematic evaluation data may reveal "blind spots" - elements in a program that are ineffective in helping participants achieve the targeted learning objectives (Summative Evaluation). This information can help you improve the current program and enhance the quality of future initiatives.
4. To market the value of training. Promoting evaluation results may help build the case for training to critical stakeholders such as senior executives and clients. It shows how your intervention makes a strategic, measurable contribution and helps the organization achieve its objectives and goals. This raises your profile, enhances your credibility as a trainer, gives you a stronger voice, and can create greater demand by attracting more participants.
5. To determine the cost-benefit ratio. Evaluation data can help compare the financial costs and benefits associated with conducting a program. This information may help demonstrate the bottom-line value of training initiatives and justify your department’s budget. Additionally, evaluation data can persuade stakeholders to fund future learning initiatives and programs.
Even though Dr. Kirkpatrick’s four-level methodology has revolutionized training evaluation, actually doing it can seem like an overwhelming task. But there’s help available with The Kirkpatrick Express Evaluation Toolkit. "This complete package helps learning professionals understand the foundations of evaluating training outcomes - and shows them how to demonstrate the value of learning," says Kirkpatrick. "The Toolkit helps present concrete results from learning initiatives. It provides increased insight to training quality and benefits, as well as better exposure throughout the organization - from the classroom to the boardroom." So don’t be afraid of evaluation any longer. Sharing your results with important stakeholders will not clarify the real-world benefits of your learning programs. And it will also demonstrate your value as a trainer.
