3 Super Simple Tools To Increase Retention

Are You Just Throwing Up…?

I know this sounds a little crass and I apologize.

I just finished a campus tour with my son and that was all I could think about.

This is a highly regarded university that has famous alumni that are an astronaut and the CEO of a trillion dollar company. This is not a little school in nowhere Idaho that no one has ever heard of.

We were going to be in the area so my son asked if he could visit! I said, “sure” because I want him to see a number of schools and find out what he doesn’t want so he can start cutting down the universe of possibilities.

He went online and scheduled the visit a few weeks out! They sent great information about where to park and what to expect!

The campus is gorgeous!

We arrived at the correct office and sat quietly until the person was ready to start our visit.

That is when then non-stop spewing started!

She had slides and just went to telling and telling and telling.

At one time my younger son leaned over and gasped slightly like he needed a breath and he pointed at the women doing the pitch. She would talk so fast and so long that when she stopped she would gasp for a breath.

If you only take one thing away from this please make it this…

If you’re training and want people to learn...you should never talks so fast or so long that you gasp for a breath.

Seriously, you’re not trying to sing some impossible song…

Learning is not about how fast or how much you can spew...it’s about the other person(s) and what they are learning.

Don’t get me started on the slides… way too many words and also that said “how great they are”.

Put this away for a special day… people don’t care about you they care about themselves. Slide after slide about how great you are is like walking up to a person at a bar and giving them a compliment and than spending 60 long boring minutes telling them how amazing you are. (Please do not take this as dating advice unless you didn’t laugh when you read it.)

We did it...we survived the almost 45 minutes of listening from a fire hose.

Now they invited us to tour the campus with a senior in small groups.

I had high hopes that this would be the end of the “gasp-ly” torture…

But I was wrong!

The new person walked backwards and talked and talked and talked.

She shared things from dates and building names to fun facts about stepping in the wrong place to the best place to get lemonade. She even shared where you should take a girl to know if she’d be your right choice for marriage.

But it was monologue!  She TALKED.

In addition, she did ask the worst question EVER from time to time.

Do you know what it is?

You heard it often in school.

Here you go...

“Does anyone have any questions?”

When we deliver TTT I always point out why this is a horrible thing to ask.

For those of you that have not participated in one yet here you go…

We learned very early in school if the teacher asked “Does anyone have any questions?” there would be an overzealous grade grubber that would eagerly ask some question to show how much they knew and wanted the treacher and everyone else to know how much they knew.

This was maddening!

The other thing I learned is that if someone asked a question it would mean we’d get out later for recess, lunch or to go home! I knew that if someone asked a question it kept me away from what I really wanted.

So on this tour she’d stop and ask the question and there would be crickets!

There are 3 high school seniors that do not know each other and they don’t want to be seen as the person that kept them from something way more important.

This is the exact same mistake too many places make when it comes to training and learning.

They feel like they need to go on and on and share all the possible information that they can so everyone “learns” it all. The problem is if people are learning, at best, they are enduring and worst they just tune out.

Here are 3 super simple tools you can take away from this.

1 - When you do a PowerPoint stop the “Word Fest”.  Make it one or two key points and use large images and maybe a couple of words!  No long sentences or paragraphs that no one will read or remember.

People will remember a picture and a couple of words!  Think Nike - Just Do It!

They didn’t put word soup that said “Please enjoy our shoes, clothing and equipment when you exercise, play your favorite sports or enjoy an evening out with family or friends.”

2 - Less is more. This ties to the previous one. If you feel like you’re struggling to breath and might pass out while talking...your talking too much! You want to engage with people so they make meaningful connections.

Talk less and ask more. You can always guide the conversation but let the learners do most of the talking and sharing.

3 - Ask, ask and ask some more. The key to learning and connecting and retention is asking meaningful questions.

Instead of doing slide after slide and reading, they could have asked…

Does anyone know the first company to be valued at $1 trillion dollars?

Does anyone know who the CEO is?

If you had to guess where do you think he went to school?

Three simple questions that would have created a potential long term memory and made it so when trying to decide between a couple of schools, who wouldn’t want to go to the school that helped mold that CEO?

Before you resist and say we don’t have time to ask questions…

The answer is you don’t have time NOT to ask questions.

Look at your current training and see how you did with my 3 Super Simple Tools?

Do you ask more than tell?

Do you practice less is more?

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Please let me know in the comments below.

If you’ve read this far, thank you for your attention. It goes without saying that it means the absolute world to me. I hope this piece helped you in even the slightest bit and if it did, please share it with a friend that could also benefit from this.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. What do you think? Please comment below...the more discussion the more learning happens! Don't be a chicken...share. :)