Hello …

… and welcome to our 3rd EMU Ezine - Starting Learning with Impact – an occasional brief email sent to communicators keen to ensure that the information and learning they develop and deliver is – Enjoyable, Memorable, Useful!

I have recently attended two professional development learning events – a residential and a 1-day workshop – a rare treat for a learning facilitator! The content of both was very informative, and I’m really excited about putting my learning into action as we move into 2008.

However, neither of the programmes were delivered in a brain-friendly way and both started ‘traditionally’ – self-introductions and publicly stating one’s objectives. Our belief is that these traditional starts can be time-consuming, often add little to learning, and stating objectives publicly may be embarrassing for the audience.

	We prefer to provide a safe start for our groups, by encouraging them to meet a few people at a time, whose names they’re more likely to remember. Our opening sessions always go straight to the heart of the learning content: for example, on our learning to learn and train the trainer programmes, key learning facts are posted round the room, and in pairs delegates highlight how they can use these facts back at work. Our audiences enjoy these different starts, which do away with that stomach-churning ‘what am I going to say’ feeling we’ve probably all experienced!
	Two important memory triggers are primacy and recency – the first and last things you do. By creating an opening session with impact, your audiences are more likely to remember what they saw, heard, and felt, and by weaving important learning content throughout the opening session, then this too is more likely to be retained.
	And with a memory of what they’ve learnt, your audiences and learners are much more likely to use the information and learning they’ve enjoyed, personally or back in the workplace.

How could these EMU ideas inspire you to develop
and deliver information and learning differently?

Ann Grindrod