Class Length
Gerald P. Joering (Gerry_Joering_at_CompuServe.COM)
Tue, 18 Feb 1997 14:52:06 -0500
The almighty budget limits most of us to a set time frame for our training.
In far too many cases that time seems to be a single hour. What gets
crammed into that hour is going to vary at each operation according to your
needs and prior training. If you have a graduate seminar with reading
assinments et. al., you can spend less time on setting up the discussion.
With a diverse group of line operators the folks need time to get
comfortable enough to particpate. (Our local culture is non-verbal in
classroom settings) There are two demands on your time before you get
started. Setting the agenda and group socialization. How much of that
precious time you spend depends on your particular situation. Even a small
unit with stable personnel will need some kind of introduction to the
discussion. If the topic is new to the class even more time has to be used
to set the agenda. So the trap is that you spend a lot of time telling the
troops what you are going to talk about and what the school solution is and
when the hour is over guess who has done all the talking.
There are some techniques for stimulating discussions but they all take
time, either in class or before. I'm sure the crm-devel group has some
great ideas on getting the discussions going. But my point is that a one
hour class that is meant to be primarily group interaction has to be
carefully designed to avoid being a lecture in disguise. End of lecture.
Gerry