Changing Behavior Through Asking Questions
Because adults have a lot of "rules in their heads" about how things work (or how they work best for them) they aren't inclined to change their behavior on the job simply because you say so or even if you tell them why a change is in their best interest.
One of the ways you CAN assist adults in changing the way they think about a behavior, and the potential benefits of changing that behavior, is through asking questions.
Here is an example: Let's assume you are not registered to vote. You could read a pamphlet (asynchronous learning) or attend a voter registration meeting (how to register, your voter rights) but none of that information is likely to get you to change your beliefs / behavior regarding voting.
What if, instead, you were asked "Why is it considered a privilege, in the United States, to have the right to vote?" or "Why is it important for you, personally, to register to vote?" NOW you are getting at deeper analysis and thinking. People need to think through and explain their reasoning. Sometimes they will come up with the same answer (not going to register; no compelling reason to vote), but more often than not, they change their thinking and more importantly they change their behavior because they came up with the "answer" on their own (even though you led them to it; but shhhh, that will be our little secret).
Asking the right types of questions is a powerful technique to assist adults in adopting new ways of thinking and behaving. We challenge you to go through a course you currently teach and simply insert some questions that will cause your learners to think. You'll realize remarkable changes in behavior when you do so.
Training Design with Adults in Mind
There are a few techniques you can use to make learning easier on your workplace learners:
Structure - helps learners to keep track of detail; give them an agenda to follow-along
Known to unknown - Flying a plane to flying a helicopter
Easy to difficult - Painting with a brush to painting with a roller to painting with a power painter
Problem to solution - Getting lost to learning to read a map or compass
Frequent to infrequent - Running weekly payroll to running monthly invoices to running yearly W-2's*
Overview to detail - This is how government works to this is how an election is conducted
Theoretical to practical (big picture to doing your job) - The importance of eating right to planning menus
Order of importance or performance - Checking safety of machinery before operating it
Steps in a sequence (chronological) - Filling out a form; validating customer information
How participants would most likely interact with material - Teach blackjack by sitting at a blackjack table, not reading a manual
Exercises - are very effective, unless...
"Unusual" or complex exercises interfere with learning - learners may miss the point
Adults don't like far-fetched or artificial exercises - respect their maturity
Need some challenge (but not too much) - remember to keep the environment safe
Stories-are "sticky" - stories help learners to remember. Anytime you are about to go in to lecture mode, ask yourself, "Is there a story I could tell that would illustrate this just as well?" and then, at the end of the story, ask your learners "So what is the moral of this story?" THAT is when the true learning comes about; give the audience time to process the point of the story and draw a conclusion - otherwise it was an interesting story that happened to somebody else.
Keep 'em active! - nobody sits for hours on end at the job - don't expect it in training either.