One of the key principles of Brain Friendly Learning is to Honour Uniqueness. No one size fits all, and the more flexible we are as facilitators of learning, the better we will be able to respond to the needs of our learners. You may already have heard of the maxim “There are no difficult delegates, only inflexible facilitators”, and if you would like to increase your own flexibility, Robert Dilts has come up with a fantastic way to categorise trainer behaviours, helping to highlight where there are opportunities for growth.

 

Not surprisingly, Robert’s categories loosely map across to the Neurological Levels, which you may already by familiar with. If not, you’ll find a summary below.

 

Neurological Level:  Environment

Role: Caretaker

Trainer Styles:  Management by Exception

Example:  Intervening only when actions deviate from what you expect. Negative feedback when standards not met.

 

Neurological Level: Environment

Role: Guide

Trainer Styles: Contingent reward

Example:  Exchanges reward for effort: this is what you need to achieve, and this is what you’ll get when you do.

 

Neurological Level: Behaviour

Role:  Coach

Trainer Styles:  Management by Objective

Example:  Telling people the outcome and leaving the process for achieving it to them.

 

Neurological Level: Capability

Role: Teacher

Trainer Styles: Intellectual Stimulation

Example:  Get learners to reassess their own ideas. Think of old challenges in different ways.

 

Neurological Level:  Beliefs and Values

Role: Mentor

Trainer Styles:  Inspirational

Example:  Get learners inspired by how things will be once they’ve applied the learning.

 

Neurological Level:  Identity

Role: Sponsor

Trainer Styles: Individual consideration

Example: Giving personalised attention, checking in with people to find out how they are doing, coaching and advising.

 

Neurological Level: Connection/Spirit

Role:  Awakener

Trainer Styles: Charismatic Visionary

Example: Give people a sense of purpose; illustrate how they will change the world.

 

Not surprisingly great trainers are able to flex between all of these trainer styles, and they don’t get stuck in just one, even if the going gets tough. The only one we at Kaizen suggest you don’t spend much time is in “Management by Exception” as negative feedback on its own is not a recipe for getting the best out of people! However the rest provide a rich mix of identities for a trainer, which we have found to be invaluable.

 

Looking at these categories you might like to:

 

q      Assess your own preferences: are you, for example, someone who spends most of their time in guide and coach roles? If so, what needs to happen for you to bring more of the other roles into your training? What would the benefits be if you did?

 

q      Go over a training design for a course you’ll be delivering soon. How many of the trainer styles will you use? At what stages will you use them? If you did a Pareto (80/20) analysis, which of the styles would make up the significant few? What would need to happen for you to create a better balance?

 

q      Go over these categories with a colleague. Where do they perceive you spend most time? Then give each other a challenge to start to flex more and reassess a week or two later.

 

With special thanks to Robert Dilts for the ideas used in this tip.

This week’s FriendlyBrain Tip comes to you from Alastair Olby of Kaizen Training. Kaizen Training Limited is a well-established consulting and training firm based in the UK and offering its services to the global business community. Training for Excellence is a leading-edge Train the Trainer company based in the U.S. and providing training programs internationally. For more information, contact us at info@wetrain.biz

coaching pareto analysis trainer state trainer styles training design