Time to have some serious fun in L&D – part 2

Twenty years ago when I first started using MBTI^® in management development work, training room props were thin on the ground. I would often lead a development session armed with nothing more exotic than flip charts and masking tape for ‘living type table’ exercises.

Back then, practitioners relied on the force of their own personality, together with a sound grounding in MBTI theory, to engage their participants. For high impact, we sometimes combined the personality input with exciting outdoor and adventurous team- building activities. But the training room itself and the materials we gave participants, tended all to be rather on the ‘home made’ and/or academic side of things.

Over the years, I’m pleased to say that we’ve learned a thing or two about how to enhance the learning experience, and in doing so expectations of polished materials and immediate impact on business performance have also been raised. So we’ve developed techniques, visual aids, accessories and resources that are both professional and memorable, making sure that the content sticks.

That’s not to say that the theoretical content of a type-based session is no longer important. The science and theory, of course, underpin everything. However, as an iNtuitive type, I have come to realise that the majority of my client audience do not necessarily share my love for theory, but are instead looking to fast-track to practical applications and business value. 

It’s all about avoiding the ‘So what?’ factor, and making sure people don’t just file away the learning as a nice one-off experience. Our goal as MBTI practitioners is not just to engage people in type in order for them to discover their ‘best fit’, nor even for them to be able to apply this to an application such as better communication. Our goal is to equip people to use type to help them face successive life challenges (at work and beyond) on an ongoing basis.

In my last post on this subject I talked about how OPP’s ever-expanding Pinterest resources can help bring MBTI-based L&D sessions to life. This was just the tip of the iceberg. We’re also bringing you an ever-expanding range of resources to make it easier for you to create high impact and memorable events, even in the most ordinary of training rooms.

Brightening up training rooms with posters, videos, training aids and presentation tools such as Powerpoint and Prezi can reinforce the learning and balance the serious:fun ratio. It was with this in mind, and in response to pleas from practitioners, that we began developing downloadable facilitator exercises and training aids, which we keep adding to. 

We’ve also created various reusable posters and cards to add impact in such areas as decision-making and communication, and to enable trainers to carry out group exercises without relying solely on masking tape and a loud voice!

Don’t just use these colourful new type tools on their own – mix and match with some of those Pinterest resources I talked about last time round. And don’t forget to let us know if there are any specific resources you’d like us to work on for or with you – share your ideas on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or by email.