Felts, Shumway Awarded for Peak Performance

Tish Felts, IT Technical Specialist at Transocean, was named Pike’s Peak Award recipient for 2011 because of her successful campaign and implementation of participant-centered training methods. 

After attending The Bob Pike Group’s Instructional Design course, Felts was energized by how she saw training engage learners and worked to implement some of those same techniques in her courses. She began by creating a participant-centered train-the-trainer session for those working in her department.

Felts created the course to show how interactive techniques, learning activities like CORE (closers, openers, revisiters and energizers) and varying visual aids could enhance the learning experience and increase retention in her department’s software end-user training.

“Tish Felts’ commitment to implementing BPG instructor-led, participant-centered methods to reduce desk help tickets has learners in her workshops revitalized, energized and wanting more!” said Becky Pike Pluth, vice president of training and development for The Bob Pike Group, on why Felts was chosen to receive the Pike’s Peak Award. “From the early program development stage, through classroom delivery, and follow-up, Tish has made tremendous strides in delivering meaningful training that makes a difference.”

Next steps for Felts’ department includes expanding the participant-centered methodology to other learning methods like WebEx and computer-based training.

The Pike’s Peak Award is a formal recognition of learning leaders and/or their organization for their implementation of Participant-Centered training that positively impacts performance.

Priscilla Shumway, educational and training consultant, has won the Pike's Peak Performer Award from the Bob Pike Group for the second year in a row. “This award goes to the trainer at The Bob Pike Group that has received the highest marks throughout the year from our clients. This is a combination of content feedback scores as well as facilitator feedback scores,” said Becky Pluth, vice president of training and development. “Priscilla is definitely at the PEAK. She went from an already outstanding achievement last year of 4.88 out of five points on average to an astounding 4.92! I have watched Priscilla train, and I can say with certainty that those that have been blessed by her training leave more passionate and feel more invigorated about the positive impact they can have in their companies by teaching in a participant-centered way. Priscilla does a phenomenal job modeling techniques, and it is truly an honor to work with her.”

Shumway joined BPG in 1996 after attending a Train-the-Trainer Boot Camp. "My first exposure to Creative Training Techniques was like coming home! It reinforced everything I knew about adult learning, brain research, accelerated learning, and learning styles and put it all into action,” she says. "I now find that every session is different based on the needs of each group of participants, and I learn as much from them as they do from me!”

Shumway has been educating and training adults for over 25 years. A former public school teacher and corporate trainer, Shumway has focused her energies on staff development in the education and software industry since 1991. She holds a bachelor’s in education from Antioch College and a master’s in education in creative arts in education from Rutgers University. She has had advanced studies in Accelerated Learning, Integrative Learning and Learning Styles. She resides with her husband, Jack Hurley, on the Isle of Palms.

The Bob Pike Group uses a five-point Likert scale for evaluation and results are from August 2010-July 2011. BPG, based in Minneapolis, has provided train-the-trainer workshops and consulting services to individuals and corporations for more than 30 years. Clients have been applying Bob's Participant-Centered Instructional System to build their learning organizations, to strengthen retention and to enrich desired results.