Four Receive Prestigious Pike's Peak Award for Achieving Significant Results with Revised Training

Four trainers were recently recognized by The Bob Pike Group for their intentional and effective implementation of participant-centered training design and execution that increased retention and improved their companies' bottom line.

In May 2013, Whirlpool Corporation—Clyde Operations took a major turn in the way it did training, moving from a didactic training style and death by PowerPoint to a method that was "more centered around the individual" and impacted not only the trainers but the plant environment, said Jennifer Lenhart who nominated the group now known as The Clyde 16. The group attended participant-centered and interactive training led by The Bob Pike Group's Bob Pike and Priscilla Shumway, and things began to click. The group, on its own, wanted to make changes in how it had been doing training despite the fact that's how it had always been done. "The beginning was painful, but a year later, it's fun to see how things have been transformed, how things are different here," Lenhart said.

With implementing simple changes just in the room design, the trainers alerted learners that something already had changed. Music was playing, and only bar-height tables but no chairs were in the room.

A year later, more interactive techniques are keeping learners up and moving and involved in their own learning. They're remembering more and asking higher-level questions and showing that their motivation has changed in how they react to the training.

"Through our success here in Clyde, we are not only making a difference in providing better learning to our employees but [helping learners] make a difference here in the workplace. We are finding that even our roughest 'prisoners' are speaking during training. When asked, they now feel like their voice is able to be heard!" Lenhart said.

Lorinda Schrammel "sees the value in each employee and sees their potential," said Bonnie Hess, Schrammel's nominator for the Pike's Peak Award. After joining the training staff at Oklahoma State University, Schrammel invested in the training staff by having them attend a Bob Pike Group Boot Camp. "This implementation of BPG’s curricula and techniques was immediately put into place with on-campus seminars for employees" to improve the new employee orientation.

With these new methods in their training toolkits, Schrammel and the other human resource department trainers began using more structured group discussion to achieve objectives and create relationship connections for these new hires. Windowpanes were used to help new employees retain important information. Revisiters and energizers were more conscientiously employed. PowerPoint slides were changed to those with more pictures and fewer words.

Perhaps the aspect that most significantly benefited the university, however, is how the scheduling of the training is now arranged. Training that used to take up the better portion of the day is now scheduled for four hours in the morning. "We formatted our presentation in a way that we spent more time on the need to know, less time on the nice to know" and rearranged the order of the topics. The benefits and outcomes of implementing this new method of training far outweigh the initial investment to learn the methods, Hess said. "Lorinda’s mentality is that it is better to give than to receive, and she has proved that time and time again through her service to this organization with her training and facilitation expertise."

The four recipients were formally recognized at an awards luncheon at The Bob Pike Group's annual creative training conference in Minneapolis on September 24, 2014.

The Pike’s Peak Performance Award is a formal recognition of trainers or organizations who have transformed their training by implementing participant-centered, results-based techniques championed by Bob Pike. These techniques involve participants in their own learning instead of relying on an instructor-led, lecture-based format. The award recipients have demonstrated improved retention and training transfer in their sessions by implementing these methods as well as an increased tie-in to business objectives.

The Bob Pike Group 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. For more information, contact Rebecca Johnson at 952-829-2667 or via email at rjohnson at BobPikeGroup.com or visit http://www.BobPikeGroup.com

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