INFORMATION RETENTION Make the Seminar Most Valuable

REESA WOOLF

INTRODUCTION

This new activity by Dr. Reesa Woolf is an elegantly simple way for a seminar leader to guide trainees into transferring new skills from the seminar room to the workplace. It features the facilitative leader as well as involved trainees who plan their own immediate applications back on the job.

KINDS OF SKILLS TARGETED

• Learning techniques that can be carried over from seminar to workplace

• Applying seminar information and skills to trainees' workplaces

TRAINEE BENEFITS

Seminar Leader Reesa Woolf has used this exercise dozens of times in at least eight different AMA seminars . She comments that trainees like that it is not theory. In other words, the activities that they identify relate to their real workplaces and have direct applications there. She also notes that "they love to make the mental transition from the seminar to the workplace while still in the seminar".

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• To identify seminar learning in terms of the trainee's job

• To apply seminar information to their real workplaces

MATERIALS NEEDED

Paper or notebook for "take-away notes"

ROOM SET UP

No special requirements

TIME REQUIRED

Give trainees 5+ minutes or judge when people seem to be finished. It depends on the complexity of the information/exercise covered.

PROCEDURE

1. Ask trainees to find a place in the seminar notebook in which they can write notes to themselves or to use sheets of paper for taking notes. Identify this area as "take-away notes".

2. Pause after covering a section of work and ask, "On your take-away notes , write how you will use what you've just learned at your workplace".

   Variations of this are:

   • "What did you learn about yourself?"

   • "What do you want to remind yourself about back at work?"

   • "Tell a person near you exactly when you will use this at work".

   • "Now, write yourself notes on your calendar to jog your memory".

ABOUT THE TRAINER

Name :	Reesa Woolf
Address:	110 Grant Street Boonton, NJ 07005
E-Mail:	[e-mail]
Telephone:	973-335-7361

 

DR. REESA WOOLF is a communications coach and author of books, CDs, videos , and tapes on confident speaking. She has 20 years experience coaching presentation skills. She was the Senior Trainer for Drake Beam Morin Outplacement Corporation, Senior Trainer for the American Management Association, and Press Secretary for the gubernatorial campaign in Hawaii. She founded her corporation, Confident Speaking, in 1990.

Dr. Woolf continues to address business and technical conventions and retreats on the topics Confident Speaking, Presentation Skills for Technical Professionals, and Presentation Skills for Foreign-born Professionals. She continues to adjust her skills to audiences' shorter attention spans and time pressures and focuses on teaching these skills to others. She holds a PhD in Psychology, an MA in Psychology, and a BA in Speech.

Reesa Woolf has taught these AMA seminars:

2248	Management Skills for the New Supervisor
2238	Management Skills and Techniques for New Managers
2243	Making the Transition from Staff Member to Supervisor
2528	Assertiveness Skills for Women in Business
2217	Assertiveness Training for the New or Prospective Manager
2580	Effective Presentation Skills for Technical Professionals
2519	Strategies for Developing Effective Presentation Skills
2522	Effective Executive Speaking