Top Practical Tips to Motivate People to Learn
‘Corporate’ is a world where an individual or groups become united for a specific purpose. The corporate sector has to update itself with an inch of information. Importance of corporate learning is increasing day-by-day in the workplace with the introduction of modern learning techniques.
Firstly, we have to understand the basic requirement and characteristics of corporate learners.
- Corporate Learners are Independent and Self-directed: The primary role of the corporate trainer is to actively involve themselves in the learning process and serve as a facilitator rather than a fact generator. Participants must be prepared for presentations and group leadership, thus must be aware of how the class will help them to achieve their goals.
- Corporate Learners have a good treasure of Life Experiences and Knowledge: A trainer needs to connect learning to their own knowledge and expertise, by encouraging participants to share relevant experience/knowledge in corporate learning.
- Corporate Learners have Result-oriented Approach. They appreciate an educational program that is well-organized and has clearly defined elements. Instructors must show the learners how the class will help them to achieve their goals and improve their working style.
- Corporate Learners are Practical. Their interest may not be in gaining knowledge but rather focus on what is most useful to them.
Role of Motivation in Corporate Learning: Motivation is the key to learning, as motivated learners are more excited to m learn and participate. However, motivating the learners is the most challenging task for the trainer.
Some practical tips for trainers to improve the motivation level of learners are given below.
1. Due Consideration to Learner’ Feedback before Giving Instructions
Discussing with the learners what they know, what they don’t know, and what they would like to learn before preparing the syllabus will pay dividends. This is especially true with adult learners. It's important not to neglect the prior experience of learners of whom you would like to teach.
2. Establish Relevancy of the Content
Before beginning a lecture or a lesson, talk to your learners about the practical applications of the knowledge they are going to learn. Make sure to make them clear:
- How this knowledge will be useful to them?
- How it will make their life easier? and
- What advantages will they get after studying this lesson or topic?
Convince the learners that the topic is relevant, help them form a clear picture of the reasons for studying the topic, and that those reasons are valid and the topic worthwhile. A great question to keep in mind for trainers who motivate to learn is "what are the learners gonna use this information for?"
3. Connect with Real Life to Motivate to learn
Start the lecture with a short story or real-life example related to the topic which will help the trainer/instructor to capture the learner’s attention and make the representation of the content smoother. But learner’s age, sex, status, and the field of activity must be given due consideration when choosing the story for demonstrating the topic of the day.
4. Encourage Active Participation of Each Learner
It is a fundamental requirement of the learning process that the learners are listening to the trainer/instructor attentively. But it is not necessary that the new topic or skill being taught will be understood sufficiently well. So, it is very crucial to interact with the learners instead of treating them as passive listeners. Make sure to engage them and reward active participation in the discussion. Take a break from lecturing every 5-10 minutes to allow the learners to ask questions or to do interactive exercises on the topic being taught.
5. Organize Group Activities to Motivate to learn
Group activities help the learners to develop a host of skills which are required in the workplace. Learners can be divided into the groups of 4-7 (depending on the number of students in the group) and ask them to find the best solution to a real-life problem. Give them a suitable time limit before asking them to send one representative from each group. He will explain the solution taken by his/her group. In this way, you are killing many birds with one stone. First, you are allowing everyone to participate and secondly, encouraging learner’s competitive spirit.
6. Stress on Career Development of Employees
This is an excellent method to motivate the learners for learning as career plays an important role to build everybody’s future. Everyday new skills and techniques are arising and every employee needs to update their skillsets to improve his/her efficiency, competency and effectiveness. From this, it is evident that the role of corporate learning /training is becoming increasingly important.
Some learners are self-motivated, with a natural inclination for learning. But the learners who do not have this natural drive, a great trainer/instructor can make learning fun and inspire them to reach their full potential.
If you would like to learn more about how to build the most effective employee training strategy!
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Guest Author Daniel Brown
Daniel Brown is a senior technical editor and writer that has worked in the education and technology sectors for two decades. Their background experience includes curriculum development and course book creation.