Sleep deprivation

I know Stella disapproves of some of the delivery methods on some of the courses I attend... but I find they're deeply appropriate for the context and learning being meted out. I'm talking about some of the courses I undertake as part of my reserve service. The army knows a lot about training, and has been training people to do very complicated things in situations where getting it wrong can be fatal for a long time... as a trainer myself I often look to inject the same levels of realism into the training I deliver that is found in the uniformed training I receive. Here's a few tricks that many other learning environments could take from the way we train in uniform (please note – I'll talk about training methods, but never content for this one... the methods and reflections are what's important to me as an ITOL Fellow).

Fuel up

Using our brains takes a lot of calories; using our brains and bodies at the same time even more so. Whenever we train, there's always an ample supply of real food: Fried breakfasts and almost anything you can imagine together with beans and chips. Sure it's not quinoa or whatever's meant to be good for our brains this month, but having fuel to burn is important when learning.

Start sparking

If you're told to "start sparking" or "start switching on", this means that you've come to the attention of senior group members (or worse, instructors) for the wrong reasons. Usually this will be because you've forgotten something you were told seconds before, or through clumsiness or bad admin you've had a near miss. The idea that people can be "told" to learn is anathema to some, but I feel that weaving a motivational narrative into training can be a very powerful force. This motivation should be delivered early in the training so that there are no unexpected shocks when people come face to face with the consequences of their inaction. Damocles had the sword for the same reason that trainers can mention right at the start the distribution list for end of course reports.

Quick reviews

There are often little tests spread throughout a course. They might involve answering questions from the front, mini-practical tasks, or quick written tests. Because they can be sprung when least expected, attention is paid throughout. It also helps the training team ensure that students are ready to progress to the next stage in their training.

Consistent narrative

Many Officers and SNCOs get their chance to write creatively when to comes to creating training exercises. Sure the names are comical with characters such as "President Alvin Alaf" and "Major C. Tastrophi" leading the enemy forces, but there is a narrative that gradually builds throughout the training period which clearly anchors the learning in time and space. This allows the task from the quick review exercise to be woven back into the final exercise under time and examination constraints because "the first one was destroyed" and serves as a fantastic link back to the learning that may have occurred a few days earlier. Having a narrative syllabus is something I've used before in other contexts, and I'll make sure I blog about it soon.

Live the dream

This came up last week at the BFLG – training should mirror the context in which the knowledge is to be used as much as possible. If your team work at night, train them at night... if you're showing a new piece of kit to a team who are going to be using it outside in the cold with gloves on, don't have your only hands-on session before use in a nice warm classroom where everyone's hands are working.

This should hopefully shed some light on where some of my more active and immersive ideas get their grounding. It's good to explore the training we receive with our trainer's hat on, and hopefully this will happen a bit more frequently.