Flip, Write or Slide?
As promised, we’re going to take a look at the best and worst applications of three popular training tools: Flip charts, White Boards, Overhead and PowerPoint Slides. Because all of these training aids are used in similar ways, I will speak of them collectively.
The First “Worst:” Flip Charts, White Boards and Slides that have too many words on each page
When there are too many words on a page, the trainees will read them rather than listening to what their trainer is saying
The Best Flip Charts, White Boards and Slides have 5 words or less on each page.
Each page presented should have enough words on it to trigger the dialog associated with it, and no more. Why?
- The trainees cannot make any useful preconclusions from such a limited amount of information, so their focus will be on the training and the trainer, where it belongs.
- Information Processing Theories* have found that the capacity of human thinking is limited. Short-term memory can only hold 5 to 9 meaningful units of information, (that’s seven plus or minus two). “Information units” can be numbers, words, symbols, or pictures. Human memory relies on one thing linking to another, such as mnemonics, which we discuss in greater depth in The Best & Worst Training Tools. Story telling also supports memory, as do visual and tactile links. For example, sharing recollections or looking at photographs, videos, postcards or souvenirs from a family holiday often brings back memories we had forgotten.
The Best Uses of Flip Chart, White Board and Slide Presentations
Effective trainers do not read what’s writtten on their slides/pages to their trainees. Instead, they deliver material related to the “cue” words, which act as memory aids. Likewise their presentation handouts contain only the few words displayed on each flip chart, white board or slide page, along with a space where trainees can write their own notes.
When the trainer has finished presenting a segment of information, they should summarize by saying, “The material we’ve just covered has five key points. Who got all five?” If no one can aswer correctly, the trainer should go on to quiz the trainees, and question them until all five points have been identified. This approach results in the trainees benefitting from a faster embedding of (and deepening of) the learning.
They may not find it as comfortable as a typical training where they are asked to absorb material without thinking or questioning. But those who really want to learn the material being presented will greatly appreciate what feels like an instant uptake of knowledge.
Here’s a comparison. If you think of a hotel swimming pool, the participants in an ineffective training session would be represented by the people sitting with their legs in the water or lying on lounge chairs at the side of the pool. They have gone to the pool but they’re not actually swimming. Every hotel pool also has a few people playing around in the shallow end. In the training room, these are the people who participate nominally, and tell others afterward that the training gave them a good break from their regular business duties. The approach we advocate, where each piece of learning is embedded and deepened immediately, represents the hotel guests who use the diving board to plunge into the deep end of the pool, before beginning their laps.
The Second “Worst:” Trainers who READ what’s written on their flip charts, white boards or slides to their trainees. This could be because:
- They do have not have a training manual that gives them the short cues to display that relate to the learning they they are delivering.
- The trainer lacks the training requited to use or develop a training manual.
- The trainer regularly puts too many words on their slides and they know from experience that the trainees will read them and ignore anything they say that is not on the slide/page.
- The trainer doesn’t want to take the time to learn how to use an existing training manual or develop a new one.
Clearly, flip charts, white boards and slides are useful training tools that can be used to create the mnemonics, or memory links, that support effective learning. They can do this using just words, just pictures, or both. But they should not become is the centerpiece of the training, because their role is to support the training process, not take it over.
If you are a frequent user of PowerPoint Slides, read “PowerPoint Do’s & Dont’s” to see how your presenation style measures up. If we’ve missed anything that you know helps or diminishes effective PowerPoint presentations, be sure to tell us by commenting.
* George A Miller, 1956
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