Since I was a little kid, I have always enjoyed putting puzzles together. I liked getting the corner pieces and edges in place and looking back and forth at the picture of the complete puzzle to check my work. It was very rewarding to have to sort through all of the available pieces and find just the right one that fit in just the right place. As a family, I fondly remember time spent putting puzzles together and enjoying time to visit. It was also nice to work the puzzle with other people so that I had help when I got stuck.
In the training class I taught today, I enjoyed working on what I call a “trainer puzzle”. It reminded me of all the puzzles that I had put together over the years. In today’s class, we were designing PivotTables in Excel. One of the students wanted to streamline the process and customize her PivotTable. The constraints and conditions she had on her data created a situation that neither I nor any of the students had ever dealt with before.
Almost all of the students in class (they were all from the same department in the same company) had encountered the problem too. So, we took some time to brainstorm and try different options to see what might work. We had a good time puzzling through the different Excel features we knew and finally hit on a great solution. None of us could have figured it out by ourselves, but together we finished that trainer puzzle successfully.
Intentionally or unintentionally, puzzles help us develop our skills in whatever application or life challenge we dare to endeavor. We may complete a puzzle with more gray hair and with a few more wrinkles, but we have learned and improved ourselves.
In the training environment a puzzle can be a unique opportunity for the growth and development of employees. Puzzles foster the growth of a business by the opportunities that individuals within a firm take to develop their skills in that particular area. In turn those skilled individuals give that business a unique edge. The employees also develop skills that are beneficial for their career advancement.
Training is just one important area in which puzzles in business can be solved or brought to light to the advancement of everyone around.
Posts Tagged ‘Excel’
Trainer Puzzles
August 31st, 2009 - by AngelaSoftware Training in a De-personalized World
August 3rd, 2009 - by AngelaLast week I was working on my laptop in the living room and received an email from my husband. He was in our bedroom study…just a couple of steps away in the room next to me. I’m not kidding! In another instance, a friend of mine told me about the time she found her four children all sitting in the same room together but arguing with each other on Facebook. What’s happening here?
On a television show last month, I watched an interview with a dad whose daughter had racked up thousands of text messages in one month. Fortunately he didn’t have to pay the almost $3,000 that the bill would have been because he had an unlimited texting service plan. Instead of talking to the daughter in person, the father texted her to tell her that she was grounded from texting. These are three examples of de-personalization in our everyday lives.
Advances in technology (such as chatting online, communicating via Facebook and Twitter, and texting on cell phones) have depersonalized so many social parts of life. It’s not necessarily all bad, but it’s important to be aware of it.
In many of my software training classes with Versitas, I hear students comment on how important human interaction is to help them learn. When offered online versus in-person classes, I have many students that choose to attend the in-person training class. It seems that many people are craving training that is taught by an actual instructor in the classroom. Especially when employees are sitting in cubicles all day communicating via email and phone, in-person training often seems to boost morale by allowing actual human interaction between the employees.
Although online classes might be the perfect match for some students, other students consistently prefer to attend an instructor-led training class. Every training method must compete for the attention of students, who must often check email or voicemail during the training. This is where in-person training can be very helpful. The personal touch of meeting eye-to-eye with an individual gives a personal contact that happens during in-person training. The nuance of feeling the moment and understanding when an individual needs that extra bit of attention is an important ingredient and helps to really teach the skills that are needed in today’s corporate environment.
Individuals in a corporation like everyone else want to know that they are being listened to and taken seriously. Learning new applications or programs like Microsoft Access, PowerPoint, Excel, etc., can be anywhere from overwhelming to monotonous and impersonal when an individual tries to learn something on their own. With an instructor carefully listening to their questions and needs, I believe it can help create a better learning experience.
After all, isn’t that what it’s really all about?
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