It’s been nearly a month since ASAE’s Annual Meeting in Nashville, and over that time I’ve allowed some of the knowledge absorbed at Learning Lab sessions to stew. One session in particular stuck out for me.
On Sunday, August 10, I walked into a presentation led by Jeff Hurt, EVP of Education and Engagement at Velvet Chainsaw Consulting, titled “Master Mind: Education Hacker: Revolutionize Your Association’s Learning Opportunities.” Here is the session description:
“With education being disrupted across the globe, we need to rethink our association education programming and create some learning hacks. Participate in compelling conversations around four big disruptive changes in professional development for your organization to create learning hacks including the function of content, the job of the speaker, the process of education, and the role of technology.”
Jeff’s session was highly collaborative, providing guidance to create learning hacks, then pausing to pose questions for us to discuss. Here’s a rundown of the four learning hacks Jeff shared:
For me, hacks two and three stood out. According to Jeff, cultivating learning experiences will be the differentiator for associations offering learning and education. You may ask, “How will I know if I [or my members] have learned something?” Jeff’s answer, “If you can put it into your own words, not just mimic the speaker.”
To create these types of opportunities, I think the more engagement your association incorporates, the better. It also takes changing the mindset of your members to be able to leave with understanding and wisdom they can apply themselves.
For example, back in the day, I was part of the theatre crowd, an honorable Thespian Society member with a passion for performing on stage. Once cast for an upcoming play or musical, our director would hold workshops for read-throughs of the script and character development. These were critical for us to truly understand our character, to get inside their head, sometimes even create our own back story if one wasn’t provided. By the time we started rehearsals, we would know our character so well that we would “become” them on stage. We weren’t simply spouting off lines that we’d memorized, but incorporating our character’s unique mannerisms, recalling relationships with other characters. In that moment someone forgets a line, and you know your role so well that you can improvise and remain in character, that’s when you know “they get it.”
It should be the same with associations offering learning and education to members. Create those “workshops” or opportunities for your members to “get it” and understand your message so well, they can apply it to their own individual roles, challenges and experiences. Hosting events is just one example, but I think hosting online webinars are just as beneficial for learning and allow you to get creative with your speakers, topics and engagement (polls, games/competitions/live-chats).
What other opportunities has your association offered to cultivate learning experiences for your members? Do you have another learning “hack” you’d like to share? Leave us a comment, or start the conversation on Facebook or Twitter!
This post written by Melissa Madigan, Marketing Coordinator, ACGI Software
Photo Sources: Yellowpages, the Guardian
