We Learn . . . 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see , 50% of what we see and hear, 70% of what we discuss , 80% of what we experience , 95% of what we teach others.
William Glasser
The more interactively we learn, the better and more effective will be the learning that comes out of the process. In fact, we learn the most when we actively teach others how to do what we do. With Christmas is just around the corner, how can we relate learning to a tradition that is popular in some parts of the world – the cookie party?
At a cookie party, everyone brings a few batches of cookies and then they are traded around. You leave the party with a tray full of different varieties of cookies – each type the speciality of someone else. What a great idea but it needs to be done just a bit differently if we want to learn how to bake those different types of cookies and not just taste them.
With an interactive baking session, you could become involved in making cookies using someone else’s tips and methods and you could actually show someone how to reproduce those wonderful cookies you have been baking yourself for so many years.
What would it be like if we could learn from and adopt the excellent communication patterns of others? How much more would we understand about our own communication style if we had to break down what we do well and teach it to others? Think of all the wonderful “communication cookies” we could create and share!
Make it your New Year’s resolution to be more aware of the communication skills or behaviours that others exhibit and learn from them. You could even resolve to understand more about how you do what you do excellently in order to pass on this learning to others – in your team, at work, at home.
The Training Box recommends…
NLP Solutions: How to Model What Works in Business to Make it Work for You
By Sue Knight
Nicholas Brealey Publishing (1999)