Personality profiling: transforming L&D into a “life changing” event

Innovative learning models are shaking things up when it comes to coaching and training. Should you?

According to the Ebbinghouse Forgetting Curve, the average participant [in educational activity] begins forgetting what they’ve learned almost immediately without the use of any practical activities to support the new knowledge.

Research suggests that there is a six to nine hour window before people forget up to 50% of what they learned if they have not completed any practical activities related to the new information or skills.

But innovative learning models are shaking things up.

For example, pd training uses a model based on tying learning to personality types. The company uses real world examples supported by actual practical activities, either designed on the spot or planned as part of the complete learning experience.

According to Paul Findlay, managing director of pd training, the results are the best when profiling is undertaken prior to the training event.

“We use the insights to deliver the training in a way that is more tailored to the individual’s natural preferences; however, that’s only just the beginning,” he said. “By learning more about yourself and others in the context of a business course, the epiphanies people have about recrurring scenarios can be life changing.”

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Using the personality profiling tool, courses are delivered to cater to the needs of individuals in the room on the day. Even if one training session is attended by multiple groups in the same company, the delivery of each session will be altered to suit the personality type, needs, backgrounds and learning goals of each group.

Personality types – and their impact on learning

Pd has determined four key personality types when it comes to L&D:
  • Directive Driver: These self-directed learners will often have a high abandonment rate if the content of a learning program isn’t concise, or moments of realisation and understanding are not delivered quickly or frequently enough.
 
In a classroom environment, you will lose these people quickly if they are weighed down with history or unnecessary details.
 
Directive Drivers will happily take part in activities, but they need to be pointed and purposeful.
 
  • Contemplative Advisor: These people need access to time and a quiet space along with a deadline that they need to meet. They will happily pore over online content – particularly if they have the time and luxury to work through case studies, facts and details.
In classroom settings, Contemplative Advisors are the least likely to be comfortable participating in role playing activities or group work, ahieving a greater outcome by listening, observing and performing written tasks. Asking them to join in could be met with resistance, and they could spend too much time worrying about being in the spotlight to absorb the content.

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  • Adaptive Coach: Self-directed in their approach to learning, Adaptive Coaches learn well using video based online content, preferable presented by a well-known or respected personality in the field.
Like the Directive Driver, they thrive on conclusions and results as opposed to the theory and academic rigour it took to find them.

In a classroom, the opportunity to interact with their colleagues and work towards a common understanding is something they relish.

Facts, figures and PowerPoint presentations will soon lose their attention, however.
  • Consultative Counsellor: These learners need interactive people-based content, and like Adaptive Coaches, benefit from online video content presented by a known or respective person in the field.
 
They will be more likely to succeed when the details supporting the facts are available.
 
In the classroom, activities with strong explanations and clarity on how to go about them will encourage them to participate.

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