1. Adults are internally motivated and self-directed.

Our role as facilitators is to aid movement toward more self-directed and responsible learning, and to foster the participants internal motivation to learn. We start each session by asking participants to answer the question “What’s in it for you?” “How will this help you improve in your current role or in your career?”

2. Adults bring life events to learning experiences

Experience is both a plus and a minus. It is a plus because it is a vast resource. It is a minus because it can lead to bias and presuppositions that can block reflection and impact learning. We see one of our more important roles as to  fostering participant sharing while ensuring conversations remain relevant. Also, we do everything in our power to encourage participation by all – not just a few participants.

3. Adults are goal oriented

Within each course design, we incorporate activities that have clear, relevant, and competency-based goals. For example, in a course on Conducting Effective Performance Discussions – an activity that challenges the participants to demonstrate specific techniques should be structured so that participants know exactly which behaviors are expected and what they are intended to achieve.

4. Adults are relevancy oriented

There are two things we would do to ensure relevance: 1) develop and utilize organizational specific examples, which would be developed (if not already in place) . 2) At different junctures of the session, asking participants “How is this relevant to your day-to-day?”,  “How can you apply this back at work?”  This is also part of the individual “take away” activity that completes each session.

5. Adults are practical

We provide plenty of practice for skill building, whether it be Interviewing Skills, Conducting Performance Discussions, or writing a cover letter as part of a course on Career Development. We ensure that participants receive quality feedback by taking a couple of minutes to explain what feedback providers should be looking for and how they can structure their feedback so that it is balanced and constructive. 

6. Adults like to be respected

Within our trainings, we demonstrate respect by: 1) Taking genuine interest in each and every participant and each contribution; 2) Acknowledging the wealth of experiences that each participant brings to the training room; 3) Regarding participants as colleagues who are equal in life experience; 4) Encouraging expression of ideas, reasoning and feedback at every opportunity.