Sergiu Simmel » business classes http://sergiusimmel.com/blog On STRUCTURING Business, Marketing, Learning, Teaching, Technology and Life Thu, 21 Apr 2011 01:46:10 +0000 en hourly 1 Sergiu S. Simmel and Clepsydra Systems, Inc. Sergiu S. Simmel On STRUCTURING Business, Marketing, Learning, Teaching, Technology and ... Life Clean No 2004-2009 sss@sergiusimmel.com (Sergiu Simmel) sss@sergiusimmel.com (Sergiu Simmel) 1440 http://sergiusimmel.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/powered_by_podpress.jpg Sergiu Simmel http://sergiusimmel.com/blog 144 144 Business, Marketing, Learning, Teaching, Structure and Life Sergiu Simmel Sergiu Simmel sss@sergiusimmel.com no no Training and Marketing with Mindmaps (Part 2) http://sergiusimmel.com/blog/2010/04-27-training-and-marketing-with-mindmaps-part-2/ http://sergiusimmel.com/blog/2010/04-27-training-and-marketing-with-mindmaps-part-2/#comments Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:26:28 +0000 SergiuSimmel http://sergiusimmel.com/blog/?p=55 TRAINING & MARKETING WITH MINDMAPS

Content Mapping for Success

Part 2: Reaching All Instead of Some (WHY)

In Part 1 of this series, we explored two major challenges in delivering effective training and learning-based marketing content:

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]]> http://sergiusimmel.com/blog/2010/04-27-training-and-marketing-with-mindmaps-part-2/feed/ 1 0:07:47 TRAINING & MARKETING WITH MINDMAPS Content Mapping for Success Part 2: Reaching All Instead of Some (WHY) In Part 1 of this series, we explored two major challenges in delivering effective training and learning-based marketing content: Challeng[...] TRAINING & MARKETING WITH MINDMAPS Content Mapping for Success Part 2: Reaching All Instead of Some (WHY) In Part 1 of this series, we explored two major challenges in delivering effective training and learning-based marketing content: Challenge #1: Time-Linear Delivery Challenge #2: Detail-Oriented Delivery Don't forget: each of these challenges in delivering stems from a challenge in consuming the information. If you haven't yet, you can read or listen to Part 1 here. Let's now look at two more. With the advent of relatively inexpensive ways of creating & distributing audio recordings and videos, lots and lots of trainers, teachers, gurus, and thought leaders have aggressively moved to these new media, and away from print. This has had enormous positive impact on both the consumers and the creators' pocketbooks. One reason is that sound (and sometimes video, too) is so much better at communicating emotion, and emotion is a highly necessary (and often ignored) ingredient in rapid learning and in quick purchasing decisions. Establishing an emotional bond between the teacher or the marketer and the learner or consumer leads to a much better quality learning and–in the case of learning-based marketing–a higher likelihood of action. Another reason is that audio can be consumed while doing something else, thus it is an excellent medium for busy people. We, of course, knew that already from many decades of experience with radio: You can learn while driving, walking, exercising, cooking or doing many other activities. I often listen to short business classes while doing mindless activities, such as cleaning up my desk or shredding useless papers. So now we get almost everything in audio and video. Here is our third challenge: Challenge #3: Auditory-Dominant Delivery Depending on which study you rely on, anywhere from 30% to almost 55% of all people are visually dominant. Some more so than others. No matter how convenient or compelling audio (or even most video) content is, visually-dominant people NEED to look at something in order to consume it. They need either text (if they are strongly left-brained) or pictures (if they are strongly right-brained) or both (for most of them). So what does a visually-dominant learner do when faced with content coming solely in, say, audio form? Well, it depends on their level of motivation. If the motivation is low, they are likely to retain little and move on to the next thing. If there is some motivation, they may partially consume it, but the results may not be what you would want. If the motivation is high, they may spend a lot of time taking notes or drawing notes. In all cases, if the communication medium does not match one's learning dominance, there is a certain amount of pain inflicted. Depending on the level of motivation or emotional bond, some people may put up with it, but most will not. Dividing learners into visually-dominant, auditorily-dominant, and kinestetically-dominant is an important matter to keep in mind any time we communicate, but not the only useful classification. Challenge #4: Unbalanced-Wh Delivery A while ago, David Kolb created a model that classifies modes of learning, and by implication learners themselves, into four categories. A highly simplified way of describing his model is to refer to learners (people) as the Why-, the What-, the How- and the WhatIf- people. The Why-people need to be given or to easily construct "the big picture." They need to understand why is it that they should pay attention to you. The What-people need to be given or to easily construct "the organization, the components" of the topic. They need to understand what is in there in order to pay attention to you. The How-people need to be given or to easily construct "the process, the steps." They need to understand how would this work in practice in order to pay attention to you. The WhatIf-people need to be gi[...] Learning+Teaching, Marketing sss@sergiusimmel.com no no