Time to Think: A Gift for Learners

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From NetSpeed Leader Volume 32, April 2007

This month's Trainer Tips are from Sue Johnston, a Certified NetSpeed Leadership trainer based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

As facilitators of adult learning, we know there are 478 differences – give or take a few – between our work and teaching school. One of them sounds trivial, yet it’s fundamental to the way adults learn. It’s the name we give to the people seated facing us. They’re not students. They don’t study. They’re participants. They participate. Or we hope they will.

Through conversation – in small groups or class-wide discussion – participants in NetSpeed programs try on ideas and link concepts to what they already know. They decide, for themselves, what it all means and why it matters. This learning conversation is built into every module, enabling people to connect new ideas to their existing experience and knowledge.

Silence can be as important to that conversation as talk. I’ve often observed that, as instructors, we’ll ask a question and, when an answer doesn’t come immediately, we rush to the rescue. We restate the question or answer it, ourselves. We are uncomfortable with silence.

What we forget is that most people can’t think and talk at the same time. The brain just won’t permit it. Thoughtful participation – the kind that promotes real learning – requires the very silence that makes an instructor uncomfortable.

“Wait till it’s uncomfortable, then count to 10,” is a skill I learned as a coach and through leading classes by telephone. It’s not easy, especially for expressive, helpful people, as so many trainers are. It is worth it. When we become comfortable with this discomfort – and don’t hear silence as evidence that our question fell flat or it’s time for a break – we invite our participants to think.

This is especially valuable when we’re working with people whose first language isn’t English. They need time to translate as well as to think. Even when fluency isn‘t an issue, those of us working internationally or with newcomers will encounter cultures where people are less comfortable standing out and speaking up than North Americans are. And who, anywhere, doesn’t crave a moment to think? When we allow silence, we allow participation at a deeper level.

Are you willing to give it a try?

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