Copyright 2009
Structured Tutorials
Over the years I have developed a variety of face-to-face training workshops which stress the active-learning methodology so that participants interact, discuss, solve problems and learn as much from each other than they do from me. I learnt this methodology at Wits where it was developed and refined by a guy called Doug Wilson in the Applied Mathematics department in 1976 where I participated in its initial testing. It was called ?Structured Tutorials? in those days and I applied it quite successfully at Minnesota also.
Project Management
The workshops that I conduct are usually in the area of project management. Participants get to plan and document their own work or home based project and take away a well-defined and properly thought-out set of tasks, along with resource allocations and costings. They also learn how to monitor and track progress and compare this against the plan in order to maintain the ability to deliver on time and within the promised budget.
This sort of approach is also used by us in delivering software training programs, also in the area of project management where various tools are available to assist with the calculations and reporting.
Decision Making and AHP
During the past few years I have turned my attention to decision-making and the AHP method (see my response to your medical diagnosis question on the ?Ashley Davidoff? thread, posted earlier today). Here too, participants work on decisions that need to be resolved at work, in some cases big and important issues like where to locate a certain building or whether the company should relocate or renovate their existing premises etc.
We have also helped companies arrive at decisions by conducting facilitation sessions rather than training workshops.
We are experimenting with online decision facilitation, given the tools that are now available which reduce significantly (without eliminating) the drawbacks of not being in the same physical space with the decision-makers. I guess that this is a possibility for groups in South Africa, once we have established that it works sufficiently well.