Make Your Next Training an EPIC Experience!

Make Your Next
Training an EPIC
Experience!
by
Sharon L. Bowman, MA

Why? So that our learners will
not only HEAR our information,
but REMEMBER it and USE it
when the learning experience is
over.

The word EPIC is also an
acronym for four elements
that help make a learning
experience larger-than-life
and totally unforgettable.
Think of an experience you
have had that stands out in your When we remember to use these
mind - perhaps a personal one four elements in our training, we
like a wedding, the birth of your increase the “memorability of
child, a death, a miracle. Or the moment,” helping our
maybe it’s a professional one - listeners retain the information
getting your dream job, a they hear.
sudden reversal of fortune, a
promotion. Or it could be a EPIC learning experiences are
cultural or national event - 9/11, those that are:
war, a discovery, a celebration.
EMOTIONAL. Learners
Those experiences are epic engage emotionally as well as
events in our lives - they are intellectually.
larger-than-life and totally
unforgettable. And one of our PARTICIPATORY. Learners
goals as trainers is to create are involved in their own
learning experiences that are learning.
larger than life and totally
unforgettable for our learners.
www.Bowperson.com 775-749-5247 SBowperson@gmail.com
© 2003 Sharon L. Bowman. All rights reserved.

8

Make Your Next Training an EPIC Experience!

IMAGE-RICH. Learners form Try the ideas below to add
mental pictures to help positive emotions to your
remember the learning. training.

CONNECTED. Learning is Best-Kept Secret: Anytime you
connected to learners’ personal use the other EPIC elements -
lives and experiences. participatory, image-rich, and
connected to learners lives - you
There are a multitude of ways to automatically create a positive
make a learning experience emotional learning experience
larger-than-life and totally for your audiences. They begin
unforgettable. Listed below are to associate learning with
some simple tips to begin using pleasure, and they will want to
these elements in your learn more.
presentations. As you begin to
“tinker with the tips,” more Stories: Anecdotes, verbal
EPIC ideas will spark and you’ll illustrations, metaphors, and
be able to create your own EPIC analogies create emotional
list of ideas and activities. connections to the information.
Stories can also be participatory
(pause in the story and have
your listeners guess what will
happen next), image-rich (use as
much detail as you can), and
connected to learners lives (have
them discuss how the story
relates to their own lives).

Humor: It’s not about telling
jokes. It’s about opening a space
and time for learners to
comment or share their related
experiences so that THEY can
EMOTIONAL generate humor in learning. It’s
also about using humorous
Emotion directs attention which stories and sayings to accentuate
directs learning. The more the information in fun ways.
emotionally charged a learning Remember, humor releases
experience is, the more it will be endorphins - the pleasure
remembered by the ones chemicals of the brain - and we
experiencing it. all like to laugh while we learn.

9


Pain: Many presenters want Neighbor-Nudge: Also called a
their listeners to feel the pain of Pair-Share, or a Dyad-Dialogue,
a need or unresolved conflict this activity is the easiest,
before they move onto the quickest, and most low-risk to
pleasure of filling that need or do. Simply direct your learners
solving the problem. A caveat to to turn to the person sitting next
remember: With too much pain, to them (making sure no one is
learners will try to avoid left out), and tell that person the
reminders of the pain later. That most important thing they’ve
means learners will avoid any learned from the presentation so
learning situation that reminds far. Learners can also share a
them of the pain, including your question or a response to the
presentations. And the worst information they’ve heard. Total
pain isn’t physical - humiliation, activity time is about 30 seconds
ridicule, shame, embarrassment to 2 minutes.
are all painful emotions that
many people have felt while Birds-of-a-Feather: Learners
learning something new. Be stand and find others who like
careful with pain, and move to the same junk food (movies,
pleasure as quickly as you can. colors, vacation spots, genre of
books, sports, whatever). They
form small standing groups,
introduce themselves to their
group members, and tell one
thing they want to learn from
the presentation, a question they
have, an outcome they want, or
a fact they already know about
the topic. After about 2 - 3
minutes, volunteers shout out a
few of the comments made in
their groups. You can also make
PARTICIPATORY the sorting topic-related (i.e.
find others who have the same
The suggestions listed below all work experience, who think of
create participatory learning the same word or phrase related
experiences, connecting learners to the topic, who are from the
to each other as well as to the same department, etc.).Total
topic they are learning about. activity time is about 5 minutes.


10


Take-A-Stand: One wall of the learner chooses an object and
room stands for a certain issue then makes a group with three
related to the topic. Another or four other people who chose
wall stands for the opposite the same object. Objects can
issue. Learners take a stand at relate to the topic in some way.
either wall or in between After learners form small
depending upon their responses groups, they discuss something
to the issues. Walls can also related to the topic or to the
stand for strongly agree/strongly information just presented.
disagree, yes/no, love it/hate it,
or other topic-related facts. From: How To Give It So They Get It!
Learners introduce themselves and Shake, Rattle and Roll!
Author: Sharon Bowman
to persons standing closest to
them and discuss their “stand.”
You process the activity with
the whole group by asking
questions like, “What did you
notice about the group? What
did you learn from the activity?
What patterns emerged? What
questions did the activity raise?”
Total activity time is about 5 -
10 minutes.

Four Corners: A variation of
Take-A-Stand, with the four IMAGE-RICH
corners of the room representing
topic-related material. Learners
Think TV commercials, movies,
move to a corner (or in-between
billboards, magazine ads, street
corners), introduce themselves
signs, Microsoft Windows, and
to those in the same corner, and
the multitude of ways we are
discuss why they chose to stand
bathed in images throughout the
in that particular place. Process
day. We are an image-rich
the activity as in Take-A-Stand.
culture, and we rely on images
in order to learn and remember
People Sorters: Use small
information. Here are a few
objects such as miniature toys,
ways to make your training
erasers, card decks, plastic tools,
image-rich.
colored dots, or stickers to sort
learners into random groups
(one object per person). Each

11


Metaphor: A metaphor is a Learning Aids: Simply put, a
way of giving the learner the learning aid is anything that
essence of any idea by helps the listener learn better
representing it with something and remember more. Examples
else. Metaphors paint mental of learning aids that are image-
pictures inside the learner’s rich include: toys, props, tools,
head, which is one of the most household gadgets, nature items,
powerful ways of moving musical instruments, blank
information into long-term paper, worksheets, skits,
memory. A few reminders: simulations, improvisation,
Keep the metaphor simple, use stories, songs, jokes, one-liners,
metaphors that everyone games, cartoons, metaphor,
understands, let learners create movement, music.
their own metaphors, and create
visual as well as verbal
metaphors. Need some ideas?
Direct learners to choose or
name an object and then create
ten ways the topic is like that
object, or ways the object
represents information related to
the topic. Or have learners draw
or sculpt a representation of the
topic and its various
components.

Stories: See comments under CONNECTED
“Emotional” in the first section
of EPIC tips. We remember best what is
linked to what we already know
Illustrations: Whenever as well as what is connected to
possible, use a cartoon, photo, our own life experiences. When
doodle, logo, shape, picture, or we link new learning to old, we
symbol to illustrate an important remember the new information
point. Or have your listeners longer and we can assimilate it
create their own “doodles” as into our lives more easily. The
they take notes. The images will following ideas help learners
be remembered long after the connect the new with the old.
words are forgotten.


12


Learner-Created them what they will get out of
Connections: Audiences need the time they spend with you -
time, even if it’s a simple and how they will be able to use
Neighbor Nudge minute, to what they learn.
connect what they have heard to
their own lives. You don’t Action Plans: As part of the
necessarily need to make these closing of your training, learners
connections for them. All you write and discuss their action
need to do is to create the space plans with you and each other.
and time for them to discuss the An action plan can be simply
connections. Afterwards, allow completing the sentence: “I plan
a few more minutes to process to ...” and saying/writing what
their connections verbally so they plan to do with what
that others in the group who they’ve learned. Or it can have
may have had trouble making timelines and procedural steps.
the personal connections can The action plan becomes the
hear how to do it. learner’s commitment to
himself/herself to use what has
It’s About Them: Always bring been learned.
your stories and activities back
to your learners’ lives. Know Koosh Throw: Learners form a
enough about them to be able to standing circle, or stand by their
make your presentation relate chairs, and toss a koosh ball (or
personally in some way other similar soft throwable
(remember, apart from their object) randomly to each other.
jobs, your listeners are human The catchers share the most
beings, and information that important thing they learned and
connects them to things we all what they plan to do with the
experience as humans is new information. If time allows,
powerful). they can tell the group what they
appreciated about working
WIIFM: “What’s In It For together, or compliment
Me?” In pairs or small groups, individuals in the group. The
learners discuss what they want koosh is tossed until everyone
to learn, what outcomes they has had a chance to respond. If
want to walk away with, or how the group is really large, they
they can use the information can divide themselves into
they’ve heard. They explore smaller standing groups, each
their own WIIFMs before, with its own koosh ball.
during, or after your
presentation. Or you can tell

13


Let’s Trade: Each learner memory. They help learners not
writes his name and work phone only HEAR information, but
or email address on the front of REMEMBER and USE it. And,
an index card. On the back he best of all, these teaching tools
writes “I plan to ...” and finishes make the learning experience
the sentence, writing how he larger-than-life and totally
plans to use the information unforgettable.
learned. Then learners stand,
pair up, and read their action You don’t need to make every
plans to their partners. They presentation or training EPIC in
trade cards, find new partners, size - only the ones you really
and read the action plan they want your audiences to
have in their hands. They trade remember.
again until they have read and
traded at least three cards. Then If you find it hard to include all
they take the card they end up four EPIC elements, then simply
with and, in two or three weeks, choose one to concentrate on
call the person whose card they during a single presentation.
have to see how they are doing When you’re comfortable with
with their action plan. one EPIC element, then include
another, then another, until you
finally have a presentation that
is emotional, participatory,
image-rich, and connected to
learners’ lives.

Down the road, when you’ve
become accustomed to creating
presentations that are larger than
life and totally unforgettable,
you may be standing in a
grocery store check-out line,
perhaps a little weary and
Final Thoughts on preoccupied as you wait.
Creating EPIC Learning Suddenly a voice behind you
Experiences calls your name. You turn and
the person exclaims, “I heard
All four EPIC elements help you speak five years ago. You
move learning from short-term were wonderful! I remember
memory into long-term everything you said. And I’ve
used so much of what you

14


taught me!” It’s a larger-than-
life moment you’ll never forget!

__________________________

The acronym EPIC is adapted and
used with permission from a keynote
speech given by Dr. Leonard Sweet at
the South Carolina Baptist Convention,
spring 2002.

Dr. Sweet is a traveling teacher and
preacher. For more information, log
onto www.leonardsweet.com.

The acronym EPIC was modified by
teachers in the Texas Pasadena
Independent School District at a staff
development training facilitated by
Sharon Bowman in the fall of 2002.
__________________________

Author and traveling teacher Sharon
Bowman helps educators and business
people “teach it quick and make it
stick,” - fine-tuning their information-
delivery skills and turning their passive
listeners into active learners.

Sharon is a professional member of the
National Speakers Association (NSA)
and the American Society of Training
and Development (ASD). Over 70,000
copies of her seven popular training
books are now in print.

__________________________


Make Your Next Training an EPIC Experience!

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Make Your Next Training an EPIC Experience!