Muscles and Learning

Earlier today, I had to talk to 3 of agents for one of the programs that I handle. The meeting essentially an expectation setting for when they start to function as mentors for the next three weeks for the trainees that we have. 

In the discussion, as with most other discussions I have, I couldn't help but drop some concepts that I thought were helpful in explaining the reasons for some of the major changes that we are implementing in the account. 

For the past few batches that we've trained, following a 3-week mentoring, we followed the sam

e routine where:

Week 1 was all about having the trainees listen to the calls of the mentors. All. Day. Long.

Week 2 was all about having the trainees navigate as the mentors took the live  calls.

Week 3 was the only time, in the whole 3 weeks, when the trainees actually get to talk to the customers. 

I thought it ineffective. And in the discussion earlier, I solicited

 reasons as to how they understood the process and why. I got favorable responses primarily because they thought that no one really "listens" and learns at the same time for a whole day, much less, 2. I explained furher that we are going to limit barging part to no more than a total of 2-days because:

1. Listening to someone take calls all day is boring and;

2. is an ineffective way to learn unless you are a purely auditory person

Finally, and somehow they laughed, I explained that based on adult learning methodologies, the more muscles involved, the better it is for retention. It was an "ahhh" moment for them. ah yes, the joy of sharing. 

and then of course, a witty comment came: "So when I work, I should frown...because I use more muscles in frowning than in smiling". That ended the meeting.