Bob Pike, a leadership expert, says training should begin with opening the minds of people and teaching them how to learn.

“What we need to do in training is probably stop doing 50 percent of training we do now,” said Pike, who has consulted on training development since 1969.

The 65-year-old training expert noted that companies should reconsider their traditional training methods.

“We have for many years been focusing on delivering content, but you don’t think about how people learn the best,” he said in an interview with The Korea Herald.

Pike, who is CEO of the Bob Pike Group, has provided workshops and consulting services for corporations including Microsoft, Dell, and IBM and AT&T for more than 30 years. The Korean Leadership Center recently invited him to give a special presentation for trainers and teachers in Korea.

Pike noted that people should be taught in a more “participant-centered, not a lecture-led way.”

Pike, who is also the author or co-author of 29 books, including the best-selling Creative Training Techniques Handbook, said that the four “CORE” principles of his creative training methods are close, open, revisit and energize.

“A lot of trainers don’t open properly and just dump content. But just because people are sitting in the room doesn’t mean that they are mentally with you,” he said.

Effective closers are also important to allow participants to have an action plan for the next class, and energizers that keep them focused and learning is crucial in learning, he added.

Also, one of the keys in creative training is revisiting the content, he added.

“I use the word revisit, rather than review. Because one mistake teachers and trainers make is they’re constantly reviewing. But when people hear you say, ‘Let’s review,’ they think, ‘Oh, I covered that already so I can stop listening,’” he said.

Pike served as a pastor for three years before he began his career in the training field.

“As a pastor I made $60 a month at that time. God was blessing the church spiritually, but not financially,” he recalled.

So he decided to change his job, and became a salesman. And after having a successful 10-year career in the education business, he set up his own company called the Professional Education Institute in 1969, which is now called The Bob Pike Group.

As a chairman of the Bob Pike Group, he currently leads presentations over 150 days per year on a variety of topics. He claims that so far he has trained more than 125,000 trainers across the globe.

“I still love what I (have been doing) for 42 years, because I think one of the greatest tools that you can give to someone is teach them how to learn,” he said.

“Because if you learn how to learn, you will always do well whatever environment you are in,” he added.

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)