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Index for Spice of the Month:
Accelerated Learning E-zine,
An Online Newsletter for Training and Development Professionals

by Anne Thornley-Brown, President,
The Training Oasis, Inc.

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Strategy

Preparation

Presentation

Practice

Energizers

Music for Accelerated Learning

Reviews

Application

Special Reports

• Accelerated Learning and ROI Series

• Other Special Reports

Training Career Series

Marketing for Trainers, Consultants and Speakers Series

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Team Building Primer FREE

Accelerated Learning for Video Conferences

Just Released:

Marketing Your Training & Development Business MEGA ISSUE

Starting a Training and Development or Consulting Business: Lessons from the School of Hard Knocks NEW

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Click here for information about how to access all 28 new and archived issues plus our festive season special AND all FUTURE issues.

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Before you Order: Please note that our approach is light on theory and heavy on bottom line results and practical, ready to use, "real world" implementation. This approach will never change as we have never had a CEO ask us about theory. If you're interested in learning more about accelerated learning theory, be sure to check out our Theoretical Tidbits issue in our archives. However, if you are looking for a heavy dose of theory, Spice of the Month is probably not the best option for you.

We strongly recommend that you check out our featured spices so that you have a clear idea of our approach and what you will be getting.

Strategy

Spring, 2002

The Main Course: Demonstrating Your Value to Senior Management

During turbulent economic times, training is often one of the first areas to be cut. We share proven strategies to help you make a bottom line contribution to your organization including:

• 5 ways to pinpoint the issues that are keeping your CEO awake at night
• the 5 most valuable skills for trainers to have during turbulent times
• the 4 magazines that you must read to stay in tune with senior management
• 3 services that your department can offer to make a bottom line contribution
• an outline for an executive summary to help you present information to your executive team that it will perceive as valuable

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Fall, 1998

Accelerated Learning: Overcoming Resistance and Winning Support

Need to overcome resistance to accelerated learning in YOUR world? Our strategies aren't based on theory. We've developed and tested them in the school of hard knocks. We''ll show you:

• 6 strategies that you can use to convey the value of accelerated learning to senior management
• 4 ways to get your team leader on your side
• 6 tips for getting the support of your colleague
• 4 ways to ensure that your training assistant does not sabotage your efforts
• the most important step for you to take to ensure that accelerated learning is well received by participants
• 3 places to go for support and assistance

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Preparation

Winter, 1998

Season to Taste

How can you avoid boring some audiences? How can you make sure that you don't offend other audiences with conservative tastes? This issue of Spice of the Month focuses on sure-fire strategies for identifying and tailoring your approach to your audience. You'll discover:

• the 2 most important tools that you can use to identify learner preferences
• how to develop a participant profile from scratch
• 3 energizers that you can use with even the most conservative audiences
• how to design and use learning smorgasbords to give participants a range of options and cater to diverse learning styles
• how to use music in your sessions and still accommodate different learning styles

Now, when you order this issue you will also receive a participant profile and learning styles survey that you can customize and use immediately.

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Spring, 1999

All About Ambiance

How can you create the right climate for learning from the moment the participants walk in the room? We'll share our secrets for using themes, peripherals and props. We'll even give you time saving tips to help you cope with the challenge of minimal or no set up time.

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Winter, 2005

Accelerated Learning for Video Conferences:
Starting off on the Right Foot

The aftermath of 9/11 and concerns about the safety of airline travel has resulted in a boom in the use of video. Can accelerated learning improve the effectiveness of video conferences. Absolutely. In this issue we will give you:

• 4 ideas for using peripherals to appeal to visual learners during video conferences
• 5 items that you should include in a pre-course kit to ensure the effectiveness of your session
• 4 strategies for using energizers during video conferences including one that is ideal for kinesthetic learners
• Strategies for ensuring interactivity throughout the session

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Summer, 1997

Sizzling Session Starters: Icebreakers for Accelerated Learning

The way you begin a session sets the stage for either a positive or negative learning experience. What's wrong with this picture?

Your session is due to begin at 8:30 and you're expecting 12 participants. You arrive at the training room 30 - 60 minutes before the session. One participant arrives at 8:20 and another comes in 5 minutes later. At 8:30, there are 5 people in the room including you. You uncomfortably say "let's give them another 5 minutes". At 8:34, three more people stroll in. There still are not enough people in the room for you to do your introduction.

Energizers

Accelerated Learning Articles

By waiting around for others to arrive so that you can deliver your introduction, participants pick up on the following messages:

• It's okay to be late.
• I'm not going to miss anything important anyway.
• My learning depends on "pearls of wisdom" from the facilitator.
• This is going to be another boring, passive session with a lot of sitting around.
• This is going to be a waste of time.

Start off on the wrong foot and you have to work MUCH harder to keep the participants engaged, energized and interested. Here are some strategies and sizzling session starters to get participants active and involved from the word "go".

• Strategies to avoid the awkwardness and delays while "waiting for people to arrive"
• Full instructions for 5 sure-fire session starters and icebreakers that you can use right away to "spice up" your sessions
• Strategies you can use with conservative and cynical audiences to ensure that your icebreakers aren't dismissed as fluff
• Each an every session starter is effective even if you just have 2 or 3 people in the room at start time

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Presentation

Special Issue

Conservative Corner

Facing a conservative audience can be one of the most frustrating experiences for trainers who embrace accelerated learning. This issue of Spice of the Month is filled with ideas to please even the most conservative palate. You'll pick up session starters, energizers, themes and presentation tips that have been tried and tested with conservative audiences.

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September, 1998

Technical Tidbits: Taking the Tedium out of Technical Training

Profiled in ASTD's

Few experiences can be more challenging than presenting highly technical or complex information to a non-technical audience. It's time to take some risks and use props, games, game shows and action learning to convey technical content.

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Fall, 2005

Tough Crowds: Dealing with Difficult Participants

It's a situation that almost every trainer, professional speaker or facilitator encounters from time to time....a tough crowd. It can be your worst nightmare whether you're facing:

• participants who just don't want to be there
• a rowdy crowd that has consumed too much alcohol
• a resistant group that is unwilling to change or try anything new
• individuals who seem to have more interest in coffee breaks, the luncheon buffet, or smoking than the session

So what can you do? There are no foolproof strategies for dealing with tough crowds. In this issue of Spice of the Month, we move beyond the usual theory and offer a number of practical lessons learned in the school of hard knocks. We'll describe steps that you can take before, during and after your sessions to prevent and manage difficult interactions with participants.

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Spring, 2000

Popcorn & Pictures

Movie clips and training videos can have a strong impact on your participants. They can provide a sizzling start for your sessions, reinforce key learning points and add fun and variety to your breaks. We'll give you tips for legally spicing up your training with movie magic.

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Practice

Fall, 2001

Our Dinner Theatre

One of the beauties of accelerated learning is that it allows you to bring your whole "self" into the training room. If you're athletic you can use warm up exercises as energizers and draw rich metaphors from the world of sports. If you play an instrument, you can create musical moments for some of your breaks, quiet reading and group work sessions. If you enjoy acting, you can bring improv games and acting exercises right into the training room. Even if you've never done acting, a surefire strategy for "spicing up" your training is to borrow some costumes, props, sets and techniques from the actor's trunk.

Written by our owner, Anne Thornley-Brown who is also a professional actress, this issue of Spice of the Month explores how you can "spice up your training" with acting, improvisational techniques and secrets from the world of theatre (live and movies).

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Energizers

Inaugural Issue
Winter, 1997

The Energizers: A Surefire Recipe for Keeping Participants Awake

Keeping participants alert and energized throughout training can be a challenge. There are many steps that facilitator's can take to keep participants engaged even before lunch and through the mid afternoon slump.

Effective training must begin with solid content that meets a specific business need. The steak and the sizzle are both important. One way to think of this is starting with the right raw material. Once content has been determined, it is important to identify any material that is complex, dry or tedious. Use accelerated learning to present this information and it will be easier for participants to master it. In other words, add the spice.

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Sizzling Session Starters

Accelerated Learning Articles

Music for Accelerated Learning

June, 2004

Musical Moments: Music for Accelerated Learning

• Brand new links.
• New sources of music.
• Now includes suggestions for music videos and DVDs.
• Tips on using music with conservative audiences

Even the most conservative audiences can warm up to music in the training room if you use the right approach. We'll show you how to legally use copyrighted or royalty free music as a session starter, while participants are reading or completing written exercises, for games and simulations, during breaks and more. We also suggest SPECIFIC musical selections that you can use to create your own musical moments.

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Summer, 2005

A Cup of Coffee....a Sip of Tea:
Accelerated Learning Activities and Ideas for Breaks

Many of today's workplaces are hectic, fast paced environments in which people aren't used to sitting still for very long. It's no wonder that eyes quickly glaze over during training sessions if presentations are too long and there isn't a heavy dose of "energizers". We have already devoted one full issue of Spice of the Month to energizers . In this issue, a featured (free) spice, we look at breaks, one of the most effective energizers.

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Reviews

Spring, 1997

Rave Reviews

Research has indicated that frequent and effective review is essential for promoting learning and retention. Unfortunately, far too many trainers rely on the outdated lecture method for review sessions. By actively involving participants in review sessions, you will notice a significant increase in what they retain.

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Application

Summer, 1999

Food for Thought: Brainstorming for Accelerated Learning

In this issue, we focus on exercises and strategies that can be used for brainstorming in training sessions and meetings. We explore both logical, linear and "out of the box " approaches for unleashing brain power.

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Fall, 2004

Accelerated Learning and ROI Series: The Bottom Line Impact of Training

Training can be a very expensive proposition. If you factor in all direct and indirect costs, training can quickly become a big ticket item. When you consider how much money your company is investing in employee development, it is important to identify strategies for obtaining as high a return as possible on this investment. This issue will point you in the right direction.

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Fall, 2004

Accelerated Learning and ROI Series: The Business Case for Accelerated Learning

This newly updated, expanded and revamped issue of one of our special reports features:

• the 3 essential ingredients for accelerated learning
• the most important thing that you can do to increase the return on your training investment
• the most common error that is guaranteed to produce "flavour of the month" training and drain your training and development coffers
• the best exciting opportunity for producing bottom line results through accelereated learning

Accelerated learning isn't fluff. We'll give you instant access to the information you need to prove it and make a business case for accelerated learning. We'll save you days of research and tracking down information

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Fall, 2004

Accelerated Learning and ROI Series:
Proving Accelerated Learning Makes a Difference

The results of accelerated learning include:

• reduced costs by cutting training time by 20 - 50% without cutting critical content
• increased retention by 34% or more (double in some cases) through vivid & memorable learning experiences
• easier and less frustrating for participants to master and "digest" complex or theoretical content
• improved skill mastery due to more opportunity for practice
• improved transfer of learning to the job by spending more time on application

In this issue of Spice of the Month, we present some specific examples of how these results have been demonstrated by a number of organizations. Feel free to use these examples when building a business case for accelerated learning.

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Marketing

Spring, 2006

Marketing Your Training and Development Business:
Changing Strategies for a Changing Market NEW MEGA ISSUE

When it comes to marketing your business in a rapidly changing work environment, conventional wisdom, sometimes doesn't work. In fact, if I had a dollar for every time that I said "But it's supposed to work". I would be a VERY rich woman. One of the realities of promoting your business in a turbulent marketplace is CHANGE. In this issue of Spice of the Month, I will share some of the lessons that I have learned in the school of hard knocks after running The Training Oasis for 10 years. I will share the strategies that have worked for me as I have grown this business. There are no guarantees and no foolproof strategies. In fact, to be successful, it is essential to stay on top of things, spot trends, and react quickly. I hope that this will save you some false starts and prevent you from going down some blind alleys.

• The real deal on association membership - why they probably aren't the best value for independent consultants interested in marketing their business
• Why giving free speeches at training conferences and meetings rarely works as a marketing strategy
• Why advertising in a paper based training directory is not a good investment
• Why you should NEVER waste money on a brochure
• The 4 most effective (and by the way least expensive) strategies for marketing your training and development business
• Access to more than a dozen FREE tools, FREE resources and more free tips to help you monitor and improve the performance of your web site
• A spreadsheet to help you analyze your customer base and fine-tune your strategy

This mega issue also includes 2 additional pages with content that is the equivalent of 2 of our regular spices:

• Marketing 101: Your Marketing Mix - Product
  
  Developing Your Product or Service Statement and Identifying Your Unique Selling Proposition
  
  
• Marketing 101: Your Marketing Mix - Person
  
  Identifying your Target Market...Understanding Your Customer

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Other Special Reports

Winter, 2000

Theoretical Tidbits: Accelerated Learning Theory MEGA ISSUE

This issue of Spice of the Month, devoted to the theory behind accelerated learning and the scientific research that backs it up, is a departure from our usual "light on theory and heavy on practical application" approach. Our study of accelerated learning theory is not exhaustive. We hope that the bite sized tidbits we serve and the links we provide will be of value to you. This accelerated learning primer will reveal:

• the 3 key ingredients to produce accelerated learning
• why accelerated learning theory is of NO interest to your CEO
• how accelerated learning developed
• 3 misconceptions about accelerated learning
• 4 ways in which accelerated learning will improve the effectiveness of your training
• 5 ways to stimulate the brain for optimal learning
• why fun and laughter are important during the learning process
• where to go for more information

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Training Career Series

Summer, 2004

Breaking Into Training and Development

One of the questions that we get asked most frequently is "How do I become a trainer?" It's understandable. Training and development can be a fulfilling career. It is not without it's challenges and with layoffs, cutbacks in training departments and downturn in business for many consulting firms, this is a tough time to be breaking into training. Don't let that discourage you. When Anne Thornley-Brown, our President and founder, first tried to become a full time trainer in the business world it was during the 1984 - 85 recession. Despite the odds, she made the tough transition from a career in the non-profit sector to training, following a career path from professional counsellor to management training specialist to founder to president of an international consulting firm serving clients in Canada, Jamaica, and throughout Asia. So, while it's tough, it can be done.

In this special issue of "Spice of the Month", Anne shares her secrets for breaking into training even during a tough economy. She leaves out the usual platitudes and the strategies that are supposed to work but bear little resemblance to the challenging reality. She gives you a step by step approach as well as access to resources that can help you.

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Spring, 2006

Starting a Training and Development or Consulting Business: Lessons from the School of Hard Knocks NEW

In this turbulent economy, with huge fluctuations in the economy, it can be particularly challenging to launch a training, consulting or speaking business. In short, it's not for the faint of heart. In this issue of Spice of the Month Accelerated Learning Ezine, I tell the story of how I launched The Training Oasis and lessons that I learned about starting, marketing and growing a training and development business. Based on this experience, I will share some of the lessons I learned along the way. I hope that you find them useful.

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Spring, 2003

Survival Strategies for Training and Development Professionals

Between the dotcom meltdown, 9/11, SARS, tsunamis, various wars, and SKYROCKETING oil prices, these are turbulent economic times. Many organizations have responded by cutting expenditures that they consider to be discretionary. Training is often one of the first areas to be hit. This issue of Spice of the Month offers tips that training teams and individual trainers can use to manage their careers proactively in a changing market.

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Special Offer

Access to Full Spice of the Month Archives

Access all 28 new and archived issues PLUS OUR FESTIVE FEAST our popular, annual festive season special PLUS all FUTURE issues of Spice of the Month.

Before you place your order, view
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If you were to purchase each issue in the current archive individually, it would cost you $581.

Regular Full Catalogue Package Price $197.00

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Fall, 2006

Free Sample Issue

Accelerated E-Learning: Simulations

Far too often, e-learning becomes nothing more than an electronic book, a page turner that has little to do with the principles of effective learning. In this issue of Spice of the Month, written by a guest writer John Lamb, we explore how simulations can add power to your e-learning programmes. We focus primarily on the call centre environment but the principles are transferable. This article is reprinted with permission from Contact Professional Magazine

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Spring, 2006

Free Sample Issue
(For Limited Time Only)

Corporate Team Building Primer

A step-by-step guide to planning an effective team building session:

• Programming ideas
• Managing the Vendor Selection Process
• Cost Effective Venues
• Pitfalls to avoid

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Summer, 2004

Free Sample Issue
(For Limited Time Only)

World Music for Cross Cultural Accelerated Learning

For the first time, we reveal one of the secret ingredients that has helped our seminars receive enthusiastic response in multi-cultural environments and eased our transition to the global marketplace. The special ingredient that we put into our accelerated learning mix to "spice up" our training will surprise you. We also provide some tips for incorporating music into your training sessions.

Anne Thornley-Brown is the President and founder of The Training Oasis, Inc., a Toronto based consulting firm for rapidly changing organizations in Canada, Jamaica and Asia. Our clients have included CIBC, Telus Mobility, Ingram Micro, Royal Bank of Canada, and IKEA. In affiliation with Kuala Lumpur based FIK International, Anne has toured Asia 10 times and offered seminars to over 1500 executives, managers and HR professionals in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, Kuching, Penang), Singapore, Thailand (Bangkok), and India (Mumbai). Petronas, Malaysian Airlines, Digi, Mobil/Exxon, Samsung, and Dell Computers are among the organizations that have sent delegates to her sessions in Asia. Anne is available as a keynote speaker for conferences, instructional designer and facilitator for seminars and team building.

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