Meaning 

What is a linchpin, you may ask? Google Dictionary defines it this way: “a person or thing vital to an enterprise or organization.”

In other words, the linchpin is part of the company's knowledge base. She studies the fine  print and goes the extra mile to learn the company and the market deep structure.

Obviously, both staff and customers notice when she’s not there, and she is missed when she is away.  

How to identify the linchpin 

Now that you understand the term, are you a linchpin? See, the linchpin makes art—remarkable work. For example, she

• Knows the company in and out. She does her homework and can identify the strengths and weaknesses.  

• Gets to know the masters, the troublemakers, and the game-changers. She's able to tell who owns the power and who is wrecking the boat.

• Understands the market and the target clientele very well, and positions herself and makes decisions strategically based on the trends. 

• Listens carefully and speaks last. But everyone wants to hear what she has to say. As a matter of fact, most colleagues are curious to know what she thinks about every issue, trend, or challenge.

Does this sound like you? If it does, you are a linchpin. Bravo! Keep being remarkable. If it doesn't, find yourself a coach before it’s too late. 

Want to learn more about being a linchpin? Check these books out:  

• Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin

• Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable By Seth Godin

What else do you want to add to the list? Thanks for keeping the conversation going by  sharing this post in your smart network.

Becoming an expert in a field is great. It earns you respect and makes you look distinguished. But it might come with a big side effect. What it is?

Your level of expertise might stand in the way of your performance and productivity. Seriously? I can’t make that up. Allow me to explain my point.

Like I said earlier, knowledge and expertise might come with a major downside called: “The curse of knowledge”.

Now, you are thinking, “ What the heck is that?” I am happy to elaborate. Please bare with me.

Have you ever listened to a speech, a lecture, or a debate to realize, in the end, you understood nothing. Maybe almost everything the speaker said was way over your head. Frustrating, wasn’t it?

But have you ever reflected on how you communicate your knowledge? Will a layperson understand your interventions? Ok, keep pondering these questions? Now, back to the main issue: “the curse of knowledge!”

How the curse of knowledge affects productivity

The Harvard cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker describes the curse of knowledge as “a difficulty in imagining what it is like for someone else not to know something that you know.”

For example, your knowledge makes you assume that everybody understands your messages because your sentences sound so good to your ears.

Here is the thing:

If you are an expert in your field, chances are you use jarpons or technical terms only few people understand. That is, you might be speaking greek at the team meetings without being aware of it.

The consequence? Your colleagues don't follow your line of thoughts and instruction. Consequently, they are unable to support you and your projects, and your input does not help them either. Obviously, you affect everyone’s productivity... bummer!

Wait ! There's more. If you are a supervisor, things can get even worse. How? Speaking like a book is a sure way to create confusion and hold your team back.

What I am trying to say is because you understand your technical terms does not mean others do. Your  guidance may not help your team members to take concrete actions. Neither will you be able to count on their comprehension to move things forward. Again, you might be dragging productivity down without knowing it.

What to do about it? 

• Find a performance or communication coach
• Learn to communicate your ideas and instructions in simple terms that everyone understands
• If you have to use your technical terms, make sure to explain their meaning and provide examples to make your points across.
• Always assume your colleagues don’t necessarily know what you know and see what you see
• Let other people read your messages or emails and ask for feedback or advice before sending them out 
• Practice giving simple speeches or instructions in front of the mirror or to your friends
• Offer your audience an opportunity to ask clarifying questions 

Where to start?

Since you like knowledge so much, why not doing some reading on the subject?

• Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds  by Carmine Gallo  
• Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work and Beyond by Jay Sullivan   
• 4 Essential Keys to Effective Communication in Love, Life, Work—Anywhere by Bento C. Leal III 

What else do you want to add to the list? Thanks for keeping the conversation going by  sharing this post in your network.

You want to be a high performer —or a linchpin— in your field or business. Why wouldn’t you? Who does not like to look cool and smart?  But becoming a linchpin won’t happen overnight. Why, you may ask?

Because it requires hard word and learning from the champs. Really? Yes, indeed. Let’s use Tiger as an example. What can you learn from his win at the 2019 Masters Golf Tournament?

He is 43 and has had multiple surgeries. So, the cards were stacked against him in several ways. However, he knew one secret. He has probably heard Tim Grover, Michael Jordan’s trainer,  repeat the secret over and over again: “The body has physical limitations. The mind does not.”

And that leads us to high performance tip # 1.

1- Using mental toughness. 

What does that mean? I am glad you asked. Let me explain. According to http://www.mentaltoughnessinc.com ,“ Mental toughness is the state of being strong enough to withstand adverse conditions or rough handling.”

Tiger exemplified this toughness on the golf course by managing the pressure with class and that led him to a one-shot victory.

Takeaway: To reach high performance you shouldn't spend energy on whining and complaining about your situation. Instead, you should remain focus and use your energy to take actions that will move you forward —or closer to your dreams.

Now let’s look at high performance tip # 2.

2- Learning from past mistakes to maximize future performances. 

​Last year Tiger had a lead at the British Open but he made a few mistake that cost him the tournament. This year he’s worked hard to be consistent and reduce his margin of error.

For example, he says it himself, “ You can always become better.”  

Takeaway: To become a high performer you should reflect on past performances and mistakes and use the insights to do better next time. We both know that leaving future performances to hope and chance might lead to costly mistakes.

Ready for high performance tip # 3. Keep on reading...

3-  Keeping high concentration. 

Being able to focus on a task without getting distracted is what separates the pros from the average professionals. 

For example, the crowd at the Masters got excited and made some noise but Tiger kept his eyes on the golf ball and the fairways.  He also controlled and saved all his energy and released it at the last minute, after his winning shot.

Takeaway: Becoming a high performer requires high concentration. That is the ability to concentrate on tasks or projects and get them done in a timely manner. But celebrating small wins might be distracting—making you lose traction.

Want to read more about high performance tips and strategies? Check theses books out:

    1- Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by  Cal Newport

    2- Peak: How to Master Almost Anything by K. Anders Ericsson

    3- The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy

What else do you want to add to the list? Thanks for sharing these high performance tips in your network.

You want to help your adult students to learner math. You want them to participate and try.... but it’s not happening. Rather, learners are reluctant to take risks. As a result, they dread your adult-ed math class. So, what I can do, you may ask?

See, your adult-ed math class does not have to be boring if you know what to do. Really? I am not kidding...

To quote Shakuntala Devi, “Without mathematics, there’s nothing you can do. Everything around you is mathematics. Everything around you is numbers.”

Making your adult-ed math class interesting and engaging is the way to go. How? Let me explain.

The secret is to make the activities of your adult-ed math class practical, tangible and concrete. That way, the content and skills will be more attractive and accessible to your learners. But how do I do that?

I am glad you asked.  Start by using manipulatives that will make the math content come alive!  Before you ask what type of manipulatives, below is a list I’ve put together for you( and for your learners, of course)....You are welcome!

Tools to make an adult-ed math class engaging

1- Number lines to develop number sense

2- A double Sided X-Y Axis dry erase grid to practice with numbers

3- Wind-up tape measure 10 Meters/33 feet to practice using unit of measurements

4- Durable transparent 12 inch rulers shatterproof plastic to practice using unit of measurements

5- Graph Paper Notebook: 1 cm squares to practice calculating distance, perimeters and areas

6- Wiz dice random polyhedral dice in multiple colors to practice with numbers

7- Math addition, substraction, multiplication and division flashcards to practice and review the 4 operations

8- Activity cards for teaching place value

9- Flashcards for teaching currency and using numbers in context

10- A set of fake money to practice operations and the use of decimals in context

11- A bingo game to practice using Integers

12- Dry erase board to practice using basic place value and writing numbers:

13- A flip stand to practice using place value

14- Magnetic number lines to work on decimals and fractions

15- A poster with math keywords or a math word bank

Please do me a favor. Share these tools with adult-ed math teachers in your network. And go change your learners for the better!

PS: Have you heard about my student retention book? Don’t be left out. Feel free to check it out on Amazon.

I was at a workshop when someone made an annoying comment. He said, “We could never give a contract to a person with 6 years of experience over someone who has 15 years in the field.” I nicely responded, “It all depends.”

You can guess the looks I got from audience. Luckily, a few other people from the audience sided with me. And together we did our best to explain ourselves. Here’s a summary of our explanation:

Years of experience don’t equate to expertise. In other words, ​experience and expertise are not synonymous.

“Would you elaborate?” Yes, give me a few minutes.  

The assumption that an employee with 20 years of experience is more qualified or has more expertise than someone with 5 years of experience is misleading. Certainly, 20 years of experience sounds good. But in reality, it might mean that person is following a process over and over again that has been seen before.

What do I mean? 

Twenty years of experience simply might mean that person has been doing a job for 20 years without seeking to improve her skills. Whereas someone with five years of experience might have worked intentionally and consistently to innovate, and to increase and improve her background knowledge, performance, and skills.  

For example, having 35 years of driving experience does not qualify you to chauffer the U.S. president. Why?

POTUS’s driver is an expert driver. He or she specializes in driving around dignitaries and their high-level security and has worked continuously to keep his or her skills as sharp as a razor.

Is experience valuable? Yes, indeed. In fact, experts have a lot of experience. But their experience alone does not make them the expert they are.

Unlike the average professional who has adequate skills and performs work on autopilot most of the time, experts are deep thinkers, outliers, and “weird.”

In other words, experts constantly think how to optimize their decision-making process and performance, driving innovation. That is, they think carefully about how to fix what they don’t do well.

What's your take on the issue?  You can join the discussion by commenting and sharing the post with your favorite L&D colleagues.

Have you ever wondered what makes some companies grow so fast or become so successful? My work in L&D has exposed me to a lot about what all great learning cultures have in common.

Of course, effective and efficient learning cultures share several characteristics/systems in common. But one of their most important systems is their talent development department that works like a well-oiled machine.

You may wonder, how do I know if a learning culture is effective?

My answer: Look for the signs.

What kind of signs? 

To keep things simple, almost all great learning cultures share at least these 5 things in common:

That is, the impact of new knowledge on job duties is assessed and documented. In other words, knowledge transfer is made evident and concrete. 

Employees attend training, but they also take part in follow-up practice sessions. In practice sessions, employees learn by doing, and are allowed to make mistakes without being judged or blamed because the work environment/setting is built  and designed for that purpose.

Employees receive corrective feedback on their performance on a regular basis or as needed. This support helps them improve their skills and master their job duties. To put it simply, employees receive coaching support from their colleagues and/or supervisors that help reach their learning goals or their target performance.

There is no superstars. Everyone is a learner. For example, staff learn from each other and coach each other. This, therefore, makes employees more open to taking risks and learning new skills—functioning in a different capacity without the fear of being judged and getting fired.

Great learning cultures develop talents well and at the same time create a system to safeguard the body of knowledge — skills and expertise— that makes their companies successful. 

Add your input in the comment section below or let's continue the discussion on LinkedIn.

Recently, a colleague asked me how I recognize a great or effective corporate trainer or learning facilitator. Let me share with you what I told her.

Learning facilitation is an art, and great trainers or learning facilitators are artists—that is, they do creative work. In fact, some of them seem to be naturally skilled and creative.

They are good at keeping their audience engaged and alive. They lead their sessions like a popular Broadway show. They are flexible and calculate every move. As a result, their training sessions generate lots of positive comments and thank you’s. That’s fantastic!

Maybe you’d love to emulate their facilitation style and success but don’t know how.

What If I told you developing excellent facilitation skills is not rocket science?

You might think, “Really?” No, it isn’t.

What I mean is it requires practice—lots of practice. But it’s feasible. Yes, you can become one of them. However, before you start working on your craft/skills you should take a look at what almost all great learning facilitators have in common.

Let’s dive in:

They are good at connecting with people on a personal level. They are flexible and down to earth. For example, they call participants by their names. They smile a lot. They empathize with participants and listen actively and carefully to what their participants have to say. On top of that, they value their audience’s contribution and intentionally seek context-based input.

Their agenda is clear and the flow of their presentations is smooth. They know which materials to introduce, when, and where to find it. Furthermore, their transitions are as natural as breathing. 

They respect employees’ time. They are flexible, but at the same they control the flow of the event. No one steals the mics or monopolize the conversation and gets away with it. They keep their eyes on the goal and the clock. They instinctively know what to cut out, when to stop, and when let things go. In other words, they start and end on time. 

They break information into chunks. They plan and run their session like a story with a structure: a beginning, a middle and an end. They also know how to tell good stories to illustrate their points. They make participants laugh and keep them engaged in meaningful work and discussions.

Like I said before, they have an agenda, but their process is flexible. They change things on the go. For example, unlike novices, they improvise with confidence and class. One can barely separate the decisions that were planned from those that were not! 

They can quickly tell who wants and doesn’t want to be at their training. They know how to spot reluctant and resistant participants from a crowd. In addition, they know when to call for a time out or break to help the audience refresh and regroup.

 Add your input in the comment section below or let's continue the discussion on LinkedIn.

Two months ago, I met with a friend at a coffee shop to do some catching up. He got his cappuccino, and I got my peach tea lemonade. Soon after, our conversation turned into a reflection on employee training. 

I must admit, my friend always asks excellent questions. This time, one question was more difficult than others.

For example, he shared that his Staff Development department runs employee training on the same topic several times, but most staff can barely remember the key information.

And he added, “Who should be blamed, the staff or the trainers?” I burst into laughter. Why? Because the blame game is common in the Learning and Development(L&D) field. We hear that kind of question all the time.  

On the one hand, most trainers tend to think most employees do not want to learn. On the other hand, staff view most employee training sessions (face-to face, e-Learning, blended) as dry, boring, and not relevant to their day-to-day job tasks.

OK, so we avoided the blame game and agreed, instead, on talking about what training professionals should do to help employees retain the information they learn.

Let’s dive into four things my friend and I believe trainers should take into consideration:

1- Staff are mostly interested in information and skills that make their jobs easier. So, training sessions should be relevant to what employees do and to the company’s mission.

2- People remember content/information they think about in a meaningful way or that is embedded in their work context. Using work-related scenarios, case studies, simulations, and projects is the way to go.

But that won’t solve the problem of retention. What else should training professionals do? That leads me to the next point. 

3- Employees should revisit newly learned information as often as possible so it can stick. (In cognitive science this is called distributed practices.) Otherwise, they will lose it.

Distributed practices allow employees to use new information on the job. Using new information on the job makes knowledge transfer easier.

4- Tasks should not be too easy or too difficult. Why? From a cognitive science standpoint, most people enjoy solving problems! Doing so is enjoyable and motivating. But employees might get frustrated and bored if the tasks are too difficult.  And we all know people won’t remember boring information. 

What else do you want to add to this?  Add your input in the comment section below.

Resources: TABE 11 and 12 Test prep books for adult-ed  

• TABE 11 & 12 Math Practice Tests: 250 TABE 11 & 12 Math Questions with Step-by-Step Solutions  by Exam SAM 

• TABE 11&12 Student math manual level M (student book) by CBL

• The TABE 11&12 Student Manual for level D (student book) by CBL  

• TABE Test Study Guide: Prep Book & Practice Test Questions for the Test of Adult Basic Education 11 & 12 Fundamentals Level A: by Test Prep Book

• TABE Test Study Guide 2018-2019: Exam Review Book and Practice Test Questions for the Test of Adult Basic Education 2018-2019 Edition by TABE Exam Prep Team