Welcome to the Change Facilitator’s Guide to How Learning Works. This programme is a little different from most of our Udemy courses, because it doesn’t set out to meet a specific set of learning outcomes, Instead, it offers a reflective opportunity for experienced and budding facilitators, coaches, learning & development professionals and trainers, to share in the wisdom of one of the UK’s most successful learning facilitators. We hope this programme will help you to join dots, pick up new distinctions and gain nuances that, if applied, may strengthen your practice and help you become an even more effective facilitator of deep learning and change. If this approach interests you, then please join us for the course. Despite it’s slightly unusual approach we’re incredibly proud of it, and know it has already made a real difference to a lot of professionals like you. Perhaps the best way to understand the Change Facilitator’s Guide to How Learning Works is to share how it came about. Let me start by introducing myself, I’m Neil Almond, a podcast host, NLP Master Trainer and highly experienced change facilitator and executive coach. I run an organisation called 91 Untold and one of our most popular courses is a 14-day Change Facilitation Practitioner programme that we run in Bristol, UK. Over recent years, one of the standout star trainers on this programme has been a remarkable lady called Sarah Smith. Students consistently hang on her words because her unique wisdom seamlessly blends theory and practice. She has immense experience of working on successful deep-change learning projects in commercial organisations and NGOs, but is also a positive psychologist and brings the credibility of empirically validated research to her time with groups. Sadly though, at least for us, these days Sarah is incredibly busy, and despite her best efforts didn’t have the availability to join us for more than a few minutes on our 2019 Change Facilitation Practitioner course. So, I needed to get creative in order to ensure that the class of 2019 didn’t miss out on her the unique deep-thinking and practical wisdom that Sarah always brings to the programme. I persuaded Sarah (very willingly) to join me in the 91 Untold Change Project podcast studio to record a conversation exploring key psychological processes and distinctions that facilitate true, lasting learning and change. I’ve been working in this field for over 15 years and have a masters degree in coaching, but still I found that conversation with Sarah fascinating. Of course I knew some of it, but to have the opportunity to tease out Sarah’s grounded approach and views on the drivers that make learning work, was an absolute privilege and, even with my experience, I found myself reflecting in a new way about learning. And that is my hope for you if you join us to enjoy these videos. The conversation was chunked into themes and topics that could help 2019 students get the maximum from them. Student feedback reinforced my view that the videos were special and gave learners a chance to reflect on the foundation of facilitation skills and learning process. The success of these videos on the our live programme sparked a further conversation between Sarah and myself about sharing these videos here so that other people, hopefully including you, can benefit from her special take on the world of learning. So if this interests you, please join us. Maybe first take a look at one of the unlocked videos to get a feel for Sarah’s style and whether you’ll find her thoughts of value. I’m sure, if you’re like me, you will. It’s probably best to think of these videos as a conversation rather than a course, and this is why we think they’re best for people with some experience in the field of learning - whether in learning and development, coaching, training or maybe as a change practitioner. They can also act as a foundation if you’re looking to move into the world of facilitating change or learning, and indeed many people take this course in conjunction with our Udemy facilitation skills programme - The Change Facilitator: Dynamic Group Facilitation Skills. Best of luck with your learning journey. I hope this programme is of interest to you, if so, why not look at the unlocked video and from there decide if the full series is going to add value to your adventure. I hope it will.
