While in beautiful Vancouver, BC today I came upon a used book store and found a wonderful book called, The Art Of Teaching Adults - How To Become An Exceptional Instructor and Facilitator by Peter Renner. Renner is a seasoned courseware designer and adult educator. The book describes dozens of fresh approaches to discussion techniques for groups, facilitation, projects, and case studies. He has a whole section on asking beautiful questions- those which are formulated with care and posed with sensitivity. As a trainer and facilitator, I preach professional development, yet hadn't brushed up on training delivery in quite a while so this has been a welcome opportunity.
Renner writes:
True learning and significant growth come only when you take up the ideas, play with them, experiment, and test their validity.
He quotes Albert Einstein on page 2:
It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge
It reminds me of what really fires me up working with sales teams - seeing the success, the joy, the passion come alive in people when they gain the power of process in their work.
