Writing effective multiple choice questions needs to be done with a lot of care. We think that this involves following four basic principles. Here is some brief information about them before we go on to work through them individually.
1. Start With the Objectives
Effective multiple choice questions must always be linked to clearly defined objectives.
What are you trying to assess?
Is it a formative or summative assessment?
Avoid trick questions that are not related to objectives.
2. Clear and Understandable
As a general rule, language and sentence structure should be kept as simple as possible.
Take care to avoid ambiguous stems, answers and distracters.
Make sure that you are assessing the objectives rather than tricking people with questions that are difficult to comprehend.
3. No Soft Clues
It can sometimes be possible to guess the correct answer from the question itself.
Questioners may leave clues in the stem, answer or distracters that they do not intend.
Remember that you are assessing objectives not candidates ability to guess answers correctly.
4. Meaningful Feedback
In summative assessments the absolute minimum that candidates will need to know is whether they have passed or failed.
Formative assessments require more.
Candidates need to know whether their answers were right or wrong.
They also need to know why they were right or wrong.
This is a short excerpt from the Trainer Bubble 'Writing Multiple Choice Questions' training course materials, which you can download from our website at www.trainerbubble.com
Tuesday, 10 July 2012
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
Influencing, Persuading...or worse?
We all use what we consider
influencing skills every day to try and get what we want. However, although we
might think we are influencing, it could be that the methods we are using are
quite different to what can be considered ‘influencing skills’.
· Threats
· Authority
· Persuasion
· Deals
So, the next time you try to influence someone, consider what style you are using and whether you are in fact influencing, or just telling people what to do!
This article is a short extract from the Trainer Bubble Training Course Materials for 'Influencing Skills'. Visit our website now to purchase these engaging, activity based training materials.
Typically, the methods we end up
using to get people to do things fall into the following areas
·
Manipulation
·
Coercion· Threats
· Authority
· Persuasion
· Deals
These approaches usually only
give us short term wins and more often than not people become resistant to the
methods and become less likely to respond to them. The reason for this is that
they are more about helping you out than demonstrating that there are benefits
for both parties. Once we have experienced these behaviours from one person, we
are less open to them in future.
What this means is that in order
for anyone in the workplace to consistently gain the cooperation of others they
must learn effective influencing skills.
The behaviours we should be
displaying to get people to do things can be:
Listening, questioning, understanding,
empathy, honesty, challenge, support, exposing concerns, fears, blockers,
positive attitude, positive body language, rapport building, seeks first to
understand before being understood, trying to appeal to a value that is
important to the other person.
This is summed up with the
difference between the definition of ‘influencing’…
“Getting others to do things
by showing that there is a real and genuine advantage to them in
moving in the direction you want - Influence is the ability to affect a
person’s character, beliefs or actions, reaching agreement by discussion”
Versus the definition of
‘persuading’…
“Persuading is to induce,
urge or prevail. To convince through reasoning. To talk someone into
something.”
So, the next time you try to influence someone, consider what style you are using and whether you are in fact influencing, or just telling people what to do!
This article is a short extract from the Trainer Bubble Training Course Materials for 'Influencing Skills'. Visit our website now to purchase these engaging, activity based training materials.
Monday, 19 March 2012
Alfred Hitchcock on Happiness - Emotional Intelligence at its best.
I recently came across this clip and felt that it really sums up the mood of how we should perceive life against how we sometimes do. The line, 'Hatred is wasted energy' is very true and should be shouted from the roof tops.
This clip is something I will consider using when running several training sessions, including; Managing Difficult Behaviours, Emotional Intelligence, Conflict Handling, Communicating Difficult Messages and Great Leadership.
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
Finance for Managers - Finance Statements
Most organisations will have some form of accounting department or team and their job is to maintain the day-to-day recording of transactional information within the company.
Every business organisation needs to maintain accurate accounting records to help it manage and control its finances more efficiently. Without day to day records it would be difficult to know if it was making a profit or a loss.
The book-keeping side of the business ensures financial records such as receipts and payments, sales, purchases and expenses are maintained accurately. Allowing informed decisions to be made about the price to charge for goods and services.
Accounting is a step on from bookkeeping as it is used to communicate financial information to interested parties such as owners, managers and banks.
Accounting has only FIVE distinct accounting groups. A business may have hundreds of accounts recorded in its ledgers, but all will belong to one of these groups. An easy way to remember this is the word “RECAL”
Revenue – the income earned by a business when selling goods and services.
Expenses – the day-to-day expenses a business incurs such as stock, wages, advertising etc.
Capital – represents the owner’s investment in a business and is needed to begin trading. Capital may grow if the business is profitable.
Assets – the things of value which the business owns such as premises, equipment, stock, cash etc.
● Fixed assets (non-current assets) are used on more permanent basis, like premises and equipment.
● Current assets, like stock, cash and bank are used for daily trading purposes.
Liabilities – the things of value that the business owes
● Current Liabilities are debts expected to be repaid within one year e.g. trade creditors
● Long-term liabilities are debts expected to be repaid over more than one year e.g. a bank loan or mortgage.
The accounting team will work with this data to provide managers with information to be able to make sound financial decisions based on fiscal fact. These will usually come in the form of financial statements or ‘reports’.
In business there are THREE key financial statements or reports. The profit and loss statement, balance sheet and cash flow represent the three key financial statements that show how a business is performing.
- The profit and loss shows exactly that, how much profit or loss a business has made.
- The balance sheet shows the value of the business’s resources and how these resources are financed by the owner’s capital and borrowed money (its liabilities).
- The cash flow statement provides the short term priorities for the business, because if you run out of cash it is hard to trade.
This is a short extract from the Trainer Bubble Training Course Materials for, 'Finance for Non-Financial Managers'. You can view more about this training course and purchase the materials at www.trainerbubble.com
Thursday, 23 February 2012
Time Management Advice from a six year old
I was complaining about my workload over dinner with the family last night and my six year old came out with his own brand of Time Management advice for me. I thought I'd share it with the world. He said...
"I don't know what the problem is..."
"Just do half the work today and then half the work tomorrow. Then do half the work the next day if you haven't done it all."
Very helpful advice I'm sure you'll agree and I encourage everyone to follow the same plan.
If you're looking for training on Time Management or any other management elements for that matter take a look at Trainer Bubble.
"I don't know what the problem is..."
"Just do half the work today and then half the work tomorrow. Then do half the work the next day if you haven't done it all."
Very helpful advice I'm sure you'll agree and I encourage everyone to follow the same plan.
If you're looking for training on Time Management or any other management elements for that matter take a look at Trainer Bubble.
Monday, 23 January 2012
Bill Gates High Schoool Speech
Some time ago, Bill Gates gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality.
This concept set them up for failure in the real world.
Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.
This concept set them up for failure in the real world.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
Mentor Relationship Stages
Mentoring is a learning support mechanism where an experienced person provides guidance, knowledge and advice to someone who is in development or has less experience in a given topic or function.
The role of mentor is a very important one and whether the relationship is formal or informal, the fact is that a good mentor can be instrumental in the development of not only a mentee’s skills and knowledge, but also their behaviour, attitude and social outlook.
Mentors have a varied role and this can range from ‘challenging friend’, who acts as a sounding board, shares experiences and facilitates the mentee’s development, to ‘assessor’, who may also be required to assess competencies and skill levels in conjunction with the ‘challenging friend’ role.
A mentoring relationship has four definable stages within its life cycle:
1. Getting to know each other – establishes expectations of a mentoring relationship. In the early stages, a large part of the mentor’s role involves being supportive and creating a reassuring environment for the mentee. Initial meeting agendas might include:
This structure provides a clearly defined approach to the mentoring process. It will ensure you are both clear on the progress of the mentoring relationship and allow you to consistently review and support development.
This article is a short excerpt from the Trainer Bubble training materials for Mentor Training, which can be purchased from our website at www.trainerbubble.com
The role of mentor is a very important one and whether the relationship is formal or informal, the fact is that a good mentor can be instrumental in the development of not only a mentee’s skills and knowledge, but also their behaviour, attitude and social outlook.
Mentors have a varied role and this can range from ‘challenging friend’, who acts as a sounding board, shares experiences and facilitates the mentee’s development, to ‘assessor’, who may also be required to assess competencies and skill levels in conjunction with the ‘challenging friend’ role.
A mentoring relationship has four definable stages within its life cycle:
1. Getting to know each other – establishes expectations of a mentoring relationship. In the early stages, a large part of the mentor’s role involves being supportive and creating a reassuring environment for the mentee. Initial meeting agendas might include:
- getting to know each other personally
- identifying the mentee’s learning needs for career and professional development
- identifying potential learning opportunities at work and the technical and theoretical learning that might result (e.g. brainstorm possible areas of learning that relate to the development or profession as a whole, suggest useful contacts, check for other training opportunities, etc.)
- agreeing meeting schedules and ways to arrange meetings by writing a Mentoring Agreement
3. Progress and maturation – the longest stage. At this stage, the emphasis of the mentor’s role should change to that of a challenger and stimulator to encourage deeper learning and reflection. A balance needs to be reached so that mentees continually explore their limits but not to the extent that they feel overwhelmed. Emphasis should be on issues of professional development. Later meeting agendas might include:
- reviewing general progress and achievements to date and giving guidance on ways to improve performance and progress
- reviewing any work-based learning
4. End – a final meeting is essential. For many mentors it can be tempting to avoid defining the end or separation stage and to regard it as unnecessary. However, a final review session is crucial to provide closure on the relationship for both the mentee and the mentor. The mentee and the mentor are jointly responsible for providing a proper ending to the relationship.
This structure provides a clearly defined approach to the mentoring process. It will ensure you are both clear on the progress of the mentoring relationship and allow you to consistently review and support development.
This article is a short excerpt from the Trainer Bubble training materials for Mentor Training, which can be purchased from our website at www.trainerbubble.com
Friday, 18 November 2011
Communicating with Customers - A Process
When we communicate with customers, there are four key stages that we should progress through. These are…
Open & Initiate
Be prepared – Anticipate the needs of the customer, with information already to hand.
Welcome – Greet customers professionally and convey a positive attitude through your tone of voice, body language and general demeanour.
Position – Where you are contacting the customer, explain the purpose and benefit to them and check that they understand and agree to the conversation. Where you are being contacted by the customer, provide a clear response to acknowledge their needs and ensure you are best placed to help them.
Gather Information
Listen – Remember the facts conveyed by the customer and the feelings behind their message. Ensure you note their concerns and are able to understand and appreciate their requirements.
Ask – Question customer effectively to understand their situation and what is important to them.
Restate – Ensure customer realises you understand what is being said and agree to what is being asked where relevant
Solutions & Options
Offer Information and options – Give customer information that helps them. Provide options and choices. Use explanations that are clear and free from jargon.
Set expectations – Be clear with the customer about what you can and cannot do. Be specific.
Explore further needs and gain agreement – Ask good questions. Try to assess level of agreement. Promote the available solutions.
Confirm & Close
Ask for a decision – Ensure you clearly, precisely and confidently ask for a commitment from the customer.
Summarise and check – Review the key points with the customer and check that they are happy.
Thank them – Make your customers feel important by leaving a positive message.
Follow up – Do what you said you would do. If someone else deals with the customer further on, ensure the transition is smooth and all information is passed on.
By following this clear structure, you will ensure all of your customers receive a positive experience each and every time they communicate with you. The process is simple and the tasks within it can be learnt and applied quite easily.
This short excerpt is taken from our training course materials on, 'Communicating with Customers', which you can purchase from our website at Trainer Bubble.
Open & Initiate
Be prepared – Anticipate the needs of the customer, with information already to hand.
Welcome – Greet customers professionally and convey a positive attitude through your tone of voice, body language and general demeanour.
Position – Where you are contacting the customer, explain the purpose and benefit to them and check that they understand and agree to the conversation. Where you are being contacted by the customer, provide a clear response to acknowledge their needs and ensure you are best placed to help them.
Gather Information
Listen – Remember the facts conveyed by the customer and the feelings behind their message. Ensure you note their concerns and are able to understand and appreciate their requirements.
Ask – Question customer effectively to understand their situation and what is important to them.
Restate – Ensure customer realises you understand what is being said and agree to what is being asked where relevant
Solutions & Options
Offer Information and options – Give customer information that helps them. Provide options and choices. Use explanations that are clear and free from jargon.
Set expectations – Be clear with the customer about what you can and cannot do. Be specific.
Explore further needs and gain agreement – Ask good questions. Try to assess level of agreement. Promote the available solutions.
Confirm & Close
Ask for a decision – Ensure you clearly, precisely and confidently ask for a commitment from the customer.
Summarise and check – Review the key points with the customer and check that they are happy.
Thank them – Make your customers feel important by leaving a positive message.
Follow up – Do what you said you would do. If someone else deals with the customer further on, ensure the transition is smooth and all information is passed on.
By following this clear structure, you will ensure all of your customers receive a positive experience each and every time they communicate with you. The process is simple and the tasks within it can be learnt and applied quite easily.
This short excerpt is taken from our training course materials on, 'Communicating with Customers', which you can purchase from our website at Trainer Bubble.
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
The Greatest Speech Ever Made
The following video clip has been developed around the final speech from the Charlie Chaplin movie, 'The Great Dictator' and is required watching as far as I am concerned. It's amazing to think that one of the most poignant and meaningful speeches written for our times was actually penned by a comedy actor in 1940. It just goes to show that greatness is timeless.
Time for your emotions to be stirred...
Time for your emotions to be stirred...
Friday, 30 September 2011
A Customer Care Disaster, or ill-advised PR stunt?
Whilst perusing the internet today, I came across what seems a very bizarre response to a customer complaint that has apparently gone viral on the internet. The company in question is Australian based clothing retailer, 'GASP'. The original story comes from an article that appears in, 'The Herald Sun' and you can take a full look at the complete story including the original complaint on their website.
I was left scratching my head with this one, as I can't be sure if it is a really poor response to a customer complaint or an even worse attempt at publicity. Now, if it is publicity they want, then I am stoking the flames here (as well as many other sites), but surely this is not good publicity? Take a look at the response to the complaint below. To set the scene, the complaint was regarding a customer that went into one of their stores to purchase a dress only to be harassed by the member of staff who was rude about the ladies dress size, amongst other things, when she showed reluctance to purchase. Here is their 'customer service' response...
Dear Keara O'Neil,
Having now had the privilege of having both version of events, I am now in a position to respond to your complaint.
From the very outset, one thing that you should be mindful of is; Our product offerings are very, very carefully selected, so to ensure that we do not appeal to a broad customer base. This is something which is always at the forefront of our minds when undertaking buying duties.
The reason for this is to ensure that we only carry products which appeal to a very fashion forward consumer. This by default means that the customer whom is acclimatised to buying from "clothing for the masses" type retailers, is almost frightened by our range, sometimes we have found that this type of customer, almost finds our dresses funny, and on occasion noted comments such as 'it looks like a dead flamingo'. When we receive comments like this, we like to give ourselves and our buyers, a big pat on the back, because we know we are doing our job right, and modus operandi is being upheld.
Our range is worn by A list celebrities to the likes of Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez and Katy Perry to name only a few. Now, as one might appreciate, the style counsel for these types of celebrities are not ones to pick "run of the mill" type clothing, and they do so on the basis to ensure that the styles are cutting edge, and only worn by a select few. Similarly these items are priced such that they remain inaccessible to the undesirable.
Insofar as our employee goes; Similar to our product offerings, our employees are selected with a similar approach. Chris whom served you is a qualified stylist whom has a sixth sense for fashion, and Chris's only problem is that he is too good at what he does, and as I am sure you are aware, people whom are talented, generally do not tolerate having their time wasted, which is the reason you were provoked to leave the store.
Whilst I concede that you work for chain retailer, unfortunately that does not make us like for like. It is probably fair to assume, a lot of what I have said in this email, either doesn't make sense to you, or you totally disagree with it all, which is what I would expect (unless of course I have you totally wrong – which I doubt).
Let me guess, you would never, ever hire Chris in the course of your duty, would you? This is the very reason, why your comment "from one retailer to another" is so disproportionate, it's almost as though we are in a totally different industries. Chris is a retail superstar, who possess unparalleled ability, and I am sorry you feel upset by him, but he knew you were not going to buy anything before you even left your house.
So if you would like to do us any favours, please do not waste our retail staff's time, because as you have already seen, they will not tolerate it. I am sure there are plenty of shops that appease your taste, so I respectfully ask that you side step our store during future window shopping expeditions.
Thank you for your enquiry.
But it doesn't end there. GASP replied to the criticism of their response with this:
We respect that not all consumers strive for a glamorous appearance; some prefer to simply blend in. [...] We respect and welcome all customers whom wish to visit our store, even though the intention to buy may not exist. But we ask that their opinions be expressed through blogs, social media or around a warm latte, but certainly not inside our stores.
So, having taken a look at this really badly worded response, what do you think? Publicity stunt, or poor customer service? Whatever it is, if I was the boss, I'd be having a rethink about the people working for me and an even harder consideration about what customer service training or even complaint handling training my staff need.
I was left scratching my head with this one, as I can't be sure if it is a really poor response to a customer complaint or an even worse attempt at publicity. Now, if it is publicity they want, then I am stoking the flames here (as well as many other sites), but surely this is not good publicity? Take a look at the response to the complaint below. To set the scene, the complaint was regarding a customer that went into one of their stores to purchase a dress only to be harassed by the member of staff who was rude about the ladies dress size, amongst other things, when she showed reluctance to purchase. Here is their 'customer service' response...
Dear Keara O'Neil,
Having now had the privilege of having both version of events, I am now in a position to respond to your complaint.
From the very outset, one thing that you should be mindful of is; Our product offerings are very, very carefully selected, so to ensure that we do not appeal to a broad customer base. This is something which is always at the forefront of our minds when undertaking buying duties.
The reason for this is to ensure that we only carry products which appeal to a very fashion forward consumer. This by default means that the customer whom is acclimatised to buying from "clothing for the masses" type retailers, is almost frightened by our range, sometimes we have found that this type of customer, almost finds our dresses funny, and on occasion noted comments such as 'it looks like a dead flamingo'. When we receive comments like this, we like to give ourselves and our buyers, a big pat on the back, because we know we are doing our job right, and modus operandi is being upheld.
Our range is worn by A list celebrities to the likes of Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez and Katy Perry to name only a few. Now, as one might appreciate, the style counsel for these types of celebrities are not ones to pick "run of the mill" type clothing, and they do so on the basis to ensure that the styles are cutting edge, and only worn by a select few. Similarly these items are priced such that they remain inaccessible to the undesirable.
Insofar as our employee goes; Similar to our product offerings, our employees are selected with a similar approach. Chris whom served you is a qualified stylist whom has a sixth sense for fashion, and Chris's only problem is that he is too good at what he does, and as I am sure you are aware, people whom are talented, generally do not tolerate having their time wasted, which is the reason you were provoked to leave the store.
Whilst I concede that you work for chain retailer, unfortunately that does not make us like for like. It is probably fair to assume, a lot of what I have said in this email, either doesn't make sense to you, or you totally disagree with it all, which is what I would expect (unless of course I have you totally wrong – which I doubt).
Let me guess, you would never, ever hire Chris in the course of your duty, would you? This is the very reason, why your comment "from one retailer to another" is so disproportionate, it's almost as though we are in a totally different industries. Chris is a retail superstar, who possess unparalleled ability, and I am sorry you feel upset by him, but he knew you were not going to buy anything before you even left your house.
So if you would like to do us any favours, please do not waste our retail staff's time, because as you have already seen, they will not tolerate it. I am sure there are plenty of shops that appease your taste, so I respectfully ask that you side step our store during future window shopping expeditions.
Thank you for your enquiry.
But it doesn't end there. GASP replied to the criticism of their response with this:
We respect that not all consumers strive for a glamorous appearance; some prefer to simply blend in. [...] We respect and welcome all customers whom wish to visit our store, even though the intention to buy may not exist. But we ask that their opinions be expressed through blogs, social media or around a warm latte, but certainly not inside our stores.
So, having taken a look at this really badly worded response, what do you think? Publicity stunt, or poor customer service? Whatever it is, if I was the boss, I'd be having a rethink about the people working for me and an even harder consideration about what customer service training or even complaint handling training my staff need.
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