Engage: The Trainer's Guide to Learning Styles is an outstanding book in employee engagement subject area and suitable for both academics and learning and development professionals. It provides a sound insight, as well as clear analytical models and real action concrete steps in order to help the readers first, to discover their training style strengths and second, to develop a framework of essential skills with interactive assessments, links to videos and foolproof action plans. It was written by Jeanine O’Neil-Blackwell, the president and CEO of 4MAT® 4Business; A training and developing company that provides consulting, training and assessment tools for leaders, managers and trainers on using the award-winning 4MAT® Learning and Development Circle (a four-step model for engaging all learning styles in any learning situation) to effectively communicate, lead and train, and coach.
The 4MAT® model of learning which is used in this book, is a system of cognitive organisation, a framework for the intuiting and thinking brain, and a transformation of individuals through their personal experience and learning pathway. More specifically, the book detailed how the MAT learning enhances the ability of readers to understand their preferred approach to learning, their most comfortable way to take in new knowledge and information, as well as their preferred way to acquire new skills. Both academics and professionals who develop individual and organisational plans using the 4MAT® model are more motivated, engaged and able to apply their learning in new settings beyond the workplace. Action learning and strategic planning influences learning because it helps the instructor to focus on how individuals learn.
In general, this book provides a good teaching and learning tool box including plenty of relevant examples and supporting materials. Jeanine O’Neil-Blackwell aims to make the book especially appealing to training and development trainers new to the subject who needs a fundamental grounding in the subject area. Through my experience as an academic working in this subject area, I feel that both academics and practitioners will value a business-related book that is relevant, easy to understand, fun to read and portable. These customer requirements can be met by making the book approximately quire short in length, a portable size with a “funky” cover which is relevant and attractive to the readers, includes cartoons and requires them to make use of case examples and personalities with whom they can relate well. Content and theory is applied to relevant examples building from their experience and knowledge and using theories to scaffold their experience. To enhance their experience of the real world case study examples are used in every chapter of the book. This book is also intended to be a practical one, based firmly in well-researched models and concepts within the area of employee engagement, but providing a practitioner's view.
The structure and design of the book is very logical, clear to follow and informal. The 4MAT® method can be easily understood by a wide/diverse audience. With a simple and easy to understand way, blends the critical components in effective learning, design and delivery. When connected together, they enable the reader to develop a framework of designing and delivering learning experiences which are compelling and transformative and lead to measurable outcomes. Each chapter in this book is filled with illustrative examples and online companion resources, current research and professional practice, which lays the foundation for the book's four models of learning and training that can be applied for each step in the process. More specifically:
The first part of the book attempts to identify the existing training ability of the individuals and propose strategies for improvement based on four critical training roles (facilitator, coach, presenter and evaluator).
Chapter Two, explains in detail the four primary learning styles and helps the trainer understands the thinking map as illustrated in page 40 in this book.
In Chapter Three Jeanine O’Neil-Blackwell, takes the innovation of 4MAT® and looks at it through the lens of both the trainer and the learner. Both the interactive activities and the theoretical framework used in this chapter reflect on the four learning styles and try to assess how both the learner and the trainer can evaluate their skills and strategies suggested in this book to include in their training approach.
Chapter Four explores the significance of linking emerging learning to past experience, knowledge and inclinations/interests of the learners. By introducing an inventory of opening approaches to encourage personal reflection and dialogue such as: “Reflection through journaling (diary keeping technique); personal storytelling, stimulations and exploration of shared experience”, the author tries to generate the reflection and dialogue needed to allow learner to discover and enhance their personal relevance of the content requires effective facilitation skills (p. 114).
Chapter Five explores how to effectively use learning approaches such as stories, images, metaphors and visual imaging to both technical and soft-skill-related topics. In the following chapter the reader explores how to move from learning into applying the information learned in Share practice such as visual organiser-placemats (p. 173); flipchart review (p. 174); sticky dot voting exercise (p. 175); storytelling (p. 176); company values interviews (p. 177); lecture translator (p. 178); visual organiser lecture debrief (p. 179); metaphors in a negotiation skills course (p. 180). The author tries to focus on choosing activities that most stimulates how the learners will apply the information in the real world.
Chapter Seven focuses on performance through the assessment and implementation of various strategies developed in order to assist learner to adapt flexible and innovating methods such as blended and mobile learning to enhance his experience.
Chapter Eight designs and delivers learning in a virtual environment by exploring different approaches and activities to physically and emotionally engage all learning styles in a virtual environment by using the four learning system method 4MAT® through a “blend” of interactive activities, organisational practice and key theory and research in this area.
At the following chapter the author of the book argues that, one of the biggest challenges trainers face is focusing the learning experience on the right outcome (p. 268). Therefore the key aim of chapter Nine is to provide a basic process of identifying methods of measuring the “true performance” of the learner by exploring four key learning outcomes that need to be defined before the individual start developing a learning experience. As such, the chapter explores various tools that the reader can use to clarify stakeholders expectations and analysing the performance gap.
Chapter Ten examines how to structure an effective assessment plan and provide concrete examples of appropriate assessment strategies and data collection tools.
The final chapter of the book explores “on-the-way” assessment strategies to determine how each learner is progressing through the learning cycle. Through measurable metrics, Jeanine O’Neil-Blackwell attempts to determine the value generated through the learning intervention. The objective of the chapter is to enhance readers’ understanding and capability of how to integrate these assessments into the design and delivery of learning (via various case studies sharing how other organisations have successfully used the 4MAT® model to create learning results) and to adjust each chosen approach along the way to maximise impact (ROI) of the learning experiences of learner's design and delivery (p. xxii).
Overall, the book is very well designed with a good balance of theory, organisational practise and research-based science on different learning approaches. Engage also provides the reader with access to an online version of the 4MAT® Training Style Inventory that is very useful and comprehensive. The reader can get measured against his/her score in the four key training roles.
Unlike many books in the learning and development industry, Jeanine O’Neil-Blackwell has effectively delivered the learning in an engaging and practical style. The synergistic approach makes the book quite appealing to a wide range of readers. Organisational challenges, differences and behavioural competencies are explored through an analysis of the key theories on both learning and training and a wide range of case studies on international management. Reflecting from the enclosed interactive activities, online sources, practical examples, diagrams, research inputs, it seems that the academic level of the text is appropriate for students, academics and professionals. The reader will be able to apply the models to organisational settings right away and achieve the desirable outcomes both in individual and professional level. As Jeanine suggests, by studying this book, you will watch yourself transform.
