Get the Most from Your PMC Workshop

Use this tip sheet before and after your workshop and make the most of your training.

How to Get the Most from Your PMC Workshop

Come Ready to Learn

• Learn purposefully.  Prepare yourself by deciding what you need to know. Ask yourself:  Am I looking for personal fulfillment? Professional development? Work skills?
• Focus on your learning objectives. Look at the workshop outline and identify the areas of the course you’ll focus on. Ask yourself: What matters most to me, my team, my department, my organization?
• Identify new skills and tools to bring back to work. Ask your manager and colleagues what skills and knowledge they need from the workshop.
• Prepare to enjoy yourself. We learn best when we’re having fun, when we can express ourselves, and when we’re fully engaged in the process. Prepare to enjoy yourself, and leap into the learning process.

Take Responsibility

• Leap into learning. You are responsible for your own learning. Don’t wait to be trained.
• Focus on learning. Turn off your smart phone and other electronic devices, for your own sake and as a courtesy to others.
• Expect to stretch your brain. Done properly, learning takes effort.
• Be inquisitive, enquire and question everything. Learning involves questioning yourself, the situation, each other, your instructor and your world.

Be Resourceful

• Develop a vision of what you need to know. Be ready to recognize important pieces of information when they come your way.
• Learn all you can from your classmates. Don’t rely solely on your instructor and workbook. Learning involves sharing knowledge with others.
• Throw yourself into the process – spirit, mind and body. There is a strong physical element to learning, so discuss, think, draw, write, gesture and move around.
• Network. Use every spare moment to do additional networking or research. Bring back insights and questions.  Own your workbook. Writing and drawing in the workbook will help you learn.
• Highlight key lessons. Create personal symbols for the key ideas, points or actions that you want to remember. This will help you identify them for future reference.

When the Workshop is Over, Let the Learning Continue

Review and Share Your New Skills and Tools

• Keep your course materials and notes on hand. Review them often.
• Discuss the workshop with your manager and colleagues. Be as specific as possible. Transferring knowledge will cement your learning.
• Identify the key lessons. Put your new knowledge, skills and insight to use as soon as possible.

Reflect on What You’ve Learned

• Take time to reflect on the lessons and skills you’ve learned. This process allows your brain to fit new information into a bigger picture. It helps you retain what you’ve learned.
• Reflect passively. Give yourself time and space to let your brain see the patterns.
• Reflect actively. Discuss what you’ve learned with others.
• Record your observations, thoughts and ideas in a learning journal. Record questions requiring further study and useful resources. Describe flashes of inspiration.
  • Why was this topic important to me?
  • What surprised me?
  • What was toughest to grasp?
  • What was most engaging?
  • How does what I’ve learned build on what I already know?
  • What do I want to learn next?
  • How will this knowledge help me professionally and personally?

Practise and Apply What You’ve Learned

• Practise what you’ve learned. Apply your newly acquired knowledge and skills as soon and as often as possible. Knowledge fades if unused.
• Look for opportunities to hone your new skills. Discuss them at a staff meeting and help train colleagues.
• Take what you’ve learned to the next level. Recognize that the workshop was just the first step in a journey of discovery. Engage in lifelong learning.