Run for the CHART Board of Directors! Elections for the Board of Directors will be held during the Orlando Conference this summer (absentee ballots will be available to eligible members who are not attending the conference). If you would like to be considered for a regular board position or the appointed Education Strategist position, please email Damian Hanft at dhanft@inspirebrands.com for more information.
Email Damian
PresidenTalks Learning is Everywhere: A Relaxing Vacation Read Gives Food for Thought
I don’t spend a ton of time reading outside of work-related or developmental reading. When I do read for fun, it’s always Food Network magazine. Since I have a subscription, I often have a drawer overflowing of old unread issues as I tend to save them for when I can fully relax on vacation. While the pages are filled with amazing and tempting articles and recipes, my favorite parts are always within the first 20 pages. On a recent vacation (while catching up on the six-month old October 2022 issue), I paused and actually thought about why those pages are my favorite. Typically the juicier items in a magazine are center spread. I had the realization that it is because it totally taps into my training psyche. It mimics some important aspects when building training programs. Rachel Richal
The Recipe Index – This is my all-time favorite spread, and it’s simply the picture, name, and photo of every recipe in the magazine. This is the “what to expect” in a training curriculum. It gives a preview, and as a learner, opens my mind to learning. We all know that people set out to learn for different reasons, and this helps me if I want to prioritize what pages to read due to time constraints, or as a job aid to the magazine if I want to reference back on specific items. It’s a quick snapshot vs. a deep dive. The Editor’s Letter - This sets the stage for the “why” behind that issue. It gets me bought into the flow, and helps me connect the individual articles to the storyline throughout. In a training program, we have individual learning objects or exercises to keep the learning exciting and tapped into attention span, but as an overall training, it’s important that our learners can connect them all to a bigger purpose or behavior that logically makes sense for the result we are trying to achieve.
Star Search - This page shares which chefs I will see throughout that issue. It lets me know the “who.” Essentially it is telling me who my “trainers” are as I learn about new techniques and food trends. Not only does it introduce them and share their credentials giving credibility as trainers, but it also asks a fun question they answer to further connect me to them. As new team members come in, they not only have to learn new skills and expectations, but they also are learning a whole new set of people. It’s important that we welcome them in, and not only help acclimate them to their new role, but also give them fun ways to relate to the community they are joining. Calendar - The magazine publishes a monthly calendar that shares recipe and celebratory ideas for each day of the month. It connects these into the theme, and feels like a call to action coming out of reading the magazine – call it the magazine’s 30-day plan coming out of training. It’s important that training is not looked at as an event, but rather continuous, and this taps into a way of laying out a continuous learning plan.
Lastly, I am drawn to this first section of each issue because the format is consistent. While the content changes to keep me drawn in, the format is reliable. Room for retention in our brains is based on how much space is left after we digest what we learn and how we learn it. If learners do not have to work too hard on familiarizing themselves with how they learn it, there is more capacity to retain. So, the next time you are looking for a new recipe, or are simply tempted by the picture on the cover, check out the first 20 pages of a Food Network magazine. Not only will you walk away hungry for the recipes you read about, but you will also
nourish a craving for some training ideas. Cheers to learning being everywhere!
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker