WHAT’S WITH THE FLIPPIN’ CHART?

By David Dehaas

The humble flip chart, a nice thick pad of 24- by 36-inch newsprint paper mounted on a tripod stand, can be your most effective training and presentation aid -- if it’s used to maximum efficiency.

Sure, safety trainers are constantly being pestered to make their training more fun, more interesting, more modern and more entertaining; and, no, the flip chart does not have the flashing lights and ringing bells that many thoroughly modern trainers think are the key to holding a group’s attention. The flip chart does not seem very interesting or exciting. And when the presentation coordinator asks you whether you’ll need an overhead projector or a computer hooked up for a power-point presentation, you’ll probably get a worried look when you mention that you’ll just be using a flip chart.

But here’s an important principle of training that you can write on the back of an envelope, file in a safe place and never, ever, forget: By its very nature, learning is fun, learning is interesting and learning is entertaining. Training should be all of those things, and it will be, as long as your group is learning. So all you have to do is make sure your group is actually learning something new, and you won’t need the bells, the whistles or even any childish exercises to keep their trainees from getting bored and wandering away.

How can you do all that with a flip chart?

Let’s say you’re doing training. And, like every good trainer, you’re not just lecturing, not just standing beside an overhead projector and reading off the screen, you’re actually interacting with your group, asking pointed questions, exploring the answers, steering the discussion forward in the direction you want it to go. In other words, you’re using Socratic method (see Making the Penny Drop, August/September 1997, page 72).

Let’s say, for example, that you’re doing training on confined spaces to a group of 15 or 20 plant employees and that your carefully prepared leader’s guide says you’ve come to the unit on hazards. "Okay," you ask socratically, "what are some of the hazards you might run into in a confined space?" While the group thinks for a few seconds, you use your marker to write the word "HAZARDS" on the top of your flip chart sheet. Then you underline it.

The group, thinking over your question, watches you write the word. It sends a number of powerful messages: We’re starting a new section here; we’re going to make a list of hazards; and, by extension, hazards are a major issue in confined spaces.

You notice that Fred, in the middle row, looks up with an eager expression on his face: "Fred?" you ask.

"Poisonous gas in the air in the space," he says.

"Sure," you reply, "poisonous or toxic gases are one of the main hazards." You pause and write "TOXIC GASES" under your heading. "Like what?" you continue. "What are some of the toxic gases you might conceivably run into here or at some other place?"

"How about methane?" someone says. One by one, perhaps with a little prompting or even hinting, your trainees will give you a list: methane, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide and so on.

You write each one down, perhaps with little bullet points, under the heading of toxic gases. You also spend some time discussing each one, asking where they come from, what they’re like and so on.

When you have a list of all the gases at this workplace, you’ll want to make the point that there is always the risk of the new or unknown hazard. You draw this point out, if it hasn’t been volunteered, with some pointed hinting: "Is there any other toxic gas in the world that could somehow end up in one of your spaces?" Then spend some time discussing and speculating. You’ll record the result as a final bullet point on your flip chart list, perhaps as OTHER ???.

You now have a flip chart sheet that the group has watched and helped you prepare. It says something like this:

TOXIC GASES
- Sulfur dioxide
- Methane
- Hydrogen sulfide
- Other ???

The list may be a good deal longer, especially if your research for this presentation discovered that there are other possible toxics at this workplace.

Now, before you go on to the next section, you can use the flip chart page to do a quick review. In 30 seconds or so, run through the main points that have been made. "Any questions?" you ask. "Everyone clear on this?" Then you flip over the sheet and go to work on the next section. (Probably toxic vapours, mists and fumes.) Then, unit by unit, page by page, you’ll deal with lack of oxygen, excess oxygen, flammable atmospheres and physical hazards.

Then you’ll do a review. On a new flip chart page, pull it all together:

HAZARDS

Toxic atmosphere
- gases
- vapours
- mists & fumes

Explosive atmospheres
- gases
- vapours
- mists & solids

Oxygen
- lack of O2
- excess O2

Physical hazards
- flowing material
- energy sources
- equipment

So what does this approach accomplish? Plenty. Well, three things, at least. First, using the flip chart to record the headings for topics and to spell out the key points in each section brings order to the presentation. It establishes a clear framework for the overall course and signals the beginning and end of sections. It is an internal map that keeps trainees from getting lost and confused.

In any Socratic session, there are a great many questions, answers, points, explanations and discussions; it would be possible for a participant to get confused between what is an important point and what is not. The flip chart notations draw out the key points and make it clear.

Second, you will most likely have noticed that, in any training session, there are people who take notes. Perhaps they’re particularly conscientious and meticulous, but more likely this is the way they learn. Writing things down helps them organize, assimilate and remember information. Your flip chart notations give them a structure for their notes that will keep them on the right track and make note-taking easier.

For the non-note-takers, just seeing the key points in writing will have a considerable benefit. They’ll take the time to read each word as it’s being written and they’ll scan the page of points repeatedly throughout the session. We’ve all seen the pyramid diagrams in training manuals that suggest we remember perhaps 10 per cent of what we hear, 30 per cent of what we read and some higher percentage of what we experience. They’ve heard it being discussed, now they’re reading it, and this other route of entry to the brain means the information will be more solidly stored in memory.

Of course, Socratic training relies on participants to follow a discussion, consider questions and figure out the answers; it’s the "figuring out" that makes this method so effective -- we tend to remember almost 100 per cent of what we’ve figured out for ourselves. This figuring-out process is helped along considerably by the imposed order and logic of the flip chart.

Your flip chart will keep things in order, nail down the main points and provide a structure for the course. That, along with the lively back-and-forth of a Socratic training session will mean that everyone is engaged, everyone learns the material. And afterwards, despite the lack of bells, whistles and flashing lights, participants will tell you they enjoyed the session. And that can only mean that they’ve learned something.

David Dehaas is the editor of OHS CANADA.

* As the training leader, you can use your flip chart to cheat a little bit. While the participants are providing most of the ideas (drawn out by your questions) the course follows the outline you establish. You can help this along, aid your own memory of where the course has to go and make the whole thing run more smoothly by lightly penciling, on the top corner of each flip chart page, all the points that have to be made for a given section. The group can’t see them, but you can. That way, you can draw each one out, stay in the right order and make sure that everything gets covered.

* If there are "set pieces" that are a part of the course -- diagrams, lists, quotations from legislation and so on -- you can prepare them neatly beforehand and perhaps tear them off and post them with tape when you come to them in the course.

* Keep it very simple. Write no more than four or five words per line and use no more than four or five lines per flip chart sheet. Write big enough for everyone in the back row to read easily.

* Write slowly. This will make your writing legible, but it will also take a few seconds -- while everyone watches and concentrates on what you’re writing. The point you’re making, the one you’re writing down, gets nailed down in everyone’s mind as they pause, change gears and read your carefully chosen key words.

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