To improve the Soufflearning methodology, we are currently conducting a number of interviews with participants from the first round of pretests. Trainers, employees and employers who took part in Soufflearning trainings will share their insight and opinions on the method from their own personal perspectives.
Today’s participant is Raul Iglesias, a trainer who took part in the Soufflearning trainings at our partner in Badajoz, Spain. He is responsible for innovation and business development at the Chamber of Commerce in the Spanish town of Caceres. A law graduate by profession, Mr Iglesias has extensive experience in advising companies and working in business incubation. Let’s hear about his impression of the Soufflearning method.
1. What convinced you to take part in the project and try out the Soufflearning methodology?
I initially came on board because my colleague from the Badajoz Chamber of Commerce told me of a new and innovative training technique they were trying out and offered me to participate. Since I am always interested in learning new methods and approaches to further education, I jumped at the opportunity.
2. In which area did you employ Soufflearning trainings?
I actually had the chance to test Soufflearning in a kindergarten of all places. While that sounds unusual, it turns out that running such a facility involves many different areas of business: Sales, customer care, emotional care, time management and much more. Plenty of opportunity to foster and further learning processes.
3. What did you find most surprising? What was completely new to you?
The ability to assess and train skills face to face as opposed to rather anonymous training settings. Often, advanced training occurs in groups and the learning process is less concentrated on individual needs and more generalized.
4. What outcomes did you see?
I was able to observe improvements in many key areas: From increased employee motivation, to an improved application of skills and higher satisfaction among the management staff. I think Soufflearning provides an extremely flexible method that can address each specific case with better results.
5. Where do you see the biggest benefits of the method?
Soufflearning can be adapted to each individual case and thereby help correct behaviors or foster abilities throughout the entire training process. This maximizes the time invested in training while providing a lasting impact.
6. What did you find most challenging and where do you see room for improvement?
What I found challenging was to find a suitable way to observe employees and customers without getting in the way of the normal work processes and disturbing the trainees. Apart from that I think that management could have a stronger involvement during the observation stage.
7. How likely do you think it is that you will keep working with this methodology?
There is a very good chance that I will keep it in my repertoire permanently. Something that would make the application of the Soufflearning method more probable, however, would be if it could be officially recognized by the companies involved. Implementing some sort of certification process or a validation method would be really helpful in this regard.