We often start with word cards. Sets of six or eight cards with one word written on each have become one of our standard tools for building group participation and understanding. Sometimes we give a card to each person, sometimes we ask them to each take one — whichever they want. Sometimes we stand in a circle each holding our card, sometimes the cards are spread out randomly on a table around which we all stand. Then we share what we know of these words and learn all the different perspectives on the words, we flesh out the current state of the group’s understanding and we build a strong platform for learning. Sometimes we then go out to the work areas to look for examples of these words — in pairs or small groups — and again we learn more about perspectives and how people are currently applying their thinking.

Our efforts to find and share common meanings, choreograph group work and appeal to different learning styles serve two educational purposes. Employees and work groups get the chance to understand and remember training events and they get the chance to express their current state of interest and need. With these educational tools we glean more stories as we ceaselessly listen and gauge which words and concepts have the most resonance to take the work groups to their next learning challenge. It is an intense and ongoing creative process — and I love it.

Tracy Defoe is a workplace educational consultant and researcher based in Vancouver, B.C.

Ruth Farrell was a passionate workplace educator. This article about her work was written a few weeks before she died in a car crash on vacation in Mexico in April, 2003.