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 Video: A UNISON Setup |
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| Using
what it has dubbed TEAL or Technology Enabled Active Learning, MIT
designed the course so that groups of nine students sit at round tables,
where teams of three share one laptop.
Just like UNISON, the student teams follow the instructor's Power Point in this intimate setting. And again, just as with UNISON (See Self Assessment Kiosks), the students monitor results from their real desktop experiments through sensors that feed their computers. Results of tested TEAL students before and after the semester revealed that their comprehension nearly doubled that of the old-fashioned large lecture hall students. 
I couldn’t get over how this MIT example is exactly what UNISON does for the business world and how it mirrors UNISON’s potency as a driving force for reaching training objectives. And the statistics – double comprehension using TEAL – was amazing. We haven’t been able to release any data on the impact of UNISON on achieving meeting outcomes. Most of our clients wish to keep the post meeting results anonymous because of the competitive advantage that those results give them. Up until now, that is. We’ve been informed that there has been a 5.6% increase in revenues as a result of the cross-selling program that UNISON helped implement at a national financial services company meeting last year. We’re very proud of this number!  The second article that struck my UNISON chord came from Meeting News. The author, Michael Krantz, argues that the new generation of business meeting participants, the Gen X’s and Y’s, are demanding more active participation in meetings. These are the people who text-message on the phone and their Blackberries, play video games and sit in front of a computer in the office, at home and on the road.  These X’s and Y’s want, receive and interact with, information quicker and in smaller chunks. Conclusion: That’s the way they want meetings to be delivered -- lots of information, more often and in smaller pieces. Overlay on top of these facts, Krantz writes, that adults learn differently, in fact, in four different ways. Then add a new overlay – the globalization of a company. Participants are from all over the world. Meeting process designers must factor in cultural styles -- Americans are very direct, Europeans and Latins less so and Asians much less so. Let’s face it, adding content that appeals to the four different learners and the different cultural styles extends a meeting. Budgets can’t support longer meetings. Participants can’t ‘sit’ for longer meetings.  As I wrote earlier, UNISON is the MIT answer to business meetings. UNISON is specifically designed for large meetings having lots of participants who come from different backgrounds, cultures and represent different generations. We’ve designed and supported meetings with 200 to 6,000 from New York to Rome to Beijing. The physical set-up fosters participation. That set-up, too, provides an intimacy between each participant, the table team and the presenter. Just like the MIT model, participants can follow PowerPoint, ask questions, brainstorm, and build consensus. There is no question participants are more involved using UNISON whatever their cultural background because it levels the playing field and gives a “voice” to reticent participants. With our product array, participants can take self assessments, play games and vote as a team or individually. Our process designers who are expert in adult learning styles and cultural diversity requirements can save time, thus money, and accelerate a meeting’s information and knowledge transfer. UNISON is the perfect solution to the new way of designing and conducting meetings for a diverse, multigenerational audience.  Larry Cerri Founder and Managing Partner, UNISON LLC |
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