Innovating Training: The Skilla Method

In the 10-point Skilla manifesto, which was presented for the first time at Expotraining 2013, Amicucci Formazione wanted to present the values and the method that have characterized intensive activity of research and experimentation, and which have made us the undisputed leaders in training innovation in Italy, particularly in the area of multimedia learning. Let us look at the ten points of the manifesto.

1. To seek out the beauty in everything that surrounds us: Every great work of art involves our senses and emotions, evokes in us aesthetic pleasure, a sense of lightness and of calm. The search for beauty in learning is the original quest, sought in every learning procedure that has been proposed by Amicucci Formazione over these years. It has been pursued through the creation of a veritable internal school of design dedicated to continuous research into the quality of teaching materials, to the design of engaging and enjoyable e-learning procedures, going as far as the study of the aesthetics of the interfaces of e-learning systems, of corporate intranets and of learning software.
2. Clearly to grasp the essences of things In his famous book, ‘Five Minds for the Future’, Howard Gardner individuates in synthetic intelligence one of the most important and useful abilities for tackling a scenario marked by the great changes of recent years, such as the continuous acceleration in the rate of change, the growing mass of information to be dealt with, globalization and the multiple interconnections of each decision. A capacity for synthesis becomes increasingly central as information multiplies at a dizzying pace, in order to grasp the essentials, the interconnections, the hierarchical and net-like structure of complex systems. Grasping the essence of things is today a basic point of departure for any effective process of learning and training procedure. Classes lasting two hours are more effective for involvement, learning and for recall than are classes lasting eight hours multimedia training pills lasting a few minutes at most, are more effective than e-learning procedures lasting three or four hours.
3. To stimulate a desire and a passion for continuing improvement: The task of every educator is to stimulate a desire for continuing improvement: it is not to ‘fill heads’ with information and concepts that will soon be forgotten. Increasingly, the task is that of providing sparks that will ignite a passion for research and for self-study. Education will come to be seen less and less as something that falls from above, from a catalog, and will move to the creation of real and virtual environments full of opportunities for learning, which people can visit at will for their own personal and professional development.
4. To give form to the dreams and to the expectations of people and of organizations: Only with great vision will we turn around the decline our country is going through. High-quality education is what is needed to break with obsolete models of thought and cultural templates, to grasp the opportunities offered by the great transformations taking place, to create passions and emotions that will mobilize our energies.
5. Proactively to embrace technological innovation as a part of our lives to be enjoyed New digital technologies are taking on a central role in learning, with an intensity and pervasiveness equaling, if not exceeding, what happened when writing, the printing press or radio and television were introduced. In this area too, our country is losing ground and education is involved in this, being excessively anchored to past models. The new digital competencies should be at the heart of every corporate training program.
6. To visualize thought in order to present and share ideas. Infographics and visual thinking are flooding into training. The visualization of quality makes use of all of the above points: the search for beauty and of the essential, the creation of new visions and the desire for in-depth knowledge, the use of technologies.
7. To seek out creative approaches and continuing innovation. Educating to think and to act creatively is one of the educational priorities of this epoch, because people and organizations have become aware of the end of an era and of the need to prepare for a world that will call for continuous innovation. Creativity is a method, a science and a culture. Training must first of all seek in itself for creative approaches and the continuous innovation of its methodologies, in order to be ever more effective.
8. To carry the best of our cultural and artistic tradition forward into the future: The search for innovation, the centrality of new technologies in learning will be much more effective the more it understands how to gather and carry the best of our artistic and cultural tradition into the future. There is no Skilla training course that does not have at its heart at least one work of art to observe and reflect on, and one work of literature.
9. To generate positive emotions, well-being and wonder. Learning will be more effective if it involves people positively, if the traditional formula that study equals boredom and hard toil is broken. For this reason, the use of idioms that generate positive involvement, humor and well-being are decidedly more effective than the serious and stodgy language that typifies technical training. Cartoons, comic strips, engaging games and self-irony are becoming the dominant idioms.
10. To act with practical realism, scientific rigor, with promptness and with focus. Organizations is asking for ever more tangible, visible and quantifiable outcomes of training. For this reason it is necessary to make use of rigorous methodologies and of continuous research to make learning ever more effective in ever shorter periods of time.

Download our manifesto!

Franco Amicucci