One of the most popular methods of learning a business skill like speed reading is to take a speed reading seminar, in the same way that you might go to a marketing seminar or a time management seminar. These kinds of programs are very good insofar as teaching real life applications and skills for speed reading, and are often supplemented with a great number of reading speed tests and benchmarks designed to measure your progress and prove your success. While we are huge proponents of teaching speed reading to every teenage and adult speed reader out there, we do not fully endorse the idea of any speed reading seminar to businesspeople interested in learning this skill.
While it sounds ideal to receive training from experts, in person, the fact of the matter is that speed reading is not something that can be learned from a weekend or a three-day course, no matter who is teaching the class. It takes almost as much effort to learn speed reading as it does to learn how to read in the first place, and practice is absolutely essential to the process.
A better solution, instead of a speed reading seminar, is to invest in some speed read programs. Offering employees a half-hour break during the day to practice with one of these will not only take less time out of their day than a seminar, but it will also provide the long-term support and assistance necessary to pick up the skill and utilize it in their everyday lives.
The problem with all of these kinds of seminars is the same. People go and listen, participate in activities, and then come home and usually forget most of what they learned. Others will think that they’ve done all they need to do in order to succeed with the seminar, and not utilize or practice the skills in their everyday life.
If you are going to send employees to a seminar like this, then it is essential that you require practice and possibly even ask certain members to bring home what they learned there and teach it to others in a small classroom or meeting room. This effectively requires them to revisit their teachings and apply them, and it disseminates this important information to others in the company as well.