The METALOG Story
By Tobias Voss
How it all began
In 1995 my wife Daniela and I founded the METALOG Institute for the Communicative Arts. Over the following years, we developed training concepts focused on customer orientation, communication, team building and leadership. At the time, the majority of our customers came from the automotive and airline sectors. We started to integrate more interactive learning into our work in the form of “interactive games.” We soon discovered that these “games” sparked learning experiences in our participants that we would never have achieved so efficiently through classic training scenarios.
The genesis of METALOG training tools
I can still picture myself in 2002 with my stepfather, Erwin, standing in the cellar of our row house in a suburb of Munich building the first tools. There they were in the flesh: the “exercises” that I had previously developed with Daniela for two large corporate groups and that I integrated into the training concepts I developed for my customers! The tools were able to conquer the market so quickly thanks to Erwin’s hands-on, pragmatic approach to projects, which gave the tools the aesthetic and technical level that they have today. Of course, we didn’t know at the time that they were really just the first prototypes of the tools that are in existence today. We also had no idea that they would have such far-reaching consequences for people working in learning & development. The new “exercises” triggered a sea change in the attitudes of the learners who took part in our workshops and seminars. They started to become more discerning and began to demand not only precise, usable learning content but, above all, a lively, collaborative and authentic learning experience. At the same time, they became less and less tolerant of sleep-inducing, projector-based presentations in training workshops.
Professionalization
In 2008, Erwin, Daniel and I founded METALOG© training tools OHG. Daniel, who had gained our trust as a work experience trainee laboring away in the cellar with Erwin, wanted to help to get the company on a more stable footing. Together, we continued to expand the company and developed it into an important source of ideas and impulses for many trainers. At the same time, school development experts and social workers from a range of federal states discovered the tools and began to use them in schools and teacher training programs. Today, collaborative and interactive learning has become standard in many areas and has become firmly anchored in the L&D departments of large corporations.
The METALOG Method and EOL
The publication of the book “The METALOG Method – how to get the most out of your training tools” in 2010 meant that, for the first time, all of the experiences and concepts that I had collected over the previous 15 years as a trainer, coach and organizational development specialist could be read in one book. The support of mentors such as Gunther Schmidt, Christina Hall and Franz Stowasser motivated me to develop my own individual approach to leadership, team and organizational development. I fused solution-focused and systemic concepts with experiential learning methods, resulting in the emergence of “EOL – Experience-Oriented Learning methods," or “EOL - Experience-Oriented Learning.”
METALOG academy – The Trainer Maker
Between 2011 and 2016, the METALOG academy specialized in providing both L & D programs for trainers and tailored pedagogical concepts for continuing education establishments. In 2015, a new trophy took pride of place in our display cabinet when the academy was awarded silver in the International German Training Grand Prix. The jurors were convinced of the quality of our long-running, innovative program to develop the teaching and learning culture of the German Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration. At the beginning of 2017, we started organizing trainer programs from our new, larger premises at our base in Olching, where we now deliver all METALOG-related products and services under one roof.
Internationalization
As our tools and methods were increasingly popular with our international colleagues, in 2011, Erwin, Rita, Daniela and I founded METALOG GmbH & Co. KG, the current home for our subsidiaries in the UK, Italy, and Turkey. We are expanding our international sales with great enthusiasm.
Today
Today, our METALOG training tools enjoy broad popularity. Our customer groups include trainers, coaches, facilitators, professors, teachers, school social workers, supervisors, family therapists, counsellors, and youth leaders. In the meantime, the range of topics covered by METALOG training tools is impressive: in addition to the classic areas of sales, communication, leadership, team building, conflict resolution and personal development, there are also more areas of application involving teaching learning content. For example, teachers in vocational colleges use METALOG training tools in their scheduled lessons for specific topics.
Social Responsibility
Throughout all of the growth that we have achieved since 1995, staying true to our roots has always been important to us. Our tools are produced in Germany with a number of workshops for people with disabilities in Bavaria making our products by hand. And long may it remain so.
Our Team for You
At the company’s head office in Olching near Munich, Daniela and I enjoy the support of a team of consultants that has grown with us over the years. Tamara Krauss, Nino Rohn, Christiane Nal, Alessandra Alizzi, Marie Scheidecker und Bastian Karrasch keep an open ear to all manner of questions and issues, always ready to provide a solution-focused answer.
I wish you lots of fun browsing and discovering our website and our store.
Yours, Tobias Voss
