Improving Training Effectiveness

I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.' - Muhammad Ali

How many times do we get trainees with this frame of mind?

As trainers, we know the answer straightaway – ‘BY A HAIR'S BREADTH.’

 

Thus, the onus to make training interesting, engaging, and valuable lies on trainers; and enjoy the ‘ROCK THE STAGE’ fame thereafter.

Here are few strategies to improve training effectiveness:

 

Set Objectives Clearly: A sub-conscious thinking of covering too much content sometimes snatches the trainer from laying foundation of the entire training session. Or sometimes trainers assume that the professionals are already well aware of the objectives. However, this might not be true for everyone, especially for the professional trainees which is like a day-out from their normal routine.  The onus of explaining the intent of training lies on trainer. The research depicts that even in a 90 minutes session in higher education; around 10 – 15 minutes should be spent discussing the objectives and their relevance. Elucidate the objectives clearly, and use real-life illustrations, stories, or scenarios to emphasize their relevance.

Pre-training lucid communication with training coordinator: Very much under-rated, however pre-training two-way communication with training coordinator is an essential pre-requisite to a successful training. Exchange of explicatory training objectives, PowerPoint presentations, case studies and other training resources provide synergy to training efficiency. This set up the stage for the trainer and streamlines the perceptions of both parties involved in training.

PowerPoint nitty-gritty: Use standard PowerPoint slides, bearing your name, organization, contact details preferably email, and numbered. Do not forget to distribute a copy of your PowerPoint slides and other reference material. This involves extra paper work and contradicts the concept of ‘Go Green’, but research projects that this additional paper work provides opportunity to trainees to highlight, write additional explanations, queries which certainly is very useful when the trainees refer back same concepts again.

Entertainment, entertainment, entertainment: A frustrated trainer sometimes might think that he cannot dance in front of trainees, but reflecting later would make you realize the importance of making your session interesting and engaging. No performer would like to see their audience sleeping; same applies to trainer-trainee relationship. This is one reason why the word ‘pedagogy’ has been a hip and chic of education researchers these days. Incorporate little anecdotes, exercises, and discussions every twenty minutes and give trainees a chance to comprehend information and see the magic.

Adequate Closing: Needless to re-emphasize the importance of 3 basics of writing: Introduction, Content and Conclusion. Human memory is limited, thus a trainer should manage his time to re-visit the concepts and their implications at the end of the session. If the training spreads over several days, adequate opening and closing is important not only on last day, rather every day.  Feedback is also an important tool for a trainer for continuous improvement. Trainers can survive in long-run only if trainees are satisfied. Many serious trainees provide meaningful feedbacks which acts as a mirror to reflect back and improve further sessions.

In conclusion, I would say two things:

1.      Follow adequate format in terms of Introduction, Content, and Conclusion.

2.      Experiment in your training sessions, incorporate little tactics to make it ever more valuable and engaging, and reflect. Repeat what worked and forget what didn’t.

HAPPY TRAINING!