From the “Trials and Tribulations of a Langevin Instructor” series:
“The show must go on” is a well-known phrase in show business, meaning that regardless of what happens, the show must still be put on for the waiting patrons.
The phrase was first made famous in the 1950′s by British playwright and actor, Sir Noel Coward. I strongly feel that it’s still applicable today. And not only is it appropriate in show business, as trainers we must often adhere to the very same phase while in the classroom.
I recently had to live by this phrase when a series of unusual events happened while I was conducting a training course this summer. No matter how out-of-the-ordinary the incident, I still had a class of paying participants expecting the show to go on.
I had a feeling I was in for an interesting week, when the night before my class started, I discovered there was an issue with my shipped materials. As I was setting up my training room, I realized I had fewer materials than I did registered participants.
As the instructor, this meant for me a late night trip to the local 24 hour copy/printing store to make photocopies of handouts and various training materials. For other needed materials that could not be photocopied, such as folders and mini DVD discs, I luckily had some extras stored in my home office.
With a little quick thinking and some stock piled extras, the problem was solved. After all, the show must go on!
The course started like any other and my learners were none the wiser to the earlier problem with the shipped materials. About two hours after giving my housekeeping announcement about emergency exits in the case of a fire alarm, what did we have? A fire alarm!
Airing on the side of caution, we all quickly exited the building. Never seeing flames or smelling smoke, I figured it was a false alarm. Still, I had to wait patiently for the “all clear” before directing my participants back into the building. Thirty minutes later we got the message that it was indeed a false alarm.
Thirty minutes may not seem like a long time when you’re watching your favorite television sitcom. However, to lose 30 minutes from a fully packed training day can be close to disastrous. Luckily, I was teaching a multi-day course, so I simply carried some content over into the next day and made adjustments accordingly.
About mid-week, I got perhaps the biggest shock of my training career. While my participants and I were at lunch, some deviant individual(s) entered our training room and stole my company-issued laptop! Yes, my beloved laptop vanished without a trace. Once my initial shock wore off, the feelings of anger and violation set in. If something like this has ever happened to you, I’m sure you can relate to how I felt.
Not only did the incident take a toll on me emotionally, but it took valuable time out of my training day (yet again) to complete incident report forms and make telephone calls to my management and tech support teams.
During the ordeal, one of my participants remarked, “you sure are handling this very well.” Consequently, I also try to live by the phrase “never let ‘em see you sweat.” I’ll be honest though, it took everything in my power to hold it together that day!
Since the show had to go on, it was my responsibility to pull it together and soldier on. I somehow managed to adjust my time even with all the extra writing I now had to do. Not having my computer, I had to scribe on a flipchart the course content that would have been projected courtesy of my laptop and multi-media projector.
Just when I thought nothing else out-of-the-ordinary could possibly happen during this particular class, one of Mother Nature’s representatives paid us a visit. Almost as if on cue, right during the middle of my instruction, a Palmetto Bug, the size of a Chihuahua scurried across the training room floor.
Native to the Southern United States (I train primarily in Atlanta, GA) Palmetto Bugs look like giant cockroaches – with wings! Although harmless, it caused quite a scare to my unsuspecting participants. I’ll spare the gory details, but let’s just say the show did not (italics) go on for the poor Palmetto Bug!
Despite the shipping issues with my materials, a lengthy fire alarm, a stolen laptop, and a gigantic bug, the show did indeed go on. My participants got the skill and knowledge they came for, plus a little extra excitement. I even got some pretty positive remarks on my end-of-class evaluations.
It’s unlikely you’ll find these scenarios addressed in a job description, but as trainers, we train. Oftentimes we train regardless of the unusual circumstances that can, and do, arise from time to time in our classrooms. Because after all, the show must go on!
We’d like to hear some of your unique or out-of-the ordinary situations that have occurred in your training classroom. Feel free to comment.
Langevin Team
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