The big things that make training effective are pretty well understood—identifying a true need for training, knowing what content needs to be brought into the training, a step-by-step “how-to” approach in analyzing the content, interactive techniques to deliver the content, plenty of practice, and management support at all levels. How about the “little things” that can make training more effective?
Here are 7 techniques that don’t add significant cost or effort to training but will give you and your organization a greater return on investment:
- Objective statements. The person who designed your training probably designed a clear objective statement. If it was a performance-oriented objective, it reflected what was to be done with the content back in the workplace. Briefly cover all objectives in your course introduction. Restate the objective when you are ready to cover that section. Visually display the objective throughout the training. This will give your participants a sense of direction.
- Benefit statements. These are also probably designed into your training. As you cover each objective, make sure the benefit of the content is crystal clear to your participants. If they see the benefit, you’ll have willing and motivated learners.
- Action Planning. Give learners some time to consider how the content can best fit into their work environment. It only takes a couple of minutes to take notes on how the content applies to them – maybe once in the morning and once at the end of the day. This allows them to identify how your content best fits their workplace.
- Questioning. Frequent use of well thought out questions shows participant understanding and keeps them engaged.
- Reflection time. It’s not just your computer that has a processor; people need “processing time,” too. If you’re a subject-matter expert, or if you’ve taught a class a number of times, you get it. Your participants may take a bit of time to stay with you. The action planning and questioning techniques give them some processing time, but so can other techniques such as deliberate pauses or silence while scribing or initially displaying visuals.
- Breaks. “The mind cannot absorb what the seat cannot endure.” Frequent breaks, like once an hour, are important from the physical as well as the mental standpoints. Long sessions may result in the participants concentrating more on when the next bathroom break will occur than on the content.
- Success. This may well be part of the design, but as a trainer you’ve got to make sure that the learner is successful in using the content in training. If they are confused in the classroom, there is little likelihood that they will attempt to use the skills and knowledge you’ve introduced back in the workplace. Using peer coaching or feedback are instructionally effective techniques for involving the participants and absorbing the content.
These “7 little things” are not a substitute for needed, well designed, and well delivered training, but they are a great way to add value to your training for little cost or effort.
Paul
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