BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
THE FIVE NOES OF MEMORABLE TRAINING
In the first of two articles on the training we give and get at work - Trainer and Motivational Speaker Frank Newberry considers what we might need to do to pass exams at the end of some training seminars. In Part 2 Frank will look at ways of making the training we give and get more meaningful.
ABSOLUTE JOY
It was an absolute joy recently to receive rave reviews for doing nothing at all, well almost nothing at all. I had won a contract to run a number of workshops that would help my client’s team of approved trainers to increase the levels of student participation in their seminars.
Some of the seminars they had been running were already quite participative with (for example) trainees doing tasks and discussing issues. Unfortunately many other seminars they ran lasted a day or more and were almost entirely based around a series of PowerPoint presentations by the trainer.
FIGHT TO KEEP TRAINEES LISTENING People that run these mainly ‘visual’ seminars have to fight to keep their trainees listening to them all day. It was interesting for me to observe the cunning combination of entertaining mannerisms, trick questions and clear warnings about failure that the instructors were using to hold the trainees attention.
The trainees themselves feared having to go home without the all-important certificate at the end of a long day. A day spent listening and trying to remember everything the trainer had said.
THEY ALL HAD A GREAT DAY SHOWING OFF TO EACH OTHER By contrast on my one day ‘Participation Masterclass’ I was able to get all my delegates - who were experienced trainers - to do almost everything. I just led the discussions and feedback at the end of each session. Result? Happy trainer and happy delegates. They all had a great day showing off to each other and on top of that they all got plenty of peer and expert feedback. As a consequence my learning design got rave reviews.
Things were not always so good. Some years ago I was hired to run a two day leadership seminar for senior supervisors. My two days followed an intense four days of vocational instruction for the delegates. My sessions started on the Thursday after the mid-morning break. Before the break the delegates had all been required to sit a two hour examination testing them on what they had learned in the previous four days.
REDUCED TO THE LEVEL OF GIGGLING CHILDREN
My two days of sessions, which were not being assessed, went down really well. The first session was so successful that I could not help wondering if I knew exactly what it must be like to be a top stand-up comedian. People laughed at almost everything I said and they were enthusiastic about my ideas right until the very end.
During the lunch break I complimented them on being such a good group and asked how well the week had gone for them. The reaction was universal. They were so worried about the Thursday exam that most of them had not slept all week. Some of them had not done exams for over 30 years. By the time they had got to my part of the programme - with the exam out of the way - they were almost hysterical.
The build up of pressure throughout the week, the fear of failure, the sleep deprivation and then the sudden release of tension had reduced them all to the level of giggling children.
ONLY ONE OF THE DELEGATES HAD PASSED THE EXAM
I was notified a little while later that only one of the twelve delegates had passed the exam. The other eleven supervisors were obliged to do the whole week- long course again. On hearing this I approached the organisers and asked if I could move my sessions to the beginning of the week and end them with a short session on recall and study skills.
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www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
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