Training
Delivering a training workshop is just another mode of communication. The theories about how to make communication effective apply — maybe even more so — for delivery of training.
There are plenty of ‘train the trainer’ courses out there to provide x-step hints and hacks and advice on how to deliver effective training.
It all comes back to the ability of the trainer to communicate. To provide information in a way that the audience hears it, processes it, and — importantly — can repeat it back. So perhaps that last step is an extension of communication theory, which doesn’t always require the listener to be able to repeat it back.
The other key with training is that the trainees must come away from the session with a change of some sort. They have to have arrived in one state of mind, or with a level of knowledge of “x”, and they must leave the workshop with an ‘improved’ state of mind, and with a level of knowledge of ‘x + 1”.
Five keys to being an effective trainer, based on the hints and tips around being an effective communicator:
1. Audience. Always consider the audience. The only reason you’re delivering the training is because of the attendees. So make them comfortable, help them be ready to learn, and check in with them often.
2. Message. Keep the message simple and clear. Understand it yourself first. Be passionate and knowledgeable about it (even if you many not feel that way).
3. Content. Develop the training material around the message, and provide deep and extensive information. Find ways to say the same thing differently: it’s known that humans need to hear something more than 5 times before it is really taken in. It may feel repetitive to you, but it is not to them. They didn’t hear you the first time anyway.
4. Amplifiers. The message and content are the guts of your training material, but the amplifiers are the sugar on top. Additional and different ways of presenting the information include stories, analogies, videos, activities, demonstrations, pictures, props and / or statistics.
5. Practise. The only way to get better at anything is to do it more than once. Practise the delivery, the transitions, the introductions, the technology.
These keys are all fairly obvious and seem quite simple. The first one is the most important aspect though: think of the audience. On the other hand, this can also be a little intimidating, if they are an audience who will judge you or may make your delivery difficult. So while they are the most important thing, don’t let that overwhelm your preparations and delivery itself. They are also just humans. Use anecdotes and stories that connect with the audience, finding common ground, or lamenting similar stresses. This helps to break down any walls (imagined or real) between instructor and participants.
Effect change in your trainees through these five keys, and your training session will provide that change which has them thinking about how to get more training from you.
