Newsletter - February 4, 2010

Improve Your Employee Training Sessions

If you dread leading employee training sessions, chances are your trainees share that lack of enthusiasm, making it much harder to transfer knowledge than it needs to be. One way to remedy this common problem is to make sure that the trainer-whether it's you or someone you select-is enthusiastic and knowledgeable.

You want to make sure your team not only look forward to the training but share their experiences after it's completed.

Here are three strategies you can use that can help you create a more engaging training experience in your own shop.

Make a connection early. Make it a point to learn attendees' names and some information about them ahead of the session. Arrive early, greet everyone by name, and establish some familiarity. This shows the attendees that you care about them. This makes for a better chance that they'll care about you and the information you’re imparting. When you start the training open with a question such as: "When is the last time you had a remarkable training experience?" This gets the discussion going and signals that the audience can expect a conversation, not another boring lecture.

Embrace multimedia. Some training experts discourage using PowerPoint. That's nonsense. PowerPoint is the most common tool to transfer knowledge. It must be used in an engaging way. In your PowerPoint deck use few if any bullet points. Try using mostly photos and video clips. Be sure to select videos that resonate with the demographics who make up the majority of the staff and which always relate back to the theme. Remember that "multimedia" means just that - different forms of media. It's not "singularmedia."

Make the experience interactive. Nobody wants to sit through a three-hour lecture. They want to participate in a discussion. You want to provide a lot of content without lecturing. How so? One way is to introduce pop quizzes; you can ask questions about something they had learned and turn to the group for answers. Also, open the stage to encourage attendees to share their experiences.

Role-playing provides another way to make trainings interactive. When people are involved in skill practices like role playing, it's easier for them to apply the lessons in the real world. Let's assume you want to make a person a more competent golfer. You could bring them in to a classroom and lecture to them or have them take a test online. Would that person be a better golfer? Not likely. On the other hand, if you put a club in their hands and provide feedback, there is great potential that the person will improve. Most people agree with this approach to teach golf, but very few apply it to management or staff training. In the case of customer service training, two people could play the roles of an employee and a guest while the trainer plays the role of the instructor, offering feedback.

Creating a staff training workshop that is engaging and valuable need not be difficult. However, it does take work, some creative thinking and, above all, the attitude that you are going to make it fun for yourself and your staff. If it's fun, your staff will retain more information and tell others about the good experience. You can't ask for more.

Set up a Complimentary Assessment with Coach Robert robertpianka@actioncoach.com

Social Media Revolution

Is social media a fad?

Or is it the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution?

This video details out social media facts and figures that are hard to ignore.

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