Training Tuesdays - Delivery: You've Got Two Ears

The third Tuesday of each month is focused on the Art and Skill of Delivering Training.

An article in the 2011 Sept/Oct edition of Training Magazine by the 'Trainer's Trainer' Bob Pike, entitled Listen, Learn, and Then Speak, reminded me of one of the fundamentals of excellent training: Listening.

Traditionally, when people think of Training Delivery, they picture a presentation, delivered at the front of a classroom, before an apathetic audience. In fact, some now apocryphal studies list the fear of public speaking higher than the fear of death! It is no wonder that Trainers of Trainers give so much attention the the Delivery part of Delivering Training.

Embedded into most commercial Trainer courses, there is a lot of emphasis on presentation: Volume, Voice Pitch, Speaking Speed, Power Pauses, etc. Even the non-verbals are well covered by most courses on 'How to Deliver Training': Posture, Hand Movements (AKA Descriptive Gestures), Position, Eye Contact etc. Q&A techniques that keep the participants hopping are drilled in to prospective trainers and facilitators: Bounce Back, Polling, Rewording, Fish-Bowls etc.

The one thing that few of the commercial courses cover, unfortunately, is how to Shut Up and Listen. As an industry, we have become so focused on delivery methodology that we risk neglecting the real world.

Each course is delivered in a unique environment, within the context of the shifting needs of the organization and department sponsoring the training. The needs of the company are evolving, the competitive landscape is shifting and the complement of participants is cycling through. To get the feel for where the course you are about to deliver sits in relation to all of these factors, you really only need to sit and listen.

When you are tasked with a course delivery, ask your training contact what has been going on in their corporate world. Has the company experienced any changes? Is there any portion of the course that is more relevant than before? Anything that needs to be de-emphasized for this round? Once you get a feel for the unique circumstances that surround this delivery, there are yet more subtle nuances to consider.

Each of the participants who will be attending your course comes with their own custom created set of experiences, expectations and exasperation. Understanding who they are and where they are coming from gives you an insight into their 'story.' So ask about them, then listen.

One of the first tools I learned to use as a trainer nearly 20 years ago, and one that I continue to use to this day, is the WIIFM. The What's In It For Me exercise encourages participation, and as a trainer, it gives you a real advantage. This is the first thing I whip out after I briefly introduce myself and a very high overview of the agenda. I usually bridge with "This is what we are planning to look at, but what is really important to me is what each of you are here for. Each of you came here with needs and expectations. In order to meet those needs, I want to know What's In It for You. What can I offer you through this course that is going to make your day to day job easier, more enjoyable or more efficient?" Then I shut up. And I listen.

I also take notes, usually on a flip chart or white board, somewhere public. I list each of the participants' names, and next to it a two to three word summary of their stake in the course. When I summarize, I make sure they agree that I have captured their desired outcome correctly. Where appropriate, I let the participant know when they can expect that topic to be covered over the course of the training. When all of the participants have had their say, we read over it together, and we agree that this is the contract we are establishing for the duration of the training.

The key is to not only make the promise, but to keep it. When a specific section comes up, call on the participant who was invested in the content and let them know their time has come. Let them lead with questions, provide observations, and relate experiences to the rest of the participants.

Finally, when the training is complete, use the WIIFM to guide the review. This is the lock, the promise made/promise kept.

Some will challenge this approach. There isn't time. I have to get through the material. What if they go off the topic I had planned. One of the points I like to emphasize during my 'Train the Trainer' course is actually spelled out in the article mentioned above.

"It isn't about YOU, the trainer!

It is about the participants.

Your job is NOT to present the training materials,

but to ensure that participants learn them."

Courses customized on the fly, participants who feel that the course was directly relevant to their needs, content that has the right emphasis, participants who have bridged their unique skills gap, in short, excellent training, are largely dependent on one key practice. The art and nearly forgotten practice of Listening.

When Training Isn't The Answer to Change

In my inaugural post, I wanted to take a few minutes to discuss the relationship between Change and Training. As the weeks and months progress, I plan to address both subjects separately when appropriate, and still bring them together when the time is right.

As a long time Trainer (20+ Years! Yikes!) one would think that I would have learned all of the ways to craft the training process and product to bridge the gaps between virtually any desired behaviour and the participant's existing skills and knowledge sets. It is true, I can pretty much dance the dance of training delivery to any tune a given corporate piper may play.

However, in the past several years I have made it my personal 'mission', as some might call it, to teach those who purchase and plan training that there are times to train, and times to do something else. I have often framed this concept in terms of the aforementioned 'skills gap.' If the participants aren't currently doing something that they need to be doing, then training may be the correct response.

The key to being able to develop training to bridge a skills gap is the Measurable Objective. If you haven't got one, then what you are doing may or may not be training.

There is a larger picture that training must fit into. While a needs analysis may reveal what the missing skills and knowledge are amongst the intended participants, it does little to address the cause of the gap. Essentially, training without the big picture is treating the symptom without understanding the disease which caused it.

This is where understanding Change Management comes in. While Change Management focuses on the future, preparing for an expected shift in the direction a business has taken, there is some additional value in applying the tools of Change to an existing problem. When a skills gap appears, performance dips, errors increase and the people that you once counted on to perform are no longer reliable, training may very well be the way to bring them back up. A series of needs analysis will go a long way to focusing the training by finding out what specific skills are missing.

What these things won't tell you is why. Why did performance dip? What changed? Using the tools of Change Management, skills gaps, the symptoms, can be traced back to their source. Having identified the source or sources of the change, we gain a far greater understanding of their impacts throughout the organization. We can trace the change of processes, procedures, and corporate attitudes to changes in behaviour further down the line. Then, and only then, can we be confident in selecting training as the proper response to change.