As The Saying Goes ...
...If You Don't Like What Your Getting, Checkout What You're Giving!
It's an old training saying, but very relevant today, especially with Live Virtual Training. Here are a few ideas to help make sure you get the most from your learners, regardless of the method of training.
Put the focus upon your learners
- Always emphasise the WIIFM (What's In It For Me) from the learners perspective.
Do this at the start of each new piece of content. If learners can see how the content will help them, then at least you have their attention at the beginning - you then just need to keep grabbing that attention it. - Context before Content
As trainers, we used to say, 'Content is King', I think this now needs to be updated to 'Context before Content'. When we consider eLearning and digital lesson, we really should design it so that it 'drops' our learners directly into a real-life situation they will face as part of their job role. This can certainly be extended to live virtual training and to help create the overall scenario for any face-to-face training eg- as a sales person learning how to conduct a sales meeting, rather than giving theory and models, drop them into a meeting situation and start offering content via feedback. Feedback that offers, 'correct' or 'try again' is not great feedback. Offer why a choice was good and the result of that choice and do the same for incorrect choices. Offer the feedback when learners need it ie after a choice rather than through content overload upfront.- for difficult conversations, regardless of method of transfer, drop learners directly into the situation of having to manage a difficult conversation.- for interpreting financial figures, offer the report and set scene as, 'Your boss has asked you to create a set of recommendations based upon the data in the financial figures. You need to analyse the data and put together a recommendation report and have this ready within the next 2 hours."
Anyway, you get the idea. Place the learning into the real world of your learners. This will help keep your learners attention and interest as they will be able to relate exactly to the scenario that the find themselves in.
Engage your learners every:
Virtual - 4-Mintues (because of the attentional bias and the ease of using Alt Tab and just answering that eMail etc)
Face-to-Face - 7-Minutes (Because we don't want to overflow the brains hippocampus)
But how?
- Encourage
Note Making- Create placemats for learners to complete as they progress through their training.
- Offer a blank A5 notebook and ask them to head each page with each topic and make their notes. Even encourage them to represent ideas with drawings and symbols, maybe mind-map key ideas etc.
- In a virtual setting, ask them to find a piece of paper and then explain how they should divide it up (lines or folds) and head each section with a content piece for notes. - Discussions
- Virtually, offer 2 minutes in a breakout room to discuss what they added to their notes (see a above) and to add any they had forgotten but their partner added.
- eLearning, set the task of explaining the idea/process etc to their boss or co-worker, children
etc prior to moving on.- Face-to-Face, small groups to list the pros and cons of the current content. - Practice
When learners are practicing, there is no need to interrupt them and ask them to do something else for the sake of engagment. They are already engaged. If practice is 70% or more of the training time, you are well on the way to full engagement!
Learners do most of the work
Make sure that your learners are practicing at least 70% of the training time ie learning how to apply knowledge or practicing a physical skill.
- If it's
legislation
type training, then make sure they are practicing applying the legislation
to their own work not just hearing what the legislation requires. - If it's change management, learners should be putting together a step-by-step change plan with all the how-to's within the plan ready to apply to their own change situation.
- If it's about putting together a sales strategy, make sure your learners put together that strategy. Focus on building the strategy rather than talking through the theory.
Teach more by covering less
ie it's better for learners to leave being able to DO 3 things than hearing about 50 and not being able to do any of them. Limit your:
- Virtual training to One objective = One live virtual training or digital lesson or eLearning. If the content is more complex than one objective, create a series of virutal training episodes.
- Face-to-Face to 5 maybe 6 objectives (each taking around 45-minutes) per training day. Top them with a learner centered opening, tail them with a learner centered close, sprinkle in a few learner centered reviews and state changers.
Call to Action
Keep your training VERY learner centered, practical and something they do or will need. After all, it's all about what your learners will be able to do as a result of their training and how it will help them do it. Make sure that you observe your learners applying their learning during their training to ensure that what leaves the training is what the organisation wants learners doing. This means, your learners need to be DOING (applying) at least 70% of the training time whether it's digital lesson, eLearning, live virtual or face-to-fact training.
