Training - What is it?

The K. J. Ross & Associates Summer School has been a good opportunity to reflect on what makes a good trainer. I developed a peer review form ages ago to record a trainer's performance, yet there are so many qualities essential to training and presentation, I'm starting to find it hard to place adequate measurements in place to determine if a trainer is ready for the big wide world. In other words, "Who am I to say!".

1. Firstly, by being a trainer, you end up, or have to have, such an in depth knowledge of the subject you are teaching to gain the trust and be perceived as being an authentic purveyor of the information. If the class don't believe you then they won't believe what you teach them and you will fail.
2. Secondly, you have to be able to relax. If you look under pressure, then chances are you are stressed, and the class will read this, as a lack of confidence.
3. You. Must. Engage. With. The. Audience. You are on-stage. You are a performer. It doesn't matter if you have the knowledge and expertise if your delivery style is as dry as a Tanquery Gin Martini without a smidge of Noilly Prat.

3 covers so much.

• Gauge the pace of delivery to meet the brain capacities of the audience. Is this startingly new material for them? Don't say that it is, but slow down. Does it appear like they know it? Speed up, but confirm they are keeping pace.
• Vary your voice. Your voice is a very useful tool for getting information over, but use it too often and its like a waterfall to peoples ears; they hear it but it's a constant stream and doesn't have any detail or clear distinction.
• That means vary pace and volume, including talking quietly and loudly, insert pauses and don't be afraid of dead air, so don't add "umm, err".
• Be careful about moving around too much. They are focused on your voice and face. It is helpful to gauge if they are awake when their eyes don't follow you around room, but make sure you are walking to check the attendees alertness, and to move to a closer position to help engage with them subtly.
• Powerpoint. Its incredibly useful yet deadly. Use it to display paraphrased ideas, rather than lengthy details or descriptions. Use it to prompt you, and project key messages, rather than for it to contain more than you are saying. And whatever you do, never ever ever ever read each slide word for word. You will lose the crowd within 5-10 minutes..
• Use of props. This can be both useful and a distraction. I haven't worked out if there is a magic rule for when the former becomes the latter. Certainly, they are a visual cue when doing a call-back to a previous discussion point, and they might inject humour into the introduction of a topic, but I'm sure there are limits.

There are other aspects too. Some people have a natural ability for quick thinking, and I also think it can be developed in some individuals over time. This allows you to adapt to particular situations, perhaps with difficult students or when the exercise doesn't go according to plan. Saying that, all adaptability does is to provide you a back-up plan, when others might have prepared more fully and hence not needed to adapt.

Training has become one of my main areas of focus over the past 4 or 5 years, and yet it still challenges me; there is always a better way to get your message across. Many more people now consider online training a critical path to rolling out training in the future. Having sat CBT courses when I first joined Ericsson 14 or 15 years ago, I know they are far from replacing a classroom and a skilled trainer. Yet if the skilled trainer provides guidance how CBT might provide a bit of variation in the delivery and present the most appropriate information in an online manner, then we might have some success.

One of aspects I see attendees value in attending IRL courses is the ability to have a skilled trainer relate and explain content to an individual, and enthuse that individual with the same passion in the topic as the trainer. CBT has no passion, so what content is best suited for that delivery? Content that might have heated debate with CBT thereby removing the opportunity for contentious discussion, or where content is bland?

I'm going to continue looking at some open source and commercial LMS and see how well they integrate with our CRM, and while there seems to be something fundamental missing when discussing online delivery, I'm hoping a great epiphany will strike me and make me push ahead with CBT.