Tag: Train the trainer

  • How to “Pump Up” What Students Remember

    Group of business people hiding their faces behind a question mark sign at officeAs a trainer, have you ever wondered why the information you provide doesn’t always “stick?”

    What do You Know About Memory?

    Take this quiz to find out:

    1. Learners who can perform a new learning task well are likely to retain it. (T/F)
    2. Immediate memory will dump input in 30 seconds or less. (T/F)
    3. Lifting weights improves memory and cognitive function better than aerobic exercise . (T/F)

    How well did you do?

    1. FALSE. Even if a learner performs a new learning task well, chances are high it will not be permanently stored in memory.
    2. TRUE.
    3. FALSE. Although no studies have found a link between weight training and cognitive function, aerobic exercise improves memory and cognitive function of both adults and children.

    How Can I “Pump Up” What My Students Remember?

    Students can only process input intently for about 10 minutes before losing focus. To prevent the material from fading, we must quickly use it in a different way. In training, this could involve applying the information through an activity, like solving a case study, building a model, talking about how they’ll use it on the job, etc.

    In order for information to encoded into the learner’s long-term memory, it must meet two criteria:

    • Does the information make sense? (Does the learner understand it?)
    • Is the information relevant? (Can the learner connect it to past learning and current needs?)

    Think of the training YOU do. How well does it meet these 2 criteria for helping your students to remember?

    Making Better Training

    You can probably guess by now that the odds are stacked against your learners’ remembering everything you teach. Here are 3 helpful, easy techniques to help boost retention:

    1. Use humor.
    Increased oxygen and the positive feelings that result from laughter improve the probability that students will remember what they learned.

    2. Make clear what the students will be able to do as a result of the lesson.
    State the learning outcomes at the beginning of class, and return to them as you move from one chunk of content to the next. Be sure to test throughout to make sure your students are actually getting it.

    3. Provide prompt, specific, and corrective feedback.
    Frequent, brief quizzes will build retention better than one large test.

    Remember: You CAN boost your students’ retention. Just use these simple techniques.

  • Presenters, Don’t Crash the Plane!

    Do your presentations “run out of gas”? Many presenters take their audiences on a wonderful journey. But then, for the lack of a flight plan, they crash.

    Why are Conclusions Important?

    A closure is not just where you stop. A great conclusion reinforces, summarizes, and ties up the session. Take action to prevent YOUR crashing the plane the next time you present!

    Landing Skillfully

    Make sure that your closure is short, that it relates to the body of your speech, and is inspirational. Consider closing after you do a Q-A session, not before.

    3 Guidelines

    • Close just once. Don’t bounce around.
    • Don’t just stop. (“That’s all, folks!”)
    • Give a hint you will conclude (“In conclusion…”) and then DO it.

    Three “Never-Fail” Ways to Conclude a Presentation

    1. Make a Call to Action. Passionately seek commitment to a new course. Examples:

    • “When you do ________and _________, you’ll see a huge improvement.”
    • “Join me! Be a part of the solution. Sign up right now.”

    2. Return to the Opener.
    Example: “Well, what happened to Mr. Albright, who you met at the beginning of my talk? (Tell them.) “… and it’s all because of the services we provided.”

    3. Look to Past and Future.
    Example: “Five years ago, our industry…. Today, things have changed substantially. To meet those changes, we must…” (briefly summarize points.)

    In Conclusion…

    Presenters, don’t crash the plane. Pilot your presentation to a successful conclusion. Your audience will appreciate the flight!

     

  • Can a Room Kill You? Yes!

    How to Ensure Your Physical Space Works For You

    Have you ever felt that something’s just not working right, no matter how well you know your material, how confident you came in, or how much you practiced?

    You may be experiencing an attempted “Death by Room.” This malady has knocked many a trainer and presenter to their knees—and kept them there. The disease is preventable. But to overcome it, you must take these tips to heart.

    3 Tips to Prevent “Death by Room”

    1. Ask yourself: What do I want?

    Do you want a dialogue or a monologue? Many presenters espouse one theory (for example, “participation is good,”) but everything they do communicates a different message (like “sit down, look at me, and shut up!”)

    The seating arrangement provides a strong, non-verbal statement from the minute your participants walk in the door. Make sure your room set-up is congruent with your message.

    TIP:

    If you desire interaction, you must provide a seating arrangement that allows participants to talk easily with one another, as well as with you. This may involve using round tables, a “U” shaped set-up, or rectangle tables pushed together. If you must use a “theater style” set-up, ensure that participants can move their chairs into small working groups of 3-5.

    2. Don’t make assumptions.

    Here are a few common assumptions that kill trainers/presenters:

    • “I sent a diagram—I know the room will be set up just like that.”
    • The space doesn’t matter. Content’s the thing.
    • I don’t need to see the room until it’s time for me to start.

    TIP: When possible, set up the room yourself (with help, if necessary.) View the room the night before. If this isn’t possible, arrive at least one hour early. Remember, the way your space is organized can impact your presentation as much as your content knowledge.

    By eliminating your assumptions, you’ll sleep better the night before an important event.

    3. Rehearse in the room.

    There is no way that a professional actor would work in a space in which he or she had not practiced. Professional trainers and presenters make the room their own by visiting it, testing it, and practicing in it.

    TIP: Deliver the first 3-5 minutes of your presentation. Check the acoustics. Does the room absorb your voice, or can it carry with ease? Walk around the area from which you will present. What parts of the room could be blocked from view? Remember that all participants must be able to see you at all times.

    Can a room kill you as a presenter? YES—but only if you allow it to. You can prevent “Death by Room” by attending to these three easy steps.

  • The Myth of the Facilitator

    imagesHere’s a pet peeve of mine: Adult educators who call themselves “Facilitators”…and then go on to give a traditional, one-sided, PowerPoint-heavy training session. I estimate that 87.5% of trainers who call themselves “facilitators” are lying. Why? Because they model few skills of facilitation.

    Well Then, What is a Facilitator?

    A facilitator is content-neutral. Because of this, the most appropriate role for a facilitator is that of meeting leader. In this role, he or she can extract insights and enable collaboration.

    The trainer is a content expert. The trainer’s role is to elicit behavior change in participants. This behavior change is called learning. A trainer’s role is to ensure that learning of specific content takes place. (That’s why so many trainers just tell, tell, and tell!)

    So What About “Facilitator of Learning”?

    This term is less popular than plain old “facilitator”, but to me, it is the gold standard for which all trainers should strive. A trainer can be considered a “facilitator of learning” only when he or she:

    • shuts up (a lot),
    • asks meaningful, provocative, open-ended questions, remaining aware of group dynamics at all times, and
    • provides many opportunities for participants to figure things out for themselves.

    Put most simply, a facilitator of learning ASKS. Asking creates disequilibrium and curiosity in participants. Disequilibrium requires participants to adapt, to question themselves, and ultimately to change. Learning IS change!

    How to Be a Facilitator of Learning, not Just an Authority Who Spews Content?

    If you strive to see behavior change in your participants and are willing to drop the more comfortable role of constantly “telling”, and  these guidelines will help.

    1. Ask questions.

    Plan and integrate questions that will spur not-so-easy thinking and feeling.

    1. Be provocative.

    Be willing to name dynamics, factions, or hidden assumptions in the group…with the positive intention of causing disequilibrium and curiosity.

    1. Encourage experimentation.

    Balance your “Telling” role with opportunities for participants to explore, create, and make mistakes.

    When trainers facilitate learning instead of staying on the safer shore of “telling”, we often feel more vulnerable and closer in status to our participants. This unpredictability may not feel comfortable. Each of us must decide for ourselves what type of adult educators we want to be…and be honest in what we call ourselves.

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  • How To Build “Home-Grown” Trainers

    Happy top manager standing by the whiteboard and interacting with business partners at seminar

    Have you ever wished you could reduce your organization’s dependence on outside trainers? How about developing your own workshops? Join the ranks of organizations that have benefited from developing their internal resources, saved money, and improved the relevance and quality of their training!

    What’s Not Working

    Over the last few years, I’ve worked with dozens of agencies to develop their own “home grown” trainers and tailor-made curricula. Why? Agencies tell me it begins with dissatisfaction with current options:

    1. Sending employees out to workshops advertised by national companies. Though some of the information is valuable, the workshops are generic. Typically participating are a hundred people or more, from all industries. One or two from your organization that attend may benefit, but the value to the agency may end there.

    2. Bringing in training experts. Though sometimes necessary and very appropriate, bringing in experts can be expensive. These specialists may provide a “one-size-fits-all” training – after all, they just gave this same presentation in Cleveland a week ago. And what happens if you can’t find an expert in your very specific subject area?

    Exploring Options

    The term “training of trainers” (TOT) can mean different things. To some, it means training people the “ins and outs” of a specific program, the ultimate goal being their ability to teach that program. For example, a local health promotion organization trains elementary school teachers to use its packaged curriculum. They assume that teachers will use their already-established training skills with the product. This type of TOT’s focus is on content.

    A more flexible type of TOT focuses on process. It usually includes how to design a lesson based on adult learning principles, how to integrate a variety of participatory exercises, how to enhance presentation skills, develop learning aids and evaluate the learning. The best TOTs include strategies to ensure learning occurs and to identify and analyze training needs from the outset. Using these new strategies, participants often develop and present a lesson based on their area of expertise that they can use immediately.

    Steps To Develop “Home Grown” Trainers

    Once an organization decides to “grow” its own trainers, there are two major investments: a one-time investment in training and an ongoing investment of time.

    • When possible, garner enthusiastic, visible support from the top.
      When leaders overtly support trainer development, all employees get the message that learning is a valued and important element of work.
    • Select people to become “trainers in training.”
      These can be people with training expertise or just a strong interest, as well as subject matter experts who traditionally have “bored the pants off” people while transmitting information. Clarify expectations, time commitments and potential rewards for participating.
    • Provide an expert Training of Trainers.
    • Provide regular Trainer Development Meetings. These meetings usually take place once a month. Trainers meet to discuss what is working well and to debrief issues and challenges. Often a different trainer will model a “chunk” of curriculum or an activity each month.

    Wouldn’t it be great to use the resources you have right at your fingertips to develop or expand your agency’s training potential? “Home gown” trainers benefit personally from enhancing their skills, the agency benefits from increasing its training ability and other employees benefit from increased training opportunities. “Home-grown” trainers play an important role in creating an organizational culture of learning, innovation and self-reliance.

    Guila Muir is the premiere trainer of trainers, facilitators, and presenters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thousands of professionals improve their training, facilitation, and presentation skills. Find out how she can help transform you from a boring expert to a great presenter: www.guilamuir.com

    © Guila Muir.

  • 3 Rules for Excellent Presentations

    I was excited to find John Medina’s great book, Brain Rules, in the San Francisco airport bookstore in 2009. The book is incredibly readable and valuable to trainers and presenters. I was thrilled most of all to see that Medina provides research to support 3 rules I’ve shared in my Train the Trainer classes for years.

    1. Provide the gist, the core concept, first.

    Verbalize and show your session’s purpose within the first few minutes of your presentation or training. Medina claims that you will see a 40% improvement in understanding if you provide general concepts first.

    2. Give an overview of the class at the beginning, and sprinkle liberal repetitions of ‘where we are now’ throughout.

    Provide clear transitions and summaries throughout your session. Clearly and repetitively explain linkages.

    3. Bait the hook.

    Every ten minutes, Medina gives his audiences a break from the firehose of information by sending “emotionally competent stimuli” (yet another word for ‘hook.’) A hook can be a surprising fact, anecdote, or question, and must must trigger an emotion: anxiety, laughter, nostalgia, etc. It must also be relevant. Use hooks at the beginning of each module.

    Research suggests that by using these skills, you will prevent your audiences from “checking out” during your presentation.  Not only that, but these 3 tips will enable  you to enjoy presenting more. Have fun!

    Learn about Training Development. Read more articles about training.

    © Guila Muir.

  • Sharpen Your Training Brain

    by Guila Muir
    info@guilamuir.com

    As a trainer, do you struggle mentally as you develop a new course? Are you ever “stuck” when you try to think of ways to improve your class?

    There is a scientifically sound way to boost your brain power, pick up your energy, and improve your focus as a trainer. Although it’s very complicated and takes years of schooling and practice (Ha!), anyone can do it. The scientific cure to your fuzzy brain is to go outside.

    In a world where many people suffer from Nature Deficit Disorder (go ahead, look it up) the science is clear. Merely seeing nature makes you healthier, even it you view it through a window.1 Getting out into the natural world is even better. Many studies confirm that simply by going outside, you positively impact your blood pressure, cholesterol, stress, and outlook on life.2

    What do these findings have to do with training?

    • Sluggish brains make sluggish training. Wake yourself up by taking a quick walk.
    • You bring an “incomplete self” into training when you feel separate from the natural world. Call it integrity, holism, spirituality or synthesis, you owe it to yourself and to your participants to be your “whole self” when educating others.
    • Walking in nature makes you smarter. An experimental study showed that people who walk in nature perform cognitive tasks 20% better than those who walk in an urban setting.3 Don’t you want to maintain that mental edge in front of your class?

    Get out, walk, and enjoy…your training will improve as a result. You can count on it!

    1. Kaplan, 1992a; Lewis, 1996; Leather et al., 1998

    2. Moore, 1981; Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989; Hartig et al., 1991; Ulrich et al., 1991a; Rohde and Kendle, 1994; Lewis, 1996; Leather et al., 1998

    3. Berman, Jonides, Kaplan, 2008

    Learn about Training Development. Read more articles about training.

    Guila Muir is the premiere trainer of trainers, facilitators, and presenters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thousands of professionals improve their training, facilitation, and presentation skills. Find out how she can help transform you from a boring expert to a great presenter: www.guilamuir.com

    © Guila Muir.

  • 3 Tips to Deal With Audiences from Hell

    by Guila Muir
    info@guilamuir.com

    Resis­tant dynam­ics can be found in any audi­ence. Here are three essen­tial tech­niques to stay sane as a presenter.

    1. Check Your­self.
    Ask your­self: What am I feel­ing about this audi­ence? Why? What’s the worst that could hap­pen?

    Pre­pare your­self emo­tion­ally and phys­i­cally. Make sure you’ve had enough to eat, and drink plenty of water. If you find your­self going “on stage” expect­ing the worst, or not being pre­pared for  many ques­tions and chal­lenges, you set yourself up for failure.

    2. Don’t Let the Hostile Faces Hook You.
    Your goal is to present to the best of your abil­ity, to everyone in the room. Don’t get emotionally connected to the few unhappy audience members.

    Acknowl­edge and respect the dynam­ics in the room. Detach from them. Most likely, these have nothing to do with you.

    3. Present as if Every­one Were Uncom­mit­ted.
    I bor­row from Don Pfarrer’s book, Guerilla Per­sua­sion, for this incred­i­bly help­ful final tip. I’ve used it often, to great success.

    Assume that every audi­ence is comprised of four different groups. Each group is either friendly to your mes­sage, hostile, indif­fer­ent, or sim­ply uncom­mit­ted.

    Here’s the strategy: Focus on the uncom­mit­ted. In this way, you will successfully address everyone in the audience. By focusing on the uncommitted, you will con­struct and present your mes­sage more thoroughly and per­sua­sively.

    All 4 Audi­ence Seg­ments Ben­e­fit When You Focus on the Uncommitted.

    Audi­ence Segment What Do They Want From Listening to You?
    		 Dan­gers of Focus­ing Only on This Segment
    		 How This Seg­ment Ben­e­fits When You Focus on the Uncommitted
    “Friend­lies” Sat­is­fac­tion, affin­ity. Too easy — you may assume too much. Their knowl­edge and com­mit­ment is deepened.
    “Hos­tiles” To see you fail. Increases your own defen­sive­ness. You may come off abra­sively and unlikable. They expe­ri­ence human respect, open­ness and rea­son from you (and are likely to mir­ror the behavior).
    “Indif­fer­ents” To be left alone and unchanged. You may tie your­self up into knots try­ing get a response. They may get the mes­sage, while not being ham­mered by you.
    “Uncom­mit­teds” To expe­ri­ence a rea­soned, well-thought-out, good-natured expo­sure to the issues. NONE! They get the best of YOU: affin­ity and reason. You won’t cut cor­ners by assum­ing sup­port where it might not exist.

    The bot­tom line is: KNOW YOUR STUFF. Be ready for ques­tions and chal­lenges. By check­ing your­self, not getting “hooked” by hostility, and focus­ing on the Uncom­mit­ted, you take great strides towards more resiliency and professionalism as a presenter.

    Read more articles about Presentation Skills. Learn about Guila Muir’s Presentation Skills Workshops.

    Guila Muir is the premiere trainer of trainers, facilitators, and presenters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thousands of professionals improve their training, facilitation, and presentation skills. Find out how she can help transform you from a boring expert to a great presenter: www.guilamuir.com

    © Guila Muir.

  • Avoid Audience Overload: Less is More

    Pic­ture it: You’re a stu­dent in a class­room. The instruc­tor is throw­ing out fact after fact. At first, you lis­ten intently, try­ing to grasp every­thing that’s going on. After about 15 min­utes, your atten­tion drifts.  After try­ing to focus a few more times, you feel so over­whelmed (and pos­si­bly irri­tated and bored) that you just give up.

    Hey-how did you like being on the receiv­ing end?

    Trainers, have some sym­pa­thy. The instruc­tor was just try­ing to “cover the mate­r­ial.” (How many times have YOU used this line?)

    The fact is, more content does not produce more competencies. Information overload can produce confusion, anxiety, and indecision. It does NOT help students transfer learning into the real world.

    Training Rule: “Less is More”

    Identify the most important pieces of content. Spend training time to ensure that participants can process the information and apply it to real-world situations.

    Here is a short list of instruc­tional strate­gies you can use to bring your lesson’s con­tent alive:

    • Dis­cus­sions
    • Sur­veys
    • Con­tests
    • Case stud­ies
    • Drills
    • Reflec­tive writing
    • Mind maps
    • Jig­saws
    • Brain­storm­ing
    • Role-plays
    • Sim­u­la­tions

    The moral is: By trying to “cover all the material,” you do just that—cover up what’s really important.

  • What Separates Great Trainers From the Merely “OK?”

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    Many training participants would respond, “Great trainers make the learning easy and fun.” If probed further, they might mention the use of engaging training activities, or the trainer’s personal style.

    But most won’t be able to identify an important action that differentiates expert trainers. This action is subtle and powerful. It helps lubricate the session and increases learner retention. Though mostly invisible to the untrained eye, it truly separates the “Greats” from the “OK’s.”

    What is this seemingly magic characteristic of great training? It’s (more…)