Here at Silicon Beach Training we’re immensely proud of the quality of training that we provide – and we love teaching other people how to deliver great training sessions too, via our Train the Trainer course.
Knowing your subject matter is only part of being able to deliver great training. Understanding how adults learn, engaging with them effectively, and planning your training session properly are all essential to ensuring that attendees understand and retain what you teach them.
In this video, filmed on one of our Train the Trainer courses – our trainer Mary guides delegates through the stages of planning and designing an effective training session.
We’ve summarised the video below with some great tips on how to plan your own session.
These are edited highlights of this section of our workshop. We cover a lot more besides on out 2-day train the trainer course here in Brighton, Sussex – so why not come along and hone your training technique?
Train the Trainer: Planning a 10 Minute Training Session – Top Tips
When you plan a training session, its not just about what subjects you’re going to cover when. A well planned training session will provide the following elements for each stage:
Content
Questioning Techniques
Activities
During our Train the Trainer course each delegate is asked to deliver and refine their own short training session. This is broadly broken down as follows:
Thanks Sue, co-author of ‘How to be Assertive in Any Situation,’ for this guest blog post.
How to Give Criticism
Even assertive people find it difficult to receive criticism. If you are the person giving the criticism you need to be aware of this and that the natural reaction of most people being criticised is to be defensive.
However direct, open and specific feedback is the only way to help people to improve. You are not doing them any favours if you don’t point out what they are doing wrong. Just remember that the intention is to get them to change – not to humiliate them.
First choose the right place: criticising someone in front of others only adds to their sense of humiliation.
Next the right time: it’s best to tackle things as soon as possible – if you let them build up it just gets worse – but make sure the time is appropriate (not when you are tired/others are around).
Try to say something good alongside the criticism (PNP sandwich: say something positive: ‘I appreciate the way that you…’, then negative and then end on a positive note: ‘I’m glad that we’ve been able to….’
Remember to criticise the behaviour not the person. So instead of saying that someone is lazy or unreliable say what they have actually done: ‘You’ve been late twice this week.’
Give them chance to respond and repeat what they have said if they are justifying their actions: ‘You’re saying that you weren’t aware that…’ Ask for their suggestions for improvement.
Check that your tone of voice/body language isn’t aggressive and make sure that you have their agreement before you leave the matter.
If the person listens to you, and accepts your point, talk about the positive consequences so that you end on an optimistic note. Decide what you will do if the improvements don’t happen (but you don’t have to tell them).
By Sue Hadfield & Gill Hasson
Sue Hadfield and Gill Hasson have written and published two books together over the past year, you can order their latest book How to be Assertive in Any Situation from Amazon. The book has been chosen as WHSmith Travel Book of the Month for October. This is great news for Sue and Gill as this means it’ll be the front of the stands at Gatwick and Heathrow, quite an achievement, by ordering their book we can help them achieve best seller status. Gill, of Brighton Journalist Works who sponsored our last photo competition, is running a Get Published course on Saturday October 30th, who better to show you the way to publishing success! To apply please email: gill@journalistworks.co.uk
Training a class or course can sometimes be a rather daunting proposition, especially if you are not used to the experience.
Here at Silicon Beach Training we run a regular, hands-on Train the Trainer course which provides the skills required and the opportunity to practice them in a safe environment, receiving feedback from our award-winning trainers and other attendees.
However here are our top 10 tips which should make the experience a lot easier:
1. Organise yourself properly
Take time to prepare your training course. Try and make it a structured, well thought out and interesting lesson. Go further than reading a manual or practicing with the programs and applications. One tactic is to relate the topic to a real life situation or a prior experience as this will help the audience engage.
from Amazon
Training a class or course can sometimes be a rather daunting proposition, especially if you are not used to the experience.
