Train the Trainer Training

Most experienced trainers use some form of participative learning as part of their training events. They realise that learners need to be involved from the word go and that the greater the involvement in the process, the deeper the learning.

Using experiential methods requires confidence, flexibility and experience on the part of the trainer, all taught as part of our Train the Trainer training course.

Experiential learning

“Tell me, and I will forget.
Show me, and I may remember.
Involve me, and I will understand. ” – Confucius, 450 B.C.

This quotation was possibly an early forerunner of experiential learning!

Experiential learning can be viewed as a cycle through whose stages a learner has to pass for learning to be effective. Here is the 5-stage version made popular by Pfeiffer and Jones in 1975:

1. EXPERIENCE – an activity occurs I do something
2. SHARE – reactions and observations are shared – I talk or write about my experience
3. PROCESS – patterns and dynamics are determined – I analyse and reflect on what happened
4. GENERALISE – principles are derived – What does this mean to me in my work?
5. APPLY- plans are made to use learning in new situations – How can I apply this at work?

All the above stages are an essential part of the learning process. Think of the training courses you have been on. Which have been the most useful to you? Probably those in which you had to actively think about how you were going to apply your learning in the workplace after the course had ended.

It is fine to have an active, engaging learning experience, but it is fundamental to find a way of transferring that learning back to work; keep in mind how you will debrief the exercise and how participants will answer the question “How can you apply this in the workplace?”

Choosing a participative exercise

Whatever exercise you choose must be in line with your overall training objectives. Do not just choose something because it is the latest thing or because you think it will fill in an hour of your training event!

Be clear about your objectives for the exercise. What shifts in understanding/perception do you want trainees to make by the end of the exercise and how will you measure what has taken place?

Carefully plan the timing and execution of the exercise, including the debriefing session.

Debriefing

Trainers put a great deal of energy into choosing the right exercise but often forget to allow sufficient time for debriefing. In fact the debrief is the most important part of the exercise because it is here that the trainees can analyse and process the experience and consider how they may apply their learning to their working environment.

Effective debriefing should include an opportunity:

1. For the trainees to relate their own experience of the exercise
2. For the trainer and others to relate their experience as observers
3. For the trainer to elicit and establish the main learning points from the exercise
4. For the trainer to establish the relevance of those lessons to the workplace
5. For the group members to consider practical ideas about incorporating this learning into their working environment

Make sure you allow enough time to sufficiently debrief each exercise. Debriefing is not something to be done only if you have time left over at the end!

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Posted by Heather Buckley in Train the Trainer Training on April 6th, 2007 | No Comments »

WHAT IS FACILITATION?

Facilitation is helping a group to accomplish its goals by a non-intrusive intervention.
Facilitation requires specific skills which when learnt and practised are powerful in assisting groups move forwards.

It is a group experience that involves the facilitator using:

Process skills and Content skills.

PROCESS SKILLS are used by those who have strong knowledge and skills regarding group dynamics and processes
CONTENT SKILLS are used by those who have a strong knowledge and skills about the particular topic or content that the group is addressing in order to reach its goals.

The argument about how much “process versus content” skills are required by facilitators is an on-going argument but generally a facilitator uses more process than content skills as opposed to a chair of a meeting who will generally use more content than process skills. Develop your facilitation skills on our Facilitation Skills course.

WHEN IS IT APPROPRIATE TO USE FACILITATION?

Facilitation can be used in the work place for group decision making, to process a particularly difficult experience encountered by the group, to deal with feelings about a forthcoming change in the organisation; in fact facilitation can be used in many different situations. It is the skill and ability of the facilitator which makes it an effective event. It is certainly a skill essential for any trainer to develop.

Remember: facilitation is very different from chairing meetings or lecturing

Facilitation skills

To facilitate means to make easier and this is what the facilitator’s job is.
Use these key skills to improve your facilitation:

• Actively listen
• Reflect on what you are hearing
• Summarise at the end of each point of discussion and at the end of the session
• Be flexible and responsive
• Sense the mood of the group and work with it
• Challenge underlying tensions or hidden feelings and bring them to the surface
• Model respectful behaviour
• Maintain control and direction
• Pace the discussion
• Be proactive
• Change the level when appropriate eg from thinking to feeling
• Involve all members of the group both outgoing and shy
• Validate what group members say
• Steer the group in a positive way
• Deal constructively with difficult or disruptive group members
• Use questioning and probing techniques effectively
• Foster constructive interactive skills among members of the group

The seven Do’s and Don’ts of facilitation

DO

• Be confident
• Use silence and be comfortable with it
• Ask open questions to ensure participation not closed ones
• Invite participation of the quieter members of the group
• Use your intuition trust your gut feeling to guide you in the direction to take
• Maintain control
• Keep to a structure

DON’T

• Pretend you understand when you don’t
• Dominate
• Give advice
• Use your organisational position to give you power
• Use the group as therapy for your problems
• Be judgemental
• Talk too much

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Posted by Heather Buckley in Train the Trainer Training on April 4th, 2007 | No Comments »

Feedback is a way of helping another person to consider changing his/her behaviour. It is communication to a person (or a group) which gives that person information about how she/he affects others. Feedback helps the individual to keep their performance on target in order to achieve certain standards and goals. It is a developmental process for the individual who wants to learn how well his/her performance matches expectations.

As a trainer you have the responsibility of assisting your trainees in their learning and one important way of assisting them is by giving them constructive feedback. This can be on:

What you see of their performance on the training event
What you observe about their behaviour with others
What they say about themselves and their performance in the workplace

Giving positive feedback is a key skill for any trainer or manager. It is not just giving criticism but an aid to learning and self-development. Without feedback how can anyone grow and change?

Giving feedback is an area covered in depth on our Train the Trainer training course.

Some criteria for useful feedback

1. It should be descriptive rather than evaluative and so reduces the need for the individual to react defensively.

2. It should be specific rather than general. To be told that one is dominating will probably not be as useful as to be told, Just now, when we were deciding the issue, you did not listen to what others said and I felt forced to accept your arguments or face attack from you.

3. It should be directed towards behaviour, which the receiver can do something about. Frustration is only increased when a person is reminded of some shortcoming over which she/he has no control.

4. It should be well timed. In general, feedback is most useful when given at the earliest opportunity depending, of course, on the person’s readiness to hear it and the support available from others.

5. Understanding should be checked to ensure clear communication. One way of doing this is to ask the receiver to try and rephrase the feedback he/she has received to see if it corresponds to what the sender had in mind.

How to give positive feedback

Give your feedback in a straight and adult way- don’t be patronising and overly critical

Be supportive and positive

Start with something the person has done well (there will always be something!) and ask them to analyse how they achieved it -  this way learning takes place through success and not failure

Say specifically what you have observed and what they can improve for next time

Be prepared to accept they may not agree with you feedback is two-way!

REMEMBER! Feedback is vital in the learning process

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Posted by Heather Buckley in Train the Trainer Training on April 4th, 2007 | No Comments »

Learn to understand the importance of Non-Verbal  Communication on our Train the Trainer course.

When we talk we will almost undoubtedly be gesturing as we do so. This seems perfectly natural, and indeed it is, however the significance of these gestures is often vastly underestimated. Recent studies have shown that gestures can often reveal the subtle and unspoken emotions behind what a person is actually saying. From a training point of view proper untilisation of this fact can greatly help a trainer convey their message to their pupils, and help the students gain an easier understanding of that method or subject etc.

However there is also a downside, as improper or “mismatched” gestures will make the learning process difficult for the students, and they will be confused by any obscure or misleading gestures given to them by the teacher. This is perhaps more common than you would have thought as studies have shown that most teachers will use misleading or confusing hand gestures about 20% of the time when they are teaching.

Teachers on average will make some sort of non verbal communication, every ten to twelve seconds, and 50% of these will be gestures that illustrate a concept. So it is easy to see just how vital making proper use of these gestures can be to a teacher, and, on the reverse side, just how confusing and misleading it can be if used incorrectly. It is the recognition and utilisation of this fact that will really allow you to get through to your students.

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Posted by Heather Buckley in Train the Trainer Training on March 23rd, 2009 | No Comments »

There are many ways to teach or train someone or a group of people and many of them can be  learnt on our Train the Trainer training course. One of the methods most commonly used is that of the group or class discussion. This could mean that you set an open forum at the centre of the classroom so that everyone can offer questions and opinions or you could have divided the class into smaller groups so that they can discuss it amongst themselves.

Either way this technique can be very effective at helping to involve people and give others a chance to get involved who otherwise would not have. One of the main theories behind having a class discuss an issue or project is that people will learn more if they are more involved and feel that they have come to the correct conclusion on their own. This not only helps people to understand what you are talking about but also it helps to generate enthusiasm.

However there are some drawbacks. For one it can take a long time to describe what you want to happen and to then set it up, especially if you have chosen to split the class up into smaller groups. The process itself is also time consuming, as it might take a while for people to come to the right conclusions and although this can be sped up by giving them assistance it can still sometimes take a while.

With discussions it can also be difficult to monitor and maintain order, as it is easy for people to get distracted when left to their own devices. So when you do set up a discussion group keep an eye out that they are keeping their eyes on the ball. It is also worth noting that a few people can often dominate the discussion alienating others who might wish to be more involved and causing the debate or discussion to become very one sided. It is your job as the trainer or teacher to try and maintain the balance in a discussion and try to involve as many people as you can.

Discussions can be a powerful tool to train with, however in order for them to be so you must make sure that they are done correctly.

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Posted by Heather Buckley in Train the Trainer Training on May 1st, 2009 | No Comments »

GIVE YOUR DELEGATES TIPS ON HOW TO PREVENT FORGETTING

1. Expect/intend/try to remember. It sounds obvious but the more you imagine or want to remember the less you will forget.
2. Don’t overload the memory, this is important for trainers. Seven items is the most our memories can comfortably handle in one go. Your memory prefers to have only three, four, or five things to remember at one time. Therefore, if you need to remember more than four or five items, you need to break up the group into smaller bites.
3. Understand before you try to remember. So make sure your delegates understand before you move on, ask questions. If you don’t understand something, your memory will have great difficulty storing it.
4. You can’t expect to remember everything you read or hear. Select the most interesting points for yourself by looking for answers to your own questions. You can’t remember everything. If you try, you will probably end up not remembering much at all.
5. Organise the material to be learned in your head. Trainers should follow a logical order. Memory works best when the information is organised.
6. Relate the ideas to what you already know. Trainers should ask delegates questions about the material that will relate to the delegates experience. Your memory will find it easier to store new information if you relate it to old information. Make an association or create a picture in your head to relate unknown ideas to ideas you already have.
7. Use mnemonic devices. Very useful for trainers to offer their students. These memory devices aid memory, but should be simple, clear, vivid. It is easier to remember the unusual, the funny, or both.
   
   Rhymes:
   “I before E, except after C, or when sounded like A, as in neighbor and weigh.”
   Acronyms:
   IRsoul
   I —— Intend to remember
   R —– Relate the information
   S —– Select important ideas
   O —– Organize the details
   U —– Understand the ideas
   L —– Limit the amount
   Sentences:
   “I Remember So Little Unless Organized.”-
   from the first letter of each of the 6 strategies of memory (listed
   previously).
8. Apply what you have learned immediately. Use it or loose it!

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Posted by Heather Buckley in Train the Trainer Training on March 27th, 2009 | No Comments »

“Now, new technologies make it possible to reach learners wherever they are and whenever they find it convenient, instead of bringing inadequately small groups to a central location away from work.” Peter Drucker.

Our Train the Trainer course constantly evolves to reflect the latest training trends.

Being an effective trainer has always meant being flexible and willing to change. Now training professionals are faced with the greatest challenge ever with the increasing use of e-learning methods. There are a variety of different e-methods on offer, for example:

• Online student groups – allowing learners to interact with each other
• Online tutoring – where trainers and learners connect one-to- one, through e-mail and scheduled chats
• Online coaching – that helps in decision-making;
• Online libraries and resource centres up-to-date documents, articles and newspaper clips for reference are available
• Bulletin boards – learners can post topics and comments and ask questions of other learners
• “Webinars” – seminars on the web

The biggest advantages of e-learning are that it is easily and quickly accessible, convenient and relatively cheap. Also the trainee is in charge of the development process. Companies have discovered that e-learning permits them to disseminate change strategies quickly to the whole workforce and can be a useful way of giving a thorough grounding to all staff at once on policies and procedures.

E-learning is here to stay and trainers must keep up with the latest developments so that they can advise on the best use of such methods AS PART of an overall training plan.

But what are the disadvantages of this method of learning?

• It lacks the all-important human interaction element
• Learning can be disparate, with no cohesive plan behind it
• Follow-up is much more difficult
• The quality of the feedback on progress is questionable

Among the learning methods, e-learning has quickly found acceptance, whether it is through an intranet, the Internet, multimedia, interactive TV, or computer-based training. It is clear that e-learning is interactive and different components of a course can be brought together in a form the individual student feels most comfortable with.

Blended learning

Blended learning programmes bring together distant learning methods (by email) and face-to-face workshops. It is an extremely time and cost effective way of learning as participants have an opportunity to prepare for an interactive workshop, experience it and apply their learning back in the workplace with the support of the trainer.

An example of a blended learning programme followed a blended learning process spanning approximately 3 weeks, divided into three main phases:

Pre-workshop phase : duration one week’s work comprising email questionnaires, pre-course reading, pre-course exercises.
Objective: two-fold purpose:

• to assist participants in focusing on the programme and their expectations of it
• to provide a clearer idea to the trainer of what is desired in this topic so that the workshop can be more precisely tailored to the needs of the group.

Face-to-face workshop: duration of 3 days in participative style

Post-workshop phase: duration one week’s follow-up work by email including action plan review, post-course reading etc
Objectives: The importance of this phase is to embed learning in the workplace by finding practical applications for what has been studied. During this phase the trainees deepen their understanding and improve their skills by further reading, immediate application of their action plans and intellectual reflection.

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Posted by Heather Buckley in Train the Trainer Training on April 4th, 2007 | No Comments »

As a trainer in an organisation you have an important part to play in the overall human resource strategy. You have a privileged position in terms of individuals and their learning and development and your role as an agent of empowerment. How can you ensure that your organisation makes the best use of you?

What is a ‘Learning Organisation’?

Many organisations like to think of themselves as learning organisations but what does this actually mean?

A learning organisation is an organisation committed to learning in its widest sense. It does not just mean providing training courses for people in skills development but takes the idea of goal-and-objective setting, the analysis, and the definition of problems and their causes, into an all-out organisational effort, involving people at all levels. This requires careful planning, and consideration of past experiences and the personality of the organisation as a whole.

Our Train the Trainer training course gives you a more in-depth understanding in how to create and maintain a learning organisation.

Ten points to help construct a learning organisation

1. Generic models and systems written by others should be used only as guidelines.
2. Each organisation has its own culture and unique needs.
3. Managers should view themselves as mentors and coaches, and act accordingly.
4. The concept of “work” must be considered as an opportunity offering a “professional challenge” and a “learning experience”.
5. Managers and employees should be encouraged to instigate and take responsibility for their own learning (professional training and self-development).
6. Company training and development activities should not be limited to the actual performance of a task or duty, but leading towards the business, professional and self-development of all employees.
7. Management Trainees and other high flyers must be fully integrated into the organisation – not only do they offer a fresh point of view, but serve as an excellent example to employees and help create the concept of work as a learning experience.
8. Managers and employees should receive ongoing informal feedback, in addition to formal feedback as laid down by company policy.
9. Acknowledgements and rewards should preferably be directed towards groups and teams rather than individuals – individual contributions and accomplishments can be rewarded in a more personal manner, such as a thank-you note, increased responsibility, a promotion or financial reward.
10. The basis for such an organisation is commitment at the highest senior level.

Take a look at these points and decide for yourself if yours is a learning organisation. If it isn’t yet, then ask yourself:

• What works well in the organisation?
• What needs to change?
• How can I assist this change?

The more developed an organisation is in regards to its learning strategy, the more satisfied you will be as a trainer!

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Posted by Heather Buckley in Train the Trainer Training on April 6th, 2007 | No Comments »