In the first place, is the trainee in the right place?

In many cases, the person who makes a decision on whether to send people for training has no clear idea about what the training will impart. The trainees themselves arrive without much idea about the scope of the training. This creates a lot of confusion and frustration for the trainer and the trainees. Imagine a situation where a trainer teaches a class with a complete mismatch in expectations between trainer-trainee..and imagine further how frustrating it would be for the trainer to ask his trainees for feedback at the end of the class.

The trainee and the trainee’s manager (whoever is paying for the training) should be completely clear on what the training will accomplish. Otherwise it is likely that the training will miss the mark..it will not squarely accomplish the objectives. Resources are wasted without achieving real business results.

Establishing a connection with your trainees

A great practice that successful speakers and trainers follow is to establish a connection with their audience early on in their speech. Abraham Lincoln was a master of this practice and succeeded in connecting with even hostile audiences that were fundamentally opposed to his policies. Establishing a rapport with your trainees makes them more receptive to you and hence makes the training more effective.

One might argue that establishing a connection with the trainees is not always possible. But the key is to remember that, unless you are a reclusive cave-dweller, you are connected with others in probably ways more than one. (Even reclusive cave-dwellers are on some social-networking website these days!) It is impossible to not find some common ground or connection.

In a training class that I attended recently, we had to do a role-play activity that taught us how to find common ground with your audience where none seems to exist. I was assigned the character of Winnie the Pooh (a stuffed teddy bear kind of cartoon character) and I had to pretend that I was addressing a group of Manchester United (English football club) fans to reinforce their support for the club. First, I had to convince the Man U fans that I had plenty in common with them or their club. At first this seemed so completely ridiculous that I had to resist the urge to laugh out loud. But when I put my mind to it, I realized to my surprise that there are a few ways in which Winnie the Pooh can connect with Man U fans. For example, Winnie the Pooh often gets into trouble, but always wiggles out because he has a good support system – a bunch of loyal friends. In the same way, Man U can always bounce back from defeat thanks to the unflinching support of the legions of its fans.

The exercise taught me that it is quite possible to identify with your trainees one way or the other, if only you put your mind to it. And it is a worthwhile thing to do, because it makes your audience warm up to you and be more receptive. This ultimately makes training more effective.

Emerging trends in training

The advent of the Internet has accelerated the pace of change in the world. In order to survive and thrive, every industry needs to keep abreast of the changing environment. The training industry is no exception.

This is a wonderful article on trends in training.

http://www.trainersdirect.com/resources/articles/polson/trendsintrng.htm

A few points from this article that I found interesting:

- Four Trends in Training:
1. Globalisation
2. Business Focus
3. eLearning
4. War for Talent

- Seek Treasure in Niches: There are many niches to be successful in. Just because everyone is going one way, it does not mean that everyone is going the same way.

- Play to Your Strengths: We should all stick to what we are good at and what we love because people are swayed by passion. Moreover, you need to satisfy yourself as well as others.

- We do know that there will be an acceleration of change in the way training and learning takes place in the next 10 years. Training professionals need to be aware of these changes if they are to capitalise on them, or avoid become irrelevant because of them. There will always be niches in the market for people who excel in doing things that are not necessarily mainstream.

- Continued success is not guaranteed. Failure is not irreversible.

I have quoted the above from the article/speech by Reg Polson. All credit to him.

Very interesting, informative and inspiring.