Are your slides controlling you ?

Recently I attended a training session conducted by a person whom I respect for his subject matter knowledge and passion. As he was conducting the session, he made a very profound remark. He said, “I personally prefer conducting these sessions without slides because I get a feeling I am being controlled by them”. This struck me as completely true!

In many (if not most) presentations, the speaker often identifies his/her entire talk with the slides. Slides are prepared first without any thought about the logical flow of the message, and then the speaker talks around the slides. This is putting the cart before the horse. I personally prefer to write down the key points of my content in a logical flow and then prepare slides if needed.

Some people use slides to just show the key points (as a memory aid). Although this is relatively harmless, it can distract people including the speaker! A better way would be for the speaker to carry a small card in his/her palm or leave it on a table in front and look at it occasionally. This will make sure that the speaker retains the entire attention of the audience and not the slides.  If you have too many keypoints in your talk to fit into a small card or a sheet of paper, then you should seriously re-think your content. Are you trying to dump too much on your audience ?

Do you really believe in what you are training others on?

A person who completely believes in what he is presenting will make an impactful presentation, notwithstanding his deficiencies in articulation, style etc.

And conversely, a person who does not truly have passion and belief for what he/she teaches, cannot make an impactful presentation – even with the finest presentation skills and slides. Even if the trainees feel good about such a presentation for some time, the impact will be lost on them in a short while.

The effect is not just on the trainees. The belief that a trainer/speaker has on his subject also affects how he/she feels about the training. In fact, trying to train others on something you don’t really believe in, is a soul destroying experience. If you don’t believe in it, then you should either not train others or you should cultivate belief in the subject by realigning your mind (changing your perspectives and paradigms by conscious effort).  Teaching others a subject that you really believe in, is a very positive and enriching experience that adds to your self-esteem. In fact, personally, I think this is what keeps some teachers going and going in spite of having to teach the same subject matter over and over.

One of the most effective speeches ever made was Abraham Lincoln’s address at Gettysburg. Lincoln spoke just nine sentences. At the same event, another famous speaker Edward Everett, delivered a speech for over an hour. No one even remembers what he said, or if he even spoke at that event, but Lincoln’s nine sentences became immortal. The reason is probably because Lincoln's words came straight from the heart.

Also, if a person truly believes in the content, he/she does not have to spend too much time preparing. 

The trainer who knows too much – and wants to tell it all

When I was in college, I enrolled in a course on Linear Algebra. I did not expect this course to be particularly challenging – in fact that was one of the reasons I registered for that course. In the first class, the professor introduced the subject briefly and plunged into the content straightaway. As time passed, he started overwhelming the class with a barrage of information. Obviously, he knew a LOT about the subject and was sincere in his intention to pass on much of that knowledge to the class. The subject matter was delivered thick and fast, and the class had little time to even make occasional notes, leave alone understand the material. And the professor made absolutely no effort to engage the audience – he couldn’t have cared less if we existed or not. He knew the subject, he would talk about it in detail, and that was it. It was not his concern if the class understood or was even interested.

By the end of that first class, I was more than a little worried. If the very first class was so unfriendly and overwhelming, how would the rest of the classes be? And I shuddered to even think of the exams. I talked to a few other students from the class, and was relieved to hear that they were even more worried than I was! Thankfully, it was not just me. Most of us decided to drop out of the course while we could still do so.

Later, I talked to a few of my senior students who had been through the same course under the same professor. They told me of similar feelings on the first day of class, but assured me that the exams would be very easy. They suggested I wear a pair of earphones and listen to music to pass time in the class, and just practice the questions from the printed notes and I would get through the course with no trouble. They assured me that the professor was in reality a kind man, although a rambling sort of gentleman. The problem with him was that he was over-enthusiastic about delivering as much content as possible. I trusted them and got through the course. Years later, after I became a trainer myself, the memories of that course re-surfaced in my mind. I would never become an instructor like that professor, I promised myself. I hope I have kept up this promise ;-)

Does training create permanent change ? Part 2

[Click on picture to enlarge]

Periodic reinforcement/repetition after training greatly helps retention. This is a very effective way of making training stick i.e. create a permanent impression on the trainees. The above graph shows my attempt at capturing the effect of periodic reinforcement (post-training).

Without periodic reinforcement, the knowledge/skill level attained through training starts dropping off due to the effect of time. With periodic repetition/application, it is possible to keep the average skill level from decaying. After some time, when the learning has been imbibed fully and becomes second nature, the reinforcement may be discontinued.

Does training create permanent change?

[Click on above picture to enlarge]

I believe that training is a waste of time if it does not create some permanent change in the trainee. The sad truth is that, a lot of the training courses do not achieve this. Usually, some impression of the learning remains in the trainee’s mind for a while after the course, and then it fades away. [That is, the change in the trainee’s mind is only temporary]. 

I like to use an analogy from materials science to illustrate the concept of temporary change and permanent change.

If a steel rod is bent slightly and then let go, it will regain its original orientation completely. This kind of deformation is called elastic deformation. However, if the same steel rod is bent to a very large extent, then it will not fully regain its original shape even after it is let go. This type of deformation is called plastic deformation.

In the same way, if the training session is moderately effective, it will probably create some temporary change in the trainee’s mind. The change is likely to undo itself as time passes. However, if the training session is rigourous and impactful enough, the trainee will walk away a changed person. Even the passage of time cannot take away the effect of the change. It is as though the trainee’s mental computer chip has been reprogrammed. A training session that brings about this kind of permanent change is truly effective.

Great leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King and Gandhi had the ability to create permanent change in the minds and lives of people in the course of a single speech. They achieved this kind of change by the force of their personality and the strength of their conviction. It is not reasonable to expect every trainer to be as effective as these leaders. However, all trainers can adopt a few strategies to make the training “stick” – i.e. create permanent change.

My personal strategies to make training stick (i.e capable of creating permanent change):

          - Don’t overload trainees with information. Identify a few key learning points and repeat them over and over, instead of dumping a lot of information. It is better to have a few learning points firmly entrenched in the minds of the trainees rather than providing a lot of learning points with none of them being remembered.

          - Create a very conducive learning environment in the training session and eliminate distractions.

          - Identify if the training is really needed for the trainees. Will they be sufficiently motivated to learn ? Will it make their life better ? Or their jobs easier ? If not, the training session is better avoided. Training that does not cause permanent change is a major waste of resources.

          -  Try to follow up with the trainees a few times after the training session to reinforce the learning. Provide trainees opportunities to apply the learning.

The Trainer as a Leader

[Image from : http://imo.thejakartapost.com/suzieicus/files/2012/05/leadership.jpg]

In order to be a successful trainer, leadership qualities are essential. The trainer needs to direct the learning experience of the trainees to achieve the desired learning outcomes, without letting the class slip into chaos. Also, the trainer needs to infuse energy into the class so as to create a learning transformation. Learning is a change process. Any change requires energy. In training, this energy (almost always) comes from the trainer. Thus a trainer has to provide energy and direction. This is exactly what a leader must do in order to get his team achieve the required goals.

In addition to providing energy and direction, a common requirement for both teachers and leaders is strong communication skills. Just as a trainer must know how to deliver his/her subject matter in a manner that is clear to the audience, a leader should be capable of articulating his/her vision and delivering the message.

So it is not surprising that several famous leaders and celebrities were teachers. The former President of the USA, Lyndon Johnson was a teacher, as was Benito Mussolini – former Italian dictator (bad example probably, but you get the idea!). And it is also unsurprising that many great leaders chose to spend their post-leadership years in teaching.

A couple of interesting articles in this line of thought:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/201006/are-teachers-really-leaders-in-disguise

http://www.leadquietly.com/2011/02/act-like-teacher-lead-to-objective.html

Handling difficult trainees: The latecomer

On the first day of my first job, I reported promptly to work and was greeted by a HR representative. She gave me a bunch of forms and applications to fill up. Once I was done, she took me on a tour of the office and introduced me to personnel from various teams like finance, IT, facilities etc. All this took about two hours and finally I was taken to my cubicle. I learnt that my manager was not in town, so I asked the HR representative what to do for the rest of the day. She said there was an in-house training class going on and suggested I spend the rest of the day attending it.

So I grabbed a notebook and pen and went to the designated room. I opened the door and stepped in hesitantly. The trainer gave me a quizzical look and asked how he might help me. I introduced myself as a new hire and told him that I was going to attend the training for the rest of the day. Politely but firmly, the trainer told me that the course had started full steam, and I would not be able to get anything out of it by joining in the middle. If anything, I would be a little confused and overwhelmed. As if to soften the hurt, the trainer added diplomatically that I was welcome to join the next course to be offered a month later. I returned to my cube, rather irritated. Years passed, and I became a trainer myself. I could now empathise with trainers who have to put up with latecomers.

Latecomers pose several problems to a training class including the following:

• Disrupting the flow of the trainer’s delivery by stepping into the classroom. In some training rooms the entrance is conveniently located such that a trainee can slip in/out discreetly. However, even in such cases, the trainer’s attention is diverted.

• Coming late can be interpreted as a sign that the trainee does not take the training class seriously. This can irritate the trainer.

• In some training sessions, the content may be such that each succeeding part of the content builds on the earlier part(s). So the latecomer could be completely lost in understanding the content. If the latecomer asks a lot of questions to catch up, it might distract/delay the rest of the trainees.

• The trainer may have to spend some time to settle the latecomer into the class – like handing out manuals, stationery, etc. and this can result in a waste of time for the others.

My thoughts on handling latecomers:

• I try to set apart the first 30 minutes of class for an activity like knowledge review, quizzes, introduction etc. This acts a buffer to accommodate latecomers. 

• As far as possible, try to make the content modular –with each module being self-contained. This way, a trainee who misses one or more modules can still get something from the sessions that he/she attends. Having said that, however, I need to concede that not all training sessions can be designed this way.

• If you feel that a latecomer is so late that he/she is not going to get anything by attending only a part of the training, don’t hesitate to point this out to the latecomer. Tell him/her that attending the rest of the sessions might simply be a waste of time for everyone.

• If a trainee is so late that his/her learning is seriously compromised, and if the latecomer insists on sitting through the rest of the training, keep a note of the latecomer’s name and the time of entry. Make sure it is on record. Notify the latecomer’s manager by email if needed. This way, the trainer is covered in case the latecomer makes any complaints about the effectiveness of training.

• Sometimes, there could be a case of a sincere trainee showing late for genuine reasons. In such cases, try to help the trainee as far as possible without wasting the time of the rest of the class.

In summary, trainees could be late for a variety of reasons – personal and professional. Trainers should orient themselves mentally to accept this as part of their work and not take it as a personal affront. Getting irritated by latecomers does not help anyone. Latecomers have to be managed professionally.