As organisations invest in training their team members, one thing comes up, time and again. That the team members don’t want to attend training. Having has many conversations around why this is the case, the most common reasons are that they don’t have the time and that they think it will be boring. I too, have been the person who did not want to attend training, for these very reasons. However, there is a lot that the Trainer can do to combat these objections and add real value.
The first is to be efficient. If something can be covered in one hour instead of three, take the shorter option. The shorter option doesn’t necessarily mean that corners have been cut, it means that the Trainer delivered the message in an efficient way, allowing team members to get back to work.
The second is to make the training dynamic and inclusive. Below I outline the common mistakes that Trainers make, and what they can do differently.
Mistake one: Too many PowerPoint slides. This is commonly referred to as “death by PowerPoint” and there is a reason for that. When it comes to PowerPoint slides, less is more, and there are plenty of other ways to train, that doesn’t rely on PowerPoint alone.
Mistake two: Too many words per PowerPoint slide. I have seen far too many Trainers write their entire course on a PowerPoint presentation and read it to the class. This is problematic for several reasons. The first is that it is incredibly boring for the audience. The second is that the Trainer is reading to people, who can also read, which is incredibly condescending.
Mistake three: Not catering to different learning styles. People tend to learn best in one of four ways – visually, auditorily, through reading and writing, and kinaesthetically – commonly known by the acronym VARK. While Trainers can’t cater to someone’s preferred learning style 100% of time, they can cater to all learning styles, some of the time.
Mistake four: Leaving out fun activities. There is a common misconception that in order for training to be professional and outcome driven, it must be very “corporate”. Remember that your audience spends much of it’s time being professional. A little fun goes a long way to solidifying what they are learning. This allows your audience to put the theory into practise, which is a great way to learn.
Mistake five: Excluding the audience. A great Trainer will tap into the knowledge in the room and allow for questions, comments, feedback, and interaction. If the Trainer is simply talking at the audience, that is not Training.
By tweaking your training programs to stay away from these top five mistakes, you have a much better chance of people being excited to attend your training sessions.
