There are a lot of factors involved in making sure the material is adopted and put in use by participants. Keys to successful training seem to be:
- Relevance: Was the material fundamentally relevant to an issue the participant was experiencing and wanted to improve their results upon?
- Customization: Was the material customized to fit the participant’s own specific issues, or were general issues presented forcing the participant to translate the application of the information to their own situation?
- Attentiveness: Did the participant fully participate – were they attentive? Did they make the investment of time and thought required for success?
- Structure: Was the material structured in such a way that it was easy to follow and understand?
- Delivery: Did the trainer bring enough energy and interest to keep the group engaged?
- Action orientation: Was there a call to action supported both by the trainer and the sponsoring employer that gave the participant a directive which made them use the new skills they acquired?
- Support: Is adequate support being provided post-training to help participants apply the material in their real-world situations?
We only have control over a few of these parameters, but try to balance our approach to all of them to insure training success. Determination of relevance is a conversation that occurs between the trainer and the client early on. All training is customized to fit the industry and situations faced by the participants. This is accomplished by pre-training communications and pre-work. Regarding structure and delivery, Every training we facilitate is unique in some way.
There is always something new to learn and apply. We try to collaborate with our clients to wrap training around a particular event or initiative. We also provide some “action oriented” tasks via our post-training email based support program. Finally, most of our engagements include direct contact to the facilitator via email or phone to insure that adequate support is available to participants as they apply the material in their everyday lives.
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