A few months ago, in a moment of madness, I signed up to do a triathlon, which is a little daunting! It means that I have had to add swimming and cycling to my repertoire of regular exercise.
For me, the cycling has been the most challenging and frightening element. As I’ve increased the mileage, the roads I cycle on have become faster and busier. Navigating these roads on two wheels, instead of in the safety of my car, has completely changed how I see them; especially when there are lorries rattling past or a junction that involves turning right…
The road may be the same, but I’m using different skills; there’s different information to process and different hazards to anticipate and avoid.
It's a bit like the importance of remembering that trainers, managers and learners can also have very different perspectives when it comes to the challenges that need to be addressed in the workplace and the learning that’s required. They may, after all, see the situation from very different viewpoints.
So, before we rush in to design a training course based on our perception of what the problem is, or based on what a manager has told us their staff need, it’s important to try and build an understanding of the learners’ perspectives too. This will give you: - A clearer understanding of the concerns of the people we will be training.
- Insights we hadn’t considered.
- Real stories that can inspire learning opportunities.
- An awareness of the most important issues we need to discuss in the training room.
Armed with multiple viewpoints, you’ll be in a better position to design training that learners engage with and improve from.
If you’re looking for an exercise that illustrates the need to consider what the learner’s needs are, either as part of a train the trainer programme, or at the start of any training when you want to encourage learners to share their objectives, try Sweet Talking. It was created with negotiation skills in mind, but it’s also a brilliant way to highlight and remind participants of the importance of asking learners what they need from the day, rather than delivering what you think they need.
By the way, the fact that this exercise was originally designed for negotiation skills training, shows how adaptable experiential learning activities can be. Remember, we’re here to help you find unexpected solutions to your learning objectives: Just click on Mentor and pop your learning objectives in and we’ll get back to you a host of great solutions!
So, next time you are asked to create a training programme, find a way (preferably face-to-face) to speak with the people you will be training in advance, and ask them:
“What is the most important thing you want from this training?”
And then, find a way to make it happen! |