María Muñoz Roca. Creative Trainer specialized in Communication Skills.
Mentoring. Lecturer. Author
June 18, 2016
You are a marketing director, a finance director, a sales director, a logistics director... Your agenda is full of meetings, tomorrow you are going on a trip and you are preparing the latest report with all the KPIs... Suddenly , the General Director comes into your office and tells you: “Do you dare to train your team? “You are the most suitable person thanks to your extensive experience.”
An exciting challenge
The first time you are asked to take a training course, you don't feel like doing anything. Where do I find the time? Where do I begin? What can I tell you?… Indeed, it is an obligation and an added work to the multiple tasks that you already have pending.
In this article I want to encourage you to “taste” a new way of getting closer to your colleagues and your teams. As an internal trainer, you will be responsible for developing their talent, motivating them, challenging them, making them grow professionally, advising them, negotiating, “selling”, influencing them and helping them discover new paths… Uauhh!! Thrilling!
Exciting and… also challenging. Having knowledge and correctly performing your duties in the company do not guarantee excellent training. A good trainer is, above all, a good communicator. And to communicate well, you have to prepare well.
3 steps to follow
- Identify the needs of the team to be formed.
What are the individual needs of your collaborators? Why are they coming to my course? How can I add value to them? What expectations do you have?
In all my training, I confirm that the needs of the participants always go beyond acquiring knowledge. They need us to motivate them, an “emotional push” to get them out of their “comfort zone.” Through our assertive communication, we must influence them to dare to try new methodologies.
A trainer has multiple roles to perform during the sessions. A trainer is a “motor”, who must spread energy so that his audience advances.
- Prioritize “learning” over “teaching.”
What do we want them to learn?
We want them to know how to apply concepts and act, not just acquire knowledge. The words of our day to day life should be application, development, creativity.
The Taxonomy of Benjamin Bloom, American psychologist and pedagogue, shows us that Knowledge is only the first phase of learning. In his theory, Bloom breaks down Learning into 6 stages:
- Know
- Grasp
- Apply
- Analyze
- Assess
- Create
Covering these 6 stages when you train your teams guarantees success. Your collaborators will be prepared to work effectively. They will even be able to create new work methods based on what they have learned and discover new paths.
How can they learn better?
Interacting is the key. The best resource you have to guarantee the success of your training is the participant themselves. Yes, the student. Make him the protagonist of each topic, convince him to come out on stage and take the reins in different dynamics. The best methodology is “Discovery”. Allow participants to investigate and find the strategy themselves. Of course, you guide them, you provide them with tools and most importantly, you motivate them to accept your challenges.
Let's remember Edgar Dale's Pyramid of Learning, which insists that the best way to learn a new concept is by experiencing it, practicing it. Listening, looking, reading... do not guarantee that this new concept remains in our memory and is remembered, much less that we know how to apply it. If Dr. Dale lived in the 21st century, I am sure he would support digital technologies as a tool to enhance learning. Social networks, videos, mobile phones... are tools that will allow you to be more creative and “make your participants fall in love.”
“At the end of a session with the rest of the company's trainers, new trainers organize a WhatsApp group to stay in touch and unite the group” – recommends Laura Rosillo, expert in gamification and TAC, Learning and Knowledge Technologies.
For my part, I encourage participants to mark the date in their Outlook to submit their Action Plan and create a notice so that the mobile phone reminds us. You can also energize your sessions with the Kahoot application and invite them to respond with their mobile phones to the questions you ask them.
Joanna Smithies in her recently published book “The Games that Teachers Use” combines multiple dynamics to interact with the student with the technologies that are available to everyone. Joanna also encourages us to work on the “Wow Factor” or “Creative Factor”, to involve your students, continually surprise them, encourage participation and exceed their expectations.
- Continuously evaluate the participant
In Spain we are used to being evaluated at the end of training. If you haven't learned, repeat or...
I have recently completed a postgraduate course in Trainer Training in Manchester and I am totally convinced that the English system is more effective because it is focused on the personalized needs of the student.
The really useful evaluation is the 3-Phase Evaluation:
- In the initial phase We must confirm where each student starts from. Of course, this requires work prior to training. As you are going to train your teams and collaborators, you will be able to detect different levels of knowledge and different capabilities. The secret of a good trainer is to maximize each person's abilities, set individual objectives and accompany them to achieve them.
- In the follow-up phase, we propose that the participant self-evaluate himself to be aware of how he is assimilating the contents and practices. Evaluation/feedback from colleagues is also highly recommended.
present in the same course. Having different opinions and different perspectives help us better define our path.
present in the same course. Having different opinions and different perspectives help us better define our path.- The final phase The evaluation is when we assess the fulfillment of the objectives of each participant. Based on the Kirpatrick model, a good trainer will evaluate 4 main levels:
- Degree of satisfaction and fulfillment of expectations
- Learning and internalization of the contents and practices carried out
- Transfer of behavior to the workplace: how the participant is applying what they have learned in their daily life
- Results or real impact of training in the medium term.
What started out as an obligation immediately became a challenge and, in the end, will end up being a vocation. Because training your team is highly rewarding. Enjoy this experience! It will help you grow personally and professionally.
Welcome to the exciting world of training!
