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The training business is frantic by nature. “Design this course by next month.” “Prep for this new course by next week.” “Deliver the orientation course tomorrow…” Consequently, we often get caught up in deadlines and activities and lose sight of the real goal: results. What results should training focus on? The answer is always the same: improved employee performance. Here are a few ways to stay focused on that goal.
Curate Your Content
Many courses contain unusable content. That’s partly because it’s human nature to over-explain or include too much detail. There’s a saying trainers use in this regard: “Focus on the need-to-know and leave out the nice-to-know.” An easy way to apply this philosophy is to read through the content of a course and continually ask, “Can people use this information to do their jobs better?” If the answer is no, remove it—or at least reduce it.
Manage Your Methods
When people find courses boring, it might be the content. But another frequent culprit is the methods built into the course. If there’s too much lecture, even the most useful content becomes dull. Many courses simply don’t include enough practice time. Every skill being taught should include exercises to help learners build mastery. Shorten your presentation methods and include more practice time. Learners can’t be bored if they’re busy mastering a skill.
Tweak Your Timing
Trainers often design lessons that are too short, too long, or squeezed into “cookie-cutter” timeslots. The key is to remember that higher priority tasks deserve more time within the course than lower priority tasks. Adjust your timing based on the prioritization of tasks.
For each objective, ask yourself how important that skill is. Consider how difficult it is to learn. Assess how frequently it’s done on the job. Evaluate how large that skill gap is for learners. Based on these factors, consciously choose a duration that allows for good efficient presentation and thorough practice of that specific skill.
Adjust Your Answers
Getting off track during training delivery is a common challenge. One of the main reasons is how we answer questions. All the research and preparation that go into a course give us a deep understanding that’s very tempting to share. But that same knowledge can make our answers too long or packed with extra details.
Not only can this cause us to lose valuable time, but it can also make the answer less clear for learners. When answering questions, remember to look at your agenda. Then formulate an answer that relates most closely to the current agenda item. Resist the urge to share more, even if it sounds fascinating. Employees take your courses to learn skills, not to be “fascinated.”
Focus on the Results
By applying a few essential guidelines, you can strengthen the results of your hard work. Every improvement that enhances employee performance can yield a return on investment multiplied by the hundreds of employees who receive training in your organization. That’s a huge win for those departments, as well as the training group.
To put these tips into action, check out our Instructional Design for New Designers and Instructional Design for the Virtual Trainer workshops. Both give practical strategies to streamline and prioritize content, boost learner engagement, and design training that truly improves employee performance.