Why train someone? Why educate yourself? In most cases, the goal of the training is a specific change in behaviour - whether to be more efficient at work, to streamline communication with colleagues, or to be more secure online. The planning of each training session should begin by identifying what you want to achieve. If the focus is on sharing new information, it might not be necessary to create training. A lecture or reading assets will suffice. However, we need to seriously consider the importance of a change in the participants' behaviour.
Once you decide the training, it is worth thinking about what will make it successful. Here are my top 3 tips:
Inclusion, inclusion, inclusion! Not engagement, which is a direct action from one person to another. For example, as a trainer, it is quite challenging to get people involved. It is much more effective to create an environment in which participants choose to get involved.
There are two different words in English - involvement and engagement. The first one is easy to achieve by selecting team members and invite them to join a meeting or a training session. You have created an opportunity to participate. The second is complex. Just as learning is the key instead of teaching, the key to learning, instead of training, is an environment that allows participants to experience, discover, grow, and be involved.
In our teamwork development network, we have started to use the term entertraining. It's a training that creates experiences, analyzes and provides context-relevant input. Beginning as a youth trainer 17 years ago, I believed that this was the norm for training. Unfortunately, the approach to adult education is slowly gaining ground, and too often lectures are being offered under the name of training. Fortunately, there are many inspirational trainers in Estonia. It's becoming more common to create an environment that leads to real personal development.
Knowing your topic and providing quality content can never go wrong. Just as a whiteboard in the classroom does not guarantee the availability of excellent teaching materials, training alone is not enough to create an environment. Good content is still essential. However, when commissioning or planning training, it is worth thinking carefully about the actual learning required to receive the information and on what our behaviour depends. It makes it easier to decide what training to choose to achieve your desired goals!
