Effective Training is like an Effective Meeting

We've all read articles or listened to experts discuss how to have effective meetings…and as trainers, many of us have been inundated with materials on facilitating effective training sessions. There are many parallels that can be drawn between tips for effective meeting management and tips for effective training delivery.

I came across an About.com 3-part article titled Effective Meetings Produce Results: Tips for Meeting Management and it made me aware that these same tips and guidelines apply to the delivery of effective training – no matter what the content. I have pulled the main tips from the first part of the article and discuss how they apply to training.

TIPS:

1. Plan
   
2. Make sure there is a NEED
   
3. Ensure appropriate participation
   
4. Distribute (prior to) and Review (after)
   

Plan

For some trainers, their job is information centric, meaning they lecture and provide information and then test the knowledge of the material presented. Other trainers prefer courses that are learner centric – everything they do in the session is designed to allow the learner to get the most practical application of the lessons or skills being delivered – which they may not get by reading, digesting and regurgitating loads of material.

Whether learner centric or information centric sessions are your speciality it is important to PLAN. Planning provides the trainer with a guide for topics, material, examples and exercises that may be included in the session to help assist the learners in understanding concepts.

Notice I said "Guide"? Just like a good meeting, a guide (agenda) allows you to stay on track but still allow a bit of flexibility to include attendee's comments, concerns, discussion and ideas outside of the major focus (utilizing our classroom management tools to keep as much control as possible).

Need

Most trainers understand that if there is no need, there is no training session. Effective meetings are held only when there is a requirement to do so…if there is no new information to share with a group, why take time out of each person's day to meet? Prior to any meetings there should be a needs assessment done – can the information be shared via memo or email or is there really a need to meet?

Trainers know that a needs analysis is a crucial component to any successful training session. If there is no need for the education, there is no need for a training session. Defining the need also helps determine the direction the session will take and will thereby directly impact the PLAN.

Appropriate Participation

There is nothing worse than attending a meeting that has nothing to do with you, your job, your department, your clients etc. I have gotten into the habit of clarifying with meeting callers to determine if, in fact I am truly required at the meeting, what is the impact if I am not at the meeting, is my input required etc.

I would not, for instance, expect to be called into a sales manager's meeting unless there is a need for training advice or discussion on sales training. If I am expected to participate in a meeting but have only one or two things to discuss, I try to request that any portion of the meeting pertaining to me, training or my department, be scheduled at the beginning of the agenda so that I can get on with other things.

How do trainers ensure appropriate participation? By reviewing the Needs Analysis and performing Skills Assessments. Do we want an Excel expert to participate in a basic Excel class unless we want them to be bored and leave the session telling everyone else what a waste of time it was?

By ensuring the proper team members participate in appropriate sessions, we are better able to guide the success of our learners. Yes, a skills assessment takes time, your time as the trainer and the valuable time of the staff members, but failure to ensure the correct audience is in the correct session will result in a much lower ROTI (return on training investment) and we don't want that now do we?

Distribute and Review

It's a great idea for meeting facilitators to send out the agenda in advance of the meeting. It shows the following:

1. Planning
   
2. Need for meeting
   
3. Appropriate people involved
   

Notice those are the first three items on our list?

Once a needs assessment is completed, a course outline (agenda) will be created to assist with the planning phase of the training session. With this course outline distributed in advance, we can ensure that expectations for the session are clearly defined and provide us with a measure for the success of our training session. This is also a great opportunity to get the participants actively involved in learning prior to the session. If you assign case studies that must be read prior to the session, distributing the study with the course outline helps the trainer be more effective because there is now only a need to quickly review the case study prior to inviting discussion.

The same applies in a meeting. I prefer to have all the information to read prior to the meeting so that I can formulate my questions and facilitate a more efficient meeting by addressing those questions/concerns if I have all the information before. This also results in fewer meetings. Why you ask? Well – let's say we have a meeting to discuss something new. At the meeting we are given 25 pages of documentation on a new tool. It wouldn't be a good use of the meeting time to read through the materials and try to come up with questions so we'd end up having another meeting to discuss our questions/concerns/comments after we have had a chance to review. Doesn't it make sense to provide the information first and have only ONE meeting to discuss the content? Sure it does…unless of course you like attending meetings.

Meeting Minutes as take-a-ways or course handouts like manuals, cheat sheets, tips and tricks are excellent reminders of what was covered in the training session and are fantastic tools for post session/meeting refreshers.

I have, for quite some time, thought of my training sessions as meetings to ensure I run my training as efficiently as possible while still keeping the end goal of student success in mind. I plan for each and every training session no matter how many times I have instructed that session. I ensure there is a need and assess the people who will be attending. Finally, I follow up with post lesson materials, reviews and testing so that I am better able to assess the success of the training session.

It is my belief that my success as a trainer is attributed to using the above skills to effectively manage my "meetings".