I’m not a certified trainer. But I know a few amazing ones. And recently, one of them said something on a podcast (in Dutch; timestamp: 4:15) that stuck with me.
What is the goal of your training?
(And perhaps it doesn’t matter much whether we are discussing a physical training or a less active corporate one.)
Is it because the training should solve everything? Just give them theory, not practice, because they don’t need that. Just, you know, tell them some stuff. As if it ever worked like this: that we only need to hear something once, and it all makes sense, and we are forever imprinted with this message that will guide us throughout our lives.
Ahum.
Here’s how Charles-Louis de Maere put it:
(and I have translated this myself, so any misunderstandings are on my side!)
…”To deepen or broaden certain competences, or to ensure that the people have changed versus who they were before the training.”
That’s it, right.
If it’s just to read a few slides and do a few well-contained boxed-in exercises, just give that to your people to read and do on their own and you’re done. But if your goal is to help the people do something better, master something new, understand something different or differently, or have them collaborate with other colleagues they never paired up with before, … then we can start talking. That’s when learning can start to happen, and a training makes sense.
In other words: what is your real intention?
Check off a box, or create change?
Knowing that, and making deliberate choices in line with that intention, is what build the foundation for a training that makes sense to your people and organization.
