Friends Don't Let Friends Deliver Bad Trainings, Pt. 2

Last week, I gave you three things not to do and what to do instead when delivering trainings. If you missed it, you can check it out here.

I'm back with three more practices to support you with facilitating the best trainings ever. Let's keep the party going.

DO NOT reference content or a resource in a way that inadvertently suggests everyone should know what you’re talking about when you don’t know for a fact that everyone is picking up what you’re putting down.

INSTEAD, make the reference in a way that doesn’t have anyone feeling ill-prepared or out of the loop.

A trainer may say any one of these, then just keep going with the presentation:

“You’ve seen these videos …”

“There are examples of X at this site …”

“You all are familiar with Y …”

Don’t say any of these and have people wondering if they missed something or have them thinking they failed to adequately prepare.? People will either get annoyed or become concerned, and either way, it creates two camps of not-so-satisfied customers.

The neophyte in the audience will think …

“What videos?? Was I supposed to watch them beforehand?!”

“Examples?!? Do I need to understand them in order to make sense of the training?”

“What tha—!? I’m not familiar with that!? I’ll have to wing it and feign familiarity for now but note to self: ?Go check that out as soon as we’re done ... unless I can sneak and Google it now …”

And the seasoned trainee will think …

“Whatever.? I don’t know what you’re talking about, and quite frankly, I don’t care.? If it was all that important, then you should have said something before now.”

Reference sources or content while clarifying how it fits with the training and without assuming everyone knows what you’re talking about, especially if you have people new to the organization or the industry in the audience.? And regardless of who’s present, it’s simply good form and an expert facilitation practice to make no assumptions and to plan for every moment of your presentation as well as how the audience will respond.? Hint:? You always want them to feel at ease.

So, “You’ve seen these videos …” becomes “These videos illustrate X.? It’s not absolutely necessary for you to have watched them before today’s training.? I will show a clip of one so you can get an idea of what they’re about and provide you with the link so you can watch the others at your leisure.”

And “There are examples of X at this site …” turns into “There are examples of X at this site.? Let’s examine one or two then discuss your take-aways.”

Then, “You all are familiar with Y …” is revised to “Y is [explain it].? It is important to today’s training because …” or “Y is [explain it].? For the sake of today’s training, we only need the definition.? After the training, feel free to visit Z to learn more.”

This is similar to the point made in last week’s article wherein I encourage you not to ?gloss over important details or just go through the motions without purpose or intent.? Remember the stuffed animal Show-and-Tell reference?? No?? Check it out here.

When you reference external content without providing a proper introduction, connection, or clarification—content that you decide to just float out there—then you run the risk of sidebar conversations cropping up, people privately searching for what they think they missed and subsequently missing what you have to say, difficult audience members speaking up to let you know they don't know what you're talking about and possibly derailing you and your confidence, or others becoming completely checked out and disconnected. None of those is a good look.

DO NOT say you're going to follow-up, but then you don't.

INSTEAD, well ... follow-up.

That's all I've got for that one, sports fans. If you say you're going to send an email message introducing X to Y, then send the email message with X and Y in the "to" line. If you say you're going to send a calendar invitation for the next meeting, send the invitation. If you say you're going to email the slides to everyone, email the slides. Don't leave folks hanging.

Now, if you have no intention whatsoever of performing any kind of follow-up, then don't fix your mouth to say you will. And I know things come up, so if there's a delay in getting to the follow-up, that's cool. That's understandable. Just get it done as soon as you can.

DO NOT make the audience struggle to hear you.

INSTEAD, be aware of what’s happening with every angle of your presentation and remember the goal first and foremost is to create a great audience experience.

I will not talk over people when I deliver a presentation.? I won’t.

It doesn’t matter to me who’s talking or about what they are talking.? It does not matter.?

I will not compete for the mic, and I will not put my audience in a position where they are working hard, striving to hear me over the din of noise coming from sidebar conversations happening around them.

And I encourage you to do the same.

Yes, chatter will happen during a presentation.? It can be spillover from a facilitated conversation initiated by the speaker.? It can be a co-facilitator offering additional explanation to an individual audience member.? (And if that is the case, then you really should be quiet and let your colleague finish.)? It can be someone sharing an exciting thought that came up from a point the speaker just made.? It can be someone asking a colleague to repeat what the speaker just said because they didn’t quite catch it.? It can be anything.

It happens.

But if you see/hear the conversations going and going and going, then do not continue to present.?

Do not.

The people sitting around those talkers are struggling to hear you, the speaker, over the conversations happening in their vicinity, and it impacts the experience.

Stop talking until they stop talking.

Seriously.

Stop talking, stand, and look in the direction of the noise until they stop talking.

Think about it.? Would you want to be that audience member who’s sitting next to a sidebar conversation while the speaker moves ahead with their presentation?? No, you wouldn’t.? So, don’t create that reality for anyone in your audience.?

Now, if you are delivering a keynote where there are hundreds or thousands of people in the audience and the lights are on you and not on the audience, there’s absolutely no way for you to know what’s what out there.? But … we’re not talking about keynotes.? We’re taking about trainings.? And even if that happens in a keynote, do the same thing.? If the lights are on the audience and you are able to see the offenders, stop talking until the talking stops.? But, more importantly, deliver such an engaging keynote until the audience can’t help but to lean in and listen to your every word.

But do that in every instance—deliver the best training, workshop, breakout, keynote, webinar EVER so you don’t run the risk of being that speaker.?

You've got this!

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