Live! From My Desk!

Author's Note: This is the second in a series of lessons learned in 'Meatball Training', where the demand for training is so overwhelming that many of the niceties are jettisoned and an instructor focuses on the fundamentals of how to gain engagement while on a production line of instruction.

One time in my career I was hired to operationalize training in a company's new database system. The rollout training had been accomplished by the customer service organization. The responsibility of the ongoing training was now with the Learning group. That is where I came in.

The rollout training design had been outsourced by the customer service organization. What was given to them were a few e-learning modules and a few lengthy slide decks outlining several functions of the database.

I reviewed all the training available and attended a few in-person classes. In each of those classes, the system was being taught via a slide deck. Watching the audience, I saw the telltale signs of disengagement. This was troubling as this database was going to be used by most of the staff in one fashion or another. The employees needed to understand this product, but the training was not capturing the audience's attention. This was priority #1 for me. How do I make the training engaging while getting the concepts vital to the program across?

What I decided to do, much to the dismay of the customer service manager, was to go live into the system during my classes. I followed the instructional outline of the slides closely, at least at first, but gave many of the employees their first look at the system instead of the screen grabs on the 100+ slides of a typical presentation deck.

As I mentioned, the customer service manager was quite dismayed that I was going live. Her biggest argument was that slides were safe. You didn't have to worry about the system being down or people wanting to go off track with extraneous questions. Going live introduced many variables that could not be controlled.

I explained to her that in my experience, going live meant a richer experience for the user who now could draw connections between what the instructor was showing and what they would see when the user entered the software. Yes, it was more unpredictable. More than once when I was teaching the platform went down. At those times I always had the slides as a backup. For those questions that arose that were not related to what was being taught, I found I learned something new that allowed me to enrich my presentation going forward. Occasional issues aside, I found I had students who were more engaged and more prepared for their jobs.

A similar situation arose in my last position. As you may recall, there was such a demand for additional training in a software suite that the company was rolling out that brand staff was quickly overwhelmed with requests. We were forced to teach fast, but we always wanted to teach effectively.

This is not to say there wasn't any training available. As each franchisee came on board with the new software suite, they were given training, either in group or custom training sessions. The training group in charge of the rollout had opted for slides and had e-learning available on the corporate learning portal for those who needed a refresher or had missed the training. When the franchisees finished with this training, the theory was that they should be ready to use the software. They weren't.

The franchisees were vocal about the need for additional instruction for them to begin effectively using the software in their business. I was tasked to understand why this was the case. Once again, the 'death by PowerPoint' issue arose.

Interestingly, when speaking to the franchisees, I discovered that there were instructors in the training group who were going 'off script' and diving into the software. These instructors were receiving better anecdotal feedback from the franchisees. However, as those instructors were usually contractors, I was discouraged from interacting with them and only talking to the leadership of the group.

The training group provided me with their slides. As I did previously, I used the slides as a roadmap for live training in the system. I took on the initial set of classes, refined as I progressed, and encouraged my fellow brand colleagues to sign up for a class, co-present with me, or review the recording of the sessions that I created. They would eventually train classes themselves, widening the pool of instructors and sharing the burden.

The feedback was instantaneously positive. There were many lightbulb moments in the sessions, with the franchisees reporting they could put the lessons in the context of the software. They began engaging with the software more, using it to increase their business, and reduce their frustration. It bred its own issues as we received more requests as word of our success spread, but we all agreed it was a good problem to have.

One of the first principles of Meatball Training is that you get the lessons right the first time as you don't have time to do a session again. Going back to the fundamentals of adult learning helps you do this.

The adult learner needs to have their training put in context. How is it going to help them? How can they apply this immediately to solve a problem? What can they do quickly to get up and running? In product training especially, you can't get this from a PowerPoint deck alone.

A well-designed slide and notes can provide context. When you don't have the luxury of time to craft and refine those slides and notes, going live into the product provides a shortcut. It isn't always safe, and the lessons do not always go the way you expect them to. (That is not a terrible thing. Learning also happens no matter which path you take.) Even when things don't go perfectly, you have a much better chance of the learner engaging in what they are being taught.

In the end, it is the learner gaining the knowledge and insight they need, not how control you have, that will be your measure of success. It if means a bit of chaos, so much the richer.