Seating arrangements for optimal learning

How do you lay out the seating in your training rooms? Have you reviewed whether a different layout would help learning?

Here is a quick rundown of seating options and how you may want to use them:

Boardroom U shape

Great for smaller groups where group discussion and peer engagement is important

Café Style

Tables of four facing each other two per side. Ideal when there is lots of small group work.

Cabaret Style

Good for larger group discussions or to “pad out” a large room with smaller numbers of delegates – just put them around half the round tables facing the front of the room.

Classroom

Still the default for most training. Do you really want to be the same as every other classroom?

Standing

Yes, standing! Sit-stand desks are being proven to dramatically increase productivity, especially for sales and other high energy job roles. There is also a growing body of evidence that posture is improved and back pain reduced when sitting is replaced with standing.So, why not train delegates while they are standing? People are more engaged when they are standing up. Provide them with high level desks on which to lean to take notes and see how the engagement in the room rises. As a nice irony why not offer seated coffee breaks and stood up training…

Using Computers

Computer based training, or training that requires regular access to computers can be problematic. The conventional approach is to place computers around the edge of the room, or classroom style. Neither approach allows for the non-computer based parts of the training well. 

So, why not break your room up and move delegates away from the computers for parts of the training then back to the computers for practical activities. The movement around the room helps break up the training and keep delegates fresh…

Moving delegates
Do you get your delegates to move places regularly? Build in at least three moves of seat for any training course – more for longer courses. Keep delegates on their toes and don’t let them get too comfortable… Change the room seating style
 

Can you change the seating style or layout in your training rooms? Move desks around for different parts of a course. It really makes a difference.