TRAIN WITH A PURPOSE IN MIND

Facilitating a Learning Experience with a Clear Purpose

I remember vividly a 3-day training where we had our training manual and the explicit content and details ahead of time.? My expectation was that we were going to review the training agenda thoroughly, have time to understand the concepts and the content plus deliberate practice in groups, triads, pairs and so on. ?The reality was different.? We got into other interesting and appealing issues, but clearly different from the training agenda. At the end of the training, I felt I had lost three days of my time.

I have attended many trainings where the facilitator simply falls into the temptation to let the training “flow”, bumping here and there without any control and direction. If a question arises the trainer will just go into it and thus, un-railing the learning process and purpose, “for the sake of the group”. If an opinion jumps in, the trainer lets it grow turning aside the learning purpose that gave birth to the training.

Here, some trainer practices to lead and maintain the learning purpose alive:

a)????? Review and unfold the need that gave birth to the training. – what is the situation, challenges and/or problems that made the training come to life. A vivid example is the need to be able or capable of identify, manage and avoid risky behaviors among a group of workers in a manufacturing company, that put the life of others in danger allowing incidents or accidents to take place.? One risky behavior is not speaking up when other workers violate a safety regulation and people just stay quiet to “keep out of problems”.? Clarifying a situation, problem or challenge justifies why we are all taking the training and making sense of it

b)???? Expose, explain and emphasize the learning objectives that meet the needs. – giving the situation, challenges and/or problems, new learnings are necessary and thus, the training makes sense. So, the meaning of the training is clearly seen and facilitates the learning process. Understanding the big why of the training can not only motivate the audience, but also engage the participants into the learning objectives, and prepares them to say “yes” to the behavioral changes that implies the training.

c)????? Review the training content necessary. – As a result, the necessary content will make total sense for the audience. What they need to know, at what level of depth and domain, in a specific time, using what kind of means. At the end, is sharing the training agenda with the participants emphasizing the order and logic used that can facilitate the learning process.

d)???? Explain and clarify the learning methods and strategies to be used to enhance the learning experiences. – to make this happen how the trainer will facilitate the learners get the new knowledge, how to learn it, what new behaviors demand, how to apply them and how to put them to work in real life.

e)????? Timeline and schedule view of the training. – how much time will be spent in each part of the learning experiences and what implicates in terms of managing time to cover the whole program in a rhythm suitable and acceptable for the audience.

f)??????? How the learnings will be evaluated: how to make sure the participants understood the content.? Evaluate their level of practical application and being able to assess their competency level through benchmarking. ?And finally, evaluate the impact of the training in their lives, communities, organizations, or businesses.? In terms of practicality, how do I know you know, how do I know you are able to behave accordingly.? How do I know you will be able to put to work the new learnings and finally what difference will it make in your own life, community, surroundings, peers, organizations.?

Now you know why being a professional trainer demands guidance, facilitation, and leading the audience.? Letting the training follow the flow of distracting subjects that arise may be tempting, but you would not be facilitating with a strong purpose in mind