BOOK SUMMARY 120 What Great Trainers Do
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Summary written by: Kate Cadet
"Our simple attention, offered to
another person, is the most underused of human resources, one of the least
costly, one of the most freely available, and – without a doubt – one of the
most powerfully beneficial"4
- What Great Trainers Do, page 95
What
Great Trainers Do is “the ultimate guide to delivering
engaging and effective learning”. It is unashamedly subject matter specific. It
is a great read for anyone who presents, facilitates or delivers course-based
learning and workshops wanting to grow and expand their skills.
For
those with considerable presenting experience, this book also offers deeper
instruction to expand and refine your existing skills, helping you become
a Dynamic Trainer; someone who has mastered the fundamentals of
training who also understands diverse group based interactions and participant
learning effectiveness.
Based
on the Craft of Training workshops delivered and refined
across three decades by the authors Robert Bolton and Dorothy Grover Bolton at
a range of companies from not-for-profit to Fortune 500 corporations, the book
details the challenges of training and being a trainer, explores the key
ingredients for a good workshop and builds an actionable framework for training
based on insights and examples gathered from their real-life training
situations.
The Golden Egg
The Power of Two
"Content
and process are always present in a workshop and the quality of each greatly
affects participants’ learning."- What Great Trainers Do, page 9
When
it comes to workshop content, many trainers are not given adequate time or
resources by their own businesses to become experts in the content they will be
teaching, nor are they supported in learning about or handling different kinds
of group dynamics. This problem is extensive; Bolton and Bolton quote “more
than a million people are given first-time responsibility for training….with
little, if any preparation in even basic teaching methods”.
Take a
moment to think about your current training or presentation methods, and ask
yourself this question: “Do I focus on content or process when I deliver
workshops?”
Well,
according to the authors, even though the most successful trainers pay equal
attention to both Content and Group Process,
often, when we have a lot of course material with multiple units, modules and
components to cover off during a workshop, we tend to focus on the actual
subject matter being taught – the ideas, approaches, systems and techniques
being learned – while completely forgetting about observing and enhancing the
group dynamic of the participants.
So why
is just concentrating on course content an issue? Effective
group process enables learning. Poor group dynamic undermines it.
So
learning and actively concentrating on generating effective group process
within a training situation, while at the same time having the ability to fix
disruptive and negative interactions from within the group are key attributes
that will take you from being an average to a first-rate trainer.
Gem #1
Debriefing Sessions
"The
trainer’s ability to create a positive learning climate is one of the crucial
factors for success in leading a workshop."- What Great Trainers Do, page
186
The
idea of debriefing to discuss key takeaways from business meetings,
brainstorming sessions and planning discussions is common within the corporate
context, yet rarely do presenters or trainers take the time to debrief
material, learnings or participant doubts after workshops.
In What
Good Trainers Do, “debriefing” specifically refers to the idea of
“after-the-fact review discussions”; that is, discussion designed to promote
conversation about knowledge learned, individual responses or feelings towards
your workshop content including activities, subject modules, practical
application of concepts or other components of the training.
Introducing
(and practicing) debriefing in your workshops will add a surprisingly handy and
effective training tool to your skill set; providing you feedback on your
sessions while the experience is fresh in the groups’ mind, enabling you to
continue to refine your dynamic trainer content and group
process based on collective learning.
A good
debriefing session has the added benefit of increasing levels of participation
because it provides an opportunity for two-way communication between you the
trainer, individuals, and the broader group, fostering an interactive
environment.
Here’s
the six-step process from the book that will get you started in leading
debriefing sessions today:
1. Make sure any smaller breakout groups are joined back to
the larger group. This brings focus.
2. Pose a clear and relevant question to the whole group,
and then wait patiently.
3. Keep silent even if it feels like an eternity. Give the
group time to collect their thoughts and answers.
4. As participants provide input, listen carefully and
acknowledge their statements with reflection such as “so your learning is”, or
“so you noticed that”…. Avoid evaluation-type comments such as “good point”.
5. Invite other responses until everyone who wants to
contribute has spoken.
6. Then, your debrief is complete. Transition to the next
part of the workshop.
Bolton
and Bolton advocate encouraging as many participants as possible to participate
in giving comment during your feedback session. Why? Because their training
efforts have seen a high frequency of debrief contributors actually using what
they have learned and discussed when the workshop is over.
Gem #2
Are you delivering?
"A
really good talk generally has been outlined, re-outlined, written, edited,
tweaked, and perhaps honed some more…"- What Great Trainers Do, page 71
One of
the key skills consistently used by dynamic trainers is their ability to
fine-tune not only their presentations but also their delivery. According to
the authors, “good delivery greatly enhances our (trainer) results”.
They
suggest making it a habit to deliver all presentations extemporaneously as
opposed to giving an impromptu presentation, because this will
elevate us from being a mere trainer to a facilitator of content. Let me
explain.
To be
clear, Bolton and Bolton differentiate the terms “impromptu” and
“extemporaneously” in the following way. Impromptu speaking implies
presenting with little or no preparation or rehearsal, versus extemporaneous
delivery that is created through rigorous preparation and
comprehensive run-throughs.
Extemporaneous
sounds time consuming, I know. But if there is one GEM, one improvement you can
start today to set you apart as a trainer, start learning your subject matter
thoroughly by reading, re-reading, editing, modifying it and so on. Why?
Because once you have learned your course content inside out, you will be able
to tailor the workshop for the groups you are working with, cut it back to fit
condensed timeframes, illustrate your material with anecdotes and other
relatable examples, or make it an interactive experience.
English
Poet John Dryden is quoted in the book as saying “you owe it the participants
in your workshop to be a subject matter expert” while marketing guru Zig Ziglar
comments “the more I knew about my subject, the more creative I could be in
presentations.”
Commit
to knowing your material thoroughly and you will be prepared for the most
unpredictable and challenging situation, while continuing to achieve the group
learning goals of the workshop you set out to deliver.
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