Corporate Training Programs – Increase Participation in Corporate Training Programs

Increase Participation in Corporate Training Programs

In all of my Corporate Training Programs, I require participation from everyone in the session. When I announce this to the group at the beginning of a course, I get the typical moans and eye rolls from participants who had heard that before from other trainers—only to be lectured at for the remainder of their time together. The challenge in those other classes is that the trainer was giving only lip service to the idea of participation. If you want to increase participation in your courses, the trick is to actually want and welcome learner participation. If you are committed to increasing participation, here are a few tips that can help you:

1. Ask Questions: This may seem obvious, yet I’ve seen plenty of trainers avoid asking questions. If you want your learners to participate, give them an easy way to do so. Ask plenty of questions to get them involved with the content.

2. Use Relay Questions: When a learner asks you a question, is your first instinct to answer it? If so, practice using relay questions. The next time you are
asked a question, turn it around to everyone else in the group to hear how they might respond.

3. Stop Asking for Questions: All too often, I hear trainers ask, “Does anyone have any questions?” as a way to increase participation. In theory, this is a nice question; however, learners don’t always know what to ask. Instead of asking for questions, ask, “What are your reactions to this?” In many ways, it amounts to the same thing, yet it is broader than simply asking for questions.

4. Use Small Group Discussions: Some learners simply do not want to speak up in a large group—and that’s fine! You can still give them a chance to  participate by having a brief discussion with their tablemates to think of examples, formulate a question, react to a statement, or conceive a rebuttal.

5. Use Reverse Reviews: As good trainers, we build frequent reviews into our programs (right?). Instead of having to do those reviews yourself, ask the learners to do the reviews. This serves the same purpose of your doing a review, yet it gives the learners another way to participate.

Corporate Training Programs – Manage Your Nerves in Corporate Training Programs

Manage Your Nerves in Corporate Training Programs

Even the most experienced trainers in the world get nervous before they have to present. As such, it is completely normal for you to feel nervous, too. Here are a few things that you can do to help you manage that nervousness:

1. Prepare and Rehearse: It is critical for you to prepare your material thoroughly and rehearse it. I know a lot of people who are good at “winging it”; however, when I see them present, it looks like a really good, “winged” presentation. Is that what you want to convey to your audience? Also, keep in mind that you shouldn’t try to memorize your material. Rehearse it to a point where you feel comfortable with it.

2. Set Up in Advance: To the extent possible, try to set up the classroom and the materials the night before your session. It can be very nerve-wracking to be setting up your room while the participants are arriving. You’ll worry about both meeting the participants and getting things ready. Cut back the worry by setting up in advance.

3. Get There Early: In addition to setting up the night before, you should try to arrive early on the day of the session. If this is the first day of a multi-day session, I usually encourage trainers to arrive about one hour before the session begins. (You will need to arrive even earlier if you were unable to set up the room in advance.) On subsequent days, you should be there at least 30 minutes before the session begins. This extra time will help you calm your nerves a bit before the participants arrive.

4. Meet and Greet: What should you be doing for that hour before the session? You should not be setting up. That should have been done in advance. Instead, you should be meeting and greeting the participants when they arrive. Take some time to introduce yourself and find out who the participants are. In many ways, they could be just as nervous as you on the first day. Some simple greetings can make you all seem less like strangers when the program begins.

5. Start with the Participants: Finally, another technique that I like to use to take the pressure off me is getting the participants involved and active as early as possible. Begin with some kind of activity that gets the participants working right away (e.g., an icebreaker, team introductions, a group puzzle or challenge, etc.). Having the participants start before you start could help you ease into your content with less anxiety.

Corporate Training Programs – When and How to Do a Review in Corporate Training Programs

When and How to Do a Review in Corporate Training Programs

Reviews are an important part of all Corporate Training Programs. They provide a great opportunity to show progress and summarize key points from your course. Let’s consider when you should do a review and how to do one:

When?

1. Have a review before a break, before lunch, and before the end of the day. By doing a review before a break, it provides a great summary of what was covered and smoothly transitions the group to the break. In addition, a review is usually a signal to the participants that part of the day is wrapping up.

2. In a multi-day program, start each day with a review of the previous day’s work. We all have busy lives, so it’s easy to forget some of what we may have done even one day ago! As such, use this review to cover what was accomplished. Again, this is a nice way to transition to the new material.

3. In a full-day program, do a review right after lunch—even if you did one before lunch! The last thing that anyone wants to do after a meal is jump right back into work. Instead, turn the review into a fun way to get back on topic.

4. In addition to the three previous points, you might also want to review more frequently should the material be particularly complex or if the participants’ background with the material is limited.

How?

1. Reviews should really be just that—reviews. Don’t try to cover everything again; instead, highly the key points from the program.

2. As much as you possibly can, involve the participants in the review. Small group work (to come up with a list of key points) and sharing with other groups are great ways to keep your program interactive.

3. Incrementally build the review by going from participant to participant for thoughts on the key points from the program.

4. If the participants happen to forget to mention any key points, use a variety of questioning techniques to try to elicit those items.

5. Finally, don’t consider reviews an afterthought. Be sure to actually schedule time in your own lesson plan for the reviews.

Corporate Training Programs – Five Ways to Improve Feedback Given in Corporate Training Programs

Five Ways to Improve Feedback Given in Corporate Training Programs

In Corporate Training Programs, the learners benefit greatly from the feedback they receive. They complete activities or assignments as part of the training, and they want to know how well they did and how they can improve. Here are five ways to improve the feedback that is given in Corporate Training Programs:

1. Give feedback at the earliest opportunity rather than postponing it too long. Ideally, the feedback should be given as soon as possible once the activity or assignment is completed.

2. Be as specific as possible with the feedback that is given. Rather than saying, “Good job,” say precisely what was good about the participants’ work (e.g., “Your approach to solving this problem demonstrates creativity while also being quite effective.”).

3. Whenever possible, express feedback positively rather than negatively. Too much negative feedback can have an unfortunate effect on learners—especially adult learners. State what is positive about the work that was done as often as you can.

4. Ensure that the feedback is description, not judgmental. While it is very easy to judge the work that participants complete, it is more effective to provide a description of what was done—in as positive a manner as possible.

5. Allow learners to provide feedback to each other. As often as possible, ask the learners to give feedback to their peers. This is a great way for different backgrounds and experience levels to add value to a corporate training program.

Corporate Training Programs – Three Tips for Using Positive Reinforcement in Corporate Training Programs

Three Tips for Using Positive Reinforcement in Corporate Training Programs

In Corporate Training Programs, positive reinforcement can help to encourage participants, strengthen desirable performance, or minimize undesirable performance. By using positive reinforcement, participants are more willing to contribute, and the corporate trainer can find value in all learners’ contributions (because it’s rare to find an answer that is completely wrong). Here are three tips for using positive reinforcement in Corporate Training Programs:

1. Use reinforcing words and expressions to respond to participants (e.g., yes, good, right, correct, OK, great, excellent, exactly, interesting, I agree, etc.).

2. Use non-verbal reinforcers (e.g., smiles, head nods, moving toward the speaker, extended eye contact, thumbs up, signaling OK, etc.).

3. Set up all exercises, activities, quizzes, etc. so that the participants will be correct and perform well.