Check out http://www.pmi-keystone.org/ for more information and to register!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I once heard it said that five minutes of demonstration is better than one hour of explanation—and I think it’s completely true! In a Corporate Training Program, demonstrations can be highly effective. Here’s a four-step process that can help with demonstrations in a Corporate Training Program:

1. The trainer should perform the demonstration at a normal pace. During this time, the participants should be watching the demonstration to see what the process and outcome are.

2. The trainer should perform the demonstration again at a slower pace. This time, the trainer should explain each step and point out any important or difficult steps. Again, the participants should be watching and noting what the process is for each step.

3. The trainer should perform the demonstration again at that slower pace, and the participants should ALSO be going through the steps. In other words, the participants should be following along with the trainer and doing the steps, too.

4. The trainer should now allow the participants to do the steps on their own. At this time, the trainer should not help the participants; instead, the trainer should allow the participants to complete the activity themselves to show that they have learned how to do it.

Whether you’re a corporate trainer, a project manager, a business analyst, or any other kind of leader in an organization, at some point you will need to deal with questions. You might need to ask questions of your training participants or your stakeholders. Alternatively, your training participants or your stakeholders could be asking you questions. With all of this questioning back and forth, it’s helpful to understand the four directions of questions:

1. Direct Questions. Direct questions are those in which the program leader asks a question to a specific participant. These are necessary on occasion; however, they can potentially put a person “on the spot.” In a learning environment, it might be good to avoid these questions.

Example: “Steven, what is an example of an elicitation technique?”

2. Overhead Questions. Overhead questions are those in which the program leader asks a question to the participants in general; anyone can answer. These questions can be much safer because they do not put anyone “on the spot.”

Example: “Who can name the five process groups in the Project Management Lifecycle?”

3. Relay Questions. Relay questions are questions that are used as a response to a direct question to the program leader. A participant asks the program leader a question, and the program leader relays the question back to the participants in general. This is a great way to get other participants to share their thoughts on the question. This is also helpful in increasing participation.

Example: A participant asks the group leader, “What are some examples of risks on a process improvement project?”

The group leader responds, “Great question! Can someone share their experiences with risks on a process improvement project?”

4. Reverse Questions. Reverse questions are also questions that are used as a response to a direct question to the program leader. A participant asks the program leader a question, and the program leader reverses the same question back to the person who asked the question. These questions help to gain confirmation of the original question as well as to see if the participant already has his or her own thoughts about the topic. Of course, this might also put the participant “on the spot,” so these questions should be used with caution.

Example: A participant asks the group leader, “What should I do if my stakeholders have conflicting requirements for my project?”

The group leader responds, “Great question! What do you currently do when you’re confronted with conflicting requirements among your stakeholders?”

A combination of these four directions of questions can create excellent group dynamics in any type of facilitated sessions. What are some of the ways that you believe you can use these four directions of questions in your sessions?

Many of the courses that I teach span multiple days. As such, I find it very important to build cohesiveness among the participants. They frequently work together in small groups, so I like to ensure that the participants feel connected. Here are some of the things that have helped me to build that cohesiveness in my corporate training programs:

1. Set the participants up in close proximity—without overcrowding!

2. Create an identity for each small group (e.g., a name, a color, a location in the room, or a nickname).

3. Set up mild competition between the groups so a “team” feeling can develop.

4. Have some occasional playtime where the only goal is to have some fun for a few minutes—make fun and laughter a legitimate activity!!

5. Create some kind of positive ending to the program (e.g., class party, dinner, applause, awards, class picture, etc.)

What are some of the ways that you build cohesiveness into your corporate training programs?