TRAINING FOR SUCCESS - A Guide for Novice Trainers

TRAINING FOR SUCCESS

A Guide for Novice Trainers

GtoG, s.r.o. Ivana Miklovič

Why should you own this book? • Do you lead training sessions? • Do you sometimes get the feeling that even though you handled the training

well, some things could have been different? • Do you recognize that there must be a way for you to do your job in more

professional manner?• Have you ever asked yourself if you be more useful for the participants?• Would you be able to explain the reason for proceeding with a given step

at the training? Or do you just do it because others do it that way?

If you answered “yes” at least once, then this book is intended for you. About the bookThe book offers a glimpse behind the curtains of working as a trainer, revealing the methodological principles of their work. It analyses the different phases of a training session as well as providing a step-by-step guide on what to do in each one. Additionally, it is filled with countless tips that can be used in practice. In the author’s words: first you have to know the rules; only later can you break them. In this book, you will get to know the key principles of a trainer’s work - principles that can also be used when leading workshops, seminars, or any other educational event.

About the authorIvana Miklovič has been a Personal Development trainer for more than ten years. Participants to her training sessions value and appreciate her for her innovative approach to training; her kind, receptive approach to the participants; her preparedness; and her professionality. Her clients have included: Deutsche Telekom Shared Services, Slovak Telecom, UniCredit Bank, Kamapro, Delphi, Ahold, TNT, Holcim…

ISBN 978-80-971420-6-3

TRAINING FOR SUCCESSA Guide for Novice Trainers

Ivana MiklovičFirst edition

GtoG, s.r.o.

Author: Ivana MiklovičPublished in: Bratislava

Publisher: GtoGYear of publishing: 2015

ISBN: 978–80– 972012-0-3

Translation: Katarína Jones Juríková, Sean Jones

Illustrations: Michal ŽákGraphic editing: Dalibor Žuffa

First edition.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles or critical reviews.

Ordering information:Tel.: +421 908 173059

Website:

www.gtog.eu

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• “Ivana has written a treasure trove of practical ideas, hints and tips, and best practice – coming from her substantial hands-on experience as a trainer over many years. Any novice trainer would benefit a great deal from reading and applying the lessons here.” Kimberley Hare, Founder and Managing Director Kaizen Training

• “A good cooking book alone will not turn you into a good chef. But the kind of book .Ivana presents here can everybody willing to follow the steps by step description enable to produce a decent menu in the field of training”. Thomas Diener, Trainer, Coach, Owner FairWork GmbH

• “I regard working with Ivana positively from various angles – fore-most, there was a complete understanding of our needs. Tied to that was the flawlessly prepared content of the training covering exactly the sensitive areas of development required for experienced salespeople. Lastly, is the fact that my colleagues actually use the acquired skills in their work. I thank Ivana for her approach, professionalism, and an unbelievable desire to continuously push our people to progress”. Dominika Miklášová, HR Director Edenred

• „Working with Ivana was great from the very beginning – from defining the objectives of the workshop through to its actual execution. We tho-roughly appreciate Ivana’s pro-customer attitude, her dynamics, and the way she introduced new trends, which Ivana follows continuously. Ivana is very professional and she is an expert in the area in which she is conducting the training. The participants’ feedback was wonderful; they considered the workshop to have been one the best they had ever attended. I cannot recommend working with Ivana strongly enough. We, in Dell, will look forward to other future specialty workshops“. Silvia Jelenikova, Lead & HR Director Dell Bratislava

PRAISE FOR Training for Success

PRAISE FOR TRAINING FOR SUCCESS

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TABLE OF CONTENTS


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

1. EDUCATIONAL NEEDS ANALYSIS What is the educational needs analysis useful for? Is the educational needs analysis necessary? Which areas to look at? Which area to focus on? What techniques can be used to obtain the necessary information?

2. THE OBJECTIVES OF THE TRAINING How will clarification of the educational objectives benefit you? What levels require objective clarification? What are the most common mistakes when articulating different

objectives? What is the difference between the intention and the objective

of the training? How to articulate educational objectives so they can be evaluated?

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3. DESIGNING A TRAINING SESSION How to choose the content of the training? How to ensure dynamic training? How to design the training session using Kolb’s cycle of learning? Different types of participants – how to deal with them? Checking the training design

4. METHODS AND FORMS OF EDUCATION Presentation – isn’t that boring? Question and answer method – how to pose valuable questions? Discussion – how much freedom to leave to the participants? Debrief – how to connect the training with real life situations? Questionnaires – how to use them? Games and exercises – how to get the most out of them? Case study – how to learn from the experience of others? Role-plays – how about stepping into someone else’s shoes? Model scenarios – how to improve one’s behavior “to perfection”? Feedback – how to give it? Movie – how to use common things in an unusual way? Question brainstorming – how to use brainstorming differently? Method of analogies – searching for similarities? Ways of dividing into groups – how to divide the participants into

groups? 5. PREPARATION OF THE ROOM How can arranging the room create the best learning atmosphere? How to “dress up” the room? 6. INTRODUCTORY PART OF THE TRAINING Opening the training session Introduction of the trainer Introducing the objectives and the program of the training Introducing the participants Expectations Agreement 7. THE FOLLOWING MORNING Mood-o-gram – How to gauge the current mood of the participants? Reflection – How to find out how satisfied the participants are? Reviewing what has been learnt – How to check the participants’

progress?

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8. CONCLUDING THE TRAINING How to conclude the training? What mistakes to avoid? Ways to summarize the key ideas Ending the training in a creative way Plan of action Mapping satisfaction with the training A little something for the journey 9. HOW TO HANDLE DEMANDING SITUATIONS? What if there is a participant who is just too active? What if a participant tends to narrate “never-ending stories”? What to do with a participant who barely participates? What if the whole group barely participates? What if there are participants who are disturbing others? What to do with a participant who wants to show off their knowledge? What if a participant makes inappropriate comments? What if the participants are in a negative mood? What if participants are afraid of the model scenarios/camera?

10. SMALL TIPS FROM THE MASTERS Trainer’s notes Mind map® Training diary

11. EVALUATING THE TRAINING 1st level: Reactions 2nd level: Educational results 3rd level: Transfer of knowledge to real life situations, to one’s own work 4th level: Organizational results 5th level: Return on Investments (ROI) What if we turned the Kirpatrick‘s model upside down?

A FEW WORDS TO END ON

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APPENDICES Appendix 1: Tips for participants’ introduction Appendix 2: Mood-o-gram Mood mapping/ Mapping of the mood 2.1: Emoticons Mood mapping 2.2: A tree Mood Mapping 2.3: A house Mood mapping 2.4: Menu of feelings Appendix 3: Categories of educational objectives Appendix 4: Reflection Appendix 5: Kirkpatrick’s model – additional description

REFERENCES

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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INTRODUCTION

Do you know the story of Christopher Columbus? The following situation supposedly took place in Spain, short-ly after Columbus’s return from his ex-ploratory travels. Some were question-ing the importance of Columbus’s role in his discoveries, taunting him with the words: “Anyone could have done that with just a little thought.”

How did Columbus react? As a reply to their remarks, he asked one of the envious doubters to stand an egg on its tip without it falling. No one could do it. Everyone claimed that it simply wasn’t possible. Columbus then took the egg, tapped it gently and stood it on its tip with no problems. He looked at the onlookers proudly and said: “Once a person acquires the know-how, a task becomes truly easy.”

The same applies to leading a training session. Have you ever been in the situation of observing someone at work think-ing to yourself that you could manage their work just as easily? Or, after crossing a bridge, you suddenly feel that it wasn’t as easy as it had initially seemed?


14INTRODUCTION

When something appears easy, it is very probable that the person doing the task has gone through a thorough and in-depth preparation. Everything went smoothly thanks to the prior steps that the person had taken.

Why was this book written?

I have participated in many training sessions, led by both Slovaks and for-eigners. Initially everything amazed me because almost everything was new for me. However, as time passed, I came across more and more mo-ments when, instead of bringing away a large amount of information from these events, I would only absorb a few nuggets. There is nothing wrong with this but I started to feel that if those who were leading the training sessions had made a few slight changes regarding their methodology they would have achieved far greater results.

I am thus sharing with you what I have learnt on my way to mastering the art of lecturing, what I have learnt from my mistakes, constant improve-ments regarding training, and my continuous experimentation with new techniques … truly the best from what I know.

What is this book about?

The book offers a glimpse behind the curtains of working as a trainer. It will reveal to you the methodological principles of a trainer’s work. It analyses the different phases of a training session as well as providing

a step-by-step guide on what to do in each one. Additionally, it is filled with countless tips that can be used in practice.

First you have to know the rules. Only later can you break them.

Although this book mostly uses the term training (or rather, the broad-er term educational event), the information contained here can be used while preparing workshops, seminars, courses or any other educational event.

The organization of the book more or less mirrors the systematic approach to education as such: from the analysis of educational needs, through ob-jective setting and design of the educational event, to the final evaluation.

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3 DESIGNING A TRAINING SESSION

Before you start designing the training (drawing up the layout), you need to know the background details concerning the reason for it. In the following section you will learn how to choose the content of a train-ing session and order the topics, what psychological traits to take into consideration, and the principles of working with different educational methods.

Where to start when designing the training? There is no straightforward answer to this question. Every trainer will, based on their personal ex-perience and on the situation, define their own procedure. We can, how-ever, start by taking into consideration several factors when preparing the training; some basic ones are:

• Selection of content • Selection of methods • Dynamism of the training • Attention to the common psychological traits

of the participants.


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How to choose the content of the training?

The first thing to consider is the length of the whole training ses-sion. There is a difference between conducting a session which lasts half a day, a day, or several days.

Once the length is set, we can start selecting topics for the whole training session. Knowing what content to include is one of the big-gest challenges facing most trainers. The goal is not to win the Nobel prize for content or to show everyone how much you know – the goal is to satisfy the educational needs of the participants (the one commissioning the training, the manager, the organization) and to arm them with all the information (skills) they need.

What works best for me personally is to once again look at the bigger pic-ture – look at what is supposed to change after the training has finished.

Example: A client wants their sales people to close deals. So I think to myself, what is the best way to help them achieve this:

• What steps do we need to go through to ensure there is a real change in their work practice?

• What are the potential (or identified) problems that prevent them from performing at the level that is expected (attitude, lack of infor-mation, lack of skills, etc.)?

• What kind of experience is necessary for them to achieve the objectives of the training?

When I start talking to trainers about educational objectives, almost all of them nod, making it clear that they know what I am talking about; however, it is only while designing the training (and later lead-ing it) that it becomes obvious whether or not they truly understand what purpose the educational ob-jectives serve.

If you tend to forget the objectives, write them on a small piece of paper and keep it in front of you, this way you will always have them within sight.

DESIGNING A TRAINING SESSION

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The option you choose depends on what you need to achieve.

Discussion as an addition to a presentation

If you use the presentation as the main method you can utilize a discus-sion in one of two ways: either leaving time for participants‘ questions at the end or giving them an opportunity to ask you questions during the presentation if something is not clear or they find something interesting.

Trainers use the first option when they want to be sure they cover the prepared content without interruptions (“I will first present the infor-mation to you and then there will be space for your questions.”). Train-

ers can also choose to proceed this way when they are just starting their career and are afraid of not knowing how to an-swer a question.

Some advice for you: • What if you ask a question and there is silence in the audience? • You can reformulate the question and ask it again: “Maybe I did not

express myself clearly. I would like to know if…” • Or you can say: “Participants often ask me if…” – “What do you think

about that? What is your opinion?”

• How to further the discussion? Use discussion ‘bridges’. There are numerous phrases you can use to

stimulate the ongoing discussion • Could you tell me more about…? • What do you mean when you use the term “x”? • Is there anyone with a different opinion? • Can you think of a situation when this is not true?

DISCUSSION as…

Additional method Main method

• Presentation and follow-up discussion

• Discussion during presentation

• Fully directed• Semi-directed• Minimally directed

Tab. 3 – The use of the discussion method

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• Can you explain how you came to this conclusion? • In what other ways could we look at this issue? • What do you think of “x”? • Is this always true? Are there other ways to look at this situation? • What if…? • How can you use the information you talked about in your work? • Who has had a similar experience?

• What if a participant asks you a very specific question and an-swering it would just hold the discussion up? You can note down the question and agree with the participant to answer it after the training or later by email.

• What if you do not know how to answer a question? You can definitely handle this situation! • Play for time. Ask what the participant meant with the question: “I do

not understand you completely. Could you repeat the question please?” Or you can reformulate the question: “If I understood you clearly, you

would like to know if …? Did I understand you clearly?” While the participant is clarifying their question your brain is working on full speed thinking of an answer.

• Be honest and agree to provide the answer later, e.g.: “This is some-thing I have not thought about/come across before/I don‘t know the correct answer at the moment. However, I can look into it and let you know when I find the answer?”

Ask for some time: “I need to think about this. Could we come back to it later?”

• Present your opinion: “There is no correct answer to this question. However, I think that…”

Or you could even consult a friend over the phone. • Turn the question to someone you know in the audience, a colleague

or someone else you know who can answer the question. Ask them for an answer: “Anne this is a question for you.”; “I feel that XY is best placed to answer this question.”

• Open the question up to the audience: “Who would like to answer this question?”; “What do the others think about this?”

You will find out more about how to handle difficult and demanding sit-uations in Chapter 9.


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• Good Morning, Vietnam - Presentation skills • An Inconvenient Truth - Presentation skills • The Devil Wears Prada – Self-management, Values • Pay it Forward – Motivation, Values • The Magnificent Seven – Values • Up in the Air – Communication of unpopular decisions

It is better to know some of the questions

than all of the answers. James Thurber

The brainstorming method is quite popular. Everyone has come across it at some point. It is a creative technique used to generate as many ideas as possible.

Lets go over some rules that need to be followed if we want to create a space conducive to generating creative ideas: • The rule of not judging one’s own opinion or those of others.• The rule of the highest possible amount of ideas – the principle

is that quantity will bring up some quality – the more ideas, the higher the possibility of finding the one idea that can be really useful. It is not uncommon that the best ideas appear towards the end …

• The rule of mutual inspiration – if people work together they draw inspiration from each other, helping each other to produce more creative ideas than when working individually.

• The rule of total equality between the participants – their dif-ferent positions do not apply during a brainstorming session. All the participants are equal and thus they should behave accordingly.

What is Question brainstorming?

Example: What is the first thing that comes to your mind when a col-league tells you: “The boss is calling you. You are supposed to go to his office.” • “What does he want this time!” you probably grumble. • Or you might ask yourself: “I wonder what he wants??? What hap-

pened??? Did I do something?”• Or you have another question?

QUESTION BRAINSTORMING – – How to use brainstorming differently?


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According to the findings of A. Robbins (1999) our brain has a tendency to think in terms of questioning and judging. We always ask ourselves questions (What happened when you read these facts? Questions began to swirl through your mind: Really? I wonder what she means by that? …). You see, you were just asking yourselves questions. But how to apply questions?

The essence of the whole method lies in formulating the question itself.

Leaders of successful companies differ from others in one small thing: they ask themselves the right questions.

Example 1: It is not important what happens to you but what you do with

this experience. I heard the story of W. Mitchell who refused to give in to self-pity after

a car accident which caused him widespread burns and paralysis, af-fecting both of his legs.

“What is there left for me to do?” he asked himself. “What can I do, despite my injuries, even better than before?” “How can I be useful for others after this car accident?” He met a nurse called Anna in the hospital and he liked her from the

first moment he set his eyes on her. Despite his third-degree burns and paralysis from the waist down he did not hesitate in wondering: “How should I invite her out?”

He did and not too long after they got married.

This story also shows how there are no limits. We are the ones who create limits for ourselves.

Example 2: Business with lumber In his book, Creative Visualization, Richard Webster (2007) narrates

a story of a man who got rich in the lumber industry. When journalists asked him how he did it, he replied that he used to sit in a dark room and mediate, trying to visualize how the lumber industry would look in 10 years time. He wrote down all of his ideas and applied them to his company. These visualizations led him to outperform his competition by 10 years and earned him millions of dollars along the way.

Do you now believe that questions can help us when looking for solu-tions? How to work with the brainstorming method? The Procedure:1st step: Set the topic you will be dealing with, for example, Overc-ming Fear of Objections.

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2nd step: Brainstorming – ask all the questions related to the topic that come to mind. Form as many questions as you can.

3rd step: Choose five questions that seem to be the most fruitful. You can modify them if needed.

4th step: Using the questions. • You can work with these questions until you find the answers. If neces-

sary you can narrow the choice of questions to one final one (e.g. using a points system: each participant has three points that they have to distribute between the five questions selected in the 3rd step).

For example, you chose the question: “When do I buy something im-mediately, without thinking?” Search for the answers until you find some useful information or information you can apply.

Other options: • If you are using the question brainstorming to find conducive ques-

tions you want to use in the training, design a training block that will include those questions.

Prepare the topic in such a way that the participants will create their own questions and also form answers to solve them.

If you read biographies of some successful people you will find out that one characteristic that unites them is the ability of creative thinking. Some of these success stories have even specifically targeted the development of this area, e.g. by starting each day with question brainstorming.

Variations:• Stop and go – in this exercise you produce questions (ideas) for five

minutes. The group then stops and thinks for 3-5 minutes. Afterwards the participants again form questions for a period of five minutes.

• Successive brainstorming – In this alternative the trainer allows the participants to express their opinion in the order in which they are sitting. This process is repeated several times. The participants can express whatever comes to their mind. If they have nothing to say, they shout “next” and the trainer moves onto the next participant. If a participant comes up with an idea but it is not their turn, they write it down on a piece of paper and wait.


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9 HOW TO HANDLE DEMANDING SITUATIONS?

A key point to begin with

When I was just starting out as a trainer, it was enough for a participant just to ask me for some additional information for them to be labeled as “demanding”. Why? Because I did not yet have enough information and training experience, and, lacking these, I was afraid that I would not be able to give the participants what they required.

A few years have passed since then; now when I come across some demanding participants from time to time, I consider them to be my companions on a journey towards a common goal.

Wherein lies the difference? How is it possible that it is only rarely that I meet demanding participants? … Hm, is it just good luck that I only have pleasant, easy-going groups? No! It is

down to my progression. I am more experienced, and, in some things, I have matured and changed my attitudes. I have gained a higher level of both life and training experience.


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I often come across participants searching for tips on how to handle those “bad ones who always cause problems” when leading a presenta-tion workshop or when training future trainers. We are going to go over few ideas on how to handle demanding situations shortly; however, be-fore labeling someone as “difficult” we should stop and ask ourselves: What is the other person trying to tell me? Why are they behaving the way they are?

If I take a look at myself with complete honestly – can I say that I am doing the best for all the people involved? What if the participant who is trying to point out something is correct (e.g. whispering participants)? What if I do really need to think about the presented ideas or attitudes? (Hm, maybe the participants are bored?)

It is not particularly pleasant to hear someone criticizing what we are doing - telling us something needs changing, but what if they are right? What if others were also bothered by something, but there was only one person with enough courage to stand up and speak out?

The easiest reaction is to condemn such a person. To label them as “diffi-cult”, “unable” and I don’t know what else. But what if there is a grain of truth in what they are saying?

Can you guess what I am getting at? No matter how difficult the participant you meet is, before you label them, stop yourself and think whether there is something in the situa-tion that could be changed. Maybe the person is not a “problematic participant”. Maybe it is just you who needs to change something – in how you are leading the training, in your approach towards the participants, in your behavior… In the end we are also talking about your own personal and professional growth.

On the other hand – years of experience have taught me that whichever way a participant behaves they are “simply communicating their needs” (figuring out some information, changing what is happening, attracting attention). In such cases what I need to do is to decode their behavior and deal with their needs.

How to handle various situations?

We are going to look at the different types of situations you can encoun-ter. This list has been inspired by training sessions which I led focused on how to lead a training session and on presentation skills. During these sessions participants searched for solutions on how to handle var-ious kinds of situations.

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You ask a question and immediately they come back with an answer. You move on to fulfill the objectives of the training, as you are talking they come up with a funny remark that everyone has to hear. You con-tinue with the raised topic, and because you want to include the participants and not be the main person standing a stage, you ask a question. And who wants to answer? Of course! The super-active one. Usual-ly this is the person that sticks in the memory the longest after the training.

It is nice to have a group that includes people who want to and are willing to share their experience and thoughts. But how should a trainer behave if one participant’s voice is heard too often?

• Appreciate the participant’s activeness and openness … but also clearly suggest how you want the training to continue: “I ap-preciate your activeness John; however, it would be interesting to get to know the opinions of others.” And then you ask the same question to the other participants: “What experience do you have with this topic?” After this the best strategy is not to acknowledge, even non-verbally, the active participant. After such a clear expression of your stance, even very active types back off and leave space for others.

• If the active type wanted to yet again answer the next question as be-fore, again show some appreciation for their activeness, but first listen to the others and only then to the super-active participant: “John, I see that you can again offer us your opinion on this matter. I suggest we first listen to what others think of it and then, if you agree, you can share yours with us.”

After these interventions, the participant usually quiets down and leaves space for others to have their say.

What if there is a participant who is just too active?


Leadership & Management

TRAINING FOR SUCCESS - A Guide for Novice Trainers