No matter how you determine what types of courses are needed, it is important to remember: when developing the course, stick to the original concept. If more than one concept is considered during the planning process, break the concepts out into two workshops. Keep in mind that a productive workshop can and should be accomplished in less than two hours. Anything more than two hours, and you will lose your audience. Finally, during the actual training session, attempt to have at least one or two activi\ties to keep the participants minds active and to prevent sleeping or daydreaming.
While a training session and/or workshop may be effective, it may not always be the best approach. If the concept being introduced could be defined as elementary or common knowledge, create a "training alert." This form of communication is an excellent method to communicate and/or reiterate concepts that would be considered common knowledge or new job information. These training alerts should always be done in a bulleted format-and remember to add some flare and/or graphics to the piece of paper. Also, do not be afraid to use that flare in your color choice of paper. I have found through my work experience, that when staff members receive a piece of florescent green paper in their in-box, they are more likely to pick it up and read it, versus the white color paper memo that just went out from the boss!
Keeping the Learning Going!
Just a few ideas on this concept and I'll step down from the training soapbox!
1. if the capabilities are present and the department wants to have some fun while learning, develop a game! This game can be based on anything from Family Feud or Jeopardy! In either format, have the staff answer questions created by the department management, relating to work situations and/or people. It is amazing what people will remember from a fun situation versus a forced learning experience.
2. When conducting the training classes, attempt to keep them informative and light. While communicating the ideas is important, the number one goal should be to keep the staff entertained during the workshop. This can be difficult if you do not employ an animated trainer; however, most individuals that are in the training field are pretty animated!
3. Introduce the concept of blended learning to the department.Allow the staff to achieve their learning levels from different resources.While the training alerts and workshops are directly from management, challenge the staff to look on the Internet and/or library for other ideas to work in their department.Also, the associations that I discussed earlier could be a good resource.
Through all of this, what I would like the reader to remember is:
a. Learning can and should be fun.
b. Your staff members are sponges wanting to absorb knowledge; however, they want to learn concepts in a fresh and new manner.
c. Putting a twist to your current educational methods can help people become excited about learning.
Article courtesy of YellowBrix, Inc.
About the author: Jeffrey L. Bodimer is the training & development coordinator for UniGroup, Inc., in Saint Louis, MO. He can be reached by calling 636/ 349-829.
