The 7 Signs of BAD Training

 "The best advice for overcoming boring training presentations is to know your topic inside and out; create visual aids and handouts that are colorful, informative, and lively..."

by Theo Gilbert-Jamison
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Most people don’t look forward to attending training classes. Why? Because they are often facilitated by boring trainers. What many trainers fail to realize is that facilitating an interesting training session that is also memorable and lively takes lots of planning, practice, and preparation.

Whether you are facilitating a workshop for a large group or one person, you know your training session is lackluster when participants:

1. Uncontrollably yawn throughout your entire presentation. No matter how much they try, they have a hard time staying awake and energized during your presentation.

2. Keep looking at their watch. To them it seems like time is standing still, and no matter how much they try to keep track of time, your presentation feels to them like an eternity.

3. Start sidebar conversations during your presentation. Your topic is so uninteresting that they don’t hesitate to start a mini-conversation with the person sitting next to them, maybe even adding a joke or two about you.

4. Read through the entire training manual before you are finished. You belabor one point to the extent that they go ahead and just read the rest of the manual. While you are still focused on page 3, they have read all the way to page 15 just to make the time go by quicker.

5. Go to the bathroom and never come back. Once they get out of the training room, they feel a sigh of relief and feel sick at the thought of having to go back in and continue listening to you talk.

6. Doodle on your training materials. They feel that drawing is a way of escaping from your annoying, monotone voice and endless series of confusing information.

7. Have a blank stare, especially when you ask them a question. They have been daydreaming of being on some topical island throughout most of your presentation, and have no idea that you have called on them to answer a question.

The best advice for overcoming boring training presentations is to know your topic inside and out; create visual aids and handouts that are colorful, informative, and lively; animate your tone of voice so it is interesting and not monotone; don’t just stand in one section of the room, but walk around; add humor; and most of all get the audience involved by asking open-ended questions.

The Hidden Cost of an Untrained Workforce

   "Nothing ventured nothing gained is a timeless truism. Education takes investment, not just in dollars, but also in time, effort and planning..."

Jim Fitch, Noria Corporation 
Tags: industrial lubricants
 
Modern organizations call it raising the corporate IQ. Most of us have seen statistics on the lifetime financial returns of a college education. When it comes to education, a penny saved is not a penny earned, but rather green dollars forfeited - hundreds of them, all for the quest of a penny.

When it comes to lubrication and oil analysis, the unskilled and untrained workforce is deceivingly costly. These are the costs that go undiagnosed and unrecognized. What’s below the water’s surface and out of management’s view often has iceberg-like proportions. 
So why does an organization look to the maintenance payroll to make cuts in the name of survival and prosperity? For one, it’s conspicuous, like the iceberg’s tip. It is also indirect labor that is perceived as easier to sacrifice. Managers often take a Parkinson’s Law view of indirect labor, “the manpower it takes to do a job is directly proportional to the manpower available to do the job.”

We all know people who delay many projects until the last minute and then work feverishly to finish them. We also know those who start a project early enough but then subconsciously consume all the available time to complete it. 

So how does all of this relate to education? Many plants and mills across the country have gone through several cycles of downsizing. They have cut indirect labor to the bone. Parkinson’s Law no longer applies. In some cases these cuts were too deep and took their toll on morale and productivity. Instead of feeding the stars (value-generating programs like oil analysis) they starved them or terminated them entirely. The consequences of such desperate measures are usually a return to the past_increased repair cost and production losses to name a few.
 
But how does education tie in? Well, education enables management to have its cake and eat it too. It permits both cost cuts and productivity gains without the collateral damage. With labor already cut to the bone, education gives workers the figure-it-out skills to eliminate work orders proactively. Before a single man-hour is eliminated from the payroll in the name of “lean and mean,” the demand for that man-hour must be eliminated.
 
An educated workforce is an empowered workforce. Employees who are treated like company stakeholders know that waste and inefficiencies put their jobs at risk. Most of us have heard the terms precision maintenance and proactive maintenance. These are not merely abstract textbook concepts. Instead, for many organizations, especially those in mission-critical space, they are strategic imperatives. Realization occurs when human capital is transformed into intellectual capital. One company characterizes it as not just low-hanging fruit but rather gold bricks, on the ground, camouflaged from view. We need to pick up those bricks!

Nothing ventured nothing gained is a timeless truism. Education takes investment, not just in dollars, but also in time, effort and planning. So does formalized skill standards and certification. In some cases it might also take reinventing the maintenance persona. Many companies have replaced the word maintenance with reliability to punctuate a change from the practices of the past.

Management needs education too; otherwise they also won’t see the gold bricks on the ground. Very often, decision-makers who fail to embrace change and recognize potential, squash powerful new ideas. Indeed, it’s scary to invest in things we don’t understand. It’s time to understand! It’s time to start building charged-up teams of knowledge workers. Our jobs depend on it.

Jim Fitch

HOW TO PROMOTE INTERNAL TRAINING?

One important aspect a training divison should do is promotion. We mustn’t forget the opportunity to promote our wares and what a small or significant improvement we have done to make them better. This is where we say “we’re here, and we’re here to help”.
Occasionally, the case is, the training is great, if only someone would use it. Now there are many reasons why this wonder asset isn’t being used, most of the time the comment is “I didn’t know (such and such) training was available”.

Take this chance to show the rest of the team what you can do for them, what you have and why they need to continue their own development.
Vehicles for promoting your training

• Notice board: Don’t have a training notice board – get one right now. This is where your training plan and course nomination forms live. Also put up other resources (e.g. newsletters), suggestion and feedback forms, recent achievements and upcoming training opportunities.
• Ceremonies: I know that not all graduates of training enjoy the fanfare of receiving recognition in public, but it is a promotional opportunity. It tells the word what is available and rewards learning effort. It doesn’t need to go ‘all out’ and it could be a simple announcement.
• Press kit: Introduce yourselves to every new person who steps in the door and offer up your services. Give them a welcome pack that outlines what is available, where to find out more and who to contact.
• Word of mouth: Ask previous course participants for referrals. If they can spread the word and generate a buzz, it will circulate through the workplace quicker ("tell the others what you like, tell us what you don't")
• Guest presence: Attend workplace gatherings, especially those put together by your operational counter parts. You don’t actually have speak at any workplace gathering, just be there to answer questions and give out further information. You can also learn a thing or two about their needs.
• Audience with managers: Get one-on-one time with the other leaders and supervisors. Ask to help them with the performance reporting and goal setting for their direct reports. If your training becomes a part of an employees development plan, that’s a referral from the top.
• Start a newsletter: These are great for publishing the results of your efforts and the achievements of your students. It can also serve as an information pamphlet (additional resources etc), a request for feed back, an address book for contacts and a flier for upcoming events. Throw in a few work related quiz questions would be interesting!.
• Web presence: If you have an intranet, create a website. This is where your future prospects will find out what you have to offer when you’re not around to tell them yourself. This is also a great place to put additional information such as links to other web resources, recent news or fact sheets (incentive for past students to return).
• Information sessions: It doesn’t have to be a formal presentation or gathering, just make yourself available at a particular point for a particular period. Share a coffee or morning tea and even of nobody shows, it usually generates enough interest to increase your popularity for the next few days.

Promoting your efforts itself could generate interest to your activities. A well trained workforce is powerful assets; a desirable training generates a hunger to learn and motivates a team to become one.