If you’ve ever had your in-car GPS tell you to turn into the wrong street, or suddenly appear to get confused and make you miss an important turn off, or even tell you to turn into a street that doesn’t actually exist, then you’ll know how frustrating and time-wasting bad directions can be. Worse still, the GPS doesn’t apologise for poor directions. No matter how much you scream at it and no matter how frustrated you are, it just keeps telling you to do what it “believes” is right.

Just like trying to navigate the streets of an unknown city with a confused or incorrect GPS, for a trainer, attempting to deliver an effective learning experience for participants can be incredibly difficult if they’re faced with a poorly designed facilitator guide (or session plan). Badly designed facilitator resources can cause trainers to miss important directions, provide incorrect instructions and waste valuable training time. This isn’t the journey that you want your trainers taking participants on! It will most likely reduce the learning results and it could also damage your reputation as an Instructional Designer.

To help ensure your courses offer participants the best possible learning experiences, it’s therefore incredibly important to make your facilitator guides as trainer-friendly as possible. So let’s think about how your trainer will actually use your facilitator guide during a training session.

Most trainers or facilitators don’t want to hold a big folder or manual throughout the training session. I mean, yes, it would be a great work-out for them, but they’re not there to get their daily work-out. They’re in the room to give your learners the best possible learning experience and transfer the learning effectively.

As you’d know, most trainers will typically place the guide on a table at the front of the room and regularly glance down at it as they’re standing training. Knowing this tells us a lot about the best style and format for these documents. Some good instructional design tips around developing facilitator guides and resources are:

• Ring binders that contain drilled pages are often much better than permanently bound (spiral bound) manuals. This is because they allow the trainer to easily lift out one or more individual pages to read and refer to, rather than having to carry around the entire manual.
• Let’s talk about font size! It’s important to make your font at least 14 points in size. Remember, if your trainer tries to scan the guide while it’s placed on a table, the text needs to be big enough for them to easily read. I typically design my guides using a font size of 16 points.
• Another important element that assists readability is “line spacing”. Tightly crammed lines make it difficult to read from a distance. I typically recommend using either 1.5 or double-line spacing. This creates plenty of space around the words and makes it much easier for the trainer to read.
• It’s also important to allow plenty of white space on each page. Again, this will make it much easier for your trainer to read and quickly scan the instructions and content.
• Be sure to use a template that makes clear distinctions between the content the trainer has to deliver and the instructions the trainer needs to follow. For example, in a facilitator guide that uses a table format, place course content in one column and the trainer instructions in another column. If you don’t use a table format, you can also use text boxes around the trainer instructions and leave the course content outside the boxes.
• Use consistent language for your instructions. Your trainer wants to quickly and easily identify the actions they need to take and ask of their learners. For instance, when you want your trainer to display a PowerPoint slide, use the same language each time they need to reveal a slide, for example, use “Display slide …” each time a slide needs to be shown. Try not to jump between variations on the instruction, such as “Reveal slide …” and “Show slide …”. When you use consistent language, the trainer can read and understand the instruction at a glance far easier than when they need to check what the instruction is meant to mean. So keep your instruction as simple and consistent as you can.
• As the familiar saying goes “A picture speaks a thousand words” so using icons to represent various activities and instructions is a great way to include quick, visual prompts for your trainer. If you use icons, just make sure that they’re easy to distinguish from each other and don’t confuse the trainer. No matter what icons you use, be consistent with these as well.

So make sure you apply these instructional design tips so your facilitator guides and resources. This will support your trainers in providing an optimal learning experience for participants. Take time to developing an effective format and style for your facilitator guides and apply it each time your designing courses. Remember, the easier you make the trainer’s job, the more consistent will be your participants’ learning results.

• Plan your TNA thoroughly up front. Remember the 80/20 rule.  80% of the time is “planning” while 20% is “doing”. The better planned you are, the more efficient your TNA will be. Before you even start to collect any data clarify the following:
  • Who are the stakeholders?
  • Who will be making the decision?
  • What budget do you have to perform the TNA? Who is in control of the budget?
  • Who are the employees/teams and managers that will be involved in and affected by the TNA?
  • Who are the true subject matter experts?
• Organise a planning meeting with key stakeholders to discuss TNA expectations, budgets, deadlines, and roles and responsibilities.
• Asking stakeholders the right questions is crucial.  Put together as many of your questions prior to the meeting as possible.  Make sure you ask very specific clarifying questions during the meeting. Some key questions to ask the stakeholders include:
  • What do people need to do that they currently cannot do?
  • Where do they fall short or miss the mark?
  • What do the stakeholders believe is preventing their people from doing the task well?
  • If they were successful in the task/skill what would this look like?
    • What would they be doing?
    • How would they be behaving?
  • Why has this issue become a problem now?
  • What, if anything, could get in the way of the people being successful at the task/skill?
• Choose the most appropriate data collection methods that provide the best data about the performance gap. For example, if you’re analysing a drop in sales amongst a sales team you might choose to use a mixture of interviewing, sales report analysis and performance observations.
• Choose a range of different methods so you have a good balance of data. This will ensure you report on accurate data and establish the best recommendations.

A well executed Training Needs Analysis really is the foundation for a successful learning solution.  To design effective and relevant training make sure you do as thorough a TNA as possible. Without it your final training program may not actually bridge the learning gap or create the desired business results.

In one of our previous tips:  Optimal Voice Health (Part 1) we listed 7 things that trainers and facilitators can do to help support their voice.

Here are a few more to keep you actively managing your voice:

• Practice saying longer and more complex words out-loud before you use them in your training sessions.
• Drink plenty of water to keep your vocal cords well hydrated.
• When you’re speaking to a big group practice opening your mouth just slightly wider than you naturally would. This will help your sound to reach further and will help your diction.
• Stand or sit up straight. Correct posture opens your airways and helps you project your voice.
• When delivering training imagine that you’re speaking to the people at the back of the room. Adjust your voice volume accordingly, but don’t ever “raise you voice” or “yell” to achieve volume.
• Avoid dusty or smoky environments as these can play havoc on your voice.
• If your voice is tired or you’re struggling with it, spend a little bit of extra time in the shower or inhale over a bowl of steam to help your voice. While you’re in the shower, cup your hand near the running water and gently breathe the steam in from your hand to lubricate your vocal chords and get the maximum benefit.

Pick a few of these tips and practice them each time you train (and when you’re not training) and you’ll be surprised just how well your voice starts to respond.

It’s crucial that we support and look after our important “tool of the trade” to make sure that it keeps supporting us in the years to come.  After all, it’s the only voice we have…

Here are some great books that you can use to help with your voice use: 

1. Voice Power: Using Your Voice to Captivate, Persuade, and Command Attention
2. The Voice Book: Caring For, Protecting, and Improving Your Voice

As Learning & Development Professionals we have many tools of the trade that are crucial to our success.  One of the most important of these is our voice, because let’s face it:

Just as farmers need to look after their tractors to make sure they’re in great working order, as Trainers and Facilitators we need to look after our voice to make sure it’s in optimal condition and can support us day after day.

Here are some great tips to help you look after your voice in the training environment:

• Before you start your training session practice using smiling and yawning as warm up exercises.
• When you’re delivering training become aware of emphasizing and completing the final syllable of every word you say. Don’t drop the “ing”,”ed”,”s”,”th” or “ng” sounds at the end of words. This will encourage you to support your voice with your breath through to the end of each word.  It will also improve your diction.
• Pause regularly while training to catch your breath and relax your voice.
• Always have room-temperature water handy when you’re training or presenting. Your mouth and throat can get dry from talking a lot, so regularly sipping room temperature water can help this. Room temperature is best, because chilled water can actually do the opposite, constricting your vocal cords and your throat.
• To expand your lungs, and support your voice, gently, but quickly Inhale through your nose keeping your mouth closed.  You should feel your lungs expand. Practicing expanding your lung capacity can make a major difference to your voice use.
• Outside the training room, avoid unnecessary yelling, screaming or throat clearing as this can do damage to your voice. Swallow or take a sip of water rather than clearing your throat.
• Reduce or avoid substances that dehydrate your voice. This includes tea, coffee, alcohol and salty foods.  Yes, I know, I know – reducing these can be challenging, but they truly can make a big difference – especially if your voice is tired.

Even if you only practice a few of these tips, you’ll find your voice feels much healthier and has better stamina and endurance.

Of course if you lose your voice or suffer serious voice degradation when you train, or if you become aware of any other vocal problems make sure you seek medical advice.

It’s a great idea for any voice professional, such as trainers, facilitators and even consultants to make it a project to learn to use their voice better.  A great way to do this is to book an appointment with a speech therapist or professional voice coach. This will help you set up great vocal habits and avoid doing any damage.

Remember, you only get one voice and it really is a crucal “tool of your trade”, so make sure you take the time now to look after it. That way it will look after you for years to come…

Make sure you read our second tip 
“Optimal Voice Health (Part 2)”
to help you with your voice

Here are some great books that you can use to help with your voice use: 

1. Voice Power: Using Your Voice to Captivate, Persuade, and Command Attention
2. The Voice Book: Caring For, Protecting, and Improving Your Voice

So what’s the solution? Find ways to have them move and get out of their chairs while they’re in the process of learning.

Here are 5 great ways to get your participants out of their chairs in your training sessions while they’re still learning:

1. Give them clipboards

If you’re running a small group discussion activity, give each group a clipboard with paper and a pen and have them stand away from their desks to discuss the topic or questions they’ve been given. Let them know that they can return to their chairs when they’ve completed the activity.

Alternatively you can use clipboards for ‘interview style’ activities where learners are asked to interview each other on a particular topic. Have participants move around the room with a clipboard and interview at least 3 other participants before returning to their seat.

2. Use Flipcharts on walls

If you have an activity that requires your learners to solve a problem or answer some questions, instead of having discussions at their tables, break them up into small groups, place flipcharts on the walls, give each group some markers and get each group to brainstorm their ideas on the flipcharts. They can then present their findings from the flipchart. You may then use these flipcharts to have the groups move around and read the flipcharts from the other teams.

3. “Work station” activities

Another way to get your participants out of their chairs is to have them move to different ‘work stations’. Run an activity where your participants, working in pairs or small groups, have to solve certain problems at different ‘work stations’ throughout the room.

Each team may be required to spend a specific amount of time at each station focusing on the activity at that station. When the time is up, they would move on to the next one until they’ve worked at each station in the room.

These ‘work stations’ may be flipcharts on each wall or allocated tables and chairs. Even if you get them sitting at each work station, you are at least keeping them moving between them, which will keep their energy levels up.

4. Surveys across the room

Another great way to get people moving is to use your training room as a communication tool. When you want your participants’ opinion on a topic or issue then get them to communicate this physically.

One way of doing this might be using the corners of the room as styles or categories. For example, during a management training course a trainer may allocate each corner of the room as representing a specific management style. She may share a few different scenarios or stories about a team of managers. At the end of each scenario, she may ask the participants to decide what style of management was being used in the story and to stand in the appropriate corner of the room. This visually shows the opinions of the group while getting them out of their chairs. This can result in a very fruitful discussion.

Another way of using the room as a physical communication tool is as a physical rating scale. For example, the trainer may nominate a line in the room as being a rating scale for a particular skill or behaviour with one end-point being 10 (the highest) and the other end point being 0 (the lowest).

As an example, the trainer may then present a dialogue between a customer service staff member and a customer. She may then ask participants to physically stand at the position on the scale that they believe the customer service person’s listening skills would be. After discussion of this (while still standing) she may then ask them to move to the position on the line that the customer service person’s information providing skills were, and so on.

5. Energizers

Where it is challenging to integrate these types of physical activities into the learning part of the course, we can always incorporate ‘energizers’. Energizers are short training exercises that are designed to change the state of the room and help learners shift their thinking and get them ready for the next topic. Many trainers use them to simply re-energize, however, they also be used to add value to the learning process.

For example, if you want to review some content that you’ve covered earlier, you can combine it with an energizer to maximize the learning outcomes. Try the following:

• Have a set of review questions ready and ask all your participants to stand.
• Using a soft, Koosh ball, throw it to each participant randomly and ask them a review question.
• If the participant gets it right they throw the ball back to you and then get to sit down. But if they don’t get the answer right, they throw it back and remain standing.
• Then throw the ball to another participant and ask them the next question.
• Continue this process until everyone is back sitting in their seats ready for the next topic.

These are 5 great ways you can help your participants to remain focused, maintain effective energy levels for learning and keep them active. These are especially important for those difficult times of the day when they tend to get tired, such as the after-lunch lull.

When you keep your learners active, not only will they learn and retain more, but they’ll really enjoy your dynamic training.

So how can you help your learners to build the confidence they need to be successful in your training programs? Here are a few powerful tips:

• Firstly, be honest and set expectations up-front about the fact that learning new skills and information can be quite challenging. Even if you, as a trainer, don’t believe the information your offering is challenging, some participants will find it hard to learn. So let your learners know that it’s ok if they find it challenging and that this is part of the journey of learning new things.
• Create a ‘Mistakes are ok’ environment. Help your learners feel comfortable in making mistakes as they’re learning new skills. I always talk about this with my learners, regardless of the topic. I tell my participants that as human beings, the primary way we learn is by trying things and making mistakes. I tell them that if they’re not making mistakes, then chances are they may not actually be learning. This sets up a good ground rule and creates a great learning environment in my experience.
• If your learners have already experienced being successful when they’ve learnt something similar before, have them reflect on that process and on what they were telling themselves about the learning at the time. Ask them to put aside their fear and to remind themselves that they’ve been successful before, so they can be again. Remind them that they’re far more likely to be a successful learner if they approach the new topic or skill with an attitude of “I know I can learn / do this!”, rather than with fear and a negative belief.
• Use testimonials or refer back to other learners who have already completed the program and successfully took on the new information or skills. Emphasize to the current learners how much time and practice these others took to become successful to normalize the time and practice elements of the process of learning.
• Share your own experiences of learning the skills that you’re teaching. Let your learners know how long it took for you to become proficient.
• Explain how your learners will be supported back in their organization. Point out any relevant resources, tools and strategies that might help them build their skills and confidence.
• Provide as much opportunity to practice as you can during the training session. Give your learners positive and constructive feedback as they practice so they can keep doing what works and correct any mistakes that they’re making.
• Tailor the ‘skills practice’ exercises in the session to be as realistic as possible for the context that your learners will ultimately be using their newfound skills in. The more realistic it is, the easier they’ll find it to transfer the skills into that context when they return to their workplace.
• If you notice people putting themselves down about how difficult it is to learn or judging themselves harshly for being slow learners, provide them with positive feedback for the ‘small wins’ that they have had. Suggest that they notice the good steps rather than focusing on the negative. Emphasize the importance of breaking learning down into small steps and being “kind” to themselves as they learn. Positive feedback can greatly enhance their self-esteem and confidence.

When it comes to learning, many of us have really unrealistic expectations of how well or how quickly we should be able to learn things. These expectations can really damage our self-esteem and negatively impact our confidence and ability to learn. I often have a discussion with my learners about ‘getting real’ about our expectations. Some things I say to my learners around this include:

• Learning and building competence in new skills takes time and is different for everyone.
• Comparing yourself to an expert or even someone who learns a bit quicker than you is unfair and often increases your ‘learner’s block’.
• We’re all good at different things: that’s what makes us all unique. And this is a good thing. If you find that this topic or skill is one of the things that you’re not quite as quick to learn as someone else, that doesn’t mean you can’t learn it. It just means that it’s not your natural strong area or area of interest. If we were learning another topic, you’d probably find that the person next to you would be feeling anxious and you may be feeling good, so just persevere and be willing to learn at your own pace.
• Often we feel like ‘beginners’ again when we’re adding new skills to existing ones. We feel like we’re back at ‘square-one’ and our initial skill level seems to drop. This is completely normal and ok. With practice and perseverance you will overcome this hurdle.
• Learning will always take us out of our comfort zone. This is completely expected and normal. As you learn, if you notice that you’re feeling anxious or uncomfortable or a bit unsure, then remind yourself that feeling that way is a natural part of the learning process.
• And finally, be kind to yourself. Being overly critical of yourself as a learner is only going to get in the way of being successful.

By being aware of, and addressing, the anxiety and fears of our learners, not only do we impart great skills and knowledge, but we can also boost their confidence and help them to remove the barriers to their learning.

Henry Ford said: “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.” That saying is profound and well known because it’s true. The more confident people feel, the more easily they learn. Give your learners the sense that they can learn well and they’re sure to be more courageous and to become more successful learners.

Over my career as both an Instructional Designer and a trainer/facilitator, I’ve been in numerous situations where I’ve needed to design and deliver a new training program with very little time to get familiar and comfortable with the material.

We're often under pressure to learn new material...

For me to get comfortable with a new topic, not matter whether I’m designing or delivering it, I typically read lots of books, reports, articles and other relevant information. Many times I’ve found myself “cramming” late at night, early in the morning and even on buses and trains, so I can get as much information as possible into my head as quickly as possible.

Naturally I don’t believe I need to know “everything”, but the more information I can take in, the more confident I feel and the more I have to draw from throughout the course. This helps when I’m meeting with SMEs (subject matter experts) because the more I know the topic, the more willing they seem to be to engage actively in the course designing process. 

Trying to get my head around this much information can take lots of time and effort. After several stressful experiences of cramming for a new training program or topic I found myself wondering if there was an easier way. What if I could take in the same amount of information quicker and easier than I was? I was desperate for a flash of genius around this because I found that I was allocating lots of time to work and losing time for me and my family. I then heard that I could save time and effort by learning to speed read, rather than ‘snail read’. This sounded like the flash of genius I was hoping for. I realized that if I learnt this skill, I’d be able to:

• significantly reduce my course preparation time
• learn new subject matter fast and speed up my training design
• quickly eliminate irrelevant material and focus on the good stuff
• experience less anxiety about knowing my topic in time
• re-claim some of my time to do things for me!

It sounded too good to be true but I was willing to take the risk. So I set out to find a good speed reading resource. I looked high and low and finally found a 1 day course in speed reading which initially sounded too good to be true.  But I was willing to give it a go to see if it would help me… If it would, it would be the answer to my prayers. So I enrolled on the course and prepared myself to be the next speed reading champion.

The course day came around and I was eager to absorb the skills that were going to make my preparation a whole lot easier. I followed the instructions about ‘scanning’ the material in a specific way, and even though I seemed to be scanning the material fine, I realized that I wasn’t really comprehending what I was reading.

Now to be honest, there seemed to me to be a bit of a problem with the whole speed reading thing. What’s the point in scanning pages of printed words if I’m not taking them in?! I asked the trainer about how to comprehend better while speed reading, but the best she could offer me was to suggest I “practise”. Well at the time that wasn’t much help. I did try to practise, but try as I might, I didn’t feel I was getting it. I was definitely ‘scanning’, but definitely not remember or absorbing… At the time I lost interest, thinking it must be one of those myths.

So I must admit that I didn’t really get much benefit out of that course. I hadn’t walked out of there the speed reading champion that I’d hoped I’d be and with limited time to read the articles, reports and books that I needed, I had even less time to practice scanning without any understanding.

Then, a year ago, I found myself back in the same position of having to learn a heap of information for a new course in a very short period of time. So, still keen to find a way to absorb information faster and save myself some time, I was looking online to see if there was anything that would help me master this skill of speed reading. I came across a great resource that I was able to download immediately: The Extreme Speed Reading book by Julia Lee. It’s a quick and easy “no-nonsense” book that has really given me the straight-forward speed-reading techniques that I can use and actually believe anyone can learn.

This book has doubled my reading speed while maintaining my ability to comprehend what I’m reading. So it’s not a myth after all! I now have more time for me and my friends and family. I highly recommend that all trainers, Instructional Designers, and everyone else who needs to take information in quickly in this information overloaded world, get themselves a copy of Extreme Speed Reading and stop wasting valuable time reading too slowly.

Even if you’re already a good reader, I’m sure you’d find that the techniques that Julia Lee offers will help you to extend your reading and comprehension skills. You can find out more about Julia’s Extreme Speed Reading book by clicking here.

So make your job and life that little bit easier
by increasing your reading speed today!

Allowing time for learners to ask their questions is incredibly important to the learning process, even if we’re running late.   This is because when a learner has an unanswered question or is confused about a particular area, part of their brain might continue to try to work it out, and this can distract them from learning other topics throughout the training program.

Unfortunately, even though many trainers think they’re regularly asking for questions, some actually inadvertently block their learners’ willingness to ask questions.  Let me explain…

Some of the questions and statements that I’ve heard trainers say when offering their learners the opportunity to ask questions include:

• “Well, if there are no questions, we’ll move on.”
• “No questions?”
• “Well that was an easy topic…  Are there any questions?”

Have you caught yourself saying any of these? They’re certainly not very encouraging for your learners. In fact, they can send the message that you don’t really want any questions and that you’d rather just move on with the training. The last example above actually implies that your learners would have to be silly or stupid to have any questions about “such an easy topic”.  As trainers, this is definitely not the message we want to send to our learners! 

So what do you say to encourage questions from your learners?

One of the most commonly used methods is to ask: “Are there any questions?” It seems fairly straight-forward enough and it’s definitely better than those listed above… But is it really the best one to use? To be honest, it’ s not really! In fact, this question is a “closed question”, which means that you’re really asking your learners to decide whether they have questions. The automatic response to this close question would be for learners to answer “yes” or “no”. Once the learner has decided whether they have any questions, they would then need to formulate their questions. This adds a bit more thinking time, and let’s face it, you don’t need to waste any time in training.

I recommend bypassing this unnecessary step and going straight for the heart of the matter! Consider asking for learners’ questions in a way that says “Hey, I really want your questions!”  A great way to do this is ask:

“So…  what questions do you have about what we’ve just covered?”

Not only does this get your learners to really think about any questions they might have, but it also implies that there “will” be questions, which means that if a learner does ask a question, they won’t be seen as silly or stupid.  The other subtle impact of this method is that it shows your learners that you really want to help them by answering their questions, not just because the training guide says you should.

So in your next training session practise using “What questions do you have about …?” when inviting questions and notice how well your learners respond. Just don’t forget to pause after you’ve asked to give them enough time to think of those great questions.  Great questions really do deepen the learning and boost your learners’ outcomes and learning results.