Course Outcomes

This training-for-trainers workshop focused on activity design will:

  • Outline essential steps great trainers take to set the stage for participant-centered learning.
  • Suggest interactive methods for generating buy-in before training starts.
  • Provide participants with dozens of methods for transferring knowledge, explaining processes, and communicating standards and expectations.
  • Provide a forum for revamping existing content.

Course Overview

“That session was great!” “I wasn’t bored like I thought I would be!” “I never knew that paint drying could be so interesting!”  Reactions such as those are possible, even when a training topic is dry.  This course is designed for people who need to infuse energy into lecture-based programs.  During this workshop, participants will experience the value of participant-focused design and delivery.  Throughout the session, they will learn how to develop activities to transfer knowledge, teach processes, and communicate standards.

The lab-like nature of this course relies heavily on the participants’ existing content. Those who attend should bring sample programs with them.

Program Objectives

At this program’s conclusion, participants should be able to:

  • Describe actions they can take to lay a foundation for success before a session begins.
  • Ask questions that connect learning points to their learners’ existing experiences.
  • Leverage adult-learning principles when planning activities and exercises.
  • Avoid monotony by applying different methods for facilitating content.
  • Take advantage of teach-back opportunities and other exercises that illustrate skills transfer.

The following outline highlights some of the course’s key learning points. As part of your training program, we will modify content as needed to meet your business objectives. Upon request, we will provide you with a copy of participant materials prior to the session(s).

Workshop Outline

Prep Work: What Should Happen First

This program begins with an overview of the facilitator’s role in participant-centered training.  Through discussion and exercises, group members will discover the elements about which they must be clear before endeavoring to lead a program: scope; roles; expected outcomes; existing roadblocks; and available documents, processes, and programs to support the learners’ experiences before and after training. 

Environmental Hazards: Configuring the Classroom and Material Concerns

The wrong room setup can put a damper on a would-be great session.  This part of the workshop covers the art of blocking and the importance of planning movement for both the facilitator and participants throughout a training program.  This segment also addresses such training tools as charts, sticky notes, dots, cards, props, and manipulatives and their role in participant-focused delivery.

Getting a Baseline: Where Are They Now?

How do you know that your training worked if you don’t know where people were before the session started? Good question.  The answer?  You assess them before a session starts and at its conclusion.  This workshop component examines the importance of meeting learners where they are in participant-focused training and evaluating skills transfer. During this part of the program, group members will discuss formal and informal ways of establishing a baseline at the beginning of a program and measuring transformation throughout a session.

Buy-In Counts: Getting People Interested

Great training can get off to a rocky and sometimes unrecoverable start if the participants don’t know why they’re there, don’t understand how the information shared will benefit them later, don’t feel comfortable with the other participants, or don’t have the foundation skills to understand what’s being discussed.  This part of the session demonstrates the importance of buy-in and methods for focusing participants, reducing risk in the classroom, encouraging a “try it” attitude, and connecting course material with the real world.

Data Matters: People Believe What They Generate

People don’t argue with their own data, and skilled facilitators take advantage of that fact by creating opportunities throughout their programs for participants to generate information. In other words, they subscribe to an attitude of “ask” and not “tell.”  During this portion of the workshop, group members will look at their existing programs and identify opportunities to leverage the participants’ knowledge and experiences.  Next, they will begin plotting their programs on a session planning map.

Leading with PEP: (Patience, Encouragement, and Practice)

Patience, encouragement, and promoting practice are three characteristics effective facilitators share.  In this part of the seminar, we will look at the behaviors associated with each. We will pay careful attention to the words and actions facilitators who have these traits exemplify and the importance of those characteristics in facilitating participant-focused material.  Next, group members will revisit their training plans and identify opportunities to add PEP to their programs.

Let’s Look at the Math: The Fun-to-Learning Ratio

Years after a “fun” classroom experience, most participants can tell you about something they learned without having to reference notes.  Why? Because fun is sticky – not in a spilled-pancake-syrup way, but in an “I remember that because I liked it” sort of fashion.  This central part of the course examines methods for making training engaging and meaningful.  During this segment, participants will learn how to use objects, pictures, role plays, case studies, and other tools to pump up the fun in their programs.  Throughout the module, they will experiment with their existing programs and look for ways to infuse activity.

But Wait, There’s More: Teach-Back Moments

Nothing says success in training like a successful teach-back demonstration.  This portion of the seminar examines the value of teach-back opportunities and various methods for incorporating them in a training session.  Working with their session plans, participants will look for opportunities to use this tool throughout their programs.

The Reveal: Walk Us Through Your Makeover

In the final part of this course, participants will show the rest of the group their before and after workshops. Time allowing, they will lead others through their courses and demonstrate how they’ve adjusted their approach in order to put participants first.

At the program’s conclusion, those who attend will have an arsenal of tools they can immediately use to enliven their training sessions and encourage people to remember what they’ve learned.