Over the past few days I have been running a train the trainer project so that the trainer in question can roll out some corporate technical courses on site in our offices in the US. The sessions have been 1 on 1 which is great as both for the trainee and also the trainer to reflect on his/her personal techniques.
In addition to explaining the course material and how best to leverage them I also had to give the Trainer take aways in regards to general training techniques. He really put me on the stop when he asked me for a golden rule for attendance (class room) training. I had to think it over a bit and came up with one, create activity. If you are a trainer or a trainee I think this is a must, I shall explain.
I will always remember watching a Tony Robbins video (I am a big fan) in which he was running one of his famous motivational seminars in front of about 2,000 people! He mentioned, in the seminar, that you only retain 15-20% of information if you are passive in the session. Even if you just take notes, you can double that retention. Not because you can refer to the information in the future but because you are active and that activity helps you register the information and will helps you retain it and as such remember it in the future.
In John Steinbeck’s (also a big fan), To a God unknown, the protagonist Joseph Wayne when going onto his newly attained land for the first time and as such starting his new life he decides to do something physical that will help him in the future remember this life changing moment, so he decides to throw off his hat or stamp on it, I don’t remember correctly as I wasn’t actively reading the book. Later on he recalls the moment through that action.
The same holds true for training. For the same reason I believe in hands-on training labs that have a practical element. Obviously not all classes can have hands-on approach but you can get your students to be active in any class. So activity is not only content related.
If your contents are not very interactive you should encourage your students to stand up when they ask a question, get them up to the blackboard, when they stand up they should clap their hands etc, anything active will help them. You can also lighten the atmosphere and create a bit of fun by making people walk around there seats before they ask etc (options are endless).
At the start of the course you can explain this to them because there are always shyer students who do not like to be surprised, you could also do an ice breaker as well to warm up their active side.
I recently completed an MBA in which I implemented this active approach and personally it has been effective, I can remember key moments thanks to the actions; standing up, going to the blackboard, putting myself forward as a volunteer etc. So I have benefits from both sides of the train fence.
Take aways: If you are a trainer or trainee you share a common goal: you want to improve knowledge retention, whether it is your own or your students. A great way to do this is by being active. So take the initiative and get active, take notes, ask questions, stand up and clap when you do, walk around your seat etc.
So you know the theory, now do something physical to remember this post and see if it works. Something totally out of the norm, dance like Michael Jackson, it doesn’t matter what you do just do something and you will see if it works.
