You Can Create Engaging Training!

Training is an essential tool for leaders. But it must be done well. In this post, I'm going to cover ways to make training more engaging to maximize learning and retention.

Are "Learning Styes" A Real Thing?

It's popular for some trainers to believe that we have preferred learning styles such as auditory, visual, kinesthetic, etc.

According to prominent neurologist, Caroline Leaf, learning styles theory has been debunked -- or at least it has never been validated. So, it makes sense to instead use a mix of training methods.

So what DOES work?

Active learning is one validated technique for ensuring training "sticks." So, in this post, I'm going to focus on ways to implement active learning in your business.

Active Learning Techniques

Active learning is any activity that engages the learner in practice, thinking, discussion, writing, generation, or reflection.

Below are some techniques you can employ to make use of this validated learning tactic:

Invite someone to share

Ask a question to the audience and invite someone to stand and share their personal experience. People love to talk about themselves, so this often works wonderfully!

You can expound on their comment and often their remarks will help you think of news ways to spin your content.

Another benefit of this (and most of these techniques) is that it breaks up the monotony of having the audience listen to you the entire time -- SNOOZE!

Small group discussion

Break up the class in to small groups. Give them a topic to discuss or question to grapple with.

Optional - Have one person report back to the larger group.

Role playing

Do this in dyads or triads, followed by discussing how it went.

Be sure to be really clear about what the role play assignment is.

• What is the scenario?
• Who plays what role?
• Do they take turns?
• I recommend doing a demonstration of the role play, so they can see you do it.

Gamification

Nothing engages the crowd more than gamifying the experience. Create a game, teams, and a scoring system.

Here are some tips

• Use a tool like Sli.do or Kahoot to set up the game
• Make sure your determination of what is a "correct answer" vs "incorrect" is as objective and factual as possible - if there is wiggle room, they will argue - even if the only benefit the winners get is bragging rights. And you'll have egg on your face.
• Show the team scores often to keep the game competitive.
• Remember - the goal isn't determining a winner. It's creating an environment that makes them want to get the answers right and to engage with the content.

Individual Brainstorming

While I love small group breakouts, some people DO NOT like small groups. They get shy and don't participate well. These folks do better when they get quiet reflection time by themselves. This tactic is for them.

This tactic is also good for when you want folks to think deeply, think of ideas that are specific to their situation, or think of ideas which are sensitive or personal.

For example

• "Think of ways that you can apply this skill with your team."
• "Think of ways you have been disappointed at work."
• "Write down some personal goals you have at work."

To use this tactic, after presenting content, ask the audience to engage in individual brainstorming in writing. This can be done on a prepared handout you created in advance, on their own notebooks, or on sticky notes/note cards that you pass out. You can follow this with

• Asking participants to share some of their responses.
• Having them form small groups to discuss their responses.
• If they are unlikely to want to retain what they wrote and seeing all of the responses would be useful, you could have them pass their responses up to the front. The facilitator can read some/all of the responses. This tactic helps when you want the answers to be anonymous. OPTION: The facilitator can also stick all of the responses up on a board. OPTION: The facilitator can also place the notes in visible sections so the audience can see how the responses are categorized (this works best with sticky notes).
• Do nothing and let them keep their notes to themselves - this is best for cases when the brainstorming was personal and people are unlikely to want to share.

Conclusion

These are just some of the ways you can use active learning in your training and presentations. I assure you - if you use these techniques, then your training will be in the 90% percentile of effectiveness compared to your peers.

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Mike Lyons is an HR professional and consultant in the Austin, TX area. He can be found at TXHRGuy.com and on LinkedIn.