Training Doesn't Work

Training Doesn't Work

I know a trainer named Bob. Bob isn't just a trainer, he's a GREAT trainer. Bob is the Chuck Norris of training. If Bob were a test pilot he would be Chuck Yeager.
Bob reported to me a couple of years ago. As his supervisor, sitting in on one of his classes was a joy. I always learned a training trick or two watching him train.

One day while he was on break he came into my office looking puzzled. He told me that his current class wasn't responding to his training. He wanted to know if I would be willing to come in and tell him what he was doing wrong. "Sure," I said. Later I audited his class and watched him train. Bob he was brilliant. He slashed away at misunderstandings, stabbed at the main points of the module. He was doing everything right but the class was unmoved. It was then that I noticed the glassy eyed stare of the audience and I realized that they were zombies.

As trainers we've all been warned against trying to train the dead. It's the first rule they teach you in "trainer school." Bob was attempting the impossible. I took him aside during a break, as the class shambled out to the cafeteria. "Bob" I said, “you can't train these people...it's unnatural, they're dead."

Bob stood there and tried to figure out what he had done wrong. He realized that he had forgotten one of the basic rules of training. The class needs to know why they are in the training class and how they will be measured. He was so caught up in the advanced training techniques that he had gotten away from the basics.

Once Bob reopened the class he told them how the training would make their job easier. He amazed them with a syllabus and job aid of useful terms. The class came alive, they began to ask questions and take notes. Before I knew it, Bob was leading a discussion. The trainees were ecstatic, they were going to carry him out on their shoulders, but I told him it was an HR issue. It looked unsafe and they really should put him down.

Children learn because they're programmed to, they want to understand the world. Adults want to know what's in for them. If you can’t provide that information quickly, then you might as well be trying to train the dead. No matter how good a trainer you are, you can’t forget the basics.