Know when, where, what, who

It seems logical that you would know the logistics of a training site, yet every facilitator I’ve met has encountered at least one training nightmare. Some (not all) of these could be prevented by additional preparation. These questions may help you obtain the right information, but it will do you little good if you don’t write the answers in a safe place.

• When: When is the training session? Day? Date? Time? Also, do you have enough time to prepare? Is the amount of allotted time for the amount of content adequate?
• Where: Where is the session? On-site or off? If off-site, is it easy to travel to the location? How do you get there? What’s the address? Telephone number? Will you need to make travel arrangements? Is public transportation available? How do you get materials to the site?
• What: What kind of training is being expected? What resources are required? What kind of facilities are available? What will you need?
• Who: Who is the key planner? Who are the participants? How many? What’s their background? Why were you chosen to deliver the training? Who is the contact person at the training site? How do you reach that person on-site and off?

Lots of answers. Write them down.

Room arrangements

Your room may have significant impact on your training session. Arrange the room to support the learning objectives and the amount of participation you will desire.

Typically you will not have the opportunity to select a room. However, if you do, consider the attributes that will create the best learning environment for your participants.

• Size: Arrange for a room to accommodate the number of participants. Remember that a room that is too large can be as bad as one that may be too small. If it is large, pull the tables together close to the front to create a warm and friendly grouping.
• Training requirements: If the training session entails many small group activities, determine if there is enough space in the room. If not, arrange for additional breakout rooms to accommodate your needs.
• Accessibility: Ensure that the room is accessible to all, including those who have limited mobility.
• Location: If participants need to travel (either by foot or vehicle) to the session, the location should not pose a hardship, for example, walking in rain, or parking difficulty.
• Convenience: Readily accessible restrooms, telephones, snacks, lunch accommodations, and so on help ensure that participants return on time following breaks or lunch.
• Distractions: Select a room that is free of distractions and noise. Thin walls with a sales convention next door may not create the environment you’re trying to establish for learning.
• Obstructions: Select a room that is free of structures such as posts or pillars that may obstruct participants’ views.
• Seating: Select a location that provides comfortable, moveable chairs. Seating arrangements should further enhance the learning environment you wish to establish. Determine what’s most important for the learner. There are probably two dozen ways you could set up the training room The seven seating arrangements in Figure 7-1 are typical. Consider the advantages to your participants for each arrangement. Table 7-1 provides guidance about why you may select each.

• Furniture: In addition to decisions about the seating arrangements and the kind of tables you prefer, you will want a table in front of the room for your supplies and equipment. Don’t allow too much space between the table from which you will present and the front participant row. I usually allow just enough room for me to squeeze through when I move from the table to roam about the group. Reducing the amount of space between you and the learners increases the affect level in the room. It closes the distance between you and the trainees both physically and emotionally. The participants feel better about you, themselves, and the training session.

  You may also want to consider positioning a table for refreshments in the back of the room. Located there, it can be easily serviced throughout the day. One more thing. Don’t forget the wastebasket! In my experience neither training rooms nor hotel conference rooms have wastebaskets. Remember to ask for one.

• Lighting: Lighting should be adequate. Dimly lit ballroom ambiance will not promote energy in a training session. Is the lighting bright enough? Is it natural lighting? If the room has windows, which direction are they facing? Can windows be darkened, if necessary? A morning sun coming up behind your projection screen will blind the participants and wash out the image on the screen. Know where light switches are located so that you can brighten or darken the room as needed.

• Workable walls: Most trainers hang flipchart pages on the walls: the session objectives, small group work, and so on. Be sure to use blue painters tape, Some tapes are so strong that they remove the paint from the wall. Is wall space available or do windows surround the room? Does art cover the walls or are they open? Usually the front of the training room should be opposite the entrance to avoid distractions when folks come and go. Is that possible in the room you’re considering?

  Use markers that absolutely do not bleed through so there is no danger of ruining walls. The only brand that I know lives up to this expectation is Mr. Sketch. Not only that, but they smell good as well — scented like cherry, mint, orange, licorice, and blueberry!

• Climate control: You will never be able to please everyone in your session. However, if you have the ability to adjust it yourself, you can try. Determine where the thermostat is located and whether you have any control over it. Experiment with it while you set up the room. Does it respond quickly or slowly? Do you need to contact someone to make adjustments? Obtain that person’s phone number.

  When adjusting thermostats, make changes one degree at a time and give the equipment time to work. Large changes in the thermostat will cause a once too-cool room to become too warm.

• Microphone: If you have a large room or a large group or the room has poor acoustics or you have a tiny voice, you may need a microphone. Check the room to ensure it is wired for a microphone.

Equipment and visuals

It seems that if anything goes wrong that interferes with conducting the training session, it will have something to do with the equipment.

Your media and visual equipment — DVD player, projector, flipcharts — all help participants understand the message faster and easier. But when something goes awry, it can spell disaster. Preparation can prevent some potential headaches.

Preparing participants: What works?

How do you help prepare your participants before the session begins? I have found all of these to work:

• Connect with them before the session. An email will do; a letter is better. Let them know what’s in it for them (Bob Pike calls this radio station WII-FM) by relating it to their job. Will the session make their job easier? Will it enhance relationships? Will it show them how to manage time better? Tell them about it.
• Send a welcome email stating the objectives of the class. Provide an email address or phone number and welcome them to contact you if they have any questions.
• Send the agenda.
• Send a handwritten note introducing yourself and stating why you’re looking forward to working with this group.
• Send a puzzle or brain teaser that arouses their curiosity about the content.
• Send a provocative statement or question that makes them wonder what you’re up to.
• Send a cartoon that is pertinent to the session.
• Send the welcome letter in a unique way. One example to send it in a paper bag. I then used the paper bag as a theme throughout the session; for example, participants were encouraged to write an issue on an index card and place the card in a provided paper bag, thus “bagging” their issue until later.
• Send participants a roster of who will attend the session.
• Send them specific logistic information. Where is the training site? What room? Where can they eat lunch? What time will lunch be held? Will they be able to check their emails? Where can they park their cars? What’s the closest metro station?
• Get them involved early by sending them a questionnaire and using their responses to tweak the agenda and incorporate their needs.
• Provide participants’ supervisors with a discussion sheet to review. Ask the supervisors to discuss what they hope the participants learn and apply in the workplace.

Unique virtual participant preparation

Connect with your virtual participants several times prior to your session. You can use any of the suggestions in the previous section. In addition, you will want to ensure that they know how to set up their computer, test their connection, and ensure appropriate software is downloaded. Provide them with suggestions about how to create an appropriate learning environment and minimize distractions.

Encourage participants to join ten minutes early. That will give you an opportunity to greet each person by name. If you want, you could turn on your webcam even if you won’t use it throughout the session. Invite them to do the same. Can you grab their attention during these ten minutes?

• Post a set of rolling quotes pertinent to the content.
• Post a rolling set of slides that display the session logistics.
• Play music.
• Invite participants to connect via chat; the social element is especially useful for ongoing sessions with the same participants.
• Show a series of interesting and surprising facts about the session content, such as “Did you know that 9 out of 10 people fear speaking in front of a group more than they fear death?”

In typical face-to-face classes, trainers spend the first session allowing participants to learn about each other. This practice is just as important in an online setting as well. As a first assignment, have participants submit a post to the group outlining their interests as related to the course and outside the course. You could ask that they do this in written or video format.

According to Cindy Huggett, author of The Virtual Training Guidebook (ASTD, 2014), virtual trainers are often frustrated because their participants are not engaged. She believes it is because proper expectations have not been established with participants. It is your responsibility to ensure that your participants know that they need to at least set up their computers, complete the prework, select a place where they can concentrate, and to minimize distractions.

Darlene Christopher suggests that if you have large files to send to participants, post them online using tools like Google Drive or Dropbox and tell participants how to download them to their computers.

Preparing participants: What doesn’t work?

Through many years of experience, I have also found things that do not work. Don’t bother with these!

• Don’t send lengthy preread material. It will only be read by two people and they will complain.
• Don’t send short preread material. It will be read by 30 percent, ignored by 30 percent, and lost by 40 percent.
• Don’t ask them to write more than a half a page. Virtual classroom participants recognize that they must complete prework assignments and are more likely to so than those in a traditional classroom.
• Be sure you have management support. If participants sense that management is not behind the training, you will expend a great deal of energy on the issue during the session. Participants may be discouraged when they walk into the session,
• Don’t send more than one email. If you must send an email, be sure that you have included everything and that everything is correct, so that you don’t need to send a second email to correct the first!
• Don’t do nothing. That’s right. Nothing doesn’t work, either. Make at least one contact with participants prior to the session.

Prepare to avoid crises

The key to handling crises in the classroom, those unexpected events that crop up at the most inopportune moments, is prevention. The experienced trainer is a close friend of Murphy and his laws of random perversity. A trainer knows that “If something can go wrong, it will.” As a result, experienced trainers will take every possible step to ensure a problem can be prevented. Furthermore, they have some contingency plans ready if something actually does go wrong. These pointers will help you prevent catastrophes during the training session.

• Go through your presentation thoroughly. List every single logistic detail as you come to it. After you have done this for the entire program, create a checklist for yourself. Review this checklist one week before the program, three days before the program, the day before the program and the morning of the program. This ensures that you have thought of every detail on time.
• Have your handouts and visual aids prepared early enough so that they can be thoroughly proofread and checked to see whether they are in the proper order. If something is wrong, you will have time to correct it.
• Don’t assume that, just because you reserved a room, it will be there waiting for you. Reservations and room schedules have a unique way of canceling themselves. If you’re making a reservation at an outside facility, write down the date and time you made the reservation, the name of the person who took your reservation and the confirmation number. If you’re scheduling a room internally, write down the date and time you made the reservation and the name of the person who scheduled the room.
• One week before the program call to ensure the room is still being held. Do the same thing the day before the program.
• Even if the room is available, don’t assume it will be set up as you requested. To help the facilities people arrange the room, provide them with a detailed diagram of how you want the room.
• The day before the program, you should call to remind them that you want the room set up that day. If that is not possible, get their commitment to have it set up at least two hours before the program is scheduled to begin.
• Get the name of a contact person who will be at the training site on the day of the training. That person can help you locate any missing materials or fix (or replace) any broken equipment.
• Arrive at least one hour early on the day of training. This gives you time to set up your own materials as well as time to tend to any last-minute crises. You may be the one who actually tidies the room, arranges (or rearranges) furniture, sets up and tests the equipment, and makes last-minute arrangements.
• Know how to change the light bulb for any projection equipment and make sure there is a spare available.
• Because of the possibility of last-minute crises, have your presentation completely prepared and rehearsed before you arrive at the training site. If you plan to do it when you arrive, you may get distracted. Then, when it’s time to begin, you will not be prepared.
• If you’re flying to the training program, either send the materials (insured) well in advance or take them on the plane with you. This will prevent you from having to worry about them getting lost en route.

When I travel to a site, I pack one master set of participant material in my carry-on luggage. If the participant materials are not there for any reason, I can at least have copies made to get the session started.

Of course, no amount of preparation can ensure that your program will go off without a hitch. Use these tips to deal with catastrophes during the presentation.

• If equipment fails, calmly look at the equipment and check for obvious problems (accidentally turned off, became unplugged, and so on).
• If you’re uncertain about how to fix it, ask for volunteers from the participants. There are usually one or two handy people in every program.
• If no one can pinpoint the problem, give the group a five-minute break while you find help.
• If help cannot be found or if the problem is not fixable, rearrange your agenda to delete the activity or to have it at a later time when the equipment is fixed or replaced. This requires that you’re absolutely prepared, know your program forward and backward and are flexible enough to see new linkages and sequences.
• Use group problem solving or brainstorming to come up with alternatives to any problem (for example, overcrowded room, broken air conditioning, missing handouts).
• Be prepared for any type of participant response. You may have a group that refuses to participate, or you may have one where all the individuals talk at once. Have a plan for facilitating any type of group.
• Use humor to diffuse unexpected situations. Check some of the ways to add humor listed at the end of this book.
• Most importantly, keep your cool. A crisis situation only becomes a crisis when you treat it that way. If you maintain your composure under any circumstance, your participants will assume everything is under control.

Prepare for Virtual ILT

Almost all the advice for physical classroom trainers also pertains to virtual classroom trainers: Know your training style, find out who’s in your session, practice, create your personal checklist, and stay organized during the session. A few things are unique, such as:

• Meet with your producer.
• Test your audio.
• Write and post marketing content via your selected method.
• Ensure that the registration and enrollment are tracked.
• Distribute materials via email or a central repository.
• Communicate with participants to ensure that they know how to set up and test their computers, disable pop ups, close their email, post an out-of-office message, and other steps to ensure they can focus on their professional development.

If your organization has a LMS, most of the preparation before the session will be automated and save you time. The drawback, however is what our profession is built on — personalization and connecting with our learners. There may be times when you want to reach out to your learners, especially if some will be new to the technology, if this is the first of several consecutive events, or if your audience is global.

Identifying your training style

Even if you have never trained a day in your life, you have already developed a training style. Like everyone, you have developed preferences in life. How you give directions to strangers. How you explain a task to colleagues. How you clarify information for your spouse. You have developed a preferred way to do each of these and they provide clues about your training style.

Several instruments exist to assist you to identify your training style. You may wish to complete one to determine your style. Most suggest that there are four styles. You may have learned about your communication style, managerial style, or leadership style in the past. The most important correlation between training style theory and other style theories is that all styles are appropriate for different situations. There is no right or wrong style.

What is most important to know about training styles? Consider these elements as you prepare for your training session. Chapter 11 discusses training style in more depth.

• Everyone has a preferred training style that has been developing over the years.
• All styles are appropriate for various situations.
• Each style has advantages and disadvantages.
• Learners each have preferences too, and each of the training styles affects individuals in different ways, some helpful and some less so.
• The most successful trainers will be those who are flexible, that is, they can adapt their training style to meet learners’ needs.

When you consider all the information based on the research about training style, one concept remains at the focal point. Trainers must be learner-focused. They must view themselves as facilitators of learning and guides to the learners. The learners are central to the training experience. Table 7-2 clarifies the differences between being learner focused and training focused. Keep these in mind as you move forward in your growth as a trainer.

Most research and common opinion favors a learner-focused approach to training. This is one reason some organizations use learning and development to define their training departments.

What you call yourself is less important than what you do. And what you do as a trainer is to ensure that learning takes place and that the learning is transferred to the workplace, where performance improves.

Find out who’s in your session

You will want to learn as much as you can about the individuals who will attend your session. You may have already obtained this information when you conducted the needs assessment. And you designed the session based on that information. Now you may want more specifics.

Obtain a roster as soon as it is available and then identify those factors that will help you plan the level, pace, and focus of your session.

• Their jobs in the organization
• Their levels of responsibility and authority in the organization
• Their understanding of the subject matter, any definitions you may need to clear with them early
• The reason they are attending this training that may include: voluntary, mandatory, lack of performance, new skills, new employee
• Their opinions about the training session
• Unique personalities that may include informal leaders, outspoken employees, decision makers, experts
• Assumptions they may bring with them
• Negative concerns: hot buttons, corporate issues, negative experiences

Learn what you can about the participants’ schedules. Find out what the group will be doing just before the training and immediately following the training. If the session starts early or runs late, determine whether anyone is in a car pool or on flex-time that will affect their attendance. If the session is off-site, learn what you can about the ease to reach the location, traffic, or parking concerns, and ease to locate the room.

Practice, practice, practice

Master the content of your training session better than you ever imagined. If you were lucky enough to design and develop the session, you have a head start. You were involved in the research and discussions so you have experienced the design and the decisions for what needs to be included. You have read the background information. You know more about the subject than what is included in the training session. Whether you will deliver your content in person or virtually, practice will make you feel more confident.

• You may still want to practice some portions of the session. You may want to practice the activities with a small group to determine timing or whether the results garner what you anticipated. This is a good test to find out whether the directions are as clear as they need to be. Perhaps questions arise that you cannot answer. These may still happen during your training session; you can’t control that. However, a practice run will still uncover critical flaws or omissions.
• Practice the mechanics of the presentation. If you’re revealing something to the participants, determine the best time to provide the handout or show the picture or switch to the next slide in your virtual session to maintain the surprise element.
• Practice the theatrics. If you’re telling a joke or a story with a punch line practice it out loud. If you need to show emphasis through pronunciation, with pauses, or through inflection, practice out loud. If you need to demonstrate something or use gestures to explain something, get feedback from someone.
• Practice in the room where you will actually conduct the training. This helps to make the room feel like home.
• Video yourself conducting some of the activities or delivering the presentations. Review the recording and decide what you still need to polish. An audio recording works just as well for your virtual session.
• Identify questions you will want to ask at specific points of your presentation to elicit another perspective, to check for understanding, or to generate audience participation.
• Anticipate questions the participants may ask. Plan your answers to these questions. No, you will not think of everything, but you will think of some and this is a good exercise.

Practice is important and you will want to invest time in practicing. However, what you put in your head is more important than what you put into practice. In other words, know your material. Read as much as you can about the subject. Tap into your subject matter expert (SME) for extra tips. Observe the process. Do the process yourself. Know your material.

Tips for staying organized

Your participants will notice how organized you are. It is a sign of professionalism. Get organized. Stay organized.

Prepare your body and brain

Learn to relax your body. Use whatever technique works for you. Some trainers see a mental image of relaxing each body part from the top of their heads to their toes.

Learn breathing techniques. Slow, deep breathing lowers your heart rate and increases the amount of oxygen flowing to your brain.

Be prepared to give yourself a rousing pep talk. You know ten times more than any other person in the room. You’re well prepared. You have memorized your introduction, and your media and visuals are well designed. Your participants are looking forward to being in this session with you. So go out there and let ’em have it!

Prepare yourself by knowing what you will drink before and during the training session.

• Avoid coffee. If you’re new to training, your nervousness may prevent you from counting how many cups you’re drinking. Adding additional caffeine to your presentation anxiety may create a bodacious buzz!
• Avoid dairy products — for example, milk, yogurt — to prevent mucus build-up requiring you to clear your throat.
• Avoid sugary liquids such as fruit juices and sodas; they coat your vocal cords.
• Avoid icy beverages because they constrict your vocal cords.

Okay! What’s left? Room-temperature or cool water, warm water with lemon, herbal teas, and decaffeinated teas or coffee. Remember this is just to get you through the first few hours. Later, when your nerves have calmed down, you can switch to one of your favorite drinks (nonalcoholic, of course!)

Travel if you must

Travel can be fun and exhilarating or it can be painful and exhausting. This list of tips for preparation will assist the trainer who travels to training sites.

• Buy wheels. You will need to schlep lots of things. Make it easy on yourself and purchase luggage on wheels.
• Pack your carry-on luggage as if the rest will not arrive.
  • The clothes you intend to wear the first day.
  • Personal hygiene supplies.
  • A master of the participant materials and all support supplies.
  • Your PowerPoint presentation.
  • Your trainer’s manual or notes.
  • A mini set of the supplies you depend on: couple of markers, pack of index cards, post its packed in a zip-lock bag.
• Send participant materials and supplies ahead if you can. Call several days ahead to ensure that they arrived.
• Personally talk to the contact person for directions to your hotel and from the hotel to the training site. Email a copy of your flight and hotel information to the person.
• Exchange home and cellphone numbers with the contact person, especially if you’re flying in on a Sunday for a Monday training session.

The procrastinator’s checklist

Are you a procrastinator like me? Don’t have time to read this entire chapter? Here’s a quick-and-dirty checklist of what you need to do when. The following list is particularly good if this is the first time you present. On the other hand, if possible, this is the list I prefer to use each time.

Last-minute virtual session preparation

You have some similar steps to remember as you prepare for a virtual ILT. During the couple of hours before your session starts, you will want to follow a checklist something like this one:

• Have two computers set up: one to log into as the facilitator, and one to log in to the class as a participant so you can see what the participants see. The second computer could also serve as a backup if necessary.
• Clear the workspace and set it up with everything you need to deliver the training session.
• Check in with your producer.
• Post an out-of-office message on your email with information about how to reach the producer if someone has technical difficulty.
• Review the participant list and have it nearby.
• Place your water to maintain hydration on your workspace.
• Check all technology connections.
• Load polling questions, open whiteboards, check participant privileges or other steps that prepare the virtual classroom.
• 15 minutes prior to the starting time, dial into the conference calling software.

Being prepared to succeed

There you have it, the long and the short of preparation — list that is. As a trainer you will find that practice and preparation can make your training session all that you had hoped it would be. And that’s something that you knew before you read this chapter.

To paraphrase Bob Pike from the beginning of this chapter, Publius Ovidus (43B.C.–17A.D.) said, “Practice is the best of all instructors.”