In This Chapter

Introducing the training and development profession

Assessing your skills and abilities as a training and development professional

Determining the importance of developing others

Exploring the many hats of a 21st century trainer

So you want to be a trainer — a talent development professional. Or perhaps you already are in the field, and you’ve picked up this book to enhance your skills. In either case, this chapter helps you understand the profession and what’s expected of those who develop others.

Having a role in training and development (T&D) is one of the most exciting jobs anyone can have. Although a trainer’s role has changed substantially over the past decade and is currently going through another metamorphosis, many of the positive aspects always remain with the job. First, as a trainer you impact the work of many people — not only the learners with whom you work but also supervisors, senior management, clients, vendors, and perhaps even your company’s board of directors. As a trainer, you have access to many people and can develop a broader picture of your organization’s needs. Trainers are usually good communicators with good information. People listen to you.

In addition, training is exciting because it is a job that is an integral step in an organization’s efforts toward change and improvement. You may be a part of defining the organization of today, envisioning the organization of the future, and helping to incorporate the changes necessary to create the new organization. As a trainer, you have the opportunity to influence the direction your organization takes and how it gets there.

Take a proactive stance in shaping your career. To be the most effective trainer, find out all you can about the organization in which you work. What are the primary issues and priorities it faces? Partner with those who lead your organization and find out how you can help them. Where are the pressure points that affect the bottom line? Identify how your work can positively impact the bottom line, given that you’re in a unique position to impact others. At the same time, remember to also take the opportunity to impact your career.

In this chapter, you answer three big questions.

• What is training and development and who uses it?
• What do trainers do?
• Do you have what it takes to be a trainer?

What Is Training and Development?

We’ve all been in training since the day we were born. You have been learning and changing into the knowledgeable, skilled adult you currently are. Everyone has received training, and we have also all developed others. If you ever demonstrated the phone system to a new employee, advised your boss regarding changes in your department, or explained a shortcut for completing a task to a colleague, you were conducting training.

Training is about change. It is about transformation. It is all about learning. Training is a process designed to assist an individual to learn new skills, knowledge, or attitudes. As a result, individuals make a change or transformation that improves or enhances their performance. These improvements ensure that people and organizations are able to do things better, faster, easier, and with higher quality.

What Do Trainers Do?

The trainers’ roles, they are a-changing, and many new roles are currently being defined in the T&D arena. The following list provides just a sample of the trainer roles and titles that are emerging.

• Career coach
• Chief learning officer
• Competency expert
• Computer-based training designer
• Continuous learning coach
• Corporate trainer
• Courseware designers
• Curriculum development specialist
• Employee development specialist
• Executive coach
• Facilitator
• Global T&D facilitator
• Instructional designer
• Instructional technologist
• Instructor
• Knowledge manager
• L&D specialist
• Leadership trainer
• Manager of strategic initiatives
• Media designer
• Multimedia engineer
• OD consultant
• Organizational effectiveness specialist
• Performance analyst
• Performance consultant
• Performance technologist
• Talent development professional
• Technical trainer
• Virtual facilitator
• Workforce diversity director
• Workplace learning and performance professional

Even though the preceding list uses wildly different words and appears to be quite diverse, all of these roles play a part in ensuring that people gain knowledge or skills, or change attitudes. In the “Why training is necessary” section in this chapter, I mention that beginning trainers usually start with interventions that design and deliver knowledge and new skills. This traditional “training” role remains the mainstay of the profession. For ease of my writing and your reading, I refer to all roles as training.

The 2014 ATD State of the Industry Report says that almost 70 percent of learning involves a trainer, and this is unchanged from previous years. Fifty-five percent occurs in an instructor-led classroom, nine percent utilizes an online instructor, and five percent is led remotely by an instructor.

The two roles (design and delivery) can be further subdivided into two main categories. All training professionals are involved with designing and/or presenting a learning experience. Whether you design, deliver, or do a bit of both, you have two aspects to master: content and process.

• Content: Whether you’re designing or presenting, you need to truly understand what others need to know about the topic. Get inside the topic and find out more than what’s offered in your trainer’s manual. Ask more questions of more people if you’re designing. Talk to subject matter experts, often called SMEs in the profession. The content is based on your organization’s needs.
• Process: Both design and delivery have methods that you incorporate into your training task. Design methods incorporate skills such as designing participant materials, incorporating adult learning principles, and selecting methods for the perfect blended learning program. Delivery methods incorporate skills such as facilitating group process, presentation skills, and managing disruptive participants. This is true for both face-to-face and online learning.

This book provides tips and techniques for both content and process.

The Many Hats of a 21st Century Trainer

The 21st century trainer wears many hats, so every day is different. Here’s a typical “atypical” day for one trainer:

• Jose has been with Honesty Parts and Services (HPS) for several years. He started out in the marketing department but enjoyed one of his interpersonal communications classes so much that he decided to apply for a job as a trainer in the learning and development department.
• Jose’s director reports to the Chief Learning Officer, who works with other leaders in the organization to determine a strategic direction and goals. Everything that the department does is aligned with the organization’s strategic direction. When one of the department heads contacted Jose’s director requesting the department design a training program, she first checked to ensure organizational alignment. Next she conducted a performance assessment. After she determined that training was the solution, she turned the project over to Jose and a team that included an instructional designer, a subject matter expert, and a computer-based training designer.
• Jose and his team spent the last few weeks designing a blended training program that would meet the needs of the department. The team started with the assessment results and clarified the requesting department head’s expectations. They conducted additional research on the topic, and interviewed people in the department. They considered the content, time available, the audience, and the locations. As a result, they designed a pre-work assignment that included short video clips; a classroom module that included participant materials and a PowerPoint presentation; follow-up self-paced e-learning content; a coaching checklist for participants’ supervisors; and a job aid. Jose put in long hours during the design and development stage and he learned a great deal. Jose also met with participants’ immediate supervisors to provide suggestions about how to coach employees to implement the new behaviors.
• The program pilot, a trial run, for the classroom module has been scheduled for today. Yesterday Jose and his team finalized the session materials, set up the room, checked out the audiovisual equipment, and arranged for lunch to be brought in from the cafeteria.
• This morning, Jose arrived at the training site an hour before the session so that he could be certain everything was ready to go. Participants started arriving 45 minutes before the sessions started. As he introduced himself to individuals he learned that many of them were uncertain of the location and that this was a first training opportunity for a few. The early arrivals did not give him any time to himself, so Jose was glad that he spent the past week preparing for the session. He had practiced the materials out loud, conducted a dry run with his team, tried out the activities with his peers, and even delivered some of the content to his family. He felt ready.
• Jose had told his wife that he would be late getting home tonight. Following the session, which ends at 4:30, his team will meet to critique the day and to determine whether any adjustments need to be made in the agenda or the content for the next day.
• Following the two-day session, he and his team will make any minor modification to the session based on feedback from the participants, ensure that participants use the follow-up materials, follow up with the department head, and begin to schedule the other classes locally and at remote sites. He will travel overnight for several of the sessions but is looking forward to seeing some of the organization’s branch offices.
• Now, at 7:59 a.m. Jose looked out to the participants before starting. He felt satisfied that he was in a position to contribute to HPS’s bottom line and that he had a job that gave him so much pleasure and satisfaction. With those thoughts on his mind, he smiled at the group and said, “Good morning!”

Do You Have What It Takes?

Although training may seem like a glamorous profession to an observer, like any other profession, it has its hidden challenges. Having the skills to be a trainer is only one prerequisite. A much more difficult requirement for a successful trainer is to have strong mental and emotional composure. Training is a demanding profession. It requires constant energy output. If you tire quickly, become discouraged easily, or become frustrated if things do not go according to plan, training may not be for you. Here are some aspects to consider about training:

• Are you willing to work longer than an 8-hour day? Even though an Instructor-Led Training (ILT) program may be scheduled from 9 to 5, you may find yourself going to the training room much earlier than 9:00 a.m. and staying much later than 5:00 p.m. A well-prepared training session takes thoughtful room and material setup. If you arrive at the training room at the same time as the trainees, you will feel disorganized and unprepared. You may even start late because of last-minute preparations. If you lead a virtual training program with participants halfway around the world, you may start your day at 9:00 p.m.
• Are you also willing to stay later than your official “ending” time? The same principle applies after the training program has ended. It is usually the trainer’s responsibility to ensure that all items you used for the training are removed from the training room. You may need to replace tables and chairs the way you found them. Many participants stay after the program is over so that they can ask questions they did not wish to ask in front of the rest of the participants. They expect the trainer to be there cheerfully ready to answer their questions. In addition, you may have many details to wrap up at the end of the day: Add notes to your training manual, review your PowerPoint presentation for the next day, revise your schedule, complete administrative tasks, or file your materials in order. If you have completed an online course, you may need to do similar tasks plus send additional resources to participants as follow up.
• Can you go with the flow? No amount of preparation can equip a trainer for everything that can happen in a training session. In a virtual classroom, participants may discover they have an incorrect link to join the session or the audio connection may stop working. You may find that the majority of online participants have not completed the foundational pre-work required to comprehend the module. In a traditional classroom, the trainer must be prepared to respond to unexpected questions and events. A trainer must be flexible. Sometimes, the planned agenda doesn’t fit the needs of the audience. A good trainer adjusts the agenda and changes the material so that it meets the needs of the audience. An effective trainer also reads the audience and adjusts the level of the training to fit the level of the audience.
• Can you cope with multiple logistic and technology details? In a virtual setting, this means ensuring that all participants have their own computer connections, getting links and passwords to everyone who needs them, helping participants troubleshoot technical problems prior to the class, and of course having a qualified producer to troubleshoot when issues arise. In a traditional classroom it may be someone else’s responsibility to make room and equipment arrangements; it becomes the trainer’s problem if something is not right. Are you prepared to deal with malfunctioning equipment, rooms that are not set up, materials that do not arrive, materials that are incorrect, or any mess-up in general? Today’s trainer is technologically astute and takes full accountability for ensuring that all logistics are in order.
• Can you perform even when you feel lousy? Whether face-to-face or online, trainers don’t often have the discretion to call in sick. When a session is scheduled, it often has been scheduled long in advance, and often learners travel from long distances to attend training. Therefore, trainers must be able to facilitate enthusiastically even when they are a little under the weather. The show must go on!
• Are you prepared to constantly give of yourself without expecting to receive anything in return? Trainers are often viewed by others as “healers” — those people who always have the answers and who can perform “magic.” Conversely, trainers are not often perceived as people who have their own needs. As a result, participants may use your sessions to get some bad feelings off their chests. Giving may extend to time as well, such as having time for breaks and lunch that may be used by participants wanting to discuss their personal situations.
• Can you be the perfect role model all the time? It is a trainer’s job to teach the “right” way to do things. You must also be prepared to practice what you preach. Trainers run the risk of losing their credibility if they are not perceived to be a perfect example of what they teach. And, because no one is perfect, trainers must also admit it when they make a mistake. Trainers cannot allow participants to leave a learning session with incorrect information.
• Are you prepared to encourage your participants even when there is a lack of management commitment? Sometimes, people are sent to training because their managers think that it is “a good thing to do.” There may be little serious commitment to support and encourage these employees when the training is completed. Can you provide support and understanding in the absence of managers’ commitment? Can you follow up with the managers and help them see the importance to the organization as well as coach them to reinforce the new skills?
• Can you deliver hard feedback? Your participants will not learn effectively if during the process they are not given honest and candid feedback. Are you able to give this feedback, even when it is not positive and even if it may impact an employee’s job?
• Are you able to process failure, identify solutions, and make improvements? Not every training program is a smashing success. In fact, some are downright bad. Successful trainers are those who analyze what went wrong in the bad sessions and then design changes in the program so that it improves the next time around.

Many of the preceding questions are certainly not meant to discourage you, but rather to introduce the reality of a sometimes glamorous-appearing job. It may be challenging. It usually requires a great deal of work. And it can be riddled with problems. However, you forget all the difficulties when former participants tell you that you changed their lives. Or that you inspired them. Of course this doesn’t happen on a weekly basis, but it does happen often enough to make it all worthwhile.

Yes, training is a demanding, sometimes hectic, often ambiguous job. There is never a dull moment. It is exciting. It is the catalyst for improvement. It is the process to the future. Training exists to facilitate change and to encourage transformation for a better future. The late Christa McAuliffe, teacher and NASA astronaut, summed it up this way: “I touch the future; I teach.”