How To Train Effectively: Three Key Foundations
My Failure in Training the Trainer
Things did not go so well for me as a trainer when I first started to run courses in preparing trainers for innovation training. Too focused on whether or not the course participants were following what I had presented, I ended up being an extremely overbearing, dictatorial “teacher". Feeling that I needed to facilitate the discussion, I would interrupt too much, and as a result, I would sometimes subconsciously maneuver the discussion towards the conclusion that I desired. As a result, the participants sometimes ended up dependent on me as the instructor.
Around that time, I was able to have a chat with someone who was a veteran in training the trainer. He spoke to me about some of the things he was mindful of when running training programs related to trainer innovation. Since then, I always endeavor to speak to the participants about these things each time I run a course for innovation trainers.
Principles to Keep in Mind During Innovation Training
1. The spirit of “togetherness,” or what could be described as an approach of learning together with the participants
Rather than a teacher-student relationship, this implies a relationship of camaraderie where everyone grows together. While it is true that in preparing trainers for innovation training the trainer presents the theory and know-how of innovation, there may be things that even the trainer does not know. At such times, it is important for the trainer to acknowledge the situation sincerely and to adopt an approach of learning and growing along with the participants.
2. An approach of affirmative acceptance
During the process of learning innovation techniques, discussions sometimes unfold in unforeseen directions, and participants can bring up ideas that might be quite removed from the framework that the trainer had in mind. All such ideas should first be accepted, as this will help foster the spirit of trainer innovation. If an idea is inappropriate to the techniques targeted for learning, the trainer should correct it, but he or she should never negate either the idea itself or the person who raised the idea.
3. Recognizing that participants learn by themselves and that the group has the capacity for reciprocal learning
While it is good to aim for perfection in one’s presentation and facilitation, the trainer should not interrupt any more than necessary when ideas are being thrown around or plans are being made about innovation. Even if the trainer remains silent, members of the group will still point things out to each other, and the group will naturally progress in a positive direction. Rather than offering personal opinions about matters under discussion, the trainer’s role is to facilitate the creation of an environment that fosters interactive group participation.
I run innovation training with the above three principles in mind. I would hazard a guess that these principles can also be applied to other kinds of training. It's safe to assume that we all value different things as trainers, but I hope that these ideas can serve as a useful reference.
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