"My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions." Peter Drucker BOSS: "I want you to train the engineers on R38-X hydraulics safety at next week's meeting." YOU: "Gulp! Hydraulics safety? Uh-oh." Often, trainers are asked to train in topics outside their expertise. For example:
All of these are examples of when trainers train on unfamiliar topics. When this happens to me, I rely on a few analysis techniques. These techniques serve me well, and they've resulted in meaningful, useful, and performance-based training. Here they are: Simple Techniques -- Powerful Impact
Subject Matter Interviews -- "I bring process, you bring expertise." Since you don't have the expertise, you have to get it. A straightforward way to get it is to ask someone who knows. This person is your Subject Matter Expert, or SME. You may find this daunting, but people with jobs expertise usually are happy to share it. When you tell them that you're not there to judge but to learn, and are sincerely interested, they'll deliver the goods. Here are some tips:
Prioritize Your Content -- "Saying, 'It's all important' is not helpful." After you've done your homework and interviewed the experts, prioritization is in order. You are trying to answer the question: What learning requires more time, unique training methods, or specialized materials for learning and performance? To do this, review all the the content topics you gathered from your SME interviews, documentation, and other sources. Make a list of tasks/topics that the learners must learn. Wall charts are great for this. Then, assess each task or topic from the point of view of the learner population. Rate each task/topic High, Medium, or Low. You should consider:
I often will apply a formula to these assessments, where Prior Knowledge counts three times more than the other three criteria. I REALLY don't want to cover content people already know. It's very annoying to them and wastes their time. A Gram of Analysis is Worth a Kilogram of Cure (Thanks Joe Harless!) These techniques are a bit of work, to be sure. I have found that the value far outweighs the effort. I see these benefits from this approach:
Thanks to these techniques, I can confidently train a group of engineers on almost anything, including R38-X hydraulics safety. They love it, and they'll ask for more!
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"The views expressed here do not necessarily represent the unanimous views of all parts of my mind."
- Malcolm McMahon AuthorDan Topf, CPT is Sr. Vice President at MDI, Inc. Business Learning by Dan: Primers for TrainersPDF versions of short articles on how to integrate business acumen into all training and development:
The Income Statement Cash Flow Price and Volume The Circulation of Capital The Cost of Capital Market Differentiation Industry-specific: Financial Services -- Life Insurance/Annuities Retailing Archives
January 2021
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