Thiagi Day Three: How to Sell Interaction-Based Training

This post goes out to all you interaction-based trainers out there:

Today we talked about common objections we hear when selling our work, such as:

– It’s a waste of time – why don’t you just cut out all the games and provide a lecture of the content instead?
– my employees won’t take it seriously – they’re engineers/lawyers/accountants!
– It’s too expensive

Today, fellow trainers, I give you a gift: some talking points to overcome these objections and bring more effective training to the world.

It’s a waste of time:

Interaction-based training is cheaper, faster, better – plain and simple. If you provide an interaction-based training rather than a lecture-style training, you’ll save money and time because you won’t have to schedule repeat trainings to account for the poor learning retention of a lecture-style format. Interaction-based training is also incredibly efficient — we teach interpersonal skills and hard content simultaneously, so while participants are teaching each other chapters from the employee handbook, they’re also practicing important leadership and communication skills.

My employees won’t take it seriously:

Welcome to the gaming generation. Employees of firms across the world turn to a YouTube how-to video to learn how to change the tire on a car or play the guitar. They have avatars in World of Warcraft or Second Life and regularly and voluntarily participate in role-playing games. Why? Because interaction is engaging — far more engaging than a lecture in a dark room drowning in PowerPoint slides. Your employees (and managers) will immediately experience the “ah-ha” of interaction-based training and be impressed at your foresight to bring in the latest in innovative, research-based training techniques.

It’s too expensive:

Interaction-based trainings are low-tech and don’t require extensive and expensive pre-training needs analysis. Our trainers respond to the needs presented by the students in the moment so that you get custom coaching fine-tuned to the participants in the room. Responsive curriculum design also means that we’ll have your custom training ready to deliver far faster than most trainers.

So, trainers — how’d I do? What other talking points would you add to the list above?

What do YOU need when you take a risk?

Change is scary. Learning something new can also be scary. Being asked to demonstrate a new skill in front of your colleagues is even scarier.

Recently, I had the pleasure of participating in a 3-day training as a trainee rather than a trainer. This shift in perspective was invaluable to me and reminded me that the little things trainers either do or don’t do make all the difference in the world in creating a safe learning environment.

In my recent training, the group was instructed to write an elevator pitch for their organization. Everyone shared their pitch within small groups and then the small groups were advised to choose the best pitch to share with the entire group. In my small group, many people struggled with the exercise, unable to find words to communicate the magic of their organization.

When it came time for the best of each small group to share with the entire room, a friend of mine was called on to go first. Though she appeared to be more nervous than usual, I knew she was a real pro at telling her story. In fact, just a few weeks earlier, I had asked her to teach another group of professionals how to develop an elevator pitch. I had a brief moment of empathy for the rest of the room, for I knew that if she went first, she’d be a very hard act to follow.

My friend didn’t disappoint. She included every possible aspect in her pitch and knocked it straight out of the park. After she finished, the facilitator leading the training asked the group to give feedback to my friend.

Silence.

More silence.

Finally, another trainee broke the ice with “Well, what was missing for me was . . .”.

I couldn’t even listen to the feedback. I just sat and watched my friend’s face crumble. Here she took a risk by presenting her elevator pitch to a group of her colleagues, not knowing if her usual ace in the hole would be good enough, and no one could say one positive thing to her. As typically happens with human beings, we interpret feedback to be criticism. “What could you have done better?”

Even though her presentation far outshined anything else that was presented that day, no one said one word of praise to her. Later that day, my friend told me, “Holly, if you hadn’t flashed me the thumbs up sign, I would have walked out of the room. I felt so crushed! I’m never volunteering for anything again.”

Even experts need reassurance sometimes.

How can we create a safe learning environment when participants who take risks are only given criticism?

A primary training technique we use in applied improvisation goes by the name of “Dolphin Training.” Modeled on animal behavior training techniques, trainers are taught to teach people to myriad number of things only through positive reinforcement. When the trainee takes a step in the right direction, the trainer says “ding!” When they take a step in the wrong direction, the trainer is silent. Through positive reinforcement, those who are being trained learn that they can take risks and try different things because they won’t be yelled at for doing something wrong – only rewarded when they do something right. I’ve seen trainees do splayed somersaults, sing “The Star-Spangled Banner”, and yell out the window at complete strangers in an attempt to learn their new trick, all because they knew it was safe to take risks and try new things.

Imagine if you were asked to take a risk. What would you want afterward – criticism or a ‘ding’?