I was working in Portugal recently as part of a team of 7 trainers from the UK running an induction course for a large professional firm. We each had a group of around 25 – 30 shiny new Portuguese graduates to work with for a couple of days and we were sent a manual with all the content for the course.
The first night we were there, we met to discuss the course and one of the main things we talked about, as usual, was how far we were meant to stick to the manual and how far we could improvise.
The advice was that, on this occasion, we should pretty well stick to the way it was laid out because a concern was that everyone on the course should have broadly the same experience, regardless of which trainer they got. In particular, they didn’t want people from the different rooms talking to each other and finding out they’d been doing different things.
Even so, there were certain things we all missed out because we knew from running the course before that there wasn’t time to cover everything in the manual, but we all agreed which bits we would change so everyone got the same course in the end. ( And I didn’t have to use the PowerPoint slides – hooray! ).
This raises a typical problem for people who are working from prepared trainers’ manuals. How far can, or should you go, in changing the material that’s written there?
One of the reasons for trainers’ manuals is so that you don’t have to redesign a course from scratch every time it runs, also so that the participants get roughly the same material.
However, there are a few common problems with these manuals:
- they are sometimes written by technical experts rather than by trainers
- for that reason, they may be overloaded with content
- they may also be lacking in guidance as to how to deliver the material effectively
- or they may be written to be ” foolproof “, so they set out exactly what to say and do at each point
- for this reason, they may not offer any alternatives, e.g. what to do if a particular activity or approach doesn’t work for a specific group
- manuals are often written before a course has run, so they have estimated timings which may not be realistic
- once a course has run a few times, the trainers usually find a way to make it work which varies from the manual, but they may not get round to changing the manual itself
- for this reason, a new trainer may spend time learning the course from the manual only to be told, ” we don’t do it like that ”
A further problem can be that some training programmes are proprietary, e.g. Microsoft training programmes, where the content and methodology are laid out and are meant to be delivered ” by the book ” by approved trainers.
Given these issues, what is a trainer to do when faced with a prepared trainers’ manual for an existing course?
The main thing is to talk to other trainers who have run the course and find out how they actually deliver it. I would do this as soon as possible, before you spend any time going through the manual, in case the course has moved well away from it and you would be wasting your time.
If possible, go and watch the course so you can get a feel for how it flows and how everything fits together. I realise time constraints may make this a non – starter but it might be possible.
When you talk to other trainers, or to the people who wrote the manual, find out what the objectives and key learning points are meant to be for each session.
From this, determine which parts of the content are essential and which, if any, can be cut if time is tight.
If there are activities, find out whether these have generally been found to work and whether you have any scope to adapt them if you have your own which you know are effective or if you feel the group you are working with may respond better to something different.
Also ask about timings – do the sessions usually keep to the timings in the manual, do the activities take longer than the manual suggests?
If the manual suggests visual aids to use ( and, if they do, these will undoubtedly be PowerPoint slides ) do you have to use them or can you design your own? If the slides are branded in some way, it may be that you are required to use them, otherwise you may be able to do your own visuals.
Experienced trainers tend to be able to adapt materials to suit the circumstances but newer trainers will naturally find this difficult and may feel inclined to stick to what’s written until they feel more confident.
My main message is that your aim is to deliver the key learning points based on the objectives of the training.
If the manual was written by an experienced trainer who has delivered that course in the past, then the manual may well be fine. However, if it was written by a subject specialist who knows very little about training or learning, then look on it with some suspicion.
Also, if it was written some time ago, don’t assume that this is the way the course actually runs in practice without discussing it with someone else first.
Manuals are meant to help you, to give you guidance, and to achieve some standardisation of the learning process. But don’t feel imprisoned by them.
As a trainer, you always need to be adaptable – because learning isn’t standardised. You’re dealing with people, your group may be different from the last group who went through this course, they may need a slightly different approach from you.
So find out the areas where you can make changes if you need to and the areas where you have to ” stick to the script “.
