Transform Your Training

Just before I left the corporate world to set up my own business, 9 years ago, I qualified as a coach. I’m convinced that this has helped my training in many ways.

In fact, the more I think about it, and the more I talk to other trainers, I can see the most effective trainers learning lessons from the coaching process.

Many coaches follow the GROW model, created by Sir John Whitmore:

G – Goals – what do you want to achieve?

R – Reality – what are you doing now? How well is that
                    working?

O – Options – what other approaches could you try?

W – Way forward – what are you going to do now?

This isn’t the only model but it has a number of strengths, as does coaching in general:

• it focuses on the person receiving the coaching, not on the coach
• it focuses on a specific need
• it leads towards action
• it is based on a dialogue
• it builds on the existing knowledge and experience of the person being coached
• information is fed in, if needed, only after exploring what the person needs and is geared towards meeting the specific need identified
• the coach is seen, not as a subject specialist, but as someone with skills in helping others to learn and to bring about change
• the coach tends to ask challenging questions rather than offer answers

Coaching also often explores the person’s ” internal ” factors - their beliefs, motivation and confidence – and how these will affect their attempts to change their behaviour.

Contrast this with a lot of training that goes on:

• tends to be very heavy on content and concerned with passing on information
• tends to be general and broad, not aimed at individuals ( partly because it’s carried on with groups, of course, not one to one )
• not usually focused on a specific situation but more on a general need ( e.g. Time Management or Leadership Skills )
• sometimes delivered at a set time, regardless of whether it’s needed at that point
• the trainer is seen, and chosen, as a subject specialist
• the emphasis is on the trainer transferring his or her knowledge or experience to the learners

In general, training tends to be much more content – driven. Of course, it’s quite possible to put together a training programme without reference to any particular learners at all.

Even where there has been some needs analysis and the training is commissioned as a result of that, e.g. there is a group of managers who need to develop their performance appraisal skills, there is stilll sometimes an assumption that what people need is more information, more ideas.

Going back to the GROW model, a lot of training focuses on the Options stage of the process, giving people lots of tips and techniques. Where it sometimes falls down is in identifying exactly what people need the information for and how they will use it to bring about real change in their behaviour.

Training also often fails to address the ” internal ” issues. This misses the point that the reason why many people don’t behave differently is not because they don’t have enough information, it’s because they don’t have the belief, the motivation or perhaps the self-discipline to change.

For example, there’s no point giving someone 10 tips on how to delegate effectively if they won’t delegate because they’re afraid of losing their job if they don’t seem to have enough work to do.

The GROW model has some similarities with the KOLB Learning Cycle ( and I know I’m paraphrasing here ):

• Experience – try something
• Reflect – what happened, what worked, what didn’t?
• Conclude/Theorise – what have you learned, what other information could you use?
• Plan – what will you do differently next time?

What I’m saying is that a lot of training seems to be focused more on the Reflect and Conclude/Theorise stages, what a friend of mine calls ” consciousness raising “.

It tends to be weaker in matching the information with specific individual needs and in addressing how the learners can take steps to change their behaviour.

How could training become a bit more like coaching and take on some of coaching’s strengths?

I think, broadly, a lot of training could be carried out more like a form of group coaching.

For example, more time is spent at the start allowing people to discuss the specific issues they want to address, what’s happening now and what they would like to change.

The trainer has a selection of information, tips, theories, models, etc. which he or she could draw on, depending on what the learners really need.

These are fed into the process only after the initial discussion about people’s needs and only relevant parts are selected. The trainer is very flexible in choosing what to use and in adapting to the needs of the group.

Instead of everyone doing the same thing, learners can be given a choice about what they learn and use.

For example, there might be several places around the room with information about different aspects of the topic and people choose which one they go to. Then they look at materials and discuss them with people with the same needs.

The trainer spends more time challenging people with questions about what they have learned, what they are going to do and what might stop them.

There is more focus on what might prevent the learners from making the changes they want, including their own motivation, how much they want to change and how much they believe they can.

Some barriers to this would be:

• if you’re an external trainer, you may not know any of the learners or have access to them before the training
• people who commission training ( clients) tend to like to see plenty of content and materials, not have trainers say, ” Well, I’ll bring some ideas along but I can’t say what we’ll discuss until the day, I may use some of it, I may not “.
• a lot of trainers feel more comfortable delivering information than they do trying to coach or to facilitate
• it’s much easier to run a training session where everyone doers the same thing than one where people have a choice

However, I don’t think any of these issues are insurmountable and, if training could learn a few lessons from coaching, it would be far more powerful and have far more impact.

For more great training tips, get your FREE copy of  “How To Be A Top Trainer” from www.TransformYourTraining.com

Many years ago, when I was a Primary School teacher, it was normal to work with classes or groups of mixed abilities. This presented a challenge to the teacher, how to pitch the lessons and the work so that everyone could benefit, whatever their level.

Many trainers face the same challenge with adults, running technical training sessions for people with different levels of knowledge or skills sessions for people with varying degrees of experence and skill level.

You can try to avoid this by spelling out the objectives of your training and clearly defining who it is aimed at, but I know that this doesn’t stop people turning up ( or being sent ) to training they may not need or which is aimed at a different level.

Some of the approaches I would suggest in this situation will be similar to those I tried to use when I was a teacher.

Here are a few tips:

1. Find out what the range of abilities isas soon as you can.Ideally, find out before the training begins by using pre-course questionnaires or interviews to learn more about your group.Failing that, find out at the start of your session. You can simply ask people or you could use an activity which will give you an idea of the range ( you could even have a short test of some sort  ).One approach is to ask people to line up according to how much they feel they know about the topic, with one end of the line being ” nothing ” and the other ” a lot “. Or they could give themselves a mark out of 10. This is, of course, very crude and only gives you an idea of what they think they know, which may be misleading. Still, it’s better than nothing.
2. Acknowledge the difference abilities.Don’t ignore it and just plough on regardless. Tell people that you realise there is a range of ability in the room and that you’re going to try to give them all something of value, but also ask for their help in making the session useful for everyone.
   Be clear about what the aims of the training are and what you’re going to cover. If it’s really not suitable for some people, perhaps you could give them the option of leaving ( I know that’s not always going to be appropriate ).
3. Keep an open mind – don’t make assumptions about people’s attitudes or skills, e.g. thinking older people will be fearful or inept with technology or, alternatively, that they are bound to have come across something before.
4. Determine how much of your training is about presenting new information and how much is about letting people discover for themselves or giving them a chance to process and use information.If you’re spending a long time presenting information, this will be a bigger problem if some of the group already know the information. You have more flexibility if you spend more time setting up activities where people discover things for themselves or where they can apply what they already know.
   This will allow people to work at their own level.
5. Mix up the group where you can to allow more experienced people to mentor and help the less experienced.Give people an opportunity to share their knowledge, which will also help them to develop it – there is nothing like trying to teach others to make you really think about a topic.
6. Offer a range of activities rather than making everyone do the same thing. This is the basis of mixed ability teaching in schools and is called
   ” differentiation “.Prepare tasks at different levels and either allocate groups to tasks or allow them to select their own activity based on which they feel would be of most value to them.
   Or you could have a range of tasks which people work through, increasing in the level of challenge, and people can start where they think is appropriate and work their way through, e.g. a range of IT case studies.This also helps to deal with the situation where one group may finish before another because they will have something else to move on to.

   I’m told that doctors are sometimes trained or assessed by going round a range of activities in a hall. These may include identifying a body part, making a quick diagnosis, doing a role play where they have to deal with an anxious patient or a written test.

   Could you use something like this in your own training?

7. Use various media to allow for different ways of learning and different levels. For example, some information or tasks could be available on the Internet or could involve people carrying out projects online or with audio or video equipment.
8. Check at various points that people are getting value from the training and are happy with the content. Ask for feedback or have some mechanism whereby people can let you know how they’re feeling,e.g. putting smiley or sad faces on a chart, giving marks out of 10.This gives you a chance to adapt what you’re doing if it’s not working and also show concern for your learners.

Those are just a few suggestions. I know it all sounds like a lot of work but it may help to make the difference between a training session which is a big success and one which fails to hit the mark and leaves people ( including you ) feeling frustrated.

For more great training tips, get your FREE copy of How To Be A Top Trainer from www.TransformYourTraining.com

In the last week or so I have done all the following things:

• walked into a room and forgot why I went in there
• seen someone in a TV programme and struggled to think of his name
• tried to remember a shopping list without writing it down but forgot some of the items
• tried to remember a phone number while walking from one room to another but forgot it and had to go back to look at the address book
• met someone in the street who obviously knew me but I couldn’t remember where I’d met them before
• went to put some bread in the freezer, got distracted by something in the kitchen and walked back out with the bread still in my hand
• immediately forgot something my wife asked me to do because I had got other things on my mind when she was talking to me 

Why did I forget some of these things and what did I do to help me remember them?

• When I forgot why I went into a room, I went back to the room I had just come from and then remembered what I went for
• I remembered the actor I had seen on the TV because I had a vague memory that he had been in something with another actor and when I remembered the name of that series, his name came back to me
• I forgot the shopping because there were too many items to hold in my mind and I should have written the list down
• I forgot the phone number because I didn’t write it down and I didn’t repeat it to myself to keep it in my mind
• I remembered the person I met in the street after picking up some clues from what they were saying which helped me to recall the context in which I had met them before
• I forgot to put the bread in the freezer because I got distracted by something else
• I forgot what my wife asked me to do because I wasn’t paying attention ( and I didn’t think it was important enough, but please don’t tell her that )

 Apart from revealing the poor state of my mental health, what does this tell you?

Well, as a trainer, there are several things you can do to help people to remember:

• help them  to focus and not be distracted
• get them motivated so they pay attention because they value what they are learning
• give them plenty of cues they can use to access the information, e.g. visual, written, aural, so they also have different ways of retrieving the memory
• link new information to what they already know so they can see the connections
• let them find their own ways of reviewing and recording information rather than assuming the ways you would use yourself are the only ones to use
• repeat and review what they need to recall
• don’t overload them with information
• pay attention to the context in which people learn because that may affect the context in which they will remember – for example, people often learn things in a training room but forget to use them back at work because the context is different – help them make links back to the ” real ” world

 These aren’t the only things but, if I tell you too many, you’ll only forget some of them so that’s enough for now.

For more great training tips, get your FREE copy of ” How To Be A Top Trainer “ from www.TransformYourTraining.com

I’ve worked with a lot of IT trainers in the past ( and also been on a lot of IT training courses myself ). They have a particular challenge, I think.

Much IT training takes place, not surprisingly, with people sitting in rows behind a PC or a laptop and often with a  big screen at the front of the room. Usually, people don’t move from this position throughout the training.

If they are learning about some new software, it seems to make sense that they spend a lot of time actually trying to use it, so they will be using the keyboard or mouse a lot and staring at their screens.

In my experience, people will also spend most of the time working by themselves.

The problem is that this approach doesn’t suit everyone and it doesn’t make the training very interactive, social or varied. So some learners will struggle to engage with it and to get the most from it.

Added to this is the problem that some people have a barrier anyway when it comes to technology. They fear it, they feel uncomfortable with it, they think they will not be able to learn quickly and will then look foolish.

All in all, not the most promising scenario.

So how can IT trainers change all this and make their training more engaging and more suitable for different learners? Here are a few suggestions. I think some of these tips are appropriate for any form of technical training.

1. Learn about your participants before the training. Find out about their level of knowledge and experience and how they feel about using technology.
2. On the day, reassure people about what they are going to do, deal with any anxiety they have and be very positive about what is going to happen.
    
3. Make sure you pitch your training at the right level. Where you have mixed ability groups you need to plan for that with different levels of work, e.g. case studies or examples, and allow time for the slowest in the group to work at their own pace.
    
4. Have times when people work in pairs or groups as well as individually. Perhaps allow more experienced people to help train the less experienced.
    
5. Give people plenty of opportunity to ask questions throughout the training ( seems obvious but is often overlooked in the rush to get through the content ). It shouldn’t need saying but don’t make people feel foolish for asking basic questions and try not to use jargon when answering them.
    
6. Ask people what questions they have before they even come to the training, also at the start. Pose some questions yourself to get them thinking about what they are going to learn and how they will use it.
    
7. Where possible, get people away from the computers. Allow discussion in pairs and groups, give people a chance to draw, write, talk, move about.For example, ask people to build a model representing the software programme they are using with flipchart paper, card, tape, etc. This will really test their understanding and will give people ( including yourself ) a new way of thinking about the topic. 
8. Allow plenty of breaks and times when people can just get up and move around instead of being hunched over their keyboards all the time.

A tip from Tina Doyle, an experienced IT trainer, is to split people into 2 groups of mixed ability and ask them to prepare a quiz for each other based on what they have learned during the course of the day. She also breaks the day up with quick puzzles she has prepared.

I hope that gives you IT trainers some ideas, also others who could use some of these tips in delivering technical or complex training.

For more great training tips, get your FREE copy of How To Be A Top Trainer from www.TransformYourTraining.com

If you read a newspaper, where do you start? Do you read it from the front or from the back? Or do you start somewhere in the middle?

The answer will say a lot about you and your interests.

( Of course, the answer may be, ” I never read a newspaper “, which will also say a lot about you and your interests ).

 I tend to read from the back first, starting with the football news. Then I may glance at the front to see the headlines, then I might read an article of interest and usually look at the letters and go to the crossword.

If I’m really busy, I’ll just look at the football and save the crossword for when I go to bed.

The point is, there is specific information I’m looking for when I read the paper and I prioritise the information. If I’m pressed for time, this becomes particularly important.

Have you ever searched online, or looked in a book for the answer to a question?

If you used a book, you probably looked through the contents or the index to help you find the bit you wanted. If it was online, you typed in a search term or some keywords.

The principle is the same. What you did was to ignore the masses of information which you could have looked at and focus on the one thing which mattered to you or which you needed to find out. You needed an answer to a question and you blanked out anything which didn’t help you find that answer.

Now think about when you’re running a training course and you have people who are preparing to come to it. How can you use what I’ve just described to help them get more out of it and to prepare them for learning?

I think you need to do things:

1. help people to see what is important about what they’re going to learn so they see the need to pay attention to it
2. pose questions for them so that they come to the training primed to look for answers

Often, people turn up to training not really knowing much about what’s going to happen. So they’re asking themselves:

• ” What is this about? “
• ” Why is this important to me? “
• ” Why do I need to know this? “
• ” How will this help me?

If they’re not clear about these things, they have to sift through all the information they’re presented with in order to see whether there is anything of interest to them.

That’s like you sitting in a waiting room and browsing through a magazine. You flip through the pages hoping that something will take your eye. If it doesn’t, you’ll get bored and put it down.

Don’t make your learners do this with your training material. Tell them clearly in advance why it is important to them and what it will help them to do. That way, they will already know that they need to focus on it and they won’t just let it wash over them.

Secondly, pose questions. If we have a question in our heads, our brains are primed to respond if an answer appears. We know the sort of information we’re looking for and we’ll spot it and remember it when we find it.

So get your learners thinking about some questions related to the training material.

You can pose questions yourself and also get them to think of their own. For example, once you’ve told people what you’re going to be covering, you could ask: 

• what are the main challenges you face in this area?
• what would make the biggest difference in the way you…?
• how could this information have an impact on your work?
• what are the main questions you have about this?
• what one thing do you really want to get from this training?

You can also give people partial answers to question, which they can only complete when they come to the training.

For instance,

” There are 3 key facts about…which you need to know:

1. ……..
2. ……..
3. …….. 

These will be revealed…”

These may even be part of a workbook which people complete as they go through the training.

It’s like setting a puzzle for people to think about. Their brains will be looking out for the answers and so paying more attention to the material you’re covering.

So think about how you are going to prepare your participants to learn. What can you do before your next training event to help them get the most out of it?

Get your FREE copy of How To Be A Top Trainer at www.TransformYourTraining.com

Follow me on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/AlanMatthews11

What do some training courses have in common with vampires?

They have no reflection.

( Yes, I know, I surprise myself sometimes. )

If you’re familiar with the Kolb Learning Cycle, you’ll recall that Reflection is one of the 4 stages of the cycle. It’s the part where people start to process what they’ve experienced and where they begin to draw out its meaning for them.

But I’ve seen, and been on, a lot of training courses where there was very little time allowed, if any, for serious reflection.

This is usually because:

• there is far too much content
• the pace is too fast
• there’s too much activity and people move from one to another without pause

It can also be because the trainer has an active learning style himself or herself and assumes everyone else does as well.

Or the trainer feels comfortable keeping people busy and feels anxious if the pace slows down and people have a chance to sit and think too much ( and perhaps start asking questions ).

I’ve also heard trainers say that their participants are ” very bright people ” and don’t need time to process or reflect – as if that’s only for people who are less intelligent!

Learning is not about cramming content into people’s brains, it’s about the meaning that learners create for themselves by thinking about what they have done and heard.

They need to be thinking about these sorts of questions:

• what have I learned?
• what does this mean to me?
• how does this relate to what I already know?
• what will I do with this?
• what difference will this make to me?

Yes, different people will need different amounts of time to go through this process but they will all need some time. And you can’t assume they will do it once the course is over.

So you need to build it into your planning. If need be, cut out some of the content to allow for it.

You can ask these questions directly and have a discussion with the whole group about them, or you can let small groups or pairs discuss what they’ve learned, or you can allow individual reflection using some sort of form or planning tool.

However you do it, give your learners opportunities to process what’s been going on, otherwise much of the potential learning, and benefit, will be lost.

For more great training tips, get your FREE copy of How To Be A Top Trainer from www.TransformYourTraining.com

If you’ve been involved in training ( sorry, Learning & Development ) for more than a week, you’ll have noticed that new expressions keep coming in and names keep changing.

For example, years ago I used to work for a Training Department ( remember those? ), which then became the Learning Team.
 
We used to run Train the Trainer courses but these became Facilitator Development Programmes.
 
Sometimes this seems like change for change’s sake but sometimes there’s a good reason behind it.
 
The move from talking about “training” to “learning” was to reflect a focus on the learner and the fact that there are different ways people can learn apart from just training.

And the move towards facilitating was also meant to reflect a change in approach. It was supposed to be a move away from everything coming from the trainer and towards a more interactive, inclusive and engaging style.
 
In particular, it meant getting away from presentation – or lecture – style training. The trainer’s role was more to set up experiences and situations whereby people could learn instead of just presenting information in a one-way format.
 
I won’t go into all the reasons why this is a good thing. Let’s just  assume that it is. How  do you know whether you’re doing this? How can you tell whether you’ve become a facilitator rather than a presenter?

Here are 10 signs that you’re facilitating rather than presenting:

1. You ask yourself, ” What do these people need to learn? ” rather than, ” What do I know about this topic? “
2. You never tell people something they could learn for themselves through an activity or by your asking them a question.
3. Linked to this, you are always asking yourself, ” How can I help them discover this? ” not ” How can I tell them this? “
4. Your learners spend more time talking than you do.
    
5. They also spend more time doing other things than sitting listening.
    
6. You recognise your group’s knowledge, experiences and creativity and find ways to let them show these.
    
7. You use a variety of approaches to encourage involvement and allow people to learn in different ways
    
8. The learners spend time doing something with what they’ve learned – creating rather than consuming content.
    
9. You spend more time before the session finding out about your learners than you do preparing content and materials.
    
10. You’re probably not using PowerPoint! Or, if you do, you use it sparingly and you’re not using bullet points.

I was talking to a potential client the other day who wanted to know more about my style of training. After I’d explained a bit ( I tried to keep it to less than an hour, I did have other things to do ) she said, ” That sounds great. It’s very learner-centred “.

It struck me that this is a phrase you used to hear all the time but it doesn’t crop up so much these days. Maybe it’s been replaced by ” brain-friendly learning”, which is a phrase I use a lot myself.

But I think “learner-centred” sums up the way I think training should be designed and delivered.

What does it mean? For me, it would include the following points.

• It’s based on the needs of the learners, which may seem obvious but a lot of training isn’t – it’s based instead on the needs of the organisation.

  Obviously, there’s some compromise – organisations need people to learn certain skills and information – but the main question should be, ” What do these learners need to get from this training to make it worthwhile for them? “

• This means you need to find out what the learners need – ask them, before and during the training, involve them in the design if possible, find out what they really want to get from it.

  Don’t take someone else’s word for it – another person in the organisation might have a very different view about what they need.

• It doesn’t start from the content, ” We have to cover all this, we have to use these slides, it says so in the manual. ” Trainers need to be flexible and willing to adapt to what groups need from them, not just running through the set content regardless of who’s in front of them.
• It’s based on HOW people learn – so it includes a variety of methods and approaches to suit different types of people, so they can access the information in a range of ways, and it reflects what we know about how the brain works ( yes, it’s “brain-friendly” )
• One consequence of this is that the training is interactive, it involves and engages the learners and gives them plenty of opportunities to process and apply what they have learned.

  It’s not a passive process where learners just sit and listen and watch slides ( which is an example of “content-centred” training ).

• The training should happen when the learners need it, not because it’s part of a fixed programme and they have to go regardless of whether or not it’s of use to them at that point ( “sheep-dip” training ).
• The numbers involved in the training should be suited to the purpose and the style of the training.

  So, for example, groups are kept small to allow for participation and activity, not maximised to get as many people through as cheaply as possible.

• The training should help to develop the learners’ independence, not encourage dependence on the trainer or other ” experts “.

  It should recognise the skills, knowledge and value that the learners themselves bring to the situation.

I’m sure there are more points than this but that’s probably enough to be going on with.

Training should be fun. You should enjoy it, your learners should enjoy it. Most people would probably agree with that.

But is that really necessary? In fact, could enjoying a training session actually distract people from learning something?

I’ve certainly known people who have looked at training sessions where participants were clearly having a good time – moving around, talking, drawing, building things – and been deeply suspicious

They were often quite senior people who had endured mind-numbingly boring training sessions themselves ( and probably delivered a few ) and thought everyone else should go through the same thing. They were wary of these new-fangled ideas.

They didn’t often know much about learning so their opinions weren’t exactly well-informed. Unfortunately, their views tended to be important as they were often the people funding the training!

It shouldn’t be too revolutionary these days, though, to suggest that training should engage and interest the learners. It’s pretty clear that, if people are interested and involved, they’ll learn more than if they’re bored and uninterested.

Getting people moving around, involving them in activities and discussion, and making the training room more stimulating should be a natural part of helping the key messages get home.

But that’s the crucial point. All these things are just part of supporting the learning. The only reason for using humour, visual aids, movement, discussion or anything else is to support the learning.

In fact, that goes for everything you do in a training room. If it doesn’t support the learning, you shouldn’t be doing it.

That’s the argument I used when anyone looked with suspicion at the way I used to deliver some training sessions. I would discuss how the methods actually enhanced the learning and helped people to remember more which, in the end, justified the money that had been spent on the training.

But I have to admit that isn’t always true.

I do think there are times when you see people having a lot of fun on a training course, but I’m not sure they’re learning much. Or not learning what they’re supposed to be learning.

As with anything else, you have to manage the process. You have to make sure that what’s happening has a clear purpose and is working towards achieving the objectives of the training. That’s part of the skill you have to develop as a facilitator/trainer.

That means you have to be careful about the activities you choose to use and the atmosphere you help to create in the room.

For instance, I remember one course where the trainer was trying desperately to be ” one of the gang ” – cracking in-jokes about colleagues, talking about what people had been doing the night before, how much they’d drunk, etc.

I assume he felt this would help him build a rapport with the group. What it did was to get out of hand. He ended up having no control, no authority, no leadership of the group.

They talked while he was trying to explain things, they joked and laughed when they were supposed to be listening and they made little effort to involve themselves in the activities.

The trainer had ignored the fact that they were supposed to be there for a purpose and had set up a situation where people felt they were just there to have a good time and a chat with their mates. Having done that, there was no way back.

Similarly, I’ve seen trainers use activities which the participants certainly enjoyed, but which had no clear objective. In fact, I’ve sometimes asked people why they have used certain activities and heard, ” Oh, they love that. It always gets them really excited – and it gets great marks on the feedback forms! ”

Yes, but what’s the point of it? What are they learning? Is the time taken on the activity justified in terms of what they get out of it? Is that the best way to get this particular point across? You should be asking yourself these questions every time you choose to use an activity.

So get things the right way around. Be clear about what you’re meant to be getting across and what people are meant to be getting out of your session. Then look for interesting ways to make the content come alive and hold their attention.

Don’t start by thinking, ” This will make them laugh ” or ” This will get them moving about ” but ignore the real purpose for being there.

So, of course, I think that people should be having fun when they’re learning. But they should also be learning when they’re having fun!

( Yes, how can you tell I used to be a teacher? )

Training can be a lonely business if you always work by yourself, so it’s good at times to work with other trainers.

And working with others can really help to develop your skills and experience ( in other words, you can copy their ideas – with their permission, of course).

In fact, there are lots of benefits of working with other trainers, both for yourself and for the learners. You can share tasks, discuss approaches and help each other tackle any problems which arise.

From the learners’ point of view, having two trainers adds variety, perhaps offering a change in style, and can allow more personal attention when working in groups.

But it can also go badly wrong!

Have you ever been involved in a course where it’s obvious the trainers who are supposed to be working as a team haven’t got their act together?

Here are some of the warning signs:

• the trainers contradict each other
• they talk over each other
• or there’s an awkward silence where no-one knows who is meant to be speaking
• one trainer does something distracting while the other is leading a session ( or reads a newspaper or falls asleep – I’ve had both happen! )
• there seems to be an element of competition, with one trying to appear more “expert” than the other
• the trainers end up saying more than the learners because each feels he or she has to say something to justify being there

What are the key tips for trainers to make sure they work well together and avoid some of the pitfalls of co-training?

• trainers should communicate with each other regularly before and during the training, meeting during breaks or at the end of a day to discuss how it has gone and to prepare for the next session
• they should plan before the event to assign roles, tasks, sessions and responsibilities
• if one has not run the course before, the other should go through the material with him or her and explain how the course normally runs in practice( which may be quite different from what is set out in the course manual )
   
• having said that, the trainer who has run the course before should still remain open to new ideas and different ways of approaching the material
   
• trainers should try not to get too possessive or sensitive about material they may have written themselves ( but new trainers should also be sensitive to the fact that things may be done in a certain way for a good reason and not change them just for the sake of novelty )
   
• each trainer should keep to the agreed timings and take care not to run over, leaving the other trainer with the problem of making up time or leaving out material
   
• trainers should not contradict each other on important points in front of the learners unless not to do so would cause confusion ( e.g. if one makes a serious mistake in what is said ). Even then, it should be done tactfully!
   
• no-one should change the material or the schedule without prior agreement
   
• trainers should agree how each will contribute and behave when the other is leading a session ( don’t assume that the other person is happy for you to “just chip in” when you have something to say )
   
• the trainers should be constructive, co-operative and supportive throughout the training ( even if they can’t stand each other )

 So long as these points are followed, co-training can be a very rewarding experience for both the trainers and the learners.

As always, the most important thing is that everything that happens in the training room supports the learning. That’s what you’re there for, after all.

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