Slide 1 This week you will receive information designed to help you complete Part B of your Signature Assignment due Sunday.
Slide 2. When designing a training program or training session, care must be given to the three stages seen on Slide Two.
Slide 3. Based on the three learning styles covered last week, a variety of training methods and media will need to be built into the design of the training. Try to integrate as many of these as you into the training design. Particularly important are slides, videos and handouts for visual learners; small group discussion and reading out loud for auditory learners; and demonstrations and skill practice sessions for auditory/kinesthetic learners.
Slide 4. Most all training is skill-based so Slide 4 gives you a series of five steps for designing and delivering a set of skills in a logical sequence. Critical to this is the giving and receiving of feedback as covered in Lecture Two last week.
If you are a supervisor, it is recommended that you give your employees effective performance feedback on their job performance approximately every two months. A simple way to do that is to list their strengths and contributions in one column; and their recommended improvement areas and additional learning opportunities in a second column. Ask, too, if you have missed anything on your lists. This two-column approach is also known as plus/delta. The delta (or triangle) is the Greek symbol for change.
This process is also called performance coaching. If you do this with each employee every two months as suggested, three beautiful outcomes are likely. One, your annual performance appraisal will have already been written by the end of the year (saving you lots of time and headaches). Two, there will be no surprises to your staff regarding where they stand compared to their peers (with regard to their performance). Three and most importantly, you are likely to see their performance soar as a result of this increase in frequency and specificity of feedback.
Lastly, it is suggested you give this effective feedback as often as necessary (but at least every two months) in a ratio of 3 to 1. Meaning: three compliments for every criticism; three praises for every instance of performance improvement. That way, employees are more likely to be receptive to you and any impending constructive criticism when it is necessary
Slide 5 shows a sample skill practice format using small groups of three persons in each group. Person A is the person practicing the skill. Person B is their practice partner whose main job is to stay “in character”. Person C is observer who is taking notes (plus/delta) throughout the skill practice and leads the feedback at the end of the skill practice. Skill practice, by the way, is a little different than role-playing because of the structured feedback and learning that takes place.
Slide Six contains some procedural and environmental factors that you will want to use in managing the training room and learning event.
Slides 7, 8 and 9 review some important considerations while you are facilitating the learning event. In the word facilitation we see the Spanish word facil “to make easy”. In other words, it is the trainer’s job to make the content easily understandable and applicable to the work environment. Part of being a good facilitator is asking the right questions: questions that will stimulate participation, introspection and application of the training objectives and skills. Challenge them to learn the information and why it is important and what will happen if they do or don’t apply the new skill. This is very important, class.
Slide 10 depicts a sample agenda for a four-hour training session. You will want to create something like this for Part B of your Signature Assignment due Sunday. Don’t forget to add the learning objectives, however.
Slide 11 shows the classic four-level model for evaluating training (authored by Donald Kirkpatrick). Most companies/organizations do the end-of-course evaluations also known as “smile sheets” in the training industry. They are a necessary but insufficient form of evaluation. More important is Level Two: what did the trainee learn as a result of the training? Level Three is even more important: how has the trainee’s performance improved as a result of the training? And Level Four multiples the effect of Level Three times the number of trainees that attended the training.
Slide 12 shows a Fifth Level of training evaluation called Return-On-Investment (ROI). While this level is a little more difficult to achieve it may be worthwhile for training departments to calculate this in order to budget for additional training.