Training is hard work. Anyone who has ventured into the world of corporate training at any organizational level surely will admit it. The art of training has advanced to new heights and expectations for those organizing training activities and for trainers, as well. In fact, training today has created a variety of troubles for professional trainers.
Based on many years of training professional staff, mid-managers and executives, and recent corporate training consultancies, I would like to share five areas of concern I believe most trainers have encountered or undoubtedly will encounter sometime during their consultancies.
1. Corporate representatives seeking training for employees, mid-managers, or executives often think they know they want or what they need. This view is most unfortunately not true since they do not know; they only think they know. Recently, I spend nearly eight months in meetings with corporate training representatives trying to help guide them on the selection of relevant training content and revising the content for a one-day corporate training sessions for an international audience of mid-managers. Simply put, the corporate representatives only thought they knew what the targeted audience needed.
2. Training is a not one-day activity for trainers. Beyond the negotiations and curricula and other training revisions is the time devoted to preparing for the day, perhaps the most important element of the training. Knowing what content and activities will best serve the trainees is essential. For example, for a recent training session on leading change, I spent nearly two days selecting short, interesting, and related cases, activities, and video vignettes for the targeted audience, as I customize each training session to the audience’s needs, awareness of the topic, and interest to ensure relevance and to avoid boredom. In essence, it took more than a full week to organize and deliver the training.
3. Limited knowledge about the audience’s frame of reference/knowledge of the topic. This trouble spot is especially tricky as different members of the targeted audience often have different professional backgrounds, work experiences, knowledge of the subject matter, and interest levels. It is imperative for trainers to strike a balance between what we, as trainers, think the audience knows based on key conversations with corporate training managers or sponsors, and asking the right questions as part of what I call the “discovery” phase of training. Despite the answers, the limited information received could spell potential trouble for the trainer during the training session.
4. Overcoming the WOW! factor. Trainers need to learn ways to deal with this new buzz phrase, which has become prominent in the vocabulary of those soliciting training for their corporations. They want all the “bells and whistles,” and graphics that make up the popular voguish “edutainment” or puffery factor today that creates the illusion that such a training approach is superior to the “vanilla factor,” the plain, but solid training approach that offers keen insights and knowledge to trainees.
5. Knowing when to pass on delivering corporate training. The wise trainer, despite his or her subject matter expertise (SME) or excellent platform skills, should know when to say, “No.” There are simply some instances where accepting a training engagement is just too risky for a trainer’s reputation. Recently, I was contacted by a third party to discuss a training session for board members of a privately held company only to discover during the conversation that it was impossible to meet the expectations of the client. Taking this engagement would have resulted in a lose-lose situation for the board members, the training organizer, and for me. The wiser trainer will, like the wise poker player, “know when to hold ’em” and “know when to fold ’em.”
Trainers should consider these five trouble spots when they are contacted to conduct corporate training. Today training has become increasingly more difficult and complex for those of us engaged in training people at every level of the corporation. It is about maintaining the right fit among all entities—the company, the training audience, and the trainer.
Dr. Joseph C. Santora is a distinguished visiting professor at a French business school and principal at TST, Inc, a New Jersey-based consulting company. He specializes in leadership, change, and executive succession. He can be reached at jcsantora@gmail.com.
