Make Your Training Memorable! 7 Quick Tips To Achieve That

Did you know that there are proven ways to make your training more effective and engaging?

 Trainings don’t need to be  boring monologues  that leave your audience dozing off or scrolling through their phones instead of listening to you.

If you are a trainer reading this; let’s analyze this perspective briefly, all the planning has been done. All the preparation is taken care of. You know your training needs, you’ve set goals, management is behind you, you promoted your training schedule, and prepared materials, space, and people.

The time has finally come: Training day is here! You are nervous and start wondering, will the audience resonate with the content or will they find it boring? Are my presentation slides in order? Your mind is racing!

Feeling anxious is normal but delivering an effective training should not be a nerve-wracking process. Here are tips to help you run an enjoyable and engaging training session for everyone involved;

Make it fun

Training sessions can have the unwanted stigma of being boring and pointless. No one wants to sit through a dull training session. Make sure to keep your training activities exciting and fresh, so you will inspire and energize your audience.

I attended a Communication skills training recently, where the trainer had us engage in role-playing to illustrate the effects of miscommunications and how it contributes to conflicts in the office. It was eye-opening and the practical lesson enabled us to see the gap in our communication skills.

Have a conversation

It should not be a one-man show. Engage your audience, ask questions or set aside a brief session where they can make comments or even have a debate based on what the subject is. A training session should be a back and forth exchange.

Speak their language

If you are training sales people, use selling lingo. If you are training operations managers, acknowledge their challenges or ideas. If you listen carefully during a training session, you can pick up these things quite easily. You can also find out more about the work environment of your trainees ahead of time by doing research before training begins.

Be clear and direct

Always aim for effective communication: it is crucial to ensure that there is no room for doubt about the message you are conveying. This means, for example, that if you use technical jargon, you must explain what each term means. Additionally, you should remember to leave out unnecessary details. Be brief and go straight to the point.

Practice makes perfect

A phrase that we have probably heard all too often – “practice makes perfect”. Without testing your plan, your resources and technology, including your PowerPoint presentation, how do you know it will go ok on the day? As obvious as this tip is, it is surprising how many times you can forget to test something. As a bonus tip, create a checklist with all the things you need to prepare and test. Be prepared.

Make it relatable

You should invite your learners to practice what they have learned and to think about real situations where they can apply their knowledge.

 Your challenges can invite the audience to reflect upon the real-life application of the learning content, such as: “Based on what you have learned today, how will you change your working style?”

Start and finish strong

Just like in any other presentation, a warm welcome and a strong start will grab your audience’s attention. You can kick things off with a question, with an “imagine if” scenario or with interesting statistics. Most importantly, you must be energetic and friendly. Each member of the audience should feel that you are talking directly to them. Similarly, to end things on a high note, a good wrap-up in fundamental.

These are simple 7 Tips that can make your training effective and engaging.  Honestly, there is so much more to exhaust but I hope the above can help you while you prepare to deliver your training.

If you need help creating an effective training course, presentation or even brushing up on your training skills, start with this Training of Trainers course and charter your career to a successful path!