5 Ways to Improve Your Traditional Training

When you are creating training, some form of instructional design should be employed however most of us neither have the time or background to apply this practice to make objective, performance-based training. We use training as a way to improve performance or fill a knowledge & skills gap in our target audience. Sometimes, this training misses the mark. In other words, it proves to be unsuccessful but the intention was in the right place.

If you happen to be faced with a similar situation, here are 5 ways you can recover your training and put it back on track to meet your organization’s performance objectives. Before you being, prepare yourself to take a little time and look at things from a different perspective. In the end, you’ll be one step closer to creating the objective, performance-based training you set out to create in the first place.

1. Define the objective and review the entire training to ensure the objective is referenced throughout. Remember that an objective must be actionable and, if at all possible, measurable. The change that you want to see in your target audience should be observable by another person. The content of your training should be aligned and linked back to the objective. Otherwise, it’s just filler and holds little to no value.
2. Is the training too long? Break it down into smaller modules. Studies in adult learning theory have determined that breaking down content into smaller “chunks”, or modules, helps improve retention. By breaking down training into smaller “chunks” you can also produce elements that are relevant and contextual to the learner’s needs as an added benefit.
3. Use visuals whenever possible. You’ve hear the old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” If you apply this to your training you are able to make your content impactful in the mind of the learner. Additional studies in learning theory also suggest that people are more visual learners and, again, retain more of what they learn if they have a visual to associate with.
4. Make your training hands-on. Learners also learn best when they have an opportunity to practice what they are learning. Don’t just tell learners what they need to know. Tell them, then give them an opportunity to demonstrate what you told them. Think back to your high school or college education when you had a science class. You learned the theory, then you tested it in the lab.
5. Provide opportunities to test their knowledge. Much like making your learning hands-on, you need to evaluate the learner’s competency on the subject you just taught them. Not only does it confirm what they learned (for them), it validates that what you taught them was transferred and retained by them.

Bonus: Above all, remember who your audience is. Learn as much about them as you can. What are their likes and dislikes? What ways to they learn best? If you can match your training as close as possible to the things your learners find most pleasurable, and to their own personal preference, you will more than likely see the desired performance you want out of them. That is, after all, the purpose of your training.

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