Being a trainer rather than a trainee
In November 2012 myself and a colleague attended an excellent Agile course run by Geoff Watts. Aside from learning about the Agile Scrum Methodology — we learned a great deal about how to encourage change, and how to lead by example.
It was with this in mind that after we had put the skills we learned into practice, we set out to provide a cut down version of an agile course to our colleagues.
The reasons for doing this were:
- It was a topic useful to almost everyone in our company
- Training can be expensive
- …takes a long time to book
- …needs to be budgeted for and ‘signed off’
- …has to be arranged by each individual
- We can demonstrate and solve specific problems the organisation has
- Encourage others with expert knowledge to provide training / share knowledge with colleagues
Internal training is often mandatory — it includes such exciting topics as Fire Safety — which while necessary from a staff safety point of view is not going to help your organisation ‘set the world on fire’. So to speak.
These mandatory internal courses are one reason a training course provided for ‘free’ by colleagues is seen as inferior to a paid external course. There is an attitude that it is less professional or less useful — and that it’s just a day away from your desk.
Having been on a few excellent external courses recently — that I was grateful my company paid for — the attendees behaved in a way that suggested that they or their company had invested a lot in them attending these courses, and they would make the most of it.
Our courses did not cost the organisation any money in terms of a £1,000-ish fee per-person to an external training company. However, the organisation still bore the cost of all attendees plus trainers having time away from their day jobs. A few attendees behaviour suggests this cost is not universally appreciated.
A course run by a part-time trainer / full-time developer is not going to be a slick as one run by someone who does nothing but deliver training.
After running a fair few courses I think we've hit on a formula that means we can encourage attendees to trust our abilities — but also use the benefits of being in a less formal setting for people to behave more naturally and be less reserved than on an external course.
Our findings:
- Trainers need to explain credentials and experience in subject
- Encourage participation and questions throughout
- Focus on delivering learning through activities — rather than learning parrot-fashion from the trainer
- Get feedback during and after courses to improve
- Making changes to delivery style and content, and try new ideas
- Have people on the course that want to be there — so attendance should always be optional
What do the trainers (selfishly) take from this experience:
- They get to meet colleagues they might not otherwise work with
- Lots of good and bad feedback to improve various skills
- Practice presentation skills
- Test knowledge in a particular subject. As Einstein (may have) said — “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough”
I hope this post inspires an idea that people can train their colleagues in a professional and useful way — this sometime achieves effective learning quicker and cheaper than using external courses.
