Welcome back to HubTalks at Hub 925 ladies and gents! Today we’re tackling training seminars! You know the one! Your boss probably read something cool in the news, and thought to themselves, “Hey, this would really benefit the team! You know who would hate to actually go and learn this new stuff, and then teach us back at the office?” You, that’s who!

No one likes training. It is the worst! You ever run a Marathon before? It’s terrible. Ask any runner, and they’ll tell you the actual run itself sucks!

Mandatory training for work can feel the exact same way! It’s a mental marathon. Locked away in some dreary grey room with all the other people who feel sleepy? Not exactly my cup of tea either. So, here’s 10 different ways that could spruce up the training room! Maybe when you’re out there training a group of people, you’ll consider these tips so that you don’t bore your trainees too!

 

10 TIPS!

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1. Play some Music!

Ever heard of the phrase, “Listening to Mozart makes you smarter”? Research shows that playing music while learning something new actually ENHANCES the learning process! In the book, Soundtracks for Learning by Chris Brewer, it is mentioned that sounds help hold our attention and actually stimulate visual images! Brewer likes to call this, “positive mood management.” It suggests that different types of music affect the way we think and feel. You ever hear that one song that just really gets your heart pounding? That’s mood management! So, while training, try playing something up-tempo and with motivational lyrics to really get your trainees involved in what you’re saying! (In the arms of an angel~~~ Fly away!)

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2. Make it interactive!

Encourage people to take action through active learning! Active learning is the process in which the teacher involves students in the lesson through actions! By giving choice to people, you allow them to pick and choose the outcomes of the lesson, and this forces them to critically think of the situation to solve the problem! Games encourage participation in training, which will put people into situations where they can put the training to use! Everyone loves a good game of Jeopardy!

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3. Storytelling!

You ever hear the story of Darth Plagueis the Wise? No? Well, story-telling and metaphors allow for a much more impactful learning experience! Creatively relating a lesson to life, or through a story, will stick in the minds of people as opposed to boring charts and graphs on a presentation! By telling your trainees a story, you engage their imagination, and force them to build a visual within their minds that is tailored to their own thought process!

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4. Use a Variety of Mediums!

Remember learning about VAK back in primary school? As teaching methods improved, we learned that some people learn better “visually”, some better through their “auditory” sense, and others through “kinesthetics”. Incorporate these into your trainings by adding images related to what you’re teaching; maybe a funny picture from the internet! Use sounds to capture their attention; everyone runs for the door when they hear the doorbell right? (PIZZA’S HERE!) Give them something to touch! Kinesthetic learners learn best when they physically hold something, and move around! Nothing teaches flexibility like Twister!

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5. Give incentives!

People become more motivated when they receive something in return for effort! The Law of Equal Exchange! By giving out rewards, certificates, or any physical representation of effort; you validate a person’s endeavor put into learning! Confirming they accomplished a job well done invigorates their ego, and helps trainees feel proud for having completed a course!

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6. Condense, condense, condense!

Let’s be honest with ourselves, everyone hates waiting for hours at the DMV just get one small thing done! Condense your content into quick, small, bursts. The average adult attention span when focused on a subject is about 20 minutes. By making your content quick, and easy to understand; you have a more firm grasp on how well your students learn your content. That way it isn’t in one ear, and out the other.

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7. Socialize!

Engage your trainees, and allow them to engage with each other! By turning training into a social event, you encourage your students to share their thoughts and ideas with those around them to find common ground. Humans are social creatures, so creating a collaborative environment allows them to put a spin on the things they’ve learned. This builds confidence in the material, and allows them to change their perspective by listening to feedback from people that are learning the content at the same time!

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8. Be excited!

“Bueller, Bueller, Bueller?” (I do love myself a “day off”!) Be excited and happy in your tone of voice! If you sound like you hate being in the room as much as everyone else attending, then you won’t capture their attention! Try to incorporate your own passions into your lesson, so that your trainees form a connection with you! They say a smile is infectious, so don’t forget to just chuckle and smile every now and then, even if all you get are crickets in the room!

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9.  Make it Relevant

Yes, you’re there to train people in a specific way, about a specific topic. However, don’t neglect the power of relevancy! Some people, no matter how long and intently they focus on your lesson, they will leave the training with nothing. Find a volunteer, have them give you a situation, and then apply the training to that topic. A farmer, when it comes to work, will only care about farming, not necessarily about the CRMs and bookkeeping programs that help them manage it. Show them how your training benefits the farming community! Involve them into your lesson so that it spreads to all the other trainees.

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10. Location!

Finally, you want a good suitable location that meets all your needs, but is welcoming and enticing. At Hub 925, we design our venue to look like an urban loft with exposed trellises, graffiti, and exposed brick walls! Its very atmospheric, and with its theming, helps get people out of the mindset that they’re there to learn difficult material. Not to mention Hub 925 provides many things that are needed for a successful training like projector, whiteboards, desks, chairs, even bathrooms! (Everyone needs a potty break!). Having the proper location can make that dreary training into a colorful utopia!

These are 10 tips to help make your training more interesting! At Hub 925, we get a lot of folks running training seminars, so I like to think we’ve picked up quite a few things in our time hosting them! Try putting these tips into practice, and let us know how it goes! Got some more suggestions? More tips that you have tried, and think work really well when training others? Please let us know! Life is an everchanging lesson, so one never stops learning, and we always welcome anything tips that’ll help us all become better here at Hub! Thanks for attending my HubTalk!