Have Fun !

 Have Fun!     

During my corporate career I attended many training courses; some were great, but some were so boring I can actually remember nearly falling asleep! Ever since I have had the privilege of being the trainer, I have sworn to myself that I will not allow my delegates to be bored.

One of the challenges for any trainer is how to disseminate information to the delegates. That mind-set could be a problem in itself! Very often this approach leads to large amounts of information and words being presented, and ‘Death by PowerPoint’ is just one example of the end product!

Another challenge may well be that some delegates have a pre-conceived idea of what to expect. In short; they expect the training to be prescriptive and boring because that is what they have experienced before. They often associate training with teaching and they will slip in to ‘pupil mode’ and compliantly pretend to listen!

Life is just too short for this! Most delegates’ minds will start to wander, great works of doodling will be produced, and their stereo type of training will be entirely fulfilled. They will dutifully file their way back to the workplace and usually nothing will change.

What if it didn’t need to be this way? What if delegates were alert and interested nearly all the time, (you have to let them ‘zone out’ a little occasionally, as people cannot concentrate for long periods without a mental rest). What if they were stimulated and the room was full of laughter? What if the time went so quickly that they were surprised when breaks were called? What if they were encouraged to capture how they will change when they go back to work in the real world? What if the training was actually really good fun? 

I think that is when people learn and develop…..and it will be because they want to. 

Thanks for reading.

Jason