How We See Training

Why do we say this with confidence? Because we believe in prioritizing effective results over succumbing to pressures that lead to ineffective training. Consider the pressure to offer one-time, 30-60 minute sessions, expecting learners to master new skills in such a short time. The truth is, effective teaching strategies require more than just quick sessions. When learners struggle, it’s not their failure—it’s a sign that the approach wasn’t right.

There’s also pressure to offer self-directed training for complex topics, but learning science shows this isn’t the best strategy. While there’s a time and place for short, just-in-time microlearning, it’s important to always ask, “Will this help us achieve our goals?” Ineffective training can impact your bottom line, productivity, and safety. We know you care about delivering training that truly works. We want to help you get there.

There’s this temptation to make training the answer to every problem. There are cases where training won’t help solve the problem. When we’re considering developing training we must be brave enough to ask, “Can training help solve this?” and be prepared to hear the answer is no. Training won’t easily solve an external supply chain issue, resource constraints or lack of data.

You want your training to really help your people and boost your bottom line. It’s tempting to skip talking to different departments or learner groups. You might want to say, “We just want to get this training done – we don’t have time to talk to people who might hold things up.” The thing is, if you’re trying to solve a problem with training, you can end up making training that doesn’t work. Yikes! No-one wants that to happen. Your people can validate your training idea. You don’t have to talk to everyone but even chatting with a few people can make a huge difference. Leadership, IT, HR and learner groups can set you up for success. Save time and money with needs assessments.

When others talk about training, they’re often talking about content. When we talk about training, we’re talking about LX. The difference between content and training is learner experience. The answer is learner experience. We need to match teaching strategies to the long-term changes we hope to see in learners. Through thoughtful learning experiences, your training will help learners predictably succeed.

We’re not talking about a well delivered, inspiring speech or story. We’re talking about bombarding learners with endless slides or lectures. We’ve seen it. Have you?  We’re not against the inspiring lecture or thought provoking story but we’re weary of the overuse of the common lecture. Within three weeks of training, we have forgotten 90% of the content. Training’s real purpose is to interrupt the forgetting process. Info dumps won’t solve this problem. Passive learning strategies like video and lecture need to be part of a broader active learning strategy.

There is a time and a place for high tech and high budget training. Why would we spend the time and money to build a high tech solution when a lower tech solution can work just as well? Effective training isn’t made by bells and whistles. There are real cases for bells and whistles but let’s be discerning about it. Amazing training can skip high tech and high budget solutions.

We know this can be sensitive. Training is about learners. It is not about how much we know (instructor-centred). It’s about how much we can engage learners in their own learning process (learner-centred). We often feel like we’re not doing a good job in training if we don’t dish out everything we know. The thing is, it takes experts years and decades to master a given topic. If training doesn’t have meaningful experiences to help learners move training from short-term to long-term memory – training was essentially a waste of time and money.

One of our dear colleagues coined the term SMEGO. A subject matter expert is known as a SME. So a SMEGO is a SME’s ego. We all have one. It can get in the way of making training awesome. The best strategy we’ve found to manage it, is to care more about learners than our own personal feelings. Because we care about learners, we’re willing to set our SMEGO’s aside and focus on taking actions that create better learning experiences.

Let’s shift how we see mistakes. Everytime we make a mistake, we’re learning. From that perspective, mistakes can be a positive thing. If the result of mistakes is learning, then we’re making it safe to experiment, try new things and innovate. In the increasingly complex world, we need the ability to feel safe to find new solutions.

You can easily find adult learning principles online, but we believe resilience and safety are just as essential. Resilience helps us cope with adversity, and recognizing its impact on learning is crucial since stress can hinder our ability to learn. By acknowledging the challenges and lived experiences of diverse learners, we create a safe space where they feel seen, valued, and empowered to tackle difficult material.

For those with difficult past experiences, it’s important to provide emotional safety and additional support during their learning journey. Empowering learners by sharing power, encouraging collaboration, and normalizing uncertainty and failure builds a sense of control and safety. We are committed to fostering psychologically safe learning environments.