8 Questions You Need To Ask To Avoid Wasting Time With Training

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employees on a training course

by Alan Matthews

Whether you work within an organisation in a Learning and Development team or you are an independent trainer, you need to be sure that any training you develop has a real purpose and that it is going to be effective.

That may seem obvious, but I do see quite a lot of people designing training sessions where I’m not sure that they have really identified a clear need for the training first.

Here are 8 questions you need to ask before you design any training to make sure you are not wasting your time (and everyone else’s).

    1. What makes me think there is a need for this training – what specific behaviour have I seen which leads me to think this?
    2. Am I sure that this is a training need or could there be other reasons for the behaviour? For example, could it be due to a lack of resources, experience, leadership, motivation?
    3. Is the issue due to a lack of knowledge or skills or a lack of application of what people already know – do people need new knowledge or skills or a refresher to remind them of things they may have forgotten?
    4. What are the specific outcomes I want to see as a result of the training?
    5. How can I be sure that the training will bring about the changes I want to see?
    6. What sort of training or development will be most appropriate – “classroom” based training, individual coaching or mentoring, workplace-based training, online training?
    7. What else needs to happen to support the training to make sure the changes I want to see will occur?
    8. How and when will the training be evaluated to make sure it has had an impact?

If you are not clear about the answers to any of these questions, you probably need to do a bit more thinking or research before you start designing your training event.

About the author

Alan Matthews is the author of How To Design And Deliver Great Training and The Successful Presenter’s Handbook, available from Amazon. You can get his free report, “8 Steps To Excellence – the 8 key habits that make top trainers and presenters stand out” from the website at [http://www.alanmatthewstraining.com] You will also find lots of articles and videos to help you become an outstanding trainer or presenter.|zdcx

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