Training Creation Guidelines

Why Creating Training is Important

Any time that a process, template, or best practice has been created, it has come from a lot of hard work.  The lessons learned in the process are very valuable, especially when they are understood, live on, and continue to improve.  If there are others that can benefit from the knowledge, training is a great way to share the results and allow further opportunity to grow.

How People Learn

These tips will help provide a high level of learning transfer.

·        Video is the most effective method of training.  The average human can retain: 10% of text, 65% of images, and 95% of video.

·         Images are retrieved 60,000 times faster by the brain than text is.

·         By utilizing both audial and visual senses, help the lessons to stick more.  Each has its own channel to short term memory; double capacity by using both.

o   Show images with key words while conveying the information verbally.

o   Visual images must clearly, simply connect with words so they are not distracting.

o   Give a document that highlights the steps as a follow up option for reference later.

·       The way that people actually apply a lesson is by hooking it to prior knowledge.  This is best done through application of the lesson into an example.

·       Personalization makes the training more accepted by the user and leads toward better retention.   Gear the training toward the specific learner and using casual language (such as “you” instead of generic or overly professional words like “people).

·       People want to see a presenter’s image in the training that they can relate to.  They want to see eyes.  They want it to be conversational with them.  This provides a 47% improvement on test results.  Studies show we want women to teach us personal things and men to teach us technical things.

·         Scenarios are a highly recommended method of training.  They include relatable characters, a plot, a realistic decision, and consequences with feedback.  They challenge the learners to make realistic decisions.  Having an expert that shows step by step how they would solve a problem is ideal.

·       People relate to stories.  They help to engage the learner and confirm appropriate application of knowledge.

·       People learn much more by having smaller “chunks” of training for shorter periods rather than a two-hour training with a ton of content.

·      Make the training easy to access so that people can find what they need to find easily and are therefore more likely to utilize the content.

·      Alignment needs to happen repetitively – just like in a car – one training course doesn’t work for life. It’s a process of continuous adjustment (weekly, monthly) with adjustments as needed to stay on course.