How Not to Train

Last night, we went to some training at a nearby department.

They were bringing in professionals to offer some training, and invited most of the county to participate- exactly how I think things should be done.

Oh good, I thought, maybe this will be decent training, and we can learn something from it.

My mistake.

Let me mention a little bit about how NOT to conduct training.

First, don't start with saying "This powerpoint is from a different agency, and I'm not really familiar with it, so I'll just read through it quickly. I don't know much about this, so if you have any questions, I probably don't know the answers, but maybe someone else will and can share it."

Please.

And then there were the scenarios.

I don't have anything against using scenarios in training. Sometimes, they can be excellent tools.

But do some training FIRST.

Teach people what to do and how to do it. THEN give them a scenario to use for practice. Set them up for success.

I don't understand why so many places seem to think that throwing people into a scenario for which they have not been trained, so that they'll screw it up, and then be criticized for everything they did wrong, is how to train people.

It isn't.

Period.

Did it occur to anyone that the ONLY things that were practiced were the mistakes?

Do any of them understand that in order to be effective at changing behavior, feedback must be immediate- not half an hour later?

Just because someone claims to be a professional, and claims to be able to provide training, does not make it so.

Any more than calling something "tofu cheesecake" makes it cheesecake.