Pointers for Pre-Training

Over the past few months, we’ve been brainstorming with several of our clients on those parts of the training experience that prepare learners, build enthusiasm, and “sell” forthcoming or existing training solutions. We sometimes refer to such pre-training efforts as “internal marketing,” making sure that your audience is not only aware of the available training but that they are also willing to invest their time and effort. Truth be told, this is actually the fun part of instructional design. We’ve been talking with AVON about the possibility of introducing a viral-style video to show how not to sell their products. If we can make it relevant and funny, the representatives will distribute the video clip peer-to-peer—simultaneously distributing our message that if you take the training, you can avoid similar disasters yourself. So-called “non-examples” are often the most obvious choice for this type of pre-training because they can use extreme cases and humor to emphasize the importance of doing something the right way.

There are often some very practical reasons for pre-training. One of our clients is developing a series of courses where the content is not readily available and where the review process necessitates time-consuming legal reviews. To ensure that learners feel more immediate support and the assurance that training is on its way, we developed brief web-based previews to highlight the types of topics and courses that are being developed. These previews take less than five minutes each and help learners “gear up” for the forthcoming training. These previews have helped shape attitudes and perceptions—learners see that the company is eager to meet their needs. It helps to create productive anticipation rather than negative grumblings.

If your training initiative is concurrent with a significant change in workflow or tools, it is important to align your pre-training with a more comprehensive plan for change management. Another of our clients is working on a global rollout of a system to track healthcare data. The new system is changing the daily work of existing team members, and it will be important to help learners overcome their resistance not just to the training itself but to the change in their roles and responsibilities. This one is still in its infancy. We’ve just completed our needs assessment and we’re in the process of coming up with our design ideas right now. So far, we’ve come up with ideas such as sharing endorsements from early adopters or executives, creating 5-minute tours of the new system environment, depicting a day in the life of a new user, creating a news-style update to dispel rumors, and sharing stories to highlight the potential benefits to patients. If you have any ideas, let us know. We’d love to hear them, and we’ll post the best here on this blog.

Review of ASTD

As promised, here’s a report on the recent ASTD International Conference in Atlanta. I’ll give my run down here, then you can look forward to a new entry in the next day or so from Ron, who will give his impressions.

First, I think it’s only fair to admit something up front: I’m a newbie. Yes, I’m a newbie to the Learning Industry. As such, this conference was critical for me as a marketer. It was my chance to become fully immersed with the practitioners, vendors, gurus, and other newbies. I had a chance between classes to strike up conversations with a number of attendees and get their perspectives on the conference, the industry and learning in general. Nearly every course I attended was full of new information, something of little surprise since I’m the new guy on the block.

Beyond the whole new world of learning, what I noticed most was the passion of those attending. Don’t get me wrong – I had a number of conversations and heard a variety of comments that are best described as “wry.” But that’s what stood out for me: even with all the headaches that can come as we strive to improve our organizations via sound learning, there was a palpable, positive atmosphere at the conference – something I think is indicative of the industry as a whole. I readily identified with Dave Vance – who was new to the industry just a few years ago – when he said in his presentation that learning is essential to achieving the goals of our organizations. As one attendee told me, “It can be tough, but it’s worth it.”

I’m looking forward to next year’s conference, and am already energized to attend other industry conferences where I can meet more of you and hear more about your challenges, goals and successes.