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.