A Training Journal

pull-out supplement
Issue 1: January 2000
www.trainingjournal.co.uk
Train
Trainer
the
Phil Green is the first guest editor of ‘Train the Trainer’, a new and regular section that will contribute to trainers’ personal
development. Over time, we will cover and re-cover the entire cycle of training – from needs analysis to evaluation – and
will offer something for every trainer, whatever their level of experience.
Phil Green’s company is Optimum Learning, a consultancy that has helped some of the UK’s best known organisations
to achieve business improvement and has trained hundreds of trainers in the skills and techniques of analysis, design
and delivery. He is a member of the Forum for Technology in Training (www.forumtt.org.uk), a committee member of
TACT (The Association for Computer-based Training – www.tact.org.uk), an active training consultant, and a former
teacher and shoe salesman.

In this introductory article, Phil Green lays the groundwork for

Editorial coming issues of ‘Train the Trainer’ as he asks what we mean by
effective training. He also shares some personal thoughts on the
T
he pace of change in the
second half of the 20th changing nature of work, and discusses the critical roles of
century has had an instructional strategy and instructional design.
enormous effect on the world of
work and how we approach
education and training.
What is effective training?
Throughout my tenure as guest

F
or the time being, let’s adopt foot in a classroom they
editor of ‘Train the Trainer’,
the notion that effective immediately regressed to their own
I will chart some of the more
training is the development early experiences of pupil and
significant changes and help
and transfer of knowledge, skills teacher. The problem was that this
trainers to make sense of their
and attitudes that people will was a model from childhood
emerging roles for the 21st
acquire and use once they are back learning (and not a particularly
century. For training managers
at work. This may be a narrow successful one at that). Adult
and more established trainers we
definition, and we will challenge it learning (sometimes labelled
will create as we go along a
later in future issues, but the key andragogy) is quite different from
bibliography, links and cross-
lies in defining effective training in childhood learning in a host of
references so they, too, may find
terms of what trainees do; not ways. We’ll examine this idea
something tempting or
what trainers do. This means that along with the thinkers and
challenging to augment their
trainers must begin with a very research that bear out the theory
knowledge.
clear picture of how the trainee in a later article. In essence it is
Any document that sets out to
will use the new learning after the vital to know:
guide a widely mixed population
training event. If you are someone
of trainers towards greater
who likes to attach ideas to a ● who the learner is
effectiveness is something of a
known theory, then you could call ● how adults learn
Trojan Horse. Therefore, within its
this a behaviourist approach to ● how to increase learning using a
boundaries you should expect to
learning. In subsequent issues we mixture of strategies
find a mix of approaches – telling,
will review some of the trends and ● how to shape the design,
suggesting, questioning, allowing
theories that have led us to this method and medium for
for activity, investigation and
distinction. We will also give you a learning
reflection and so on.
process and tell you of some ● how to create commitment,
I consider it an honour to be the
theories that will help you to do a enthusiasm and motivation
first guest editor of ‘Train the
proper job of building that clear within learning activities and
Trainer’. I look forward to the
challenge and hope you will
picture of your customer, the ● how to measure the success of
consider my effort has been
learner. the learning.
worthwhile.
Often in industry, trainers have
been recruited because they were Once, at a management
Phil Green
good at the job they were doing, conference, an over-excited
Optimum Learning Ltd
and not because they showed delegate glared at me and
Tel: 0114 281 6727 aptitude for the quite different job bellowed: ‘Get out of your box!’
Email: [email protected] of helping others to learn. He had wanted to challenge what
Knowing no better, once they set he saw as my more conservative ➤➤

Train the Trainer

i
view and had recalled the hoary The changing or constructivism, about which we
old exercise on divergent thinking nature of work will say more later.
where you join nine dots with Two other new terms slipped into

W
three connected lines only. (Email e have seen a great the language, ‘organisation
me if you want the details.) change in the way in development’ and ‘human resource
‘A little learning is a dangerous which work is organised management’. In a later issue, we’ll
thing’, warned the poet Alexander over the last quarter of this century. review the importance of the work
Pope. It is sad to witness the We have been living through a of people like Douglas McGregor (x
consequence of trainers who latch technological revolution that has and y manager), Abraham Maslow
on to a fashionable theory or spawned the birth of the most (needs and motivation) and, in the
model, half understand it and take significant utility of our generation early part of the century, Elton
it to be all you need to know to – more powerful than gas or Mayo (‘Hawthorne effect’). These
meet learners’ needs. Prime electricity, more thirst-quenching and other innovative thinkers
examples are the excellent than water, more chattering than created the demand for a great
works of: the telephone … I refer to the volume of management training
utility called information. and development events on both
● Honey and Mumford – on the Very practical thinkers such as sides of the Atlantic.
distinctive approaches different Robert Mager, Tom Gilbert, Gary The term ‘human resources’ was
learners prefer to take to the Rummler and Joe Harless were invented in the USA as an
same content challenging training to come down alternative to ‘personnel’. It has not
● Kirkpatrick – on evaluation to the foothills and focus on the crossed the cultural gap to the UK
● Bloom – on building up and question: ‘What will the trainee be very easily. The British do not take
classifying types of performance able to do as a result of training?’ well to being counted among the
according to how hard you Programmed learning emerged machinery, buildings, stock and
have to think in order to and later re-emerged under new other balance sheet assets of
complete them. titles such as self-directed learning, an organisation.
job aids and human performance
You may bluff your way through technology. The march of the
learning styles, evaluation stages At a time of world war, there was machines
and cognitive taxonomies, but a very obvious imperative to

S
these cannot be worn as a talisman deliver not learning, but measured ince the moon landing
to ward off failure. competent performance with as projects of the 1960s,
efficient a resource as possible. technology has been on a
Trainers: There was no time for over- rapid advance. This has caused a
how’s business? indulgence or fancy nice-to-know rich debate about the usefulness of
events. This gave rise to the technology as a medium for

F
or management theorist Peter instructional systems development learning. Educators became
Drucker, there are only two (ISD) model, while the emergence sceptical and nervous; after all,
questions that you need to of computers led to the invention teaching is a Secret Art into which
answer in order to build a of development processes used only the chosen can be initiated.
successful business. The first is widely in commerce and industry. For teachers who typically
‘What business are you in?’ and In a succession of books from the struggled with the technology of
the second is ‘How’s business?’ 1960s to the present day, Peter the OHP, the threat of being
Ask a group of trainers what Drucker impressed on us that, replaced by a machine was an
business are you in, and the whereas in the past the workforce affront to dignity and personal
answers can be quite revealing. was dominated by those who esteem. For trainers, the bridge
Knowing what business you are worked with the strength of their between machines for business and
in ensures you direct your energy bodies, the future belonged to machines for learning was an easier
towards the things that will those who worked with the one to cross.
make a difference. Start at the strength of their minds.
end. So says Dr Stephen Covey. By the end of the 70s, the notion
Trainers should not lose sight of of knowledge capital was well-
the reality that their tenure is established. This completely altered
only as secure as the end result the concept of ‘the trainer’.
of the last job. Measuring and Whereas instructors stood over
monitoring the true value of all their workers and drilled until they
your activities within the had mastered a physical task,
business is the only way for inductors provided the
training to answer that second encouragement and resources for
Drucker question (How’s workers to develop thoughts, ideas
business?). Ultimately it is the and skills for themselves. Once
only way to secure your long- again, if you want a name for the
term survival. theory you might try cognitivism

Train the Trainer

ii
Instructional situations, at different times and
strategies with progressively challenging
content, seems like the Holy Grail

‘S
tand at the front’, ‘use to me. Certainly there is a lot more
visual aids’ and ‘don’t to be said regarding this, and
mumble’ may have been regarding how to make sensible
the only advice a school teacher use of the wisdom about learning
needed. But for business there has styles and preferences.
been a fast-growing recognition The work undertaken on how to
that more is involved in instruction select a strategy and media for
than a learner, a trainer and a learning is complex and very
curriculum. There had to be a clever but none the less useful.
plan of action where the We’ll look at some of this work in
interdependencies were weighed our later articles which tackle
together, such as that indicated by designing and developing
the questions below. solutions for learners. In essence,
mixed abilities and preferences. they share the following
● What was the nature of the Under the old regime, if the characteristics.
subject? learning did not stick, then it was
● How did its elements fit the learner who failed the course. ● They use a systematic process.
together? Under the new regime, if the ● They identify the goals of the
● What was the desired outcome, learning did not stick it was the sponsor – that is, the company
the business goal? trainer who failed the course. that foots the bill.
● How much money could be ● They consider the needs and
spent on the training? Modes of teaching preferences of the learners.
● Where would learning take ● They look for media that best

T
place and then be applied? here are several theories correspond to the task
● What were the technical that seek to describe how requirements.
considerations? learners respond to various ● They combine the best possible
● What was the most suitable types of stimulus. Most important properties of the media.
teaching strategy? Classroom? to consider is what comes to the ● They take account of the work
Coaching? Guided study? On sense through the ear, through the required from you, as designer.
the job? eye and through touch. ● They take account of the
● What were the learning We will say something more material constraints and
strategies to consider? about instructional strategies and limitations of all users (trainers,
Self-directed study? Individual learner preferences later. For now learners, instructors, groups,
or shared learning? let’s keep in mind that for learners, line managers).
as with fingerprints, no two are
And because trainers now had to exactly the same. Recently I saw a Media has an important part to
balance this number of different ‘snake oil’ demonstration of a high play in instruction. There are four
options, their role expanded. They technology learning program that broad groups to match different
were required to develop not only claims to adapt to the preferred modes of perception.
the skills of presentation, but also learning style of users. I remain
of instructional design and unconvinced. Do we really carry 1. Printed material, which goes far
organisational consultancy. They the same learning style through beyond workbooks, worksheets
were required to distinguish, as life for all situations and and textbooks.
psychologists might, between circumstances? 2. Audio, which includes radio,
objectives as mental, physical or The complexity of matching audio-cassette, telephone and
attitudinal. learning style to different the new technology of audio-
No longer someone who trotted conferencing.
out the prepared script, the 3. Audio-visual – that is, mass
trainer took responsibility for media, videocassette,
preparing activities to present videoconferencing or interactive
information, model skills, engage television.
learners in activity and so on, then 4. Computer, which covers
assess the transfer to the learner computers, interactive
against the backdrop of defined multimedia, hypermedia,
learning objectives. Success was electronic mail and computer-
linked with the ability to plan the mediated teleconferencing.
introduction of progressively
complex skills and knowledge at a How to match mode to medium is
pace and using a method to suit the subject of our later articles on
groups of learners often of widely analysis and design. ➤➤

Train the Trainer

iii
The trainer as opposing ideas about learning. to guide and encourage learners
instructional The first of these was centred on to discover new ideas for
designer the content and subject matter. themselves and thus grow in
Learners were compared to a intellectual strength. The power
Wearing an instructional designer container into which the instructor rests with the learners. They are in
hat, the trainer must begin with pours knowledge. What happens control of their own futures, and
recognition of the learners’ prior in reality is that the instructor uses they apply their knowledge to the
knowledge. Too much training is their personal experience of the environment in which they live
every bit as costly as too little. The subject to impress and entertain and work. It is acceptable to reach
true art is not so much what you their audience. Learners are seen a wrong answer – the process of
can put in to training but what as inferior. Success is attained at solving problems and making
you can (and should) safely leave the expense of others and decisions is just as valuable as
out. competition among learners is arriving at the best outcome.
It’s very easy to blame learners encouraged. There is no allowance This is a far better approach to
when the message just doesn’t for individual differences. adult learners. However, it often
seem to want to stick. But you can The second idea was built upon causes nervousness in companies
only build understanding if you a different philosophy who fear that if they equip their
link new ideas to what you already (humanism), where a person’s workforce with easily transferable
know. This is sometimes referred powers and abilities were skills they will take them into the
to as going from the known to the recognised to be highly individual. marketplace and some other
unknown. Try to visualise it as a Instead of telling, instructors organisation will benefit from
set of footsteps in the sand. To provide activities and ask questions their investment.
follow in those footsteps you
might take one print at a time or
perhaps make a giant leap if you
ACTIVITY
Take a quiet moment to reflect on these questions. You may wish to note your
can cope with bigger gaps. You answers on paper.
are not likely to straddle an entire
beach in one great stride. ● Speaking for the present time, how do (or will) you know you are doing a
good job as a trainer?
● Will your success be measured for building:
– volumes of knowledge?
– the ability to think for oneself?
– measurable performance by individuals?
– more success for your organisation?
● What are the main activities in your role?
● How would your line manager, your chief executive or a learner in your care
answer the same questions?
● What personal skills do you already possess that enable you to design,
manage or deliver a learning programme?

It is not true to say the role of the trainer is changing; it has changed
irretrievably and for ever! The old boundaries have fallen. It is no longer
acceptable for trainers to assume that pay and rations, motivation, workplace
environment, documentation and so on are someone else’s business. All who
In the same way, if learning has a survive are in the business of making a difference to the accomplishments of
logical and gradual sequence that their organisations. Whether that is measured in terms of contribution to
increases in complexity, the trainer People Satisfaction, Impact on Society or Business Results depends on the
must verify prior knowledge and model you adopt. Trainers please treat this as nothing less than a call to arms –
skills in order to set learning what business are you in and, Oh … How’s business?
objectives that will extend the
learners’ comprehension. Teaching
at the middle is not good enough,
and the test of what has been
In next month’s ‘Train the Trainer’ …
Next month we pick up the trail towards making a difference as trainers. We
learnt has to be individualised – will examine the process of analysis from a ‘performance engineering’
you cannot teach a group! point of view. How do you make the link between what goes on in a
However, you can combine classroom or learning package, and what goes on at work? How do you
instructional approaches to create avoid the excesses of the past and make training an event that enhances
what is often called a module of real work rather than something that takes you away from it? Throughout we
learning. We shall deal with this shall consider the issue of evaluation. How do you make a difference? Is
concept and the idea of ‘criterion- evaluation something you can leave to the end?
referenced instruction’ in another
article later in this series.
‘Train the Trainer’ is a supplement to Training Journal, a Fenman publication.
To pass back once more into
Clive House, The Business park, Ely, Cambridgeshire CB7 4EH.
history, the 60s saw the beginning Publisher Martin Delahoussaye (tel) 01353 665533.
of a struggle between two

Train the Trainer

iv
A Training Journal
pull-out supplement
Issue 2: February 2000
www.trainingjournal.co.uk
Train
Trainer
the
Phil Green’s company is Optimum Learning, a consultancy that has helped
If I had a hammer … some of the UK’s best known organisations to achieve business
improvement, and has trained hundreds of trainers in the skills and

S
uppose your car became
techniques of analysis, design and delivery. He is a member of the Forum
difficult to handle because for Technology in Training (www.forumtt.org.uk), a committee
the tyres were worn and member of TACT (The Association for Computer-based Training –
inflated to the wrong pressure. www.tact.org.uk), an active training consultant, and a former
teacher and shoe salesman.
One solution would be to take an
advanced training course and
learn how to handle the car in
difficult circumstances. Or (and a In this issue Phil Green sets us the task of how to approach
more obvious solution) you could effective analysis. There’s a self-assessment for you to try, plus a
simply replace the defective tyres. look at two principle types of analysis.
In this example, training is clearly
not the solution to the underlying How do you approach
performance problem even though
it may help you to become a more
accomplished driver.
analysis?
I
We are often guilty of throwing t has been suggested that the announced: ‘Your wish is granted. I
training at a problem before we first step towards rescuing a just happen to be a wizard. With
understand what the problem is. struggling training department magic (I might even throw in some
Sometimes we even anticipate is to rename it the ‘Human smoke and mirrors), I’ll surely tell
problems and their solutions by Performance Department’. I have you the answer you want to hear.’
creating a directory of courses for some sympathy with this idea. With that, he presented his
workers to run through like sheep Training is a process, whereas business card, silver foiled and
dip. But there is little point in performance is an outcome. Some embossed. There was no mention
developing a training solution argue that we should think of of a fee, but ASM knew the rules of
without first asking probably the training as the last chance saloon, engagement … and wizards don’t
most important and telling to be used only when there are no come cheap. Four months and
question of all: ‘Is training the faster or cheaper ways of arriving several invoices later, the wizard
solution?’ Only when you have at the desired outcomes. In the unpacked his magic mirror and
answered this question can you corporate world, training is what projected his findings to a stunned
begin to consider how training can trainers do and performance is board of directors. The
help and how it fits in with the what workers do. If, as trainers, we presentation lasted for three coffees
business, its culture and style, its are to add value we must be aware and a platter of sandwiches
mix of people, mission, working of what workers do now and what (mixed). Then the wizard
practices and so on. they must do in the future to meet reached his summary.
As trainers, we are not just in the objectives of the organisation. ‘What you need,’ he
the business of training; we need
This implies analysis. said, ‘is a piano.’
to view things through a different
Now this
lens, one that offers a wider
perspective to the problems of
The fable of the did ➤➤
organisational performance. As performance tuner
Abraham Maslow said: ‘If the
In another place and at another
only tool you have is a hammer,
time Another Senior Manager
you tend to see every problem
(ASM) stood and observed a
as a nail.’
large crowd that had gathered
outside his competitor’s
Phil Green
Optimum Learning Ltd
workplace. ‘I wish I could
Tel: 0114 281 6727
discover the secret of their
Email: [email protected] success,’ he mused aloud. A small
man in a big suit overheard and

Train the Trainer

i
make some sense, because ASM droves. ASM called the wizard back talents you wouldn’t dream of.’
was urged to recollect the strains of to account. ‘Well it’s obvious,’ said Always cost conscious, ASM
Rachmaninov’s Third on the city the wizard, ‘that you need to get slapped his loyal employee (grade
streets. His competitor had, indeed, Betty trained properly. Your crowd 3) on the shoulder, smiling: ‘Go
bought a Bechstein and employed would probably like Beethoven on then Wilkins; get on with it!’
a concert pianist. That surely was more than Rachmaninov. And you ASM moved towards the piano
the reason for the large crowd might as well get the piano tuned, and the wizard followed. But
gathered at their premises. ASM too. I’ll put you in contact with our Wilkins turned in the direction of
did some hasty calculations. He Tuning Division.’ ASM’s office. Before anyone could
estimated 250 new customers an But in the shadows, someone object, he explained: ‘I’m not a
hour at his competitor’s. That must was listening. He had been a loyal piano tuner, I’m a performance
be worth a quarter of a million employee grade 3 (LE-G3) for tuner. And before we get started
pounds, taking the lifetime value of generations, and he was not about on anything, there are one or two
a customer into account. With his to stand by until the last customer questions I’d like to ask.’
corporate buying power, he could left the firm and the lights went After three hours and
purchase a Bechstein for £25,000, out. Stepping forward, he innumerable plastic cups of tea,
the latest model, better than his announced: ‘Mr ASM, Sir, I’m a ASM and Wilkins stood before a
competitor’s. And he had no need tuner. Let me help.’ ASM looked whiteboard that resembled a map
to employ a concert pianist either. up in surprise. ‘Wilkins, I didn’t of the metro. But the mood was
Betty in Accounts played the organ know you had this talent,’ he light, the two were on Ted and
at church, so surely she could tickle replied. ‘When did you learn to Gerry terms, and the Wizard had
the ivories for a mention in the staff tune pianos?’ The wizard broke in studied his timesheet and left.
magazine. with a sour smile: ‘I think this is a Transferred to ASM’s blotter was a
But no new customers came. In job for a specialist, don’t you?’ But diagram and various doodled
fact, old customers deserted in Wilkins went on: ‘Many here have questions, some with answers.

The Performance Tuner’s model

Epilogue
You can’t always see what you’re closest to. At the end of the month, Ted and Gerry visited their competitor’s
store. The crowd was no longer there, so the signs on the windows and doors were now clearly visible. They
read: ‘Bankruptcy sale – no reasonable offer refused.’ The piano had been sold to the liquidator. The concert
pianist’s last invoice lay with the unopened mail on the mat.

Train the Trainer

ii
Antidote to going on, not because they have ● Will training solve this problem?
solutioneering read it in a textbook, but because ● What are the goals of training?
they have stood shoulder to ● What are the attributes of the
For sure the wizard had fallen in to shoulder with workers and seen it learner?
the trap of solutioneering. Let’s do first hand. They have also truly ● What organisational issues have
a little self-assessment exercise. Use understood the obstacles that prompted this request?
the table on page iv to indicate might be getting in the way of ● What are the learner’s needs?
each type of activity you have run the goal.
or resourced in the past 12 months. I believe you will notice the same We hear trainers refer to TNA
(Newcomers to training should behaviour – stop, look, listen, think (Training Needs Analysis). But if
mark those they think they might – in the most successful of trainers training is to be effective, used when
run in the next 12 months.) Try to and training managers. Of course, appropriate and successfully rolled
show what proportion of your time the product of a training out, there is another form of analysis
you have spent or will spend. Put a department is seen to be training: to undertake first that sets training
percentage in each box (the whole how much you do, how much it on one side as just one possible
should total 100 per cent). We’ll costs, how much new knowledge solution to consider among others.
look at each of these activities in we can measure. And if that is
turn over the next two ‘Train the your reality, then you clearly have Performance
Trainer’ supplements. (Incidentally, to do much internal selling and analysis
I wonder how much time you influencing upwards before you
devote to the final three activities can wield the power to make Performance analysis looks at the
in the list.) a difference. whole system first, then selects a
range of solutions to optimise
Observing, Two principle types performance. I am not arguing
thinking and of analysis against training, but don’t fall into
planning the trap of assuming that training
The trainer’s business often starts is the only solution for an
We are often too busy to stop, look when someone says: ‘What we organisation’s problems. If training
and listen. Sad, isn’t it? The most need is a course or workshop is a magic bullet and the magic
influential and charismatic on …’ Through analysis we bullet doesn’t work, then it’s
managers are those who are said answer questions such as the obvious who must accept
to walk the talk. They know what is ones that follow. the blame!

The Performance Engineering model

Step 1: Analysis Step 3: A cocktail of solutions
EPSS Documentation Motivation
The
The actual Training Career development
optimum
Education
Incentives Job design
Gap
}

Team building

Step 2: Selection Organisational transformation

● Gap Culture change Job/person

● Causes
Job aids
● Goals Leadership

● Opportunities Supervision Selection

➤➤

Train the Trainer

iii
 Performance analysis tells us
when and how to use training and SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE:
information resources. It happens Activities run or resourced in the past 12 months
when we get together with clients
to identify and respond to Proportion
opportunities and problems. It of time spent
involves taking a close-up Activity on activity (%)
snapshot of individuals and the Product knowledge training
organisation, to tease out
appropriate cross-functional Developing job aids
methods of raising and
maintaining performance. It’s not Training in operational practices and procedures
only trainers and HR people who
Training to do with ethics, compliance and legislation
do it; in the best of organisations,
it is a tool at everyone’s disposal. Training ‘soft skills’
In the past, we have built fences
to keep operational training, Team building
management development, HR
Outdoor bound
management, performance
management and so on apart. Training in core skills such as language and numeracy
These are unhelpful boundaries
that exist primarily in the mind. Overcoming resistance to change in attitudes towards training
There are a number of enthusiastic
role models for whom performance Walking about and observing the business
engineering is a way of life. They
‘Blue sky’ thinking and planning
regularly scan the business to check
how things are (now) and probe Other
into how they ought to be (in the
future). This is front-end analysis and
expresses clearly the gap between
the two. They have good open RECOMMENDED READING
channels of communication with ● Fournies, FF, Why employees don’t do what they’re supposed to do …
strategic and operational managers,
and what to do about it, McGraw Hill, 1988. (Sixteen common
and all jobholders.
The temptation in business is for reasons why people don’t, can’t or won’t perform. This is an easy-
managers to look for a place to to-read, one-sitting book with many practical suggestions.)
shift the blame, if things are not as ● Gilbert, T, Human competence: Engineering worthy performance,
they ought to be. Unless you
McGraw Hill, 1978. (Gilbert is the founding father of the concept
protect yourself, training takes the
blame. ‘Your course was a failure; of performance engineering.)
they are still making the same ● Mager, R and Pipe, P, Analyzing performance problems, Lake
mistakes as before.’ Publishing Company, 1984 (ISBN 1-879618-17-6). (An
You will recognise in the
outstandingly useful and easy-to-read book, flow diagram and
performance tuner’s approach the
same process that Mager and Pipe worksheet to hand-hold you through the process. The book also
(see ‘Recommended reading’) have has lots of examples to illustrate the process at work. If you have
championed for generations. If you only one book on your training bookshelf, let it be this one.)
want to develop and run courses,
● Stolovich and EJ Keeps (eds), Handbook of human performance
then so be it. But if you want to
make a difference to the business technology, Jossey-Bass, 1992. (A comprehensive guide to who’s
you’re in, then I recommend you who and what’s what in the field of performance technology.)
start here.

WEBLINKS In next month’s ‘Train the Trainer’ …

● For further information on front- In the March issue we will examine Training Needs Analysis, which will set you
end analysis and performance on the road towards the design, development and delivery of successful
engineering, you might like to training activities.
visit the following two websites.
www.bso.com/ispi
www.nwlink.com/~donclark/ ‘Train the Trainer’ is a supplement to Training Journal, a Fenman publication.
Clive House, The Business Park, Ely, Cambridgeshire CB7 4EH.
hrd/sat2.html Publisher and managing editor Martin Delahoussaye (tel) 01353 665533

Train the Trainer

iv
A Training Journal
pull-out supplement
Issue 3 March 2000
www.trainingjournal.co.uk
Train
Trainer
the
Phil Green’s company is Optimum Learning, a consultancy that has helped
How to analyse some of the UK’s best known organisations to achieve business
improvement, and has trained hundreds of trainers in the skills and
training requirements techniques of analysis, design and delivery. He is a member of the Forum
for Technology in Training (www.forumtt.org.uk), a committee

A
‘course’ does not come member of TACT (The Association for Computer-based Training –
from thin air. The www.tact.org.uk), an active training consultant, and a former
apparent need for training teacher and shoe salesman.
may emerge in one of two ways:
either you uncover a need or others
uncover a need. I like to think
This month, Phil Green helps you to score the winning goal of
there are three main reasons why
training, through TNA.
organisations train people: to grow
the business or change its direction
Training Needs Analysis
in some way; to fix some kind of

I
problem; or to protect it from n last month’s ‘Train the The output is an outline design
some dire consequence or
Trainer’, we looked at how specification of what will be
sanction.
performance analysis sets taught, and how.
training on one side as just one
However, it is what you do with
an apparent training need that sets
possible solution to consider The five Ws
among others. The process
the successful trainer apart from
involves looking at the way things If you are not offended by
the rest. If you listen hard, take
are (now) and the way they ought ‘dumbing down’, you are
notes, then go right off to design a
to be (in the future), and expresses considering five basic elements
course, I’m afraid you make
clearly the gap between the two. when you analyse training
yourself and your organisation Once you’ve determined needs: who, what,
very vulnerable. Learning is not a that training is the solution, why,
one-size-fits-all product. You need Training Needs Analysis when and
a process by which to establish the (TNA) will be your next where.
fit. Whether or not you regard step. You could
yourself as a designer of training, TNA leads you to the also add a
it is an instructional design model overall goals of training. It sixth –
that will meet your need. is at this point that the which – to
There is a wonderful tale at the outcomes of learning are remind you
front of Robert F Mager’s book set out in the form of of the need
Measuring Instructional Results (see learning objectives. It is to match
‘Recommended reading’ for often an artificial media
details). In the story, the Royal distinction to draw a line (which
Barber is appointed because he between analysis and design (see one …) to
can relate the history of barbering, Table 1 on page iii). Design situation, type of
describe its importance and includes the following. content and
identify the instruments that are preferences of
used for cutting hair. However, he ● Task analysis: the skills and learners. We can
loses his head for taking a slice knowledge learners will acquire now introduce
from the king’s ear. A salutary through this instruction. another term –
lesson for us all!
● Subject matter or content instructional
analysis: what content should strategy – to describe
Phil Green
be included and in what order the planned
Optimum Learning Ltd
it should be taught. consideration of all
Tel: 0114 281 6727 ● Instructional strategies: the these elements (see later
Email: [email protected] best way to learn the in this supplement for a
particular content. further explanation). ➤➤

Train the Trainer

i
Instructional design ANALYSING TARGET GROUPS
We have been careful to think in What do you need to think about when you analyse a target group? How do you
terms of a performance gap rather identify individual characteristics, prior knowledge and specific needs? Several
than a knowledge or skills gap up to authorities have suggested factors that affect how a person learns and retains
now. There is a set of tools that information. We might call these target group characteristics and they include:
leads you to a range of solutions ● intellectual ability and cognitive style
once you have found a ● prior knowledge and experiences
performance gap. This set of tools is ● affective characteristics and personality
generally known as an instructional ● personal characteristics such as sex, age and state of health.
design system. There are many You might add to the list:
● language level
● prior knowledge of related subjects
● motivation to study the topics to be learned
● familiarity with the mode of teaching.

you adopt (or develop!), the Development

binding characteristic is that ● Create the models, tutorials,
the first stage is some form of activities and assessments that
analysis, research or enquiry. match the specification.
Subsequent stages, whatever
you choose to call them, will Test and improve
always include the processes ● Test and validate the
of design, development, testing, courseware/learning materials.
implementation and evaluation
different models of instructional (hence my acronym, ADD Implement
design (see panel below). Usually TIE). Let’s now break this ● Launch the materials, deliver the
they are shown as a set of steps that down further. events, brief the delegates and
includes analysis, design, their managers, and so on.
development and evaluation. Some Analysis
models tweak the terminology so ● Identify the problem and who is Evaluate
that convenient mnemonics emerge involved (see panel above). ● Evaluate the outcomes.
– for example, the four Ds model ● Clarify the learning goals and
refers to analysis as ‘Definition’, learner needs. As we have seen, analysis is
followed by ‘Design’, ● Identify necessary skills and invariably the first step in a process
‘Development’ and ‘Delivery’. knowledge. known as instructional systems
Because I am thoroughly sick of design. In general, the goal is to
TLAs (three-letter acronyms), I’ll Design find out more about the context in
give you an SLA (six-letter ● Draw a specification for which a training need arises. Table 1
acronym). Please do not think the learning. contains questions that cover most
that I am urging you to adopt my ● Apply principles of learning and of the areas you will need to
own preferred model. Use what instruction to assist learners to consider. Use it to rehearse
works for you. Whatever model learn the content. some analysis.

MODELS FOR INSTRUCTIONAL SYSTEMS DESIGN

Dick and Carey Hannafin and Peck
One of the most known of ID models is the Dick and Carey Although simpler than Dick and Carey and the Jerrold Kemp
Design Model. Using a systems approach to designing models, the Hannafin and Peck Design Model is no less
instruction (similar to the way software is engineered), the effective. Its strength is in acknowledging and making specific
model describes an iterative process that begins with analysis reference to evaluation and revision at each of the three design
and the identification of instructional goals, and ends with stages: needs assessment, lesson design, and development
and implementation.
summative evaluation.

Jerrold Kemp Rapid Prototyping

The Jerrold Kemp Design Model is complex and far-reaching. It Tripp and Bichelmeyer’s Rapid Prototyping Design Model is
takes a holistic approach to ISD and leaves virtually nothing perhaps the one best suited to computer or web-based
learning. Rather than designing an entire curriculum, the model
out. The model focuses on the ‘learning environment’ taking
focuses on a single model (the prototype) which contains all
into account content analysis, learner profiles and the functionality of the complete programme. The prototype is
characteristics, learning objectives, teaching methods, activities, used to evaluate and test screen design, navigation, branching
resources and evaluation. Where most models operate in linear and test items, and to resolve installation problems prior to the
mode, the Jerrold Kemp Design Model is a truly iterative complete system being installed. The term ‘rapid’ should not
process where each element within the process, and not just be mistaken for quick or easy. The method calls for an intuitive
the process itself, is subject to constant revision. approach and experience of instructional design principles.

Train the Trainer

ii
Task analysis formulate, generalise, infer, for learning, what to leave out is
integrate, invent, plan, predict, often more important than what to
Once you have isolated a particular reorganise, solve and synthesise. leave in. As Oscar Wilde once
job skill that needs to be built, you observed: ‘I’m sorry I sent you a
have to find a way to organise the The verbs within each category of long letter; I didn’t have time to
training in a logical sequence. If learning (and they by no means write a short one.’ So it is with
you (or any materials you represent all the possibilities) lesson design.
design) are to be credible can help to define what it The amateur sits at a desk and
as a knowledge expert, is the learner will be writes, and writes and writes …
you must become able to do or is The learner is bombarded with
familiar with the expected to do as a information that bears no
task. There are result of training. relevance to his or her needs and
various ways of Think again interests. The content grows into
doing this, as the about the course an over-indulgence of things the
list below shows. you will run. What training designers thought they
level of change might like you to know. The
● Observe the task does it need to bring assessments are riddled with trips
being performed. about? Make a short and tricks and traps to show not
● Interview workers. note of the need using how much you have learnt but
● Interview supervisors. one or several ‘levels’ of how little you know.
● Perform the task yourself. change. You will find some How to constrain the content is
● Focus groups. examples by looking at the actually very simple: stick to the
● Surveys, checklists, websites listed (see ‘Weblinks’, objectives. The main output of
questionnaires. page iv). analysis is a statement of the
accomplishment that is required
Behavioural changes Subject matter or of each key group involved in
If improving performance is about some kind of change or
changing the way somebody content analysis improvement within a business.
behaves, then we need to In the first article of this series The learning objective defines
articulate what that change (the (Training Journal, January 2000) I the performance of a particular
outcome or product of our suggested that, in a specification target group. ➤➤
training) will be. In 1956, a group
of education psychologists
headed by Benjamin Bloom set out TABLE 1: ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
to develop a classification of CHECKLIST
behaviour important in learning. The training need Timing issues
The classification – Taxonomy of ● Who wants it? ● Starting dates.
Educational Objectives: the ● Why do they want it? ● Length.
classification of educational goals to ● Is there a lack of skills and/or ● Frequency.
give it its full title, or Bloom’s knowledge? ● Location of training: where;
Taxonomy, as it is more commonly number of learners;
known (see ‘Recommended The audience space required.
reading’) gave us a way of thinking ● Who is the audience?
about a range of simple to ● What is their knowledge of The company
more complex types of the topic? ● The business the organisation
human behaviour. ● How do they react to the topic? is in.
● What are their job duties? ● Attitude to training
● Knowledge level: identify, name, ● What are they probably ● The current strategic mission.
list, repeat, recognise, state, expecting? ● Future plans.
match and define. ● What is their previous experience ● Quality standards affecting
● Comprehension level: explain, of training? the organisation.
discuss, interpret, classify, ● Are there any motivational
categorise, cite evidence for, problems? Regulatory trends
compare, contrast, illustrate, ● What is normal behaviour for this ● Anticipated regulatory trends.
give examples of, differentiate target group? ● Sanctions or fines received.
and distinguish between. ● Possible barriers to
● Application level: demonstrate, Content the training.
calculate, do, operate, ● Regulations.
implement, compute, construct, ● Possible resources. Anticipated difficulties
measure, prepare and produce. ● Procedures. ● Budget constraints.
● Problem-solving level: ● Policies. ● Availability of learners.
troubleshoot, analyse, create, ● Case studies and examples. ● Resource issues.
develop, devise, evaluate,

Train the Trainer

iii
Instructional
strategy WEBLINKS
● For further information on analysis, visit
Instructional strategy is shaped by www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/sat2.html
the quality of learning objectives. It www.teachnet.com/lesson.html
www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/
is a framework that encourages you
www.education.indiana.edu/cas/ttforum/lesson.html
to think about the types of skill and
www.yahoo.com/Education/Instructional–Technology/
knowledge to be learnt with the
methods of teaching based on what ● For a detailed description of Bloom’s Taxonomy, visit
is known about how people learn. www.valdosta.peachnet.edu/~whuitt/psy702/cogsys/bloom.html
For instance, we learn facts by rote,
procedures through demonstration
and hands-on experience. We’ll
examine the development, testing,
RECOMMENDED READING
● Benjamin S Bloom and David R Krathwohl, Taxonomy of Educational Objectives;
implementation and evaluation Handbook 1: Cognitive Domain, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, January
stages in more detail in a later issue. 1984 (ISBN 0582280109).
But for now it is crucial to keep in ● Benjamin S Bloom and David R Krathwohl, Taxonomy of Educational Objectives;
mind that evaluation cannot be Handbook 2: Affective Domain, Addison-Wesley, January 1984 (ISBN 058228239X).
undertaken apart from analysis; they ● Robert M Gagne, The Conditions of Learning Training Applications, Harcourt Trade
are essentially the same processes. Publishers December, 1995 (ISBN 0155021060).
It is during analysis that you set ● Robert F Mager, Measuring Instructional Results: The Robert Mager Six Pack, Atlantic
up and agree the criteria against Books (ISBN 187961801X).
which a programme of learning
can be said to succeed or fail, and confusion from the process of How to write effective objectives
these criteria then become the designing learning material. Write is such an important skill that we
focal point for your evaluation. a clear set of objectives and 80 per plan to devote an entire article to it
What to train people to do, and cent of the design process is done. later in the ‘Train the Trainer’
how to train them to do it are two The performance should be one supplement. For now it is
sides of the same instructional single verb (I refer you again to important to recognise that if it
strategy coin. They are served by the work of Benjamin Bloom). The does not include all four parts
Condition (given this), Performance
(do this), Standard (to this degree
or in this time) and Assessment (as
measured by this judgement or
criterion), it cannot work as an
instructional objective. What is
more, each part of the objective
tells you something special about
the method, medium and level of
the learning. ‘Condition’ tells you
what equipment or resources to
supply; ‘Standard’ tells you how
many attempts and at what level of
difficulty; ‘Performance’ tells you
the same rigour: set clear objectives. tests that are often used are exactly what you will see someone
Trainers and managers all over the ‘Watch me’ or ‘Show me, dad’. do or hear them say; ‘Assessment’
UK pay homage to a method of Many learning objectives contain tells you the medium (on paper,
writing objectives recognised by the words such as ‘understand’ and with a coach, on screen). And as
acronym SMART (Specific, ‘know’. These fail the ‘Watch me’ for what to leave out – well,
Measurable, Achievable, Relevant or ‘Show me, dad’ tests because that is simple too. If it is not
and Time-bound). SMART is fine, you cannot observe somebody in the objectives, it is not in
but by far the best and simplest knowing or understanding. the learning.
rubric for writing learning objectives
– Condition, Performance,
Standard, Assessment – is to be In next month’s ‘Train the Trainer’ …
found (once again) in the work of In the April issue, we will continue the trail through instructional systems
Robert F Mager. design, looking at some typical examples of training activity and meeting that
Writing objectives has a number most efficient of performance improvers, the job aid.
of pitfalls, but it is the skill that,
more than any other, determines
‘Train the Trainer’ is a supplement to Training Journal, a Fenman Publication.
how far your training will be
Address: Clive House, The Business Park, Ely, Cambridgeshire CB7 4EH
successful. It is also the discipline, Publisher and managing editor: Martin Delahoussaye (tel) 01353 665533
which will remove the pain and

Train the Trainer

iv
A Training Journal
pull-out supplement
Issue 4 April 2000
www.trainingjournal.co.uk
Train
Trainer
the
Phil Green’s company is Optimum Learning, a consultancy that has helped
In praise of some of the UK’s best known organisations to achieve business improvement,
and has trained hundreds of trainers in the skills and techniques of analysis,
motherhood design and delivery. He is a member of the Forum for Technology in
(... and apple pie?) Training (www.forumtt.org.uk), an active training consultant, and a
former teacher and shoe salesman.
onsider my cat. Among her

C many skills she is highly

competent at hunting,
personal hygiene and advanced
This month, Phil Green continues on the trail through instructional
systems design, looking at some typical examples of training activity.

negotiation (if you’ve lived with a

cat, you’ll know what I mean). She
Design, development
has never been to school, has
attended no courses and has no
and method
L
operating procedures. How ast month, I discussed the role These subjects are ones that often
amazing; so tiny and and importance of training have the classroom treatment
unprepossessing, and yet so highly needs analysis. The next stage applied to them (with the
functional. She knows how to in the instructional process, once exception of outdoor bound). Let’s
thrive in her world. the learning need has been look the different activities in turn.
How she developed her established, is design. In this
competencies is a moot point. Some
would argue that her instincts were
context, design is the process you Product knowledge
laid down as part of her genetic
go through to determine the and a word about
soup. Others would point to the
method by which the subject
matter will be communicated – in
job aids
activities of her mother, coaching
and coaxing during kittenhood. But
other words, what people will learn Without product knowledge you
people are not cats and so we have and how they will learn it. At one cannot operate, sell or support the
kindergarten, school, university time, this usually meant taking company’s products. Let’s accept
and training departments. people off the job and ‘training’ that the modern training
The training department is often them in a classroom. But while we department analyses precisely what
a kind of corporate mother. But are seeing a decline in the use of people need to be able to do. But
Mother is seldom confused about the classroom it is still the method what next? Design a course?
her role – whereas Training often of choice for a great many trainers Develop learning materials? Let’s
behaves more like school. and a great many companies. In apply a three-step process.
Sometimes training even calls itself the February issue of ‘Train the
‘university’ – the Hamburger Trainer’ I asked you to consider how 1. Develop job aids where possible.
University, The University of you allocate your time as a trainer 2. Offer training only where
Banking, and now in Britain we against the following activities. necessary.
have The University for Industry. 3. Create opportunities for
In the April 1992 issue of Training, ● Product knowledge training. practice.
David Cram said the first thing he ● Developing job aids.
would do to rescue a struggling ● Training in operational practices Job aids are so important that we’ll
training department would be to
and procedures. devote a whole feature to them in
rename it the human performance
● Training to do with ethics, a future edition of ‘Train the
department. I have some sympathy
compliance and legislation. Trainer’.
with this idea. Training is a process,
whereas performance is an
● Training ‘soft skills’. When a major retailer established
outcome. Remember to think ● Team building. a new call centre, a smart and
‘analysis’. ● Outdoor bound. friendly trainer delivered short
● Training in core skills such as overviews. That was how their
Phil Green
language and numeracy. people preferred to be inducted
Optimum Learning Ltd
Tel: 0114 281 6727
● Overcoming resistance to change into the product. There followed
Email: [email protected] in attitudes towards training. lots of scenarios in which they got a
● Other. feel for the physical attributes of the ➤➤

Train the Trainer

i
products and practised handling this process by giving it a fancy training, and come to you instead
calls. New starters had to find their name such as knowledge capital. for guidance on how to get people
way around the product catalogue Maybe you cannot see yourself to perform more effectively. They
not only to answer questions, but doing this. You know you will meet will have recognised that poor
also to look up information and with resistance from managers performance is not always due to
then act on it in as appropriate. whose expectation of trainers is someone not knowing how to do
Sales advisers had to describe that they will run courses. If so, the job. Line managers will
features and benefits, overcome then you have an education job to routinely look for factors that get in
objections, identify opportunities to do and had best not delay. It is the way of proper performance or
sell up and sell on, and so on. Their time to widen management reward the performance that we
confidence grew through applying thinking about the kinds of thing a don’t desire. Let’s think about that
solutions for various kinds of training department can do. last point again. Do organisations
customer needs. They also used a In efficient organisations, all really reward people for doing
host of resources (phone, Internet, routine procedures (how to process things wrong? As an example,
catalogues, store visits) to learn by an invoice, how to reset a pickers in a distribution centre are
discovery what the competition was communications link and so on) are trained to handle packages and
like. For the support and supervisory documented in the form of job aids. avoid breakage, but they are
team the emphasis was on This makes them easily portable punished for care because their
troubleshooting and resolving from one site to another. In some bonus is linked to how fast they
problems and complaints. Let’s cases, the business has not thought can pick a batch and get on to the
contrast this with some product through the standard for certain next load.
training we’ve known. operations. This leaves training
exposed. It is not your role to define Ethics, compliance
● A day or two in a classroom. the standard; your job is to and legislation
● Delegates take copious notes as
each feature is presented. Some things need special
● A test at the end to check recall emphasis. Employees often find
of the specifications of the themselves placed in situations
product. where they might innocently break
● Those who appear to be the law. Directors risk
destined to fail are ‘helped to imprisonment for being careless
meet the standard’. This may be with privileged information.
equally true of core knowledge Managers risk tribunals if they ask
for compliance with a regulator the wrong questions during an
or to show due diligence. interview. It’s important to make
them aware of the issues and let
If this sounds uncomfortably them practise how to avoid legal
familiar, then read on! minefields.
We talk much about beliefs and
Operational communicate it! Too many trainers values. Organisations have rules
practices and have been placed in the position of that guide choices and behaviour.
procedures compensating for the fact that The rules may or may not be
some manager somewhere is simply written but they certainly exist. The
Every organisation has its own ways not managing. rules for one organisation, industry
of doing things. Some run courses By thinking job aids, an sector or country may be very
– for example, how to do a stock- organisation is compelled to different from another. Standard
check. The outcome of getting it produce uniform operations. You policy in one place may be
wrong once in a while is not do not have to do this yourself – it grounds for dismissal in another.
particularly dire in the case of most is the role of strategic managers to Workers need to know what’s
company procedures. No wonder define strategy, of operations expected. Many organisations
managers baulk at the cost of managers to define operations and include legal and ethical training in
taking workers off the job to so on. However, if you help with their induction programme for
rehearse activities that could easily analysis and then with language, new starters. Because someone
be provided in a procedures layout and format, you are adding passes a test of understanding
manual, and referred to only as and quality and consistency for workers. when he/she first joins the
when required. Why not let the Old-fashioned training company, that does not ensure the
training department capture skills departments believe in teaching person is permanently inoculated
and processes, and design the best people to undertaking procedures; against risk. People forget, or
way of communicating them in the modern training departments legislation moves on or new ethical
form of job aids? It will add great believe in enabling people to choices emerge. Again, wouldn’t a
value to the business and save you undertaking procedures. policy document or ethics manual,
time in the longer term. Modern Imagine how it will feel when perhaps linked to an annual MOT,
organisations sometimes dignify managers stop asking you for be a more effective approach?

Train the Trainer

ii
 manager’s view becomes reality – through you own glass ceiling’,
Soft skills you just spent two days off the job does that help you to work more
There is a plethora of courses on with nothing to show for it. successfully with a manager who
interpersonal skills, negotiation, Surely we begin to develop our has the style of Attila the Hun?
influencing and presentation. ‘people skills’ in infancy. By the Maybe time could be spent more
These may be inbred talents or time we reach adulthood the productively in confronting and
skills underpinned by principles pattern is fairly well fixed. Is there resolving together the issues that
and techniques that managers and any point at all in these courses? actually hinder job performance?
supervisors can learn and practise. I’d like to hear your view. It is true A modern lean and mean
I’m not going to argue against that how we interact with others training machine looks hard at any
training in these topics, but I do can stifle the encouragement of event that doesn’t link back to an
question the expectations of what good ideas. It must be worth the identified need, that doesn’t allow
can be achieved. effort to build these skills, but the for practice and cannot easily relate
Learn to speak Spanish in ten issue is should we attempt to teach to a measurable bottom-line
days or your money back! Is that them intensively in classrooms as improvement.
the same as learn to pass as a traditionally we have done?
native in Barcelona? It takes more There doesn’t seem to be much Core skills in
than a few days to learn a complex point in training those who already language and
skill. You need regular practice over
a long term, and someone to tell
possess the skills and attitudes we
require. Where we can make a
numeracy
you how well you’re doing and difference is with those who are If someone cannot write a letter,
how to eliminate your mistakes. having difficulties now or who are perform simple calculations, or
No one seriously expects to learn soon to meet situations for which express him or herself clearly
the cello or to swim for England or they feel unprepared. My through speech, what should the
to fly a plane in a few days. prescription would be for training organisation do? Remember, as
Imagine you have never been in and coaching over an extended with the cello, it takes instruction
the water, and you enrol for the period, not just a few days. and practice over a long time to
course on swimming. The trainer A leading retail bank has build complex skills. A two-day
tells you how to breathe, and how nominated a pool of coaches and course in report writing is unlikely
to distinguish between images of anyone may enrol for a series of to correct significant long-term
front crawl and breaststroke. You sessions. They take part in a 45- deficit in a person’s language skills.
spend time rehearsing a stroke. By minute lesson twice a week for a You might remedy one or two
the end of day one you might even month. Practice is set in the real
be able to put a toe or your head world, and feedback is by high
in the water, float or leave the side performers who do a similar job
of the pool. So you have a new under similar conditions.
skill. But are you ready to apply it Coaching is geared towards the
at the level of high performance? I specific skills that are absent.
doubt it! You draw up a regime of Participants take activities and
coaching and practice that takes exercises home to practise, with
months and maybe years. analysis and feedback from a peer
But now think about a typical or family member, or self-
organisation. In the course assessment of performance
directory you find ‘Mastering captured on video or audio. In this
personal presentation’. You wait for sense it is the trainer’s role to
a place, and eventually spend two design the goals and a structure or
days learning concepts and template for the activities, to set
practising techniques. You try to expectations, recruit and brief habitual errors, but that’s as far as
suspend the habits of a lifetime coaches and monitor, evaluate and it goes. Do you have the means to
and become a confident, coherent quality control the project. supply a series of lessons, lots of
presenter overnight. You return to practice and feedback to break bad
work with renewed enthusiasm, Team building habits acquired since childhood?
determined to apply these new Should an organisation even be
principles, but not convinced you It has become a lucrative enterprise offering core skills training? Many
can succeed. Your manager to supply daring, physical organisations in the UK have
acknowledges that you have been challenges to work groups. The attained the standard of Investors
on a course, but only to grumble goal is to open communication in People. As part of the process
that the work has begun to pile up and develop trust. It is not they have had to define their
while you have been away. In time, immediately clear how climbing, policy in this matter or sponsorship
with no feedback and no abseiling, orienteering or white for the development of transferable
consequences for using or not water rafting can engender skills life skills. Commonly, an
using the new skills, they are that transfer to a business setting. organisation will offer incentives to
shelved and forgotten. And so your If you know you can ‘break employees and pay the fees for ➤➤

Train the Trainer

iii
going to night school. Upgrading
basic skills (reading, writing, Action plan for greater effectiveness
arithmetic) is usually done in an
● Teach people to operate, sell and service products.
employee’s own time.
● Create job aids for company procedures.
If you encounter a secretary who
● Provide coaches who will enable managers and supervisors to improve
can’t write a letter or a production
their people skills.
worker who can’t process a batch,
● Forgo courses that have no immediately apparent effect on the goals of
you might ask with justification the corporation.
about the criterion for selection. ● Test to ensure that those selected for jobs have the fundamental skills
required to do them.
Training and ● Provide moral support and money – but no company time – for those who
recruitment lack basic skills and want to improve themselves.
● Help managers describe the skills their employees need.
These two need to be comfortable ● Seek out or develop tests for those skills.
bedfellows. When managers recruit ● Maintain and update materials that were produced in the past.
people on the basis of
qualifications and experience, it
comes as a shock to find that they Resistance to change appraise trainers and training
don’t possess the basics. The same departments on the number of
criteria can apply for training as for It is no mean feat to change people trained. You can see how it
recruitment. If you need particular attitudes towards training. We are is easier to count bums on seats
skills to do a job, then it is vital to familiar with the model where than the accomplishments of
test for them. Everybody who teacher is the jug and fills the competent performance.
applies for the job (internal or learner with the delicious nutrient Suppose we made a virtue of
external applicants) must take the of knowledge. Stand anyone reducing the number of delegates
same test under the same before a group to explain or taught and increasing the ratio of
conditions (as close to reality as demonstrate something, call it instructors to students. What if we
possible). Typically a test of training, and it’s training. No praised a training department for
knowledge is drawn from a much matter that the message was spending more time diagnosing
larger pool of knowledge. If you confused. No matter that no one problems and refusing to apply a
can answer 20 questions out of 25, learned a thing. solution until we had a shared
it is assumed you could answer In classrooms we keep people understanding of the nature of
800 out of 1,000. You never let the busy and create the illusion of the problem. It might take longer
applicant know the questions in learning, but usually we demand to ‘get started’, but the
advance of the test. In the case of no proof that the learner has organisation will get real, lasting
skills testing, you can make public acquired usable skills and a performance improvement instead
what you will ask people to prove determination to apply them. We of simply courses.
they can do. Those who fall short
of the standard will know what
they must be able to do to qualify. Recommended reading
● Bloom, B S, Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Cognitive and Affective
Testing has two benefits. On the
Domains, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1969.
one hand it ensures that we get
● Mager, R F, Developing Attitudes Towards Learning, Kogan Page, 1968.
the skills we need. On the other it
● Mager, R F, Goal Analysis: how to clarify your goals so you can actually achieve
forces those on the inside to be
crystal clear about what skills are them, Center for Effective Performance, 1991.
needed for each position. A job ● Gilbert, Human Competence: Engineering Worthy Performance, Intl Society for
specification ought to list the skills Performance Improvement, 1996.
necessary for beginning ● Romiszowski, A J, Producing Instructional Systems, Nichols Publishing
performance. All applicants should Company, 1984.
be tested to see if they have those
skills.
Don’t worry; we can free In next month’s ‘Train the Trainer’ …
resources to do the development,
In the May issue we will look at motivation to learn, developing the idea that
coaching and maintenance if we:
learners’ behaviour and accomplishments are of more significance than
trainers’. We will take a look at what drives people to behave as they do and
● test applicants to screen out the what can influence them towards greater achievement or hold them back. The
unqualified implications for trainers and how they conduct themselves in classrooms or
● eliminate hours wasted on even in print are wide-ranging.
training that has little chance of
success
● train only when we can’t find a ‘Train the Trainer’ is a supplement to Training Journal, a Fenman Publication.
better way Address: Clive House, The Business Park, Ely, Cambridgeshire CB7 4EH
Publisher and managing editor: Martin Delahoussaye (tel) 01353 665533
● train only those who actually
don’t know how to perform.
Train the Trainer
iv
 A Training Journal
pull-out supplement
Issue 5 May 2000
www.trainingjournal.co.uk
Train
Trainer
the
Phil Green’s company is Optimum Learning, a consultancy that has helped
Selling shoes: a path some of the UK’s best known organisations to achieve business improvement,
and has trained hundreds of trainers in the skills and techniques of analysis,
to enlightenment design and delivery. He is a member of the Forum for Technology in
Training (www.forumtt.org.uk), an active training consultant, and a

W
hen asked to provide a
resume, I generally refer former teacher and shoe salesman.
to three career paths that
have intertwined down the years: This month, Phil Green discusses motivation to learn, pointing
the teacher, the trainer and the out some examples of easy mistakes that can get in the way of
shoe salesman. learning. He’ll also suggest a blueprint for building positive
Admittedly the involvement with
retail sales was a brief flirtation, rather than negative feelings within learners’ minds.
during those early economic
struggles of a student trying to make
ends meet. All the same, I have
found the experience to be as useful
a preparation for my current work as
Motivating the
any other role I have fulfilled.
There are two main reasons why I
make this claim. First, for people to
admit learning as a habit into their
learner to learn
I
working or personal lives, they must
n earlier editions of ‘Train the how to programme learners to
‘buy in’ to the idea. That is where Trainer’ we looked at the succeed, and how to avoid
pure selling comes in. Second, the behaviour of learners, their damaging self-limiting and self-
process of effective selling involves accomplishments and how a fulfilling prophecies.
target group analysis, needs
trainer, as consultant, can develop The greatest of inspirations is the
identification, matching solution to
need, closing and order fulfilment. strategies to increase the brilliant conductor and teacher
Coincidentally, the process of contribution of those learners to a Ben Zander. On the first day of a
effective training involves target business objective. We said the new class, he announces:
group analysis, needs identification, performance of trainers does not ‘Everybody gets an A.’ There’s one
matching solution to need, closing
and order fulfilment. matter; it is the performance of condition; students must submit a
But what rings loudest in my ear learners that counts. And you wrote letter, written that day but dated
is the echo of the sales manager’s to me to ask: ‘Are you certain?’ the end of term. And it must
voice reminding me that people It is obvious that the measure of begin: ‘Dear Mr Zander, I got my
don’t buy products, they buy
‘people’. The trainer or teacher
the success of a course is the A because …’
represents a model of behaviour that amount and quality of learning, We award ‘grades’ almost every
has enormous capacity to help not of training that took place. time we interact with people. It
people to learn, or otherwise to However, it is also quite clear that happens through the amount of
hinder their development. You can
the trainer holds the power to respect we pay, how actively we
see overt behaviour in action, but
what you cannot see are the help or hinder that learning, and listen, how we deliver feedback
underlying beliefs and values and that help or hindrance does not and how much attention we pay
the tiny, subtle nudges, prods and always come as a result of to what that person brings to the
blocks that teachers and trainers are deliberate and planned behaviour. encounter. As Ben Zander1
constantly issuing. More than the
overt behaviours, it is these If you have known what it is like reminds us, in a concert, the
subtleties that have the greatest when a teacher says ‘Don’t sing so conductor makes no sound, but
influence over a person’s sense of loud, Barry; you’re drowning out depends on the ability to make
personal intelligence and worth. the choir’, then you will know other people powerful.
To motivate someone first to learn,
next to value the learning and finally exactly what I mean. Learning can feel like a
to apply it in a meaningful way is The spotlight today is on the hazardous pursuit, especially to
the task in hand; the trainer is the attitudes, demeanour and the newcomer or to the
delivery mechanism. behaviour of trainers and participant who has previously
Phil Green teachers. We consider how subtle met only failure and feelings
Optimum Learning Ltd actions can have dramatic impact of inadequacy.
Tel: 0114 281 6727
Email: [email protected]
on the self-esteem and eventual Says Ben Zander: ‘In any
success of learners. We look at performance, there are always two ➤➤

Train the Trainer

i
people on stage: the one trying to In classrooms, in management and labyrinth activity. The other six
play, and another one who in coaching situations, the power were told they had normal,
whispers, “Do you know how many of our expectations is so huge that unintelligent rats. By now you can
people play this piece better than it can determine whether or not a doubtless guess the outcome. Rats
you do? Here comes that difficult person is successful. This is what is thought to be more intelligent
passage that you missed last time, known as a self-fulfilling prophecy. improved daily. They ran faster
and you’re going to miss it again As trainers we reveal our expect- and more confidently through the
this time!” Sometimes that other ations to learners in three ways. labyrinth. By contrast the ‘dumb’
voice is so loud that it drowns out animals achieved much poorer
the music. I’m always looking for 1. Through body language. results. Almost one in three even
ways to silence that voice.’ 2. Through tone of voice. refused to move to the start of the
The same voice whispers to 3. Through our methods labyrinth. Students touched the
learners whenever they attempt a of teaching. ‘dumb’ rats infrequently but
new skill. abused them verbally whenever
Robert Rosenthal is probably the they failed to do what they
Self-talk best-regarded authority on the self- required. They spoke to the
fulfilling prophecy. His experiments ‘intelligent’ rats less, but touched
Perhaps Ben Zander is mindful of end with remarkable results that them more often. One conclusion
the ‘famous walk’ of Francis are deeply significant for anyone was that students showed more
Galton2 (the founder of the science who adopts the role of trainer, care, optimism and confidence in
of heredity and he who discovered teacher or coach. Rosenthal handling their ‘intelligent rats’.
fingerprints). Through a kind of organised IQ testing for some You may have your own theory as
self-hypnosis, Galton imagined inner-city primary school children. to why this happened.
himself to be the most hated of all He then secretly disregarded the
men. Then he set off on his results of the tests and selected The four-point
routine daily walk. Londoners one in five names at random.
hurled abuse at him or turned Giving the teachers these names,
theory
away in disgust. A dock worker he told them that, on the basis of Trainers with positive expectations
wrestled him to the ground. And the tests, they should expect of trainees:
when a horse kicked him, a crowd substantial progress from these ● create a warm, emotional
gathered around and jeered in pupils in the course of the coming climate for those individuals
defence of the horse! Galton only year. In actual fact, the only ● give feedback to that group on
just made it back home. The point difference between the test group their performance
is that a person’s inner attitude and the control group existed in ● give more input (information),
affects not only him or herself but the minds of the teachers. Towards set higher expectations and
others, too. Research has shown the end of the school year the demand more of them
that body language sometimes children were given the same test. ● give more opportunity for
expresses the exact opposite of On average, those said to be more output (question and answer).
what a person is saying! promising had increased their IQ
Unconsciously, we all analyse other beyond the pupils in the control Equal opportunity
people’s body language and their group. It made no difference if
tones of voice, and this way we they were in a class designated for all
often ‘know’ their true feelings. above or below average. Trainers who think they are working
The study and analysis of body In a similar experiment, with well-motivated subjects display
language is therefore of great use instructors at summer camp were more positive body language. They
to trainers. told that their group was made up smile more often, nod agreement,
of potentially good swimmers. At bend forward to their favoured
Pygmalion Effect the end of the lessons, those trainees and sustain eye contact for
identified could certainly swim longer. They give more feedback
and the better than the others. whether the preferred trainee gives
self-fulfilling a right or wrong answer. The
prophecy Rats! ‘haloed’ trainees receive more
praise and less criticism. Trainers
In Greek mythology, Pygmalion The Pygmalion Effect is such a encourage them to answer more
sculpts his ideal woman in marble, powerful phenomenon. Rosenthal questions and solve more difficult
then falls in love with her. (again) told a group of students problems. They receive more time
Aphrodite takes pity and brings that it was possible to breed to answer, and more help.
the statue to life. The Pygmalion intelligent animals. He gave each There is also one outcome of
story is often related to teachers student five rats. The object was to Rosenthal’s experiments that bears
(and I include trainers) who mould train the rats to run in a particular careful thought: when pupils who
a student according to their ideal route through a labyrinth. Six are dubbed untalented perform
of who they are and what they students were told their rats were above expectations, teachers often
are capable of achieving. specially bred for intelligent punish them with sarcasm.

Train the Trainer

ii
 We have to deal with all manner assurance, pensions and we must ascend steps 1 and 2
of people in our daily lives in investments. again before we can approach the
classrooms. Some we warm to Then we fulfil our social needs, ‘higher’ needs.
rapidly and others we positively making friends, joining clubs or There are exceptions, of course.
dislike. As trainers we must be political parties. We reaffirm our The poet in a garret may go
aware of the ‘halo and horns’ belonging to society and we form hungry and dirty as long as he has
effect, and make conscious or join groups. Most people, when the strength to go on creating. He
adjustments to offer the same they reach this point on the does not care what people may
opportunity to all. pyramid, are content to earn say, but resides exclusively on
enough to afford the standard of Maslow’s fifth level.
Basic needs living they feel they deserve. If you see your role as a
People who were deprived of motivator and you hope to
We have been considering the love as children may compensate influence others to change their
responses people make in by dwelling on step four, the current behaviour, you cannot
classrooms because they or needs of the outer self. Perceived succeed without some knowledge
someone else are driven by a status and recognition takes on of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
script that is guiding their huge importance. Drive a flashy
behaviour and shaping their car, buy a bigger house, send your Developing
accomplishments. For trainers, children to private school, occupy
another essential piece of learning a large office with a personal
self-esteem
is the notion that basic human secretary. Very few of us rise to the We cannot develop self-esteem
needs should be divided into higher regions of Maslow’s without feedback from others. If
rough categories. pyramid to reach self-actualisation, we lose self-esteem, we replace it
the fulfilment of our inner self. with feelings of inferiority. Robert
1. Physical needs that keep us It may appear hackneyed in the Mager tells us people learn to
alive and well. modern age, but Maslow’s avoid the things that hit them.
2. Social needs that enable us to conclusions are of particular This is highly significant for
live in a group with our fellow importance to trainers. If we are trainers, managers and educators.
men and women. hungry, we may wander from the Consider these alternative
3. Self-fulfilment needs that text of the novel we are reading examples of feedback.
feed our self-esteem. and first deal with what’s in the
fridge! Of course we can read, ● ‘Why are you so stupid,
Abraham Maslow showed these as eat and socialise all at once, but Donald?’
a pyramid (see Figure 1). Survival the point is that a basic need ● ‘Why can’t you ever get
comes before everything: we must cannot be denied, and will anything right, Donald?’
eat, drink, sleep and reproduce. become more and more
Only then do we attempt to secure insistent until it blocks out all It does not require a doctorate in
our existence. Where our ancestors higher considerations. psychology to see that the first
made homes in caves and tree- If we are declared bankrupt or makes a critical statement about
tops, we now seek refuge in imprisoned for theft, we fall back a the person, not the behaviour.
money, taking out a mortgage, step or two. We abandon self- The second example is not likely
saving for a rainy day, buying life fulfilment or even social need, and to inspire a greater effort. Both
will reinforce feelings of failure
Figure 1: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and personal inadequacy. Now
consider these.

● ‘I am impressed that you keep

8. Self-transendence
7. Self-actualisation
6. Aesthetic
{ Pursued
in any
order
on trying Donald; let’s see
where things went wrong this
time and work out how to
fix them.’
● ‘You are the sort of person who
perseveres until you get things
5. Cognitive right, Donald. Let’s try it
another way.’
4. Esteem

Must be
met first
{ 3. ‘Belongingness’
2. Safety
1. Physiological
I’ll leave you to make up your own
minds. And when you have
decided, let me suggest you revisit
April’s edition of Training Journal
where Carol Laughlin’s excellent
article on feedback offers the
soundest advice. ➤➤

Train the Trainer

iii
LEARNING BLOCKS
What are learning blocks? Most arise from early experience ● Emotional blocks. Anything that seems to threaten
when we adopt particular ways of looking at and thinking our basic needs for security, self-esteem, success, order,
about things. For example, school might have left you with control and so on. This can give rise to blocks such as
the idea that laughter and ridicule are the appropriate fear of making mistakes or looking foolish, the need to
responses when someone makes a mistake. So people learn succeed quickly (leading to impatience), inability to cope
to fear making a mistake. A number of factors (singly or in with situations that are not clear-cut and avoidance of
combination) may block our capacity to learn. situations where we feel anxious.
● How we look at problems and situations. An example is where people become frustrated with
● What is generally accepted as good and bad, right tasks because there are too many conflicting options
and wrong. and they can’t decide which to take.
● How we feel about things. ● Intellectual blocks. Inadequate thinking skills for a
● Our ability as thinkers and our specialist knowledge. particular situation, or the inability to use them
● Our ability to express ourselves effectively. effectively – for example, lack of knowledge about
● The systems, procedures and attitudes at work. methods being used or the ‘language’ (perhaps technical
The situation in which learning is taking place may cause jargon or maths), inability to think flexibly (perhaps
other blocks. For example, a manager who is strongly switching from analysis to idea-generation), and
competitive or fears failure (a consequence of his/her inadequate thinking strategies such as generalising,
traditional schooling) may have a ‘block’ about interpreting, defining and so on.
reorganising and giving credit to others for their ideas. An example would be someone having to analyse the
Before you can do anything to overcome learning blocks implications of some data but not being able to
you must recognise and identify what particular type is understand the information clearly enough to complete
occurring. You can then select the optimum method of the task.
overcoming it (or them). Without that discrimination, you ● Expressive blocks. Inadequate ‘language’ skills to
may reinforce the block unintentionally. communicate or record ideas. This includes visual,
● Perceptual blocks. These prevent the learner from mathematical and scientific ‘languages’. It is not just
clearly perceiving the situation or problem, or the about ‘vocabulary’; it may also include ‘unfamiliar with a
information needed to tackle it – for example, taking too particular application of the language’ (such as trying to
narrow a view of the situation, looking at it from only one describe a mathematical problem verbally) and ‘using
point of view, not distinguishing between cause and incomplete knowledge to try to describe something’.
effect and seeing only what you expect (the obvious) or An example is the trainee who could easily write a good
want to see. report but cannot give a successful ‘live’ presentation.
An example is where a trainer exerts pressure because ● Environmental blocks. Includes social and physical
someone is obviously disinterested in a task, whereas conditions – for example, distractions from the task,
the real problem is that the trainee is fed up with being physical discomfort, the refusal or absence of help and
given challenges that are too simple. the organisation’s structure (perhaps a stifling
● Cultural blocks. We are conditioned to accept what is management hierarchy).
good and bad, right and wrong, proper and not proper. An example would be people finding it difficult to
This creates blocks such as reluctance to challenge concentrate on their work, perhaps because they are
accepted methods, dislike of change, belief that reason situated near a coffee machine, which makes it a noisy
and logic are better than feelings and intuition (and vice thoroughfare.
versa) and over-emphasis on competition. Once you have recognised that a particular block exists you
An example would be a trainee with an idea for a more can then plan to overcome it.
efficient method of completing an assignment but who ● I have written guidelines on overcoming these learning
doesn’t suggest it, believing that the trainer would blocks. You’ll find them on the Training Journal website at
have already thought of it, if it had any merit. www.trainingjournal.com/philgreen.htm

REFERENCES, RECOMMENDED In next month’s

READING AND WEB LINKS
1. Ben Zander, Conductor, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra
‘Train the Trainer’ …
In the June issue we will look at the learning cycle, the
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/20/zander.html
learning process and some factors that affect learning. An
2. Sir Francis Galton, b.1822 Birmingham d.1911 activity will help you to assess the way you learn.
Haslemere, Surrey. Additionally, there’s an examination of the effectiveness
Dimitrius, J and Mazzarella, M, Reading People: How to and application of different learning methods. A reading
Understand People and Predict Their Behavior, Anytime, list closes the loop of our own particular learning cycle.
Anyplace, Ballantine Books, June 1999.
Rosenthal, R and Jacobson, L, Pygmalion in the Classroom:
Teacher Expectation and Pupils’ Intellectual Development, ‘Train the Trainer’ is a supplement to Training Journal, a
Irvington Publishing 1992. Fenman Publication. Address: Clive House, The Business Park,
http://psychology.about.com/education/psychology/ Ely, Cambridgeshire CB7 4EH. Publisher and managing
msb_psychologists.htm editor: Martin Delahoussaye (tel) 01353 665533

Train the Trainer

iv
 A Training Journal
pull-out supplement
Issue 6 June 2000
www.trainingjournal.co.uk
Train
Trainer
the
Phil Green’s company is Optimum Learning, a consultancy that has helped
some of the UK’s best known organisations to achieve business improvement,
Friend of foe? and has trained hundreds of trainers in the skills and techniques of analysis,

T
he kids became very design and delivery. He is a member of the Forum for Technology in
restless last week. I met an Training (www.forumtt.org.uk), an active training consultant, and a
old friend, ADDIE (The former teacher and shoe salesman.
Instructional Systems Design
model) in the corridor of an This month, Phil Green gets right into the playground to see
American publication (Training, who’s teamed up with whom. He invites you to knock on the
April 2000). He was looking less door of some theories that have gained current popularity and
sprightly than usual. Some other
places their merits before you – leaving you to make up your
kids had been tormenting him for
own minds (as he has) about what works.
weeks, calling him names and
chanting ‘analysis paralysis’. As I
got closer I could see a smear of
Experiential learning
The learning cycle
A
blood on his lip and some light merican psychologist Carl
bruising beneath his eye. ‘What Rogers might be a good
happened to you?’ I asked. friend to ADDIE; he ADDIE could surely find some
‘Nothing to worry about,’ he recognised learning as a natural support from David Kolb and his
replied. ‘Just some of the big boys human impulse, either meaningless mates. A good trainer understands
throwing their weight about. or significant. Cognitive learning how people learn and uses that
They say I’m old hat, and that (for example, memorising numbers knowledge to help them develop.
I’ve become too bureaucratic to or facts) was separated from There are different ways of
be of any use to people.’ meaning – unlike experiential learning. People tend to learn
I looked at the long line of learning, which is about applying better from some experiences than
medals on ADDIE’s chest and we knowledge to satisfy real needs and from others. The type of experience
chatted about the many successes wants. In Rogers’ view the teacher varies from person to person. If, as
associated with him. ‘Funny can make experiential learning a trainer, you can recognise
thing is,’ he went on, ‘those who happen by the following means. (through analysis) how each
ganged up on me today are the individual learns best and what
same people who were my best ● Setting a positive climate types of difficulty each might have
friends yesterday.’ for learning. in learning from the assignments
‘Don’t worry,’ I said. ‘You’ll get ● Clarifying the purposes of you set, you are in a better position
over it and so will they. By this the learner. to ensure they gain the full benefit
time next month, you’ll all be ● Organising and making available from those experiences.
pals again.’ He smiled and went learning resources.
on his way with a spring in his ● Balancing intellectual and The learning
emotional components
step, carrying too much as usual.
of learning.
process
Processes, theories and models
for learning need not be mutually ● Sharing feelings and thoughts Think about how a young child
exclusive. I am suspicious that with learners but learns to respect heat.
the apologists for the systems not dominating.
approach should be some of its ● Offering subject matter that 1. The child touches the stove and
former leading lights, who have is relevant to the feels pain: an actual
now joined a bigger, more student’s interests. experience.
influential gang. ● Avoiding external threats where 2. The child associates this pain
learning challenges existing with the stove and thinks about
Phil Green attitudes or beliefs. the connection: observation
Optimum Learning Ltd and reflection.
Tel: 0114 281 6727 You cannot achieve these goals 3. The child learns the general rule
Email: [email protected] without analysis of purpose, people that stoves burn if you touch
and place. them: forming a rule. ➤➤

Train the Trainer

i
4. After a while the child may simply because they are told to or didn’t complete the learning cycle.
cautiously put a hand near the because there is an opportunity to By finding your own way (that is,
stove to check that rule: learn. Giving them a good reason starting with the experience and
deliberate testing. to learn and making it easier for reflecting on the result) you would
them to learn helps to make your have arrived at your own rules
These four distinct stages form what part more effective. (directions) and tested them –
is known as the learning cycle – completing the learning cycle and
actual experience, observation and Completing the learning more effectively.
reflection, forming a rule and In classrooms we routinely fail to
deliberate testing. Learning is learning cycle complete the learning cycle. We
represented as a cycle because it is a There are many different methods tell learners the rule and maybe
continuous process. With each new of learning and some are more give them the opportunity to test it
experience we observe and reflect effective in certain situations than by doing an exercise. They may
on how it relates to our previous others. For example, memorising not apply the learning to an actual
experiences, then modify our may be the best way to learn a list experience and reflect on it for
existing rules or create new ones as of definitions, while it would be some time. An alternative
necessary. For example, the child more effective to learn a manual approach is to start with the work
with the rule about the hot stove skill through practise. You have experience, then encourage the
may then touch a radiator, feel the probably been on the receiving learner to reflect on it to form or
heat, reflect on the similarity with end of many ways of being taught modify rules and to check them
the previous experience, then aspects of your work, some more out by further testing. Here, once
modify the rule about hot stoves to effective than others. again, I am taking tea with ADDIE,
include radiators. advocating ‘performance-based
As we learn, we accumulate rules instruction’ rather than ‘training’. It
that relate to each new experience. is a methodology that involves not
We then adapt old rules rather only trainers and trainees, but also
than form new rules. This is known managers and colleagues.
as ‘going from the known to
the unknown’. Experiential
learning
Some factors
The effectiveness of different
affecting learning learning methods depends on
Many things can affect how people what you need to learn. However,
learn. Last month we considered certain factors help or hinder
learning blocks (refer to www. learning in most situations, as
trainingjournal.co.uk/philgreen/htm Table 1 shows.
for further information on The left-hand column is
overcoming these). We also looked Suppose you were driving a car characteristic of experiential
at feedback and its impact on self- and a passenger was giving you learning. The right-hand column
esteem and motivation. Kolb1 directions – ‘turn next right … go portrays the ‘didactic’ classroom
suggested three factors that have to the end of the street … take the method of learning. The principal
special importance in third exit at this roundabout’ and difference is the point at which you
understanding how learners learn: so on. They were simple directions start the learning cycle and the
and soon took you to your number of stages you complete.
● the influence of past experience destination. Then, on another day, Classroom learning often
● how completing the learning you had to find the same address emphasises the acquisition of
cycle helps by yourself and you got lost. If you knowledge. There is very little
● individual learning styles (about had gone through the difficult opportunity to test that knowledge
which we’ll say more later). process of finding your own way while you are learning, to observe
on the first occasion you would and reflect on its relevance, and to
The influence of have learnt the route more modify your ideas and behaviour
effectively and found it much accordingly. So problems can arise
our past experience easier to find your way back when, eventually, you come to put
Through life, we collect next time. theory into practice.
experiences that shape our In the first situation you were Learning is most effective when
understanding of the world. As we told the rule (directions) and then you present a relevant experience
assimilate and adapt to these tested it (following the directions), and then, through observation and
experiences, they influence our but you didn’t have the experience reflection, use it to broaden or
ideas and beliefs, and determine of discovering for yourself which refine existing ideas, methods and
what we do and how we do it. directions to take or the behaviour. By supporting trainees
As a trainer, be aware that people opportunity to reflect on where as they tackle new situations you
will not always want to learn they were leading – that is, you prepare them to cope with change.

Train the Trainer

ii
 Table 1 We can usually recall moments of
Factors that help Factors that leave strong emotional significance –
you to learn your learning incomplete romance or bereavement for
Being given the opportunity to Being given a general rule and having example. Music seems to have a
experience something new (for to learn a list of situations to which it special capacity to arouse
example, an assignment that applies (relying on being told and memories of particular occasions.
stretches you in some way) then forgetting) And so the theory goes that if we
Being encouraged to complete the Not having the opportunity to see teach in a way that stimulates
learning cycle – observing and how the rule works in practice, by powerful emotions, then the
reflecting on the experience, looking testing it in a real situation, and memory will retain more
for similarities with previous observing and reflecting on the information more deeply.
experiences, then testing if the same experience Accelerated Learning embeds
rules apply Not being encouraged to compare a information in the long-term
Being encouraged to modify your new experience with what you have memory by bringing music and
existing rules as a result of what you experienced in the past to establish games into learning.
discover through new experiences the similarities and differences
In April’s ‘Train the Trainer’, we
Having the opportunity quickly to put discussed how feelings of previous
your learning into practice failure, pressure or stress inhibit
learning. The supporters of
Accelerated that information fed step by step Accelerated Learning reason that
engages less of it than giving the primitive survival instincts put the
Learning whole ‘big picture’ and inviting the brain into a kind of neutral gear.
I’ll bet Big AL is behind the learner to make sense of it first. The higher thinking regions slow
bullying of poor ADDIE. Big AL When the whole brain is active, down. The mind may go
(Accelerated Learning) is full of learning is faster, easier and lasts completely blank. Accelerated
ideas about learning styles, how longer. Learning uses relaxation techniques
your brain works, and the nature How many nursery rhymes can to create comfortable conditions
and complexity of intelligence. AL’s you recite? Can you recall the way for learning.
gang say Accelerated Learning is in which you were taught them?
the antidote to generations of bad What about your favourite songs? Multiple
practice in classrooms. People go Did you consciously memorise
through life without using their them or were they internalised intelligences
abilities to full potential. AL says because of associations with words, Howard Gardner is AL’s best friend.
their development was held places, situations, feelings and so He has written about eight
back because: on? More parts of the brain are distinctive intelligences. Recent
engaged when we listen to words discussions in the Sunday
● people were not taught in a and music together just as words supplements have raised the
manner to suit their personal may be more memorable when question of whether these are
learning styles, and combined with pictures. intelligence or talents. I see no
● they could not believe in their Accelerated Learning deliberately point in arguing semantics. Let’s
own ability to succeed. combines modes of information call them attributes. We all have
and ways of perceiving in order to each of them to a greater or lesser
Research into the physiology of the engage the whole brain. degree. We can apply these
brain has provided evidence which Another finding has been that attributes to learning and so get
shows that people can learn long-term memory is closely closer to our full potential.
confidently and rapidly as long as connected with that part of the Gardner reckons traditional
the subject is presented to them in brain which governs our feelings. teaching suits those who get high
a way that suits their style and marks in language, logic and
preferences. In our school system maths. Students are asked to learn
teaching has been mainly by the stepwise from lectures and
‘shut up, sit down and listen’ textbooks, but some kids learn
method. But there is no single better through vision and pictures.
‘best’ way to learn. Everyone has Accelerated Learning takes account
his or her own preferred way of of this and makes use of strong
learning. Some like to see or be visual imagery.
shown (visual learners), others like Shared learning is an issue, too.
to hear or be told (auditory In school you were sanctioned for
learners) and yet others need to copying, yet many people learn
get hands on (kinaesthetic best not on their own, but with a
learners). Most of us use a partner or in a small group. In
combination of learning styles to school you were made to sit still,
learn effectively. One thing we whereas physical presence is
have learned about the brain is important to many learners. ➤➤

Train the Trainer

iii
They absorb and retain more when 2. Retention: observers must not behaviour; what we observe can
they can manipulate or role play only recognise the observed powerfully influence what we do.
their learning. Accelerated Learning behaviour but also remember it. But our behaviour also contributes
is characteristically hectic, 3. Production: observers must be to our environment.
emotional whole-brain learning. It physically and intellectually In the classroom or seminar,
uses sound, pictures, games, capable of producing the act. learners need the opportunity to
movement, relaxation and 4. Motivation: in general, observers observe and model the behaviour
imagery, and a high level of will perform the act only if they that leads to a positive outcome. It
interaction. have some motivation or reason is because learning happens within
Whenever AL’s gang get to do so. Positive or negative important social and
together, they do a tribal war consequences for the model or environmental contexts that
chant that goes like this: the learner are essential. trainers should encourage people
to work together.
20 per cent of what we read, we recall It is attention and retention that Finally, assessment must be
30 per cent of what we hear, we recall account for the learning undertaken in a suitable setting.
40 per cent of what we see, we recall (acquisition) of a model’s You should not expect learned
50 per cent of what we say, we recall behaviour. Production and behaviour to be performed out of
90 per cent of what we see, hear, say motivation shape the performance. context. A trainer should provide
and do, we recall … Our mental and physical the incentive, resources and
AMEN! characteristics, our personality, supportive environment for the
beliefs, values and so on shape our behaviour to happen. Otherwise,
That is why the link is so strong behaviour and environment. How assessment may not be valid.
between Accelerated Learning we behave can affect our attitudes, Well, the whistle has gone and
and NLP (NeuroLinguistic beliefs and feelings about ourselves the kids are all settled down again
Programming), which we’ll meet and others. We gather a view of – each getting on with his or her
later in the ‘Train the Trainer’ the world from media, parents and work. And I’m off for a cup
series. Often, Accelerated Learners books. Our environment affects our of tea!
will vocalise their learning through
song or chant, or will act it out
through play. It may sound a little References
fanciful for adults, but all the 1. Kolb, D. Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and
evidence suggests that it works. development, Prentice Hall, 1983.

Observational Recommended reading

Bandura, A. Social foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive theory,
Learning Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall, 1986.
I saw Bandura in the cloakroom. Gardner, H. Frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences, Basic Books,
He was still holding up the prize he 1993.
won at Speech Day for his Lawrence, G. People types and tiger stripes: a practical guide to learning styles,
Observational Learning ideas. Center for Applications of Psychological Type, 1993.
Learners may copy the McCarthy, B. The 4-MAT system: teaching to learning styles with right/left mode
behaviour of a model who techniques, Excel Inc, 1987.
displays characteristics that they
find attractive or desirable. When
the model’s is rewarded, the
observer is more likely to In next month’s ‘Train the Trainer’ …
In the July issue we’ll turn the spotlight on how to deal with people in groups.
reproduce the behaviour that
Later, we’ll return to the poor battered Systems Approach to Instructional
earned the reward. When the
Design and look at some highly innovative alternatives to training. To set you
model is punished, the observer is on the trail, here’s a challenge to your creativity.
less likely to imitate.
Problem: in a city hospital, people were sent for X-rays to investigate possible
Bandura has drawn an important fractures. The radiographer often passed the films to junior doctors who
distinction for ADDIE’s opponents – sometimes missed vital indicators and sent home people with potentially
that one can acquire behaviour debilitating fractures. The result was an unacceptable number of cases of
without performing it. The litigation when patients were first sent home, then later recalled for essential
observer may be ‘programmed’ in treatment.
a certain way but not display the Your challenge: suggest a solution that corrects the performance problem.
behaviour until some time where Here’s a clue; no training is involved. Good luck. If you wish, you can email me
there is a reason to do so. with your solution. I’ll print the best ones in next month’s issue.
Learning by observation involves
four separate processes.
‘Train the Trainer’ is a supplement to Training Journal, a Fenman publication.
Address: Clive House, The Business Park, Ely, Cambridgeshire CB7 4EH.
1. Attention: observers cannot Publisher and managing editor: Martin Delahoussaye (tel) 01353 665533
learn unless they pay attention.

Train the Trainer

iv
 A Training Journal
pull-out supplement
Issue 7 July 2000
www.trainingjournal.co.uk
Train
Trainer
the
Phil Green’s company is Optimum Learning, a consultancy that has helped
some of the UK’s best known organisations to achieve business improvement,
Studying the students and has trained hundreds of trainers in the skills and techniques of analysis,

I
t is a strange phenomenon design and delivery. He is a member of the Forum for Technology in
that otherwise reasonable Training (www.forumtt.org.uk), an active training consultant, and a
individuals can take on the former teacher and shoe salesman.
strangest of characteristics and
depart from their normal This month’s ‘Train the Trainer’ is about that unpredictable and
behaviour when placed within a yet predictable animal ‘the group’. Phil Green discusses how to
group. It is often marvelled at recognise its vagaries and what you need to do in order to deal
that arguably the greatest with them.

Dealing with
political brains of the last
century should have been
capable of the Bay of Pigs fiasco.
Group behaviour is one of the
most frequently raised problem
areas among both teachers and
trainers. There is no pat
people in groups
T
definition of what a group is, but rainers and managers talk a 3. We gather alongside some
it often comprises a blend of lot about so-called group other managers who have not
individuals whose collective dynamics. It is one thing to previously met in a classroom
character and mood can change deal with situations you meet in for a briefing and we read
from one moment to the next. textbooks or ‘laboratories’ (in the agenda.
Group dynamics operate on which I include role-plays). It is a 4. We managers have been
two levels. On the surface you quite different matter to manage together for some time
can see rational behaviour hard-bitten business people in during which we have defined
among members, or between seminar groups. There are some roles and developed and
members and the trainer. At a types of problem that can only be shared norms.
deeper level rests the fears and fully understood by direct
cheers of each individual. You experience. You may be surprised to learn that
can sense but not see conflict As trainers we must draw on our by accepted (but different)
developing as members test personal experience of how people definitions, each and any of these
their relationships, defend their behave when they gather together four conditions may describe a
interests, and compete for status, within a setting similar to that in group.
prestige and recognition. The which we operate as trainers. Olmsted says that individuals
individual’s desire for One problem with group who are in contact with each
independence is at odds with dynamics is that it is difficult to other, who react to one another
the feeling of dependence on the reach agreement on what a group and who have something essential
group. is. Perhaps we don’t need a in common are a group. Lindgren’s
Until the group has reached an
theoretical definition. What really much looser definition suggests a
acceptable level of integration,
counts is how you deal with one group has formed when there is
some group members will react
when you meet it. But let’s see any kind of relationship between
in stereotypical ways. An
what you think. Read the four two or more individuals. McDavid
experienced trainer should be
scenarios that follow. In each case, and Harari suggest that far more
aware of these dynamics and
do they describe the conditions organisation is necessary to form a
know how to deal with them.
where a group has formed? group. There must be defined role
relationships and a focus on
Phil Green
Optimum Learning Ltd
1. As strangers, you and I walk common functions. Members must
Tel: 0114 281 6727 towards the railway station. conform to norms that govern
Email: phil@optimum- 2. We meet again on the train and their behaviour.
learning.ltd.uk the conductor collects tickets One way of drawing a line in the
from both of us. sand is to distinguish between ➤➤

Train the Trainer

i
natural and ad hoc groups. (Ad hoc ● The group determines its size and nature of seminar
is a Latin phrase that is often used own needs. groups, how would you answer?
to stand for ‘occasional’ or ● No one from outside can impose Try the questions and answers
‘impromptu’, but literally means common tasks. that follow.
‘for a specific and deliberate ● A key objective is to find an
purpose’.) identity for members outside ● What is the main purpose of
their family. seminar group?
Natural groups ● Sexual attraction is a key The main purpose is to change
element in the form and the behaviour of delegates in a
We attach ourselves to natural structure of the group. specific way by communicating
groups in the interests of our mental ● There is a definite purpose to to them information that they
and physical health and safety. build skill in dealing with adults do not currently have.
I refer to family, peer groups and and with the opposite sex. ● How many people would you
work groups. Broadly speaking, the include in a single seminar
most important group for humans is After family and adolescent groups, group?
the family. Because it is the first to it is the work group that has the It is not a hard and fast rule,
which we belong, it is known as a greatest affect on its members. but a good number is between
‘primary group’. The term ‘primary Our position within the work eight and 12 persons, and
group’ is used to describe groups in group determines our social status. from a practical viewpoint 12
which members make direct is most easily divided into sub-
personal contact. A primary group groups of two, three, four or
often belongs to a secondary group six for collaborative activities.
– for example, you may work in a ● Is it wise to create groups in
team (primary group) that belongs which members have the same
to an organisation (secondary rank or status?
group). Your child may attend a The most successful seminars
class (primary group) within a comprise members of equal
school (secondary group). status. A manageable seminar
Under normal circumstances it is group will be made up of
the family that shapes our attitude employees of more or less
for life. It supplies a model of moral equal status from the same
and ethical behaviour, and it gives company who work in the
us a sense of what is normal social same area – for example, Sales
conduct. By the interaction of or Admin.
family roles (parent, child, sibling,
grandparent and so on) we first An effective learning group
experience group dynamics as functions as a whole and works
children. Whether the experience is It is this group that we, as trainers, together. Do not admit onlookers.
harmonious or dissonant need to manage in our daily If line managers insist on taking
determines the behaviour of a routines. The factors that shape part, let them complete the same
developing individual in all other our successful (or otherwise) activities and assessments as
groups later in life. integration within this group are everyone else. Resist allowing line
We identify the behaviour as follows: managers to join the group to
patterns (norms) of a group and observe.
willingly conform to them as long 1. The style of the official leader. If a seminar holds people
as there is a payoff. We desire 2. The influence of the unofficial together for more than a day or
‘strokes’ and recognition of our leader of the group. two, then participants start to form
achievements. We seek to avoid 3. ‘Pecking order’. a natural group that is no longer
isolation; in fact, the need to simply ad hoc. You will see these
belong to the primary group is Ad hoc groups symptoms:
fundamental and the fear of
rejection is a primitive one. People frequently come together ● a struggle for unofficial
Perhaps the most influential and for a specific objective and then leadership
normative group to which we part when they have achieved it. ● a fight for places in the
belong is the one we join in our Committees, congregations, clubs, pecking order
teens. As adolescents we distance learning sets and seminar groups ● the forming of a ‘group norm’
ourselves from our parents. We feel fit into this category. ● people forming pairs
misunderstood and we no longer The seminar is an ad hoc group ● the group assigning roles
fit, so we flee the family nest and in which we have a particular ● the emergence of ‘Lord of
look for comfort in a peer group. interest, so are there any ‘rules’? Misrule’ or the group’s
Daumling has detected some Well, the short answer is ‘No’, but ‘Village Idiot’.
distinctive features that appear suppose an inexperienced trainer
only in adolescent groups. came to you for advice on the Earlier, I suggested the optimum

Train the Trainer

ii
size to be between eight and 12
members. Apart from the TABLE 1: THE MAGIC ‘12’
mathematical convenience of the ● Groups of more than 12 people invariably split into subgroups, and that
number 12, I would suggest you means more than one unofficial leader emerges.
regard it as a top limit. (See ● Sometimes you may need to capture performance on video – for example, in
role-plays or simulations.
Table 1.)
● Large groups give the opportunity for shrinking violets to appear to learn but
avoid showing through practise that they are ready to adjust their behaviour!
Establishing ● Learners need sufficient time to reflect and analyse their performance. The more
authority people in the group, the longer it takes to analyse behaviour and give feedback.

We have said the normal forming to try to manoeuvre that person determines what the new
of a natural group involves a into a situation where he/she is member’s place is.
power struggle. You need to be exposed for his/her lack of As long as the group is sorting
well-prepared and tough enough knowledge or skill. It is far better to out a leader and working out
to ensure the role of official group establish a good relationship who’s who, it gets in the way of
leader is yours by right. But if you because, whether you like it or not, settling down to work. If
surrender authority – and do this person leads the opinion of the participants know nothing about
expect to be put to the test – you group. each other, it is difficult for them to
should expect a rough ride. An If you are to be with a group for know where they stand in relation
effective classroom trainer more than a couple of days, you to each other. That is why a trainer
establishes and maintains personal should pre-empt the power will always try to manage the
credibility because he or she: struggle by taking control of the process and be done with it as
group dynamic process. Facilitate rapidly as possible. An obvious
● is prepared the election of a spokesman for the opportunity is some kind of round-
● obtains information about the group right at the beginning of the the-table introduction.
learners, their performance, course. The spokesman passes to Something else for the trainer to
styles and preferences the trainer all group requests – for consider is the extent to which
in advance example, changes in timetable or groups soon appear to feel and
● manages the learning pace. This means you have only think alike. ‘Behavioural norms’ are
environment sensibly one negotiator in the group and developing, and although usually
● displays effective communication you can turn away anyone else unspoken, they may go as far as
and presentation skills who comes to you with a request. determining how much work will
● uses questioning skills and You will recognise the term be done, when and by whom.
techniques effectively ‘pecking order’. It happens, not Groups with six to eight
● responds properly to learners’ only with hens but also with other members divide spontaneously
needs for clarification animals (including humans). A real into closely knit pairs or
or feedback or symbolic contest between two threesomes. This may be for
● provides positive reinforcement opponents determines who is security because they feel
and motivational incentives allowed to ‘peck’ with whom. The weak, or because they feel a
● evaluates learner performance end result is a hierarchy ranging strong empathy for their
● reports and acts upon evaluation from the strongest to the weakest chosen partner(s).
information. animal. This order exists as long as
no new member joins the group. If Roles within groups
You can often spot claims to group
leadership early in the game.
this should happen, there is unrest
in the group until a new contest ➤➤
Watch out for the Smart Alec who
turns up with a ‘look at me’
attitude. Consider this example …
THE ABILENE PARADOX
In the Abilene Paradox, Jerry Harvey describes his family’s misguided excursion
Before the end of the first session to Abilene: ‘Four reasonably sensible people who – of our own volition – had
a delegate helpfully suggests you just taken a 106-mile trip across a godforsaken desert in furnace-like heat and a
change the size of the groups and dust storm to eat unpalatable food at a hole-in-the-wall cafeteria in Abilene,
perhaps take an early break. What when none of us had wanted to go. To be concise, we’d done just the opposite
is going on and how should you of what we wanted to do.’
respond? A fear of being separated from the group and other irrational thoughts can
This is a definite test of your drive reasonable, intelligent people to do just about anything – except what
authority. The challenger is putting they all privately agree they should do. Harvey’s theme is that for individuals in
a variety of contexts, how to reach agreement is more of a challenge than how
out feelers to see whether she or
to manage conflict. In the classroom, the first agreement to be reached is the
he has any support from other
willing submission of the group to the agenda of the curriculum and the
participants. You can usually detect organisation of the tutor. Take care because unless you have done some careful
an abundance of energy within matching of content to needs and preferences, and unless you have judged the
whoever wins unofficial leadership mood and motives of your audience, you may meet ‘furnace – like heat and a
of the group and the trick is to dust storm’.
harness that energy. It is a mistake

Train the Trainer

iii
Roles within groups antagonise the trainer. If the trainer
establishes credibility and authority
recognise the pain of these outsiders and
tactfully help them to become accepted
It is fascinating to observe a group, given with the rest of the group, fighters back into the group. Some people –
sufficient time, assigning the same must either submit or accept the role such as ‘Mr Nasty’ types – become
familiar and recognisable roles to its of outsider. outsiders simply because they are
members. The roles may be actively Favourites odious characters who create unrest
chosen or passively thrust upon one who Favourites are usually those who within the group. Once exposed they
accepts it under pressure or because no communicate best. They have the are ostracised (usually for the duration
one else will. Besides the leader, there are greatest empathy and understanding of of the course), and you are unlikely to
two other active roles we regularly see at the group. Others confide in the succeed in bringing these outsiders
play within groups. favourite, who soon seems to know back into the group.
‘Mr Superior’ types are high on
● Worker. everything about the group. The
favourite seldom takes on the role of intelligence but low on social and
● Fighter.
leader, and is more likely to be seen emotional skills. You may have met the
Passive roles include the following: guiding and counselling than trainee who is always one step ahead
● Favourite. dominating. and extremely arrogant. This person
● Idiot. has no desire to form part of the group.
Idiots The ‘Mr Superior’ type of outsider can
● Conformist. Idiots may be those who struggle to
● Outsider. create great tension, interfere with
make great effort but accomplish little. motivation and learning, and spoil the
● Scapegoat. Their defence mechanism is to play up atmosphere in a group. It is often best
Workers to the group. Idiots may loudly entertain to take them to one side and confront
One person may assume more than or volunteer to do helpful little jobs in the negative behaviour.
one role. Workers are unlikely to be order to be seen as ‘the nice guys’.
favourites because they are an
Scapegoats
Conformists Where the group feels unstimulated or
uncomfortable reminder of what all Conformists keep their heads below else overpowered by the trainer, it may
the other members of the group ought the parapet and find it hard to defend punish the weakest member. No one
to achieve if only they applied a point of view. These people usually deserves to be a scapegoat. Group
themselves, too. wait in the wings as the struggle for members try to identify with one
‘Worker’ is usually an active role. It is leadership resolves, then join the another, and suppress negative impulses
taken on by one who is more unofficial leader. Conformists avoid like envy and rivalry. But when they
intelligent or a higher performer than confrontation with the trainer or other generate surplus energy or need to let
the others and not prepared to go at group members. off steam, they may channel their
the pace of the slowest. Some in the
role of worker are driven by an
Outsiders energies into aggression. The spirit and
There are three types: the ‘Innocent structure of the group comes under
obsession to be best at everything (see
Abroad’, ‘Mr Nasty’ and ‘Mr Superior’. threat. The weakest member of the
last month’s ‘Train the Trainer’ on
‘Innocents Abroad’ are those who may group becomes an outlet for aggression.
motivation and self-esteem).
be manoeuvred into the position of Sometimes the pressure is heavy and
Fighters outsider against their will. These sustained. This can happen in two
At the start, highly respected by the outsiders may be introvert, may join the extremes – when the group is
group for speaking their minds, fighters group later than the others and cross insufficiently challenged or when the
decide the seminar is not for them and boundaries they did not even know trainer adopts a style that is too
take every chance to challenge or existed. A sensitive trainer should authoritarian.

REFERENCES
In issue 5 of ‘Train the Trainer’ (May 2000), I drew heavily upon the work of James Adams for the content of the Learning blocks panel.
I neglected to give the credit for this work to its author whom I accredit here:
Adams, J.L., Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas, Third Edition Addison-Wesley, 1990.
In this month’s article, I refer to Daumling, Olmsted and Lindgren. These references come from notes at a lecture in education at
Manchester University in 1977. I know of no other reference, and searches for their published works have so far proven unproductive.
I warmly thank all those academics and practitioners who have shaped and influenced my attitudes and provided me with the tools and
techniques I use in my professional life. If in the course of this series I have omitted to give anyone the credit they are due for their work
I apologise, and hope they will contact me so I can correct the omission. It happens in a lifetime of meeting useful concepts and ideas that
sometimes the source is forgotten.

READING LIST
McDavid J., Harari H. Psychology and
In next month’s ‘Train the Trainer’…
Last month, I set the poser of the city hospital and invited readers to suggest non-training
Social Behavior: A Textbook in Social solutions. The simplest solution was from Mike Sleight who would have self-adhesive blue
Psychology, HarperCollins Publishers, spots on the outside of the envelopes. This allows people to pass on their experience. The
1974. seeing eye of the people doing the processing would be able to inform the less
Harvey, J.B. The Abilene Paradox and experienced – alerting, say, a casualty doctor to take greater care with particular cases, or
Other Meditations on Management, refer to a more experienced colleague.
In next month’s ‘Train the Trainer’ we’ll return to the theme of design for learning. We’ll
Jossey-Bass, 1996.
look at how to set about planning the detail of a course, and how to keep the content
(An excellent summary of research into closely aligned with performance. We’ll also look at some more examples of performance
the links between teacher expectations engineering solutions like the one just described.
and learners’ pupil progress compiled
by Sharon Vana 1988.)
www.csulb.edu/~acolburn/rss_expect.htm ‘Train the Trainer’ is a supplement to Training Journal, a Fenman Publication.
www.cybernation.com/victory/quotations/ Address: Clive House, The Business Park, Ely, Cambridgeshire CB7 4EH
authors/quotes_schopenhauer_arthur.html Publisher and managing editor: Martin Delahoussaye (tel) 01353 665533

Train the Trainer

iv
 A Training Journal
pull-out supplement
Issue 8 August 2000
www.trainingjournal.co.uk
Train
Trainer
the
Phil Green’s company is Optimum Learning, a consultancy that has
helped some of the UK’s best known organisations to achieve business
Howzat? improvement, and has trained hundreds of trainers in the skills and
techniques of analysis, design and delivery. He is a member of the

F
rom the start of this series we Forum for Technology in Training (www.forumtt.org.uk), an active
have argued in favour of a training consultant, and a former teacher and shoe salesman.
method of instruction that can
be measured by an outcome. That This month, Phil Green deals with design for learning in some
outcome may be measured in terms detail. The process involves a number of inter-dependent
of accuracy, a task performed in a activities, all of which are covered below.
specific time or a particular number
of correct responses. Each learning
objective has its own separate
criterion for success. For example,
the criterion for the objective of
Design for learning
bowling for a cricket team might be:
‘Under match conditions, the bowler
will capture wickets at the rate of

A
one per 30 balls and at the cost of no
s we have seen in earlier and ineffective training. Even some
more than 20 runs per wicket.’
‘Train the Trainer’ items on experienced trainers are confused
Of course, this is close to analysis, the choice of about the purpose and positioning
international test match standards, which elements to include and of objectives. They have had the
and my mind wandered in this how to use them is shaped by message drummed into their heads
direction during an interval for bad careful analysis of needs, of whenever they have read about or
light at Lords cricket ground environment and of the attributes attended a course on training.
recently. (Untypically, the English of the target group. The purpose There is a sense of guilt about
team beat the West Indies.) Think for of this article is to explore how to objectives; if your line manager is
a moment about the process of begin designing learning material. to sign off your course notes or
learning to play a sport. There are At the end of the series you will lesson plans, you must make
clearly some things that you can have a useful set of guidelines that certain you remember to put some
learn in a classroom – field placings, draw on the best practice we have objectives in there somewhere!
rules of the game, the science of met in the world of professional And then there is the question
preparing a wicket, models and training. ‘How will my manager judge that
characteristics that distinguish – say, they are good objectives when
pace bowling from spin. However,
there are also psychological barriers
Preparing the s/he sees them?’ Best make them
SMART (Specific, Measurable,
(‘We always lose to them’) and, of outline design Achievable, Relevant or Realistic
course, ultimately a learner makes
How do you take the vital step and Timed) objectives.
the grade by spending lots of time in
between analysis and design? Here, we’ll endeavour to give you
the field with ball in hand. The
Analysis gives you a picture of the answer to the question ‘Where
design for learning must include a
range of different forms of support
what needs to be fixed. But how do objectives come from, and how
including tutoring, research,
do you then proceed from the goal do you really know a good one
coaching and practice. that is in your head to a proper when you see it?’
solution? How do you present
Phil Green learners with a range of activities Setting the end
Optimum Learning Ltd that provide them with the
Tel: 0114 281 6727 knowledge and skills they lack? objective
Email: [email protected] How do you design assessments The first step in design is to
that allow learners to measure establish the end objective. Don’t
their learning? try to start with a training
Objectives are the key. It is the objective. The proper place to
framing of objectives that makes begin is by referring to the analysis
the difference between effective undertaken at the start. We have ➤➤

Train the Trainer

i
spoken often during this ‘Train the resemble a hierarchy of tasks that
Trainer’ series about taking a may look like a pyramid. At the top
performance-based approach to are the high-level objectives, and
instruction. Let’s think about that beneath each of these is a series of
for a moment. Remember that in a other objectives that you must
proper analysis, we will have raised achieve if you are to reach the
questions like ‘What seems to be outcomes higher up the pyramid.
the problem?’ ‘Who’s involved?’, There are some guidelines to
‘What is the current performance?’ follow when you do this type of
and ‘What is the required pyramid analysis.
performance?’ We referred to the
discrepancy between the current ● Continue the analysis until you
and the required performance as get to an appropriate level. The
‘The performance gap’. It is by performance and the existing
making a clear statement of what abilities of the target group will
the subjects are required to do that determine this. Limit the analysis to
we arrive at the ultimate outcome tasks that are going to be new to
Figure 1
of any training (and of the whole the target group.
cocktail of solutions that we might
recommend to bring the business achievement. (We have previously ● Be flexible in developing the
to that desired outcome). looked at rewards, incentives, tools analysis. Experts will rarely give you
Once you have that clear end and equipment for example.) The a breakdown of the tasks in exactly
objective, you can start to reduce it currency of the trainer is the right order. And often this will
to the sub-tasks that the user must knowledge, skills and attitudes, so not describe the task in a
perform. You can do this using I’d like to introduce you to Pyramid measurable form, so you will have
outcome analysis, beginning at the Analysis, which is extremely useful to help them.
highest level of the performance and rather like chess – that is, it’s
objective and then moving steadily quite easy to learn the moves but it ● It will be extremely difficult for
downwards, examining the takes a good deal of practice and you to write objectives later if you
performance in finer and experience to play to win. neglect to attach a verb to each
finer detail. You’ll need a roll of brown paper task on the pyramid analysis.
(or a couple of pages from flip
Why is outcome chart pads joined landscape), a ● Test your analysis with other
variety of Post-it® Notes and a people. The results of analysis need
analysis good-sized wall (see Figure 1). to be tested with as many people
important? Write the end objective on a large as possible, to make sure that they
Post-it® and place it in the centre agree with what you have found.
Outcome analysis is essential of the brown paper at the top.
because it helps you to do two Typically this top Post-it® might Working out the
things. read ‘Sell more stakeholder
pensions’ or ‘Reduce staff turnover modular structure
1. At a higher level it breaks down from 25 per cent to 20 per cent by The first thing you can do with
the performance into a number of the end of 2001’. Generally, this your pyramid is to use it to work
more easily digestible chunks. should be done collaboratively with out what modules will be in
These chunks become sessions, someone who is already your course.
modules or units. performing as closely as possible to
2. At a lower level it identifies each the standard required of others in ● What type of learning is in the
separate component of knowledge the future. Do not try to continue module? It is useful at this stage to
or single performance. It is much unless you are both quite happy consider what type of learning
easier to design training activities that the top Post-it® broadly each chunk involves – in other
centred on small components. describes the required outcome. words, is the chunk knowledge-
The analyst/designer then asks a based or skills-based? These
This process also helps you to plan simple question: ‘What does this suggest quite different types of
and cost the development of a person need to do in order to learning activity and of assessment.
training programme. Now meet these targets?’ You Knowledge-based modules are
remember that the performance- repeatedly ask the same question: probably better covered by a
based instruction philosophy ‘What else?’, ‘What else?’ and tutorial approach, whereas skills-
requires you to have taken a very ‘What else?’ It’s a very simple based modules may be better
wide view already in analysing the technique but it has a very suited to a role play, workplace
outcomes, the people who are sophisticated outcome. The project or simulation. If a module
involved and the whole host of content of an entire course can be seems to contain both types you
environmental factors that might mapped in this way on a single should consider whether to split it
get in the way of their sheet of paper. At the end it will up into separate modules.

Train the Trainer

ii
● How many modules? Aim to assessments on real job
have no more than nine. Research requirements, you can safely judge
shows (Miller, 1956) that when we the readiness of an employee to
are presented with information our perform to standard. Assessments
brains place it first into so-called should measure whether someone
short-term memory. There may be has the specific skills and
space for between seven plus or understanding they need to
minus two items. We process this transfer to a particular task.
information and decide whether to How would you feel about the
ignore it or move it into long-term Figure 2 flying skills of a pilot who had
memory. If we are presented with attained a pass mark of 85 per
more than nine items our brains cent? I imagine your attention
race around moving things in and ● performance, as an observable might drift to the 15 per cent
out of short-term memory, which action in which s/he had failed to make
makes decision-making very the grade.
difficult. ● measures of success, the type of Good tests of performance will
assessment that will be made, such set up for employees the same
● How long should modules be? as a multiple-choice test of 20 stimulus and input of data they
Learners can usually only questions, a workplace assessment will meet in real life. They will
concentrate fully on a piece of and so on. rehearse dealing with the situations
learning for about 15 minutes at a and problems they face at work.
time. After that their concentration Course map As we design activities and skill
wanders and the effectiveness of checks we keep in mind the
the learning falls rapidly. It is also A course map is a useful graphical question ‘What will this employee
recognised that people learn most representation of a course (see see, hear, touch in the working
effectively at the beginning and Figure 2 for an example). environment?’ We do not ask,
end of a study period. Having a ‘What should you do if an alarm
larger number of small study Module objectives sounds?’ Instead, we set the
periods is therefore more effective environment and the context
than a small number of longer The overall objective should be for dealing with an emergency,
periods. This also raises motivation, broken down into its enabling describe or simulate what the
as it gives the learner a sense of objectives, which will become the system prompts read, what
making rapid progress. objectives for each module. They the visual and audio clues are,
should be stated in the same way and then ask ‘What do you
Preparing an as for the end objective. do next?’.
Where you are engaged in systems
outline design training, work with IT colleagues to
Module content
specification create support exercises on live
This should summarise the results systems in training mode if these
The outline design specification is a of the pyramid analysis for the can be arranged without risk to the
detailed document that contains module, stating every aspect of real data. Look for opportunities to
the basic requirements for all performance and measure of provide structured and guided
aspects of a training programme, success for each enabling task. practice, with ‘Performance’ checks
no matter what the method of (not just knowledge checks) built
delivery. It will typically cover the Proposed treatment for into the training.
aspects below. These will be covered in greater
each module detail next month.
The overall training This should state how the module
objective
will be presented – that is, as a Summary
tutorial or role-play, the use of
This must be clearly written in quizzes or tests, workplace Design is the second stage in a
behavioural terms, stating the: assignments and so on. thorough systematic approach to
training. As you move through the
● conditions given for the Types of assessment to process, remember that the key to
training, such as the use of success is proper analysis of the gap
workbooks or other reference
be used between the existing and desired
material (perhaps even the use of a When staff return from courses, it performance. Keep an open mind.
prepared wicket and a bucket of is not always obvious whether they Do not consider the design, content
cricket balls!), where the learned what they were meant to or method of any solution until you
programme will be used and so on learn. How can you be sure they are confident it is the best. Work
(this information will help you to are capable of performing the tasks closely with your customer to
plan and design appropriate assigned to them? How do you understand any analysis already
learning activities) document it? If you base undertaken to obtain relevant ➤➤

Train the Trainer

iii
information that may have been
missed, until you are both quite HOW IS PBI DIFFERENT?
satisfied that the solution perfectly This table is adapted from the work of Robert Mager and highlights the
matches the needs and preferences fundamental differences between PBI and content-driven courses.
of the target group.
Performance-based instruction Content-driven course
Effective trainers think first about
the who, what, why, where and ● Objectives emerge from analysis of ● Objectives are typically absent or
how of learning, rather than real-world needs and describe used to describe the content to be
becoming hung up on issues of intended results. covered.
logistics or technology. Their focus
is on what learners will do and ● Content of the instruction is ● Content of the instruction is
how to get them to do it. derived from the objectives to be usually determined by a subject
accomplished. matter expert.
The unique ● Trainees study only that which ● All trainees study the same
advantages of PBI they do not know. content.
The health of any business ● Each trainee is given an ● Trainees are given few
depends on the successful opportunity to practise each opportunities to practise the entire
performance of people. Staff at all objective. objective.
levels need to be comfortable with
sophisticated systems and ● Instruction includes only what is ● Instruction may include all manner
processes such as how you needed to accomplish the of content that is irrelevant to the
communicate, how you deal with objectives. particular learner’s needs.
colleagues, how you manage
performance, how you develop ● The primary instructor role is that ● The primary instructor role is that
of coaching. of presenting.
new business, satisfy customers
and so on. Managers depend on ● Test (skill checks) are used for ● When used at all, tests are a basis
you to work with them to ensure diagnosing difficulties, confirming for grading – that is, to rank each
staff have the skills to use these mastery and as opportunities to let student by comparison with the
systems and processes, develop trainees feel good about their performance of other course
and apply controls, and progress. delegates.
understand how these all fit in to
their jobs. These factors are critical ● Trainees study and practise until ● Trainees study until the fixed
to ensuring an organisation has the they have reached mastery of the course time has ended.
operational skills to meet its objectives.
customers’ needs and gain
● On reaching mastery, trainees ● On course completion, trainees
maximum value from any
receive a Certificate of receive a Certificate of Attendance.
investment in people, processes, Achievement.
equipment or training.
We have promoted PBI as the
means by which you can develop
training for people at all levels
who need to apply new REFERENCES
knowledge, skills and modified 1. Mager, Robert R F Goal analysis: How to clarify your goals so you can actually
attitudes in order to meet their achieve them, Centre for Effective Performance 1991.
business objectives. Given the 2. Mager, Robert R and Pipe, P Analyzing performance problems, Lake Publishing
Company, 1984. (ISBN 1-879618-17-6)
scope to apply the approach,
3. George A. Miller The magical number seven, plus or minus two: some limits
you can be bold enough to offer
on our capacity for processing information, The Psychological Review, 1956,
your managers a guarantee that vol.63, pp.81-97
employees in your organisation
will have the capacity to succeed.
The PBI approach works because
the focus is on performance, not
only on training. It gives users the In next month’s ‘Train the Trainer’ …
skills to do their jobs rather than Next month we’ll return to the subject of how to create tests and assessments,
just knowledge about processes and look at how to write lesson plans with a proper sequence of learning at
and procedures. It is a way of course, module and lesson level.
preparing people to succeed at
their jobs. They use to their full
potential the systems and
‘Train the Trainer’ is a supplement to Training Journal, a Fenman publication.
resources that the business
Clive House, The Business Park, Ely, Cambridgeshire CB7 4EH.
provides, and your organisation Publisher and managing editor Martin Delahoussaye (tel) 01353 665533
achieves its goals.

Train the Trainer

iv
 A Training Journal
pull-out supplement
Issue 9 September 2000
www.trainingjournal.co.uk
Train
Trainer
the
Phil Green’s company is Optimum Learning, a consultancy that has helped
Testing, testing! some of the UK’s best known organisations to achieve business improvement,
and has trained hundreds of trainers in the skills and techniques of analysis,

H
ow do you design a course and
design and delivery. He is a member of the Forum for Technology in
create a proper sequence of Training (www.forumtt.org.uk), an active training consultant, and a
learning at course, module and former teacher and shoe salesman.
lesson level? For newly appointed
trainers this can be something of a
mystery, although it’s not difficult. Start Phil Green gives practical guidelines for structuring tests,
with the objective, then design the tests including writing appropriate questions, then offers advice
and assessments that indicate how for giving useful feedback.
close someone is to achieving it.
Testing and assessment form the
focus of this month’s supplement.
With these in place, writing and Designing measurement
structuring the content then becomes a
relatively simple task (and we’ll show
you some examples of how to do that
and assessment tests
A
in October’s ‘Train the Trainer’). test result indicates Take a look at Table 1, where the
In learning, the purpose of a test is
whether the learner has example given is a closed
to show what has been accomplished.
It is impossible in a short article like acquired some knowledge problem. The learner selects an
this to cover everything you might that contributes towards the end answer from a number of
need to know about how to design a objective. The result also measures (multiple) choices. The answer is
test, so the aim is to give you some what the trainer has achieved. We therefore given to both learner
guidelines for design and some criteria
have placed much emphasis in and tester.
for judging other people’s tests.
Tests never come from thin air! They past ‘Train the Trainer’ articles on Omitting the answer gives you a
are not the product of a creative setting operational learning tasks. half-open problem in which the
imagination inside the head of a This means answering the tester has the solution, but the
training designer. They are a rehearsal question: ‘What can someone do learner does not. No list of
for real life. If you have set objectives in
at the end of learning that s/he multiple options is given. This type
which performance, condition, standard
and assessment are all clear, then how couldn’t do at the start of the of problem must be well designed.
and what you test will be apparent. process?’ To measure this, we need Slack wording may lead learners to
One of the difficulties in working to test. wrong answers, then frustrate
with subject matter experts is their them because they have been
tendency to sit in on a course or read The structure of tests marked down.
draft material and comment that the
questions are too easy! This is subjective In general an assessment or test If you remove the question
feedback. The design or wording of a item gives you information, poses element, what remains is an open
test alone cannot tell you how easy or a question and requires an answer. problem. Learners infer from the ➤➤
difficult it is. Give the same test to
solicitors, clerical workers and road
sweepers and you can expect different Table 1: Structure of tests – an example
views on how difficult that test is.
Ultimately, it is the learner who rules on We have looked at several methods Information element
whether a test is reliable and effective. of repaying a mortgage. You need
For this issue, I’d like to acknowledge to suggest the most suitable for
the help of two very good friends who Mr Green in the case study we
have contributed their knowledge and have provided.
experience – Mike Sleight for his nice
and simple template for setting Which type of mortgage will you Question element
objectives and Bryan Hopkins for his recommend?
wonderfully clear guidance on best
practice in question design. Endowment mortgage? Answer element
Phil Green
Optimum Learning Ltd Pension mortgage?
Tel: 0114 281 6727
Email: [email protected] Repayment mortgage?

Train the Trainer

i
information how to answer the
question. You cannot be certain Figure 1: Adaptive testing
how they will answer. Neither the
learner nor the tester has a given
answer. Case studies fall into
this category.

What makes a good test? Question Incorrect

The features and characteristics of

a good test are as follows:
Another
Correct question
● Questions are based on on the same
objectives. When they are used subject
to test transfer of knowledge
and understanding, the Question
questions must relate to an on new subject
identified objective. Do not
include questions just because
they are good.
● The learner always receives Adaptive tests are answer the question incorrectly
some feedback. You must programmed to present different they are asked an easier question.
always give learners feedback questions to different learners. If they answer that correctly, they
to their responses. If there are The simplest form of adaptive test subsequently receive a harder one
particular reasons why they is illustrated in Figure 1. If learners and so on.
should not know whether answer a question correctly they Another type of testing is
their answers were right or move on to a question on the Admissible Probability
wrong, give them a ‘thank next subject. If they answer a Measures Testing – a form of
you’ message. question incorrectly, they are multiple-choice testing, but in
● The learner is in control. asked a second question on the each question there are always
Because tests are important to same subject. three possible answers, A, B and
learners, you must take A more sophisticated form of C. Learners mark their response
whatever steps are necessary to adaptive testing is based around on a template as shown in Figure
reduce learners’ anxieties. One an area of research known as 3. In this template, ‘A’ represents
source of anxiety is the level of Latent Trait Theory.1 Tests the correct answer. If learners are
control they have over the using this method have questions confident that ‘A’ is correct, they
questioning. You can overcome banded by level of difficulty. mark the triangle at ‘A’. If they are
this by giving learners the Figure 2 shows the principle of confident that ‘B’ is correct, they
chance to change their answers such a test. To start the test, mark that part. However, if they
and letting them review learners are asked a question, only think that ‘A’ might be
questions they have selected. which is drawn at random. If they correct, they can mark the
● Tests should be unambiguous. answer it correctly they are asked triangle at a point along the line
Tests should make clear how a harder question. If they answer from ‘A’ to ‘B’.
the learner should tackle this question correctly, they are The system can therefore classify
the problem and under asked an even harder question a learner as well informed, partially
what conditions. and so on. If, however, they informed or misinformed.
● Tests should be valid. Tests
should be confined to the Figure 2: Latent trait adaptive testing
content within the lesson.
Start
Types of test
A trainer can look into the eyes of
a learner, see distress or confusion Correct Question Incorrect
and adapt the questions so that
confidence is restored. But the
Correct
trainer is not the only means by
which a lesson or assessment can Harder Incorrect
question
receive mediation. In distance
learning, especially when Easier
Correct
computers are used, there are a question
number of ways in which
tests of knowledge can Incorrect
be presented to increase
effectiveness.

Train the Trainer

ii
The purpose of questions ● Avoid abbreviations: of the wrong answers (usually
don’t use abbreviations in known as distracters). You should
Questions present users with an questions (unless, of course, you resist the temptation to include a
immediate decision about a are checking an understanding joke answer, which merely increases
specific problem. You can use of an abbreviation). the user’s chance of guessing the
questions to: ● Keep questions all on one right answer from those left.
page or screen: when you are
● let learners check their using a computer, slides or a Avoid using ‘none’ or ‘all’ as
understanding of workbook, make sure the an option
the presentation wording of questions and all Take a look at the following
● test that they do know the feedback can fit on to one page question.
content, and direct them or screen. If you need to allow
through other information scrolling of the screen or turning Which of the following do you pay
as necessary to a new page, you must when buying a house?
● stimulate them to think about a redesign the question. 1. Estate agent’s fees.
subject before exploring it in 2. Capital Gains Tax.
more detail Types of question 3. Search fees.
● predict how someone will The text that follows looks at some 4. All of these.
behave in certain circumstances. of the different types of question.
As soon as the learner realises
The features of Multiple choice you do not pay estate agent’s
a good question A multiple-choice question is any fees, the ‘all’ option is not a
Whatever types of question you question that asks the learner to possible correct answer. The
use, there are some general select the correct answer
guidelines to follow. (technically referred to as the key) Figure 3: Admissible
from a list of possible answers. The Probability Measures
● Make it cover a real objective: great majority of questions used in
a good question tests an distance learning are multiple
objective that has been choice. They are invariably found A 24
identified. Do not include in computer-based tests.
questions because they are fun When designing multiple-choice 19 19
to administer or easy to write. questions here are a few things to
● Check for comprehension, not bear in mind: 9 9
recall: avoid asking questions
that merely repeat information Always number or letter the list -11 -11
the learner has just read. Learners find it easier mentally to
Paraphrase the information sort lists that have easy references, B C
presented – making the learner such as numbers (1, 2, 3 and so -76 -76 -76 -76 -76
apply the information presented on) or letters (a, b, c and so on).
to a new application, or making
the learner apply the Relate the question to an objective question then becomes a simple
information presented to a All questions should be related to alternative response type, with an
more general or specific an objective identified and increased chance of guessing the
example are three ways to presented as part of the training. right answer.
avoid repetition. Similarly, avoid using the words
● Get the reading level right: Provide four or five possible answers ‘never’ and ‘always’ in a question.
in written learning material or A multiple-choice question can Absolutes are very hard to find and
assessments, make sure the offer, in theory, anything from two learners can think of exceptions,
wording is appropriate to the possible answers upwards. Of however obscure, why they have
reading level of the target course, with only two answers good reason to reject the ‘never’
group. After all, questions are learners have a 50 per cent chance and ‘always’ options.
intended to test knowledge of guessing the right one, while a
of the subject rather than large number of answers makes it Put answers in alphabetical or
reading ability. increasingly impossible to guess numerical order (where appropriate)
● Avoid negative words: correctly, but the question When answers are numbers or single
questions that ask the learner becomes unwieldy both to design words, it is good practice to put
to identify the incorrect and to read. The best compromise them in numerical or alphabetical
answers are difficult to is to offer no more than four or order. This helps you to achieve
understand. They are like five answers. neutrality. Tests have shown that we
word puzzles or conundrums, can easily submit to our own
testing the learner’s Make all the choices believable internal rhythms so that a pattern
comprehension of English The hardest part about writing emerges and we automatically place
rather than of the subject. multiple-choice questions is thinking the correct answer in locations that ➤➤

Train the Trainer

iii
fit our pattern. For example, we put Matching immediately follow the learner’s
the correct answer in position a, b, Matching questions are a response. In a testing
a, c, d, b, a, then subconsciously refinement of multiple-choice environment, it may be
repeat the pattern. questions, effectively combining a appropriate to leave the feedback
The same process works when number of multiple-choice until all questions have been
learners subtly and subconsciously questions together. These answered. Either way, the
decode these patterns and questions generally comprise two feedback that you give should
successfully predict the location of lists, the first of which contains always be:
the next correct answer. Using what are known as the ‘premises’
numerical or alphabetical order and the second, the ‘responses’. As ● positive, not criticising the
eliminates this risk. with multiple choice questions, the person for having made a
lists can be made up of text, wrong decision
Multiple correct graphics or audio items. Take a ● corrective if a distracter is
It is perfectly acceptable to give look at the example below. selected (but avoid making
learners questions where there are answers to distracters so
two or more correct answers in a list. Who is paid what during a house interesting that learners choose
This does, of course, mean a buying transaction? Match the final the wrong answer deliberately).
correspondingly higher number of payee to the charge.
distracters. The main issue with using Learning is aided by providing
questions like these in a test relates to 1. Land registry fee error-contingent feedback. This is
awarding scores. You need to decide 2. Legal fee where the feedback you provide is
on a scoring scheme that rewards 3. Stamp duty different for each distracter, rather
partially correct answers as well. 4. Mortgage indemnity guarantee than: ‘No, that is not correct.’
Additionally, you should be Error-contingent feedback can
careful about including multiple A. Estate agent be developed to the extent of
correct questions within a series of B. Solicitor providing remediation exercises.
single correct questions. Learners C. Building Society This is where you re-package and
do not always read the instructions D. Bank re-present information that the
and may assume that only one E. Local authority learner has already seen. You can
answer is correct! F. The government do this by changing a graphic
presentation to text or vice versa,
Matching questions can be really altering the emphasis or by
References
useful, as they can test a lot of providing a different type
1. Lazarsfield PF, and Henry NW, understanding in a single question. of example.
Latent structure analysis, However, they can be rather Finally, we are witnessing a
Houghton Mifflin, 1968. complex and need careful wave of enthusiasm for
explanation to the learner. Many of computerised student
Recommended reading the earlier guidelines for writing management systems to collect
In this article and throughout good multiple-choice questions information about the learner’s
previous issues of ‘Train the apply to matching questions. progress through the course
Trainer’ I have made several and to score tests. If you are
references to the work of
Feedback using such a system, you need
Robert F. Mager and Peter Pipe, I’ve left feedback to last because it to think carefully about the kind
and to the late Tom Gilbert, the is one of the most critical of information that is tracked,
founding father of the concept components of a test. Too often, stored and reported on. It may
of performance engineering. the user is presented with ‘Correct’ be tempting to believe this can
For a fuller account of their
or ‘Incorrect’ as a response to their happen automatically, but the
answers, which does very little to learning manager must specify
work, I highly recommend
help motivate the learner. All what data is important. It is all too
the following titles.
questions must provide easy to go overboard and gather
Gilbert, T, Human competence: meaningful feedback. Feedback is so much data that it becomes
Engineering worthy performance, especially important during difficult to handle and ends up
McGraw-Hill, 1978. practise sessions where it should being of little practical use.
Mager, R, Measuring Instructional
Results: The New Mager Six Pack, In next month’s ‘Train the Trainer’ …
Centre for Effective Performance, In the October issue, we’ll turn our attention to writing and structuring the
1997 (ISBN 1-879618-15-X). content and look at how we select the most appropriate learning method for
each instructional goal.
Mager, R and Pipe, P, Analyzing
performance problems, Lake
Publishing Company, 1984 ‘Train the Trainer’ is a supplement to Training Journal, a Fenman publication.
Clive House, The Business Park, Ely, Cambridgeshire CB7 4EH.
(ISBN 1-879618-17-6). Publisher and managing editor Martin Delahoussaye (tel) 01353 665533.

Train the Trainer

iv
 A Training Journal
pull-out supplement
Issue 10 October 2000
www.trainingjournal.co.uk
Tra
the
in
Trainer
Phil Green’s company is Optimum Learning, a consultancy that has helped
some of the UK’s best known organisations to achieve business improvement,
Editorial and has trained hundreds of trainers in the skills and techniques of analysis,

A
common complaint when design and delivery. He is a member of the Forum for Technology in
employees return from Training (www.forumtt.org.uk), an active training consultant, and a
training events is that you former teacher and shoe salesman.
cannot always be sure what they
learned or how it relates to their Phil Green looks at how to write and structure the contents of a
needs. In the March edition of ‘Train course, and how to establish the most appropriate method for
the Trainer’, we first met Benjamin each instructional goal.
Bloom’s method of sorting
performance into three domains: the
cognitive, the psychomotor and the
affective. Then in August we spent
Where, when and how?
some time thinking about objectives.
To recap, the cognitive domain
ranges from simple recall of
information to complex problem
solving. The psychomotor domain
includes the skills behind physical
activities such as opening a container
or moving a box. The affective
domain includes attitudes, beliefs,
values and feelings such as enjoying
or appreciating.
It is fairly easy to set performance
objectives for the psychomotor
domain – for example, ‘the trainee
will put on safety goggles and gloves

R
ight from the first issue of the ‘Train the Trainer’ supplement, we
before opening a batch of chemicals’.
have favoured a performance approach to instruction. Now we
Writing performance objectives for
the cognitive or affective domain is
have arrived at the point of designing instruction, let’s revisit the
not quite so straightforward. steps that have brought us here and preview those we are yet to take.
I have often seen inexperienced
trainers produce objectives that are Step 1: Analyse a performance gap.
vague, ambiguous and difficult to Step 2: Draft objectives and design tests of skill and knowledge.
measure. The events they design are Step 3: Conduct goal, task and target group analysis for your course.
rooted in knowledge, but fail to deal Step 4: Select methods and media for your course.
with how that knowledge is applied. Step 5: Define the roles you might perform (trainer, presenter, facilitator,
Clear objectives are essential, so I
coach and so on).
am unrepentant about urging you to
put in some more practise at writing
Step 6: Draft a lesson plan for your course.
them. As a seasoned campaigner Step 7: Plan course logistics (procedures, preparation, post-course
who works with trainers in a variety support).
of organisations, I can tell you that Step 8: Design evaluation forms for your course.
the most vulnerable are those who
believe their skill with objectives is Well-organised trainers capture their thoughts, ideas and intentions in
good enough to get by! Once the lesson plans. A lesson plan is a road map for a course. In essence, it
learning objectives are in place, the shows the various things that will happen during the course (the
next step is to design a programme
activities) and in what order they will occur (the structure). The goal for
of activities – the course.
any lesson (course) is for learners to master specified objectives within the
time and conditions available. You may draw upon a whole range of
Phil Green
Optimum Learning Ltd
resources, some of which are currently in existence and some of which
Tel: 0114 281 6727
must be designed. As you work through each step in the plan, you will
Email: [email protected]
be making decisions on the methods and media that you will use for the
various activities that comprise the lesson. ➤➤

Train the Trainer

i
Selecting methods and media circumstances, then you will almost certainly be drawn
towards ‘On-the-job training’, ‘Practice through activity’
When we talk about methods, we mean the types of or ‘Learn by doing’ strategies.
activity, events or interactions that constitute a module A well-conceived programme of learning will start
or course. Media, as the name suggests, describes the with low-level knowledge and build up to higher order
learning aids such as videotape, overheads, handouts skills. Take, for example, a course for mortgage advisers.
and any other materials that are used to support The learning objectives might include the following.
learning. There is a great panoply of methods and
media open to the trainer. Table 1 lists some examples. Low level ● Describe the characteristics and features of an
account and compare it with the product of
particular competitors.
Table 1: Methods and media ● Apply the rules and procedures to be followed in
Methods Media Lecture order to set up an account for various customers
Lecture Pre-recorded video with distinctive needs.
(including CDI and DVD) High level ● Resolve the issues and difficulties that particular
Role play Audio tapes clients have with these accounts.
Team working Games and simulations
Individualised instruction/ Case studies Examine the verbs in the objectives you write for your
coaching
Demonstrations courses, then refer to Table 2. In the left-hand column
Discussion groups are the groups of actions connected with ‘thinking
Project work processes’ (Bloom’s cognitive domain). The right-hand
Site visits column suggests suitable learning strategies dependent
upon where you have placed your verbs (see the
Often it is not what is best for learners, but a examples in the middle column). If all the verbs in
combination of the trainer’s own confidence and the your learning objectives fall in the knowledge and
availability of resources that determine the selection. So comprehension category, then you’d better check that
how do you decide the best strategy? If you have done you are really meeting all the performance objectives
a proper job of writing performance objectives, the that your learner needs to attain.
verb will suggest the most obvious method and media. The suggestions in Table 2 are not meant to be
Let’s return to Bloom’s work (which we referred to in prescriptive, nor are they exhaustive. In our earlier
the Editorial). He draws a distinction between low and example, mortgage advisers must learn to present
high levels of mental performance. You can build ‘low the most suitable product to an enquiring customer.
levels’ (recall) through passive learning methods like Their programme might be a rich mix of learning
‘chalk and talk’. However, learners must become activities in the classroom (through tutorials and role
involved in some sort of action if they are to reach play) and on the job with actual customers. The
higher levels of mental agility (analysis and evaluation). instructional strategies might include a workbook to
Strategies for imparting knowledge might include guide the process of finding out about product
lectures, questions and answers, workbooks and guided features from various sources of information. It might
reading, audio/visual, demonstration and observation. be practical to do a presentation or guide a
Low levels of mental performance are usually assessed discussion, with a quiz at the end. You might have
through some sort of quiz – oral or written. Testing learners observe an experienced adviser in action (live
higher order skills such as problem solving and or on video) in order to get a good view of the whole
judgement requires a different approach. You cannot process of matching customer needs to product
use a quiz to judge someone’s ability to argue or features. You might then follow this with practice
criticise! Assessment must connect with the conditions sessions so the learner can have a go at actually
and standards of the objective. For example, when your performing the job under the guidance and coaching
goal is to instruct someone in how to analyse a set of of a high performer.

Table 2: Bloom’s cognitive taxonomy

Examples of suitable
Cognitive domain I need the learner to: methods and media
Recall information. • Lecture
LOW LEVEL Knowledge Appropriate verbs: memorise, name, order, recognise, • Reading
relate, recall, repeat, reproduce, state. • Audio/visual
Interpret information in his or her own words. • Discussion
Comprehension Appropriate verbs: classify, describe, discuss, explain, • Observation
express, identify, indicate, locate. • Case studies
Use knowledge in a novel situation. • Role play
Application Appropriate verbs: apply, choose, demonstrate, • Observation
dramatise, employ, illustrate. • Case studies
Break down knowledge into parts and show inter-relationships. • On-the-job-training (OJT)
Analysis Appropriate verbs: analyse, appraise, calculate, • Practice by doing
categorise, compare, contrast, criticise. • Simulations of job settings
Bring together parts of knowledge to form a whole/solve problem. • Real-life situations
Synthesis Appropriate verbs: arrange, assemble, collect, • Games/Role playing
compose, construct, create, design. • Simulation of job settings
Make judgements on the basis of criteria. • Trial and error
HIGH LEVEL Evaluation Appropriate verbs: argue, assess, attach, choose, • Mentoring
compare, defend, estimate, judge, predict, rate. • Coaching

Train the Trainer

ii
The lesson plan ● present a logical flow of argument
● give supporting examples and evidence
We have defined the lesson plan as a map to chart the ● summarise from time to time
key points of a course. There is no perfect model. It ● test transfer of knowledge throughout the course
has to serve more than one purpose: to guide the ● for skills training, model the desired outcome –
trainer in what to prepare and what to do in the that is, show how it should look when the task is
learning environment, and to inform the training performed to standard
manager (or customer) as to what will be covered by ● use language that fits your knowledge of
your course. As a preliminary to writing the detailed the audience
lesson plan, there are a number of issues you should ● eliminate ‘nice to know’ material.
consider, as outlined below.
Issue 7: Practice
Issue 1: Title Allow ample time for practice and feedback alone, in
What is the title of your course or programme? Titles pairs or in groups.
are very revealing. If you have difficulty in coming up
with one, or if it is vague and woolly, then that says Issue 8: Closure
something about the clarity of your understanding of How will you bring the lesson to a close?
the performance problems your course will attempt
to resolve. ● Return to your opening benefit statement,
and reinforce the value and application
Issue 2: Purpose of this learning.
Be clear about the overall goal for your training. ● Review the main points.
Do you have to conform to an industry or company ● Re-emphasise the overall message. Call for action.
standard? Reflect on the high level goals and
performance indicators of your business – if they Issue 9: Assessment
have not directly driven the need to supply this Learning is not an event; it is a journey from one state
training, then what particular business objectives to another. The starting point is current knowledge,
will this lesson support? skills and performance. The end point is desired
knowledge, skills and performance. The end assessment
Issue 3: Objectives must reflect this transition. Assessment must be specific
We have already said a great deal about the and an integral part of the original objectives.
importance of objectives. Remember that here we are
talking not about activities that will be used in the Issue 10: Special needs
lesson but about the learning outcomes of those Be aware of learners with special needs such as
activities. Keep in mind the learner’s level of ability. physical difficulties or learning disabilities. Also be
aware of fast learners! You may need to prepare
Issue 4: Resources alternative activities to break things down for slow
Draw up a list of resources and make it as prescriptive learners or to speed things up for others. Here let me
as you can. You should go to the level of detail of mention the work undertaken by Ron and Susan
reference material, handouts and even paper, markers Zemke, who are prominent in the field of human
and paper clips. Anyone else using your plan will know performance technology in the USA. They have put
at a glance what materials are required. together some excellent guidance regarding the
characteristics of adult learners. It has great relevance
Issue 5: Benefit to your approach to learning. Their advice is
You need to plan how to introduce the topic and summarised under three headings: ‘Motivation to
develop interest and involvement among learners. This learn’, ‘Curriculum design’ and ‘In the classroom’ (for
is a sales gambit, and successful sales people always details refer to ‘Reading and weblinks’ on page iv).
prepare a powerful opening benefit statement.
Likewise you need to ‘sell’ the benefits to reluctant or Issue 11: Connections
anxious learners. In August’s ‘Train the Trainer’, we spoke about course
maps. You should create one (if the course is part of a
Issue 6: Procedures wider curriculum) to show how the lesson fits in with
Now you need to write the stepwise procedures that other subjects.
will be performed to reach the objectives. You don’t
have to detail every word that will be said, but you Every trainer has his or her own particular method for
should list the relevant actions the trainer needs to creating lesson plans. I like to use icons that represent
perform – for example, ask about …, distribute … and each type of activity. In this way, I can immediately tell
set up … . Some key points to consider are: how much variety I have built into a lesson. Others
prefer a less artistic approach. I’ve even seen lesson
● get off to an interesting start plans in the form of mind maps. If you are new to the
● remember to present facts, examples and business of training then you might want to start with
arguments that will best get the something straightforward and simple. I have given an
objective achieved example in Table 3 (next page). ➤➤

Train the Trainer

iii
Table 3: Example of a simple lesson plan for a course on leadership

Reading and weblinks In next month’s

Principles of Instruction Design Gagne & Briggs ISBN 0030347572
‘Train the Trainer’ …
Producing Instructional Systems A.J. Romiszowski ISBN 185091012X We have been talking about
Study: A Guide to Effective Study, Robert Barrass ISBN 0412256908 writing and structuring the
Revision & Examination Techniques
content of courses, and have
Taxonomy of Educational Benjamin S. Bloom, Bertram B. ISBN 0582280109
Objectives (cognitive domain) Mesia, and David R. Krathwohl placed much emphasis on clear
Taxonomy of Educational Benjamin S. Bloom, Bertram B. ISBN 058228239X
objectives as the key to success.
Objectives (affective domain) Mesia, and David R. Krathwohl Next month we will square the
Making Instruction Work R.F. Mager ISBN 0749405929 circle by looking at evaluation.
What Every Manager Should Know R.F. Mager ISBN 1879618087
About Training: Or I’ve Got a Training
Problem & Other Odd Ideas
‘Train the Trainer’ is a supplement to
Developing Attitude TowardLearning: R.F. Mager ISBN 1879618052 Training Journal, a Fenman publication.
Or Smats ‘n’ Smuts Clive House, The Business Park, Ely,
30 Things We Know For Sure About Ron and Susan Zemke www.hcc.hawaii.edu/intranet/ Cambridgeshire CB7 4EH.
Adult Learning committees/ FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/ Publisher and managing editor
adults-3.htmhttp://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/strategy.html Martin Delahoussaye (tel) 01353 665533

Train the Trainer

iv
TIMING CONTENT METHOD RESOURCES
9 am Introduce yourself, and provide a brief Trainer input OHP and handout:
Welcome and overview of the course. Deal with any domestic, ‘Course objectives’
Introduction and health and safety information.

9.10 am Invite participants to introduce themselves to Plenary

Activity each other.
9.15 am Form group into four teams. Hand out Team exercise Handout:
Ice-breaker instructions. ‘Who am I?’
9.30 am Introduce the module, explain the objectives and Trainer input OHP and handout:
Presentation the benefits. ‘Module 1 objectives’
9.45 am Invite participants to identify the key attributes Plenary Flipchart
Activity of a successful leader.
10 am Introduce and run video. Then summarise the Trainer input Video:
Activity five leadership styles. ‘Leadership styles’
10.30 am COMFORT BREAK

10.45 am Distribute copies of ‘Leadership style inventory’. Individual Handout:

Exercise Issue instructions for completing the instrument. exercise ‘Leadership style
Invite each participant to share the results. Plenary inventory’
11.45 am Form group into pairs. Hand out copies of recent Pair exercise Recent magazines
Activity newspapers and magazines. Instruct participants and newspapers
to identify at least two leaders and the style of
leadership they display.
Lead a discussion on the strengths and Plenary
weaknesses of each of the five styles.
12.20 pm Reinforce the main discussion points. Summarise Trainer input
Summar y the role of leadership, the five styles, and the
strengths and weaknesses of each style.
12.30 pm LUNCH

1.30 pm Instruct participants to identify five work roles Individual Writing pads/pens
Activity and explain which leadership style best suits exercise
each role. Share results with the group.
2 pm Form group into pairs. Instruct each pair to Pair exercises – Handout:
Activity assume a leadership style that is not their own. role-play ‘Characteristics of
Taking it in turns, each participant will leaders’
communicate with their partner using the Handout:
example statements provided. Invite each ‘Role-play
participant to choose a different partner until instructions’
all five styles have been demonstrated.
3 pm COMFORT BREAK

3.15 pm Invite each participant to share how s/he felt Pair exercise
Activity when communicating with each of the five
leadership styles.
4 pm Show video then lead a discussion on the Plenary Video:
 A Training Journal
pull-out supplement
Issue 11 November 2000
www.trainingjournal.co.uk
Tra
the
in
Trainer
Phil Green’s company is Optimum Learning, a consultancy that has helped
some of the UK’s best known organisations to achieve business improvement,
Why evaluate? and has trained hundreds of trainers in the skills and techniques of analysis,

S
ome delegates go to a training design and delivery. He is a member of the Forum for Technology in
course at a nice hotel in Training (www.forumtt.org.uk), an active training consultant, and a
Hastings. When they return to former teacher and shoe salesman.
work, their line manager asks: ‘How
was lunch?’ The answer comes back:
‘The food was poison; and such
Phil Green takes you on a voyage through some of the reasons
small portions, too.’
for undertaking (and perhaps for avoiding) evaluation. He
If this raises a smile, perhaps the finishes with an excursion to one or two common models that
real joke is not in the answer but in provide a framework for doing it.
the question. In many organisations
people regard training as a kind of
holiday, removed from the pressures
The results of training
of the daily routine. Value is

T
he question ‘Why ever flak while people learn through
measured in much the same terms as
you might judge the success of a evaluate training?’ invites trial and error, and time is short.
holiday – great hotel, wonderful other questions in turn:
food, wish you were here. Of course, ‘Who wants to know what?’, So, will you buy training? If so,
the more enlightened and ‘Who’s going to find out?’, ‘How how much and at what cost? You’ll
sophisticated trainer knows better. will the findings be used?’ Training weigh up the risks to your personal
Muttering sagely about levels 2 and 3
managers have a customer– status, your career ambitions and
evaluation, he pours scorn on those
who still rely on ‘reactionnaires’.
supplier relationship with course various other factors. You could call
So what should we evaluate and delegates. They may wish to prove in that nice team of consultants
why? It seems there are far more cost-effectiveness and ensure that you met last week and get them to
questions than answers: ‘What are trainees react positively to the do a proper, formal evaluation. But
we trying to find out and for whose product they supply. They may what if the money you spent on
benefit?’, ‘What does training cost prefer not to know how much or training is shown to have been
and is it worth it?’, ‘Who says and
how little that roadshow, away-day wasted? Why not play safe and
where is the evidence?’, ‘Is it the
performance of trainees or trainers or video has added. make some calls, asking a few
we need to scrutinise, or is it the But put yourself in the shoes of the token questions? Training is an
training department?’, ‘Do we need corporate operations director. You insurance policy – protection
to judge the effectiveness of a are due to introduce a new multi- rather than intervention. As long as
particular training course or million pound IT system. If the no one can say the absence of
materials, or even training in
implementation goes belly-up, your training got in the way of the
general?’ Then what are we trying to
achieve – modify behaviour, adjust
job will be on the line. The new success of the implementation.
attitudes, improve job performance, system radically alters how your What else discourages training
eliminate errors, increase sales, raise employees gain information and do professionals from conducting
quality? Perhaps it is efficiency that their jobs. Of course, training can’t a proper evaluation? Trainees
counts? Can we reduce the time that hurt. People have to overcome their go their separate ways at the end of
training absorbs? Can we make resistance and get to know how to a course, which makes it difficult to
better use of on-the-job training or
perform new and different follow-up and track their
job aids instead?
Evaluation is a poser for those procedures. But past experience has accomplishments; it’s hard to
with an interest in training, made all taught you two things. identify small changes in skill and job
the more difficult for those who behaviour; and it is hard to assess
leave it to the end as if it were some 1. Every new system creates the value of adjusting attitudes.
kind of optional addition to the problems at roll-out. Most difficult of all is the quest
main menu.
2. Sooner or later, even untrained for proof that accomplishments are
staff work out for themselves due to the influence of training.
Phil Green
how to do jobs. You might If your goal is to increase sales,
Optimum Learning Ltd
accept some short-term errors, how do you disentangle the
Tel: 0114 281 6727
Email: [email protected]
but your colleagues may not beneficial effect of training from all
tolerate the financial and political the other factors that contribute – ➤➤

Train the Trainer

i
 leave, and every five years from
Table 1: Why turn to training? then on, a questionnaire asks them
• Training builds skills. • It imparts knowledge whether they recall the
• Training builds teams. and information. programme’s content, whether
• It can result in certification, • It legitimises issues. they have they kept in touch, and
accreditation and licensing. • It raises the profile of work how big an impact the programme
• It creates a community based on and issues.
had on their careers and their
some shared experience. • It promotes change.
quality of lives. You see, evaluation
• It focus energy on issues. • It reduces risk.
• It identifies the best talent. • It rewards performance. can be a very long-term affair.
• It inducts new staff. • It supports other initiatives. Clearly, you would not measure
the same effects in each of the
management, commission rates, should we evaluate?’ Training is organisations mentioned above.
lead generation, product often about prevention rather than When evaluating you should ask
development and so on. On the cure. If you invest in a course three questions: ‘What matters?’,
other hand, why should you try? whose aim is to prevent accidents, ‘What gets measured?’ and ‘What
R&D departments don’t have to how can you ask: ‘What business gets done?’ The results required of
prove the return on investment results did we achieve?’ If you buy training are as diverse as the
of every single penny spent, so a package to protect staff from purposes for doing it.
why should training? exposure to attempts of fraud or
What types of result does a money laundering, how can you Why organisations
business demand of training? We truly measure the value that
have stressed that training is a training has added? The paradox is
invest in training
management tool, the purposes of that the only way to prove the With all this variety and complexity,
which are many and varied. You value of such pre-emptive training you might be attracted by the idea
might care to draw up a quick list is to stop doing it for a while, then that there are really only four
of reasons why your organisation assess the carnage! reasons why any organisation
turns to training. My own list of invests in training.
purposes is shown in Table 1. What gets 1. ‘To spend’ is about the
For the organisation that foots measured is allocation of an annual training
the bill, you might expect all of budget. The training department
these purposes to be about what gets done makes a saving by preferring one
business improvement. Building Leading computer manufacturers method, or one supplier, to
skill and knowledge may be part of measure success by how often another; success is then measured
a strategy to reduce waste caused their systems crash. Distributors of in terms of cost saving rather than
by errors and defects – a products and services track performance improvement. These
performance problem. The customer delight. A low-fare airline organisations allocate and
financial value of reductions in focuses on the cost of making a probably pay for resources before
errors, defects and waste provides seat available for sale – marketing, they can embark on a programme.
the measure of the value added by maintenance, fuel. It measures It is vital to express the intended
training. (We’ll come back to that volumes of business from existing outcomes before the training, not
later, when we look at popular customers and personal after. In a John Le Carré novel, a
models of evaluation.) recommendations. If you were character remarks: ‘You know, a
responsible for training in this desk is a very dangerous place
Well it can’t do organisation, you’d probably want from which to watch the world.’2
to show how you had contributed This is every bit as true for trainers
any harm, can it? to these factors, too. as it is for spies!
The good news is that investment in Every organisation has its 2. ‘To mend’ is simply to fix
training and learning does seem to essential indicators of success specific problems such as loss,
predict corporate financial against the background of its waste and inefficiency.
performance. In the mid-1990s, an ultimate goal. Even the world of 3. ‘To bend’ is to ease the
American study1 compared education, with its increasing changes that a business is going
corporations. One group invested an commercial awareness, has to be through. How is it changing
average of US$900 per employee on clear about the values that make it shape? What new markets is it
learning; the other invested just stand out against its competitors. exploring? What new buildings,
US$275. The results showed that John Quelch, Dean of London systems or staff is it considering?
high investors in training had 57 per Business School, says: ‘We’re not in 4. ‘To defend’ is about
cent higher sales and 37 per cent the education business. We’re in forestalling problems like
higher gross profits per employee the transformation business. We preventing accidents and injuries,
than lower investors. There was also expect everyone who participates fines or sanctions.
a more positive effect on behaviour in a programme – whether for So what does this mean for you,
and attitudes. three days or for two years – to be the trainer? Well simply this: if your
Still there is no neat answer to transformed by the experience.’ business is done from behind a
the question: ‘What and how And so one year after students desk you can forget about

Train the Trainer

ii
evaluation; go out and talk with the training programme. Reactions are Results
people at the coal face, and there typically measured at the end of Kirkpatrick gave examples such as
you’ll find the answers to who training – at point 3 in Figure 1. ‘… reduction of costs; reduction of
should measure what and when. However, that is a summative or turnover and absenteeism;
end-of-course assessment and reduction of grievances; increase in
How to do it reactions are also measured during quality, quantity or production; or
the training, even if only improved morale which, it is
We could devote an entire series of informally in terms of the hoped, will lead to some of the
articles to the most popular models instructor’s perceptions. previously stated results’.4 These
for undertaking evaluation. Sooner Reaction is a soft measure, but effects are measurable in the
or later we would be bound to none the less important, especially workplace, as you will see at point
mention the Kirkpatrick model.3 to those who take part! Many 4 in Figure 1.
Over the past 49 years many factors – content and method,
words have been written on this other trainees, training context, Performance:
topic and there can be very little to location, success on assessment –
add, so I’ll be brief. In Figure 1 you have an impact on how well a crucial factor
can see five points at which to training is received. Reactions may There is a fundamental difference
make an assessment. swing during a programme, so you in Kirkpatrick’s fourth element. The
must decide when and how often first three centre on the trainees
1. Before training. to take soundings. and the fourth shifts the focus to
2. During training. organisational benefits.
3. After training or before entry Learning Management probably has little
(re-entry). You may measure what trainees interest in reaction, except in so far
4. In the workplace. know or can do at the end of as it keeps team motivation high.
5. Upon exiting the workplace. training, but in order to show Whether the training has raised
progress, you must establish the job performance is the most
The other four elements of trainees’ level of knowledge or crucial factor.
Kirkpatrick’s original framework skills at points 1, 2 and 3 in Figure Learning is not the same as
(also shown in Figure 1, and 1 – before as well as during and performance. But as we have
explained in more detail below) are after training. mentioned, it’s generally
reaction, learning, behaviour and impossible to prove that
results. (Others who came after Behaviour performance is due to learning and
Kirkpatrick – in particular Cronbach Any useful changes in behaviour not to other effects. We tend to
(1969) and Goldstein (1993) – must take place on the job. measure learning just once at the
suggested an additional element, Changes that begin during training end of a course. But there is
‘ultimate value’.) may or may not transfer to the powerful evidence that some
workplace, so it makes sense to knowledge and skills decay rapidly
Reaction assess behaviour at the end of over time. The Ebbinghaus Curve
This may best be defined as how training (point 3) and back at work suggests that as much as 90 per
well the trainees liked a particular (point 4). cent of new learning is forgotten
after 30 days, and 100 years of
Figure 1: The structure of training evaluation observation has done nothing to
discredit that assertion.5

1 Before training The ultimate

value of training
2 During training In due course, change in a learner’s
job behaviour should benefit the
organisation and is generally judged
3 After training or before entry (re-entry)
by its financial effect. But evaluating
Return on Investment (ROI) can
itself be a costly process. It would
not make much sense to let the cost
4 In the workplace
of evaluation exceed the financial
results return from the training.
Evaluation should not be
5 Upon exiting the workplace confused with validation. Internal
validation is a series of tests and
assessments to ascertain whether a
training programme has achieved
ultimate value
the behavioural objectives specified.
External validation is a series of tests ➤➤

Train the Trainer

iii
and assessments intended to
determine whether behavioural Table 2: The CIRO framework for evaluation
results of an internally recognised C = Context evaluation R = Reaction evaluation
programme are practically based Obtaining and using information Obtaining and using information
about the current operational context about trainees’ expressed current
on an initial training needs analysis
in order to determine the gap that or subsequent reactions in order to
linked to the organisation’s criteria
training might help to bridge. improve training.
of effectiveness. I = Input evaluation O = Outcome evaluation
Evaluation is undertaken against Obtaining and using information Obtaining and using information
the same backdrop of needs and about possible training resources in about the outcomes of training
objectives that shaped the design order to choose between alternative in order to improve
of the training programme. A ‘inputs’ to training. subsequent training.
training manager may procure
further training on the basis of a
trainee’s scores in a training
Table 3: The Bell system approach to evaluation
A: Reaction outcomes Similar to Kirkpatrick
programme. A training B: Capability outcomes What will trainees know, think, do or produce by the
administrator may want to look at end of training?
practical issues such as whether the C: Application outcomes How will trainees knowing, thinking, doing or
trainers, the equipment and production show itself in the real world?
trainees have kept to schedule, and D: Worth outcomes What is the balance between the costs and beneficial
whether unforeseen problems effects of training?
occurred. Costs must form part of
any attempt to measure ROI. the workplace environment. This, at which to take soundings. We
Planning and analysis, design and in turn, suggests how likely it is have given thought to who the
development, equipment, pilot that so-called ‘transfer of training’ various customers for evaluation are
testing, tutors salaries, trainee costs, will take place. and how their needs differ. We have
evaluation costs, buildings and so seen how the reasons for evaluating
on all enter into the equation. Other models training are closely tied in with the
As we have seen, Kirkpatrick’s purposes for the training being
framework suggests when you Over the past 40 years many other evaluated. So to summarise,
should collect data. We tend to models of evaluation have hit the below are the evaluation needs
test for reaction during or at the streets. Most are Kirkpatrick you should consider.
end of training, but why not test derivatives. Table 2 shows how the
again when the trainees have been CIRO framework works.6 The Bell ● The purposes of the training (in
back at their jobs for a while? Not system approach has four levels, as which context you should refer
only will the rosy glow of the outlined in Table 3. Powerful to the purposes of your
moment have faded, but also, if corporations with massive training organisation).
someone other than the trainer is budgets have their own versions of ● The purposes of the evaluation.
collecting the feedback, a more the evaluation model. ● The audiences for the results of
thoughtful and objective response the evaluation.
might emerge. Conclusion ● The moments at which we will
If you compare the feedback you take measurements.
gather during training (point 2 in We have taken a trawl through the ● The timeline.
Figure 1) with feedback in the seas of evaluation. We have stopped ● The overall framework.
workplace, you might gain insight at ports called ‘too hard’, ‘too risky’, ● The conundrum that you cannot
into how closely the training ‘too little’, ‘too much’ or ‘too late’. isolate the training effect from
environment matches or resembles We have considered the moments other effects.

References In next month’s

1. American Society for Training and Development (ASTD). ‘Train the Trainer’ …
Website: www.astd.org In December we’ll pick up some of
2. Le Carré, J. The Honourable Schoolboy, Hodder & Stoughton, 1977, p. 84. the issues that trainers we know
3. Kirkpatrick, Donald L. Evaluating Training Programs; The Four Levels, ASTD, meet day by day. We’ll face some
Berret-Koehler, 1998. of the obstacles that make it more
4. Ibid. of a challenge to follow the
5. See Hermann Ebbinghaus website at ‘primrose path’ we have planted in
www.yorku.ca/dept/psych/classics/ Ebbinghaus/index.htm this series.
6. Warr, P., Bird, M. and Rackham, N. Evaluation of Management Training,
Gower, 1970.
Additional reading ‘Train the Trainer’ is a supplement to
• Drucker, Peter F. The New Realities, Harper and Row, 1989. Training Journal, a Fenman publication.
• Nickols, Frederick W. ‘Training: a strategic view’, NSPI Journal, April, 1982. Clive House, The Business Park,
• Reith, Jack. ‘Miami Conference Evaluation Methods and Results’, Evaluating Ely, Cambridgeshire CB7 4EH.
Publisher and managing editor
Training Programs, ASTD, 1975. Martin Delahoussaye (tel) 01353 665533.

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A Training Journal
pull-out supplement
Issue 12 December 2000
www.trainingjournal.co.uk
Train
Trainer
the
Phil Green’s company is Optimum Learning, a consultancy that has helped
some of the UK’s best known organisations to achieve business improvement,
The last farewell and has trained hundreds of trainers in the skills and techniques of analysis,

B
efore I start the final part of
design and delivery. He is a member of the Forum for Technology in
‘Train the Trainer’, I’d like to
Training (www.forumtt.org.uk), an active training consultant, and a
thank my friend Martin
former teacher and shoe salesman.
Delahoussaye for his skilful
contribution in keeping the content
from wandering off the point. I hope Phil Green takes a final opportunity to reflect on the content of
the USA is ready for him! his supplements throughout the year as he aims to alleviate the
This is issue 12 of ‘TTT’, and if concerns of any newly appointed training manager – whose
you’ve read them all, you may be
feeling that there are more questions
spokesperson on this occasion is the formidable Bobbie.
than answers. As Bobbie said when
I visited her last week, ‘It’s all very
well in theory, and it’s helped me with
Bobbie’s ‘State of the Union’
my IPD, but in real life things don’t JANUARY and refers to learner-centred
always go according to the script.’ ‘What is effective training?’
‘Who is Bobbie’ I hear you ask? education for people of all ages.
She is the newly appointed training Bobbie: In January, you wrote It dwells on five issues in
manager of a manufacturing about the changing nature of formal learning.
company and, having closely
followed the ‘TTT’ series, she took
work. You quoted Peter Drucker:
the opportunity to comment on the ‘What business are you in?’ and ● Letting learners know why
content of the supplement. ‘How’s business?’. I can give you something is important to learn.
We sat together in the splendid my response to that. This ● Showing them how to direct
surrounds of a war-time Nissen hut,
the Queen’s Award for Industry
manufacturing company has not themselves through information.
(1962) nailed to the wall beside some changed since 1952. We’re still ● Relating the topic to their
wonderfully curled and faded letters using the same processes, the experiences.
from grateful charities dated 1968 same machinery and some of the ● Recognising that people will not
and 1974. Reflecting the sentiments
of Louis XIV with his historic ‘L’état
same people. We don’t have learn until they are ready and
c’est moi’, Bobbie declared: ‘I am the computers on desktops and there motivated.
training department!’ She talked and wasn’t a training department ● Helping them to overcome
I listened … before October of last year, when inhibitions, behaviours and
In her State of the Union, she
tackled me first about the January
I joined. The business we are in is beliefs about learning.
supplement: ‘What is effective ‘survival’, and we’re only just
training?’ I delivered my answer ‘hanging in there’. You also spoke Even Malcolm Knowles,1 whose
(which you can see opposite), but she about ‘andragogy’. What’s that work is associated with the term,
proceeded with queries and analysis
relating to February and March
all about? agrees that all but the last of these
(‘How do you approach analysis?’), Phil: Let me take you back to the key issues apply equally to adults
April (‘Design, development and question on the last page of and children. Children have fewer
method) … and so on throughout January’s supplement. ‘How do (or inhibitions and pre-established
each of the supplements.
Having given my responses, I took
will) you know you are doing a beliefs than adults and thus have
one last look around and got ready good job as a trainer?’ Someone in less to unlearn.
to leave. But I noticed that this organisation has been Learning should let adults acquire
something had changed since the sufficiently aroused to create the new knowledge and abilities, and
last time I had been in the Nissen
hut. Behind the typist’s chair with
role of ‘trainer’ for the first time in thus allow them to move from
the torn red leatherette covering was 50 years. You don’t seem to be novice to expert. Learning should
a new bookshelf. I noted down the very clear about what the business also build their brains so they have
titles, and have reproduced them on needs you to deliver. I suggest you the capacity to learn even more. It
page iv. In your pursuit of training
excellence, I hope you find them
have a chat with the boss before may suit trainers to do the same
useful. Farewell for now … he takes his needs to someone things in the same way over and
Phil Green else. You asked about andragogy over again. Our present experience
Optimum Learning Ltd – usually defined as the way adults and background is the starting
Tel: 0114 281 6727
Email: [email protected]
learn. The word has come to be point for new ideas, but the needs
used as an antonym for pedagogy of the learner may be the last ➤➤

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consideration. Content may not gaps, then your instructional MAY

lend itself easily to presentation in strategy is going to be hit and ‘Motivating the learner
a different way. It may suit the miss. In May, I introduced you to to learn’
organisation to continue fire the idea of a self-fulfilling Bobbie: I was thinking about that
fighting rather than thinking about prophecy. Here you are telling me four-point theory about how
improving processes and learning you haven’t time, space, support trainers with positive expectations
how to avoid crises in future. or budget for analysis. A self- get the most out of trainees.
Organisations expect people to fulfilling prophecy, do you think? Hardly rocket science is it? But
learn despite the obstacles put in basic needs in this part of the
their way. Learners must have APRIL world amount to pay day, the
respect, relevancy, immediacy, ‘Design, development boozer and bed. For most, the
safety, praxis (action with and method’ learning process ended at 14
reflection), engagement and when they left school.
active participation. Bobbie: We use job aids all over Phil: Of all the objections you
the place. People have been here have raised so far, it is this one that
FEBRUARY/MARCH: for generations, and have created worries me the most. I’m glad that
‘How do you and gathered their own. And don’t you can see the significance of
approach analysis?’ talk to me about operational building a positive expectation in
practices and procedures. Have you order to get the best out of
Bobbie: All right. But in February seen our manual? It was last used in people. But haven’t you just
and March you gave us that 1977 – and that was to support the expressed a very limiting picture of
Performance Engineering Model. Union flag for the Silver Jubilee. As the interests and abilities of those
You talked about using for resistance to change, I think you you work with?
performance analysis and training can describe us as stable to a fault. When I was a boy at grammar
needs analysis to lead to a cocktail Phil: I’m really not arguing for school I was a nuisance to my
of solutions. To tell you the truth, revolution. Training is a tool to help teachers. I had little interest in
I can’t get near people on the Management achieve its objectives. what was on offer. The options
shop floor. It’s always too frantic It is not there to define or refine available and the manner in which
on a shift and anyhow it’s too them, although this may happen as they were taught led me into
noisy to hold a conversation a useful by-product of analysis. regular and sometimes painful
with anyone. If your procedures are unclear, or confrontations with authority.
Phil: Remember the five Ws: if they are not documented, then as Later, in my roles as teacher, head
‘Who?’, ‘What?’, ‘Why?’, ‘When?’ you design training and teacher, corporate training
and ‘Where?’. In an ideal world, performance support, you may consultant and parent, I met many
you’ll go on to the shop floor and quite validly produce quick with problems in learning similar to
observe, ask questions, shadow reference and technical those of my own adolescent days.
people and challenge your long- documentation material too. You As my own children and their
held views of the way things are. In have to be pragmatic and take friends have been processed
the real world that you inhabit, account of the culture and through the education system, I
you may have to begin with resources of the business you are in. have watched the same conditions
coinciding with lots of tea breaks As for job aids, if people are develop. They enter school keen to
and getting in the pub at the end producing their own, doesn’t that learn, but later become anxious,
of a shift. As an absolute minimum indicate a need? You would hope troubled and discouraged.
you should at least reflect on the that technical and operational Teachers in further education and
likely answers to the five questions. managers would document trainers in the workplace lower
I know you face some difficulties procedures. But maybe the best people’s expectations through
and there are bridges to build. If support you can give is to gather negative reinforcement and lack of
you tell yourself now that there is them up, dust them off and professional commitment. I am
no chance of following the systems make the best of them more convinced that many bright people
approach to identify performance widely available. learn despite the system, and not
because of it.
Table 1: Questions to ask yourself before designing You might think the link between
or running a training session knowing, learning and teaching is
• What kind of people make up the target group? obvious. It is a system that ignores
• What do they need? natural interests and so stifles the
• What environment do they work in? learner’s motivation. Motivation,
• What are their problems at work? relevance, encouragement and
• What can I do to help them solve these problems? respect for learners form the crux of
• What mental and practical learning tasks must I set in order to satisfy the the matter for all learning. Think
needs of these people and of my employer? about how these might affect the
• How should I put the course together?
range of opportunities you are
• What teaching methods and media should I use to complete the learning
tasks that have been identified?
offering your people and your inner
beliefs about all they can achieve.

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Please read May’s ‘TTT’ again and JULY Managers are depending on you
compare your approach with Ben ‘Dealing with people to ensure staff have the skills to use
Zander’s.2 Remember that with a in groups’ systems and processes, develop and
clear goal, positive reinforcement, Bobbie: You said between eight apply controls and understand how
high expectations and strong self- and 12 people is a good number for these all fit in to their jobs. It is only
belief, everyone gets an A. groups in a classroom for learning. by carefully analysing the needs of
I’d be lucky to get two off the shop learners in the context of the
JUNE floor at any one time. Sometimes processes of a job, management
‘Experiential learning’ there are more managers than and the environment in which the
delegates in the classroom and they job is performed that you can be
Bobbie: I laughed to myself when only turn up to check on me. By the confident you are helping to make
you wrote about factors affecting way, I did recognise some of those the business the most successful it
learning, especially when it came group identities you listed. Most of can be. Answer the questions
to the influence of our past our groups I could categorise as shown in Table 1 before you design
experience and completing the ‘idiot’, ‘worker’ or ‘fighter’. or run a training session.
learning cycle. Most of our people, Phil: Remember, the classroom is
even up to senior management, your domain and an effective SEPTEMBER
have been schooled in ‘hard learning group works as a unit, ‘Designing measurement
knocks’. That’s their version of whether it’s inside or outside the and assessment tests’
experiential learning. As for classroom. If managers insist on
Accelerated Learning, if I put taking part do not let them simply Bobbie: In September you made
Mozart over the tannoy instead of observe. Either use them for their some comments about what
Wogan, it would blow their expertise to take Q&A sessions or makes a good test. If questions are
multiple intelligences sky high. to demonstrate high performance. based on objectives, does that
Phil: I’m glad you found it amusing; Otherwise let them complete the mean every objective has to be
it obviously has stimulated at least same activities and assessments as linked with test?
one of your own multiple everyone else. Phil: No, I’m not saying that at all.
intelligences. I too am a fan of the It really comes back to your
‘University of Life, Faculty of Hard AUGUST definitions of ‘test’ and of
Knocks’. Isn’t that just an agreement ‘Design for learning’ ‘objective’. Questions that prove
that learning is not just something transfer of knowledge and
that happens in classrooms? Bobbie: When you described the understanding must relate to an
Often in the classroom I ask that process of preparing an outline identified objective. And learners
participants each tell me something design and setting the end must always receive some feedback
they have learnt recently. Some objective, you asked: ‘Why is so they, as well as you, know if
years ago I made this same request outcome analysis important?’ Then they have made the grade. But
to a group of students, many living you seemed to make great play of some objectives may relate to the
away from their parents for the first setting objectives and working out style, usability and functionality of
time. At first they spoke of learning a modular structure. Everyone here a learning programme. In that case
various facts such as grammatical has heard about SMART objectives. the ‘test’ may be that the learner
rules or events in literature. Our managers have seen the video, persevered and completed the task
Suddenly, one woman told me she read the book and now wear the without confusion or irritation.
had learned that a Brillo pad will tee-shirt, so what’s the big deal?
scratch a plastic bathtub. Another Phil: SMART is a very helpful OCTOBER/NOVEMBER
told me he had learnt the location acronym because it reminds us to ‘Designing the course (when
of the best Chinese takeaway in his check for measurability when we set where and how), and the
district. As people in a real world, objectives. Taken on its own, SMART results of training’
they had to deal with their does not necessarily help us to make
environment, set up a new home, absolutely certain that we have put Bobbie: In October you gave us
cook for themselves and understand together the right objective. In her examples of lesson plans and I am
what was expected of them in their book Adults learning, Jennifer Rogers3 really pleased with one I have
jobs (or job-search). The tells us that to create an effective tackled recently it. Let me tell you
practicalities of Life made them build adult learning scheme the learner about it.
relevant knowledge and think for must come first, not the subject. As you know we make pumps,
themselves. As ‘students’ they were If the learning situation does not and over a period of time we’ve
simply copying what they were told. suit their needs and interests, adults recruited nine salesmen, mostly
As ‘people’ they were trying things will always walk away from it, either from an operational background.
out and attempting to make rules literally or simply by withdrawing Sales were excellent until last year
about what might hold true in the their participation. We are warned when performance dropped
future. The woman who learns to by Merriam and Caffarella4 that in dramatically. Our MD thought
parse a sentence may forget, but the formalised systems the majority of there were two reasons for this:
woman who scratches her bath is adult learning is still designed and recession has made customers
unlikely to repeat the mistake. directed by the trainer. more cautious; and competitors➤➤

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have come into the market with

cheaper, inferior models, which References
have sold well. There are other 1. Malcolm Knowles, The adult learner: a neglected species (4th edition),
problems, too. For example if a Gulf Publishing, 1990.
2. Ben Zander, conductor, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra,
model sells out, we cannot replace
www.fastcompany.com/online/20/zander.html
it; the tooling for a job makes it too 3. Jennifer Rogers, Adults learning, Open University Press, 1989.
expensive to manufacture one-offs, 4. Sharan B Merriam and Rosemary Caffarella, Learning in adulthood: a
no matter how successful they are. comprehensive guide, Jossey-Bass, 1991.
I am not a psychologist, but I
believe there is a psychological
dimension to the problem too. On the shelf
Although we have a range of almost Below is a list of essential reading and reference sources that any trainer
20 models only about six are should have in his/her bookcase. The list has been broken into categories for
regularly sold and these best-sellers quick reference.
attract the highest commission. We Active and experiential learning Instructional technology
keep the other 14 models in stock • Experiential learning: experience as the • Making CBT happen, Gloria Gery,
source of learning and development, Ziff Institute, 1987
but the sales team grumble because David Kolb, Prentice-Hall, 1984
we cannot supply the models they Knowledge age
like best because they have sold out. Adult learning • The fifth discipline: the art and practice
• Adults learning, Jennifer Rogers, of the learning organization,
The sales director and I invited Open University Press, 1989 Peter M Senge, Doubleday, 1990
the sales team to help in the • Learning in adulthood: • Thriving on chaos, Tom Peters, Harper
selection of the models to be a comprehensive guide, Sharan B and Row, 1987
Merriam and Rosemary S Caffarella,
manufactured and sold in the year Jossey-Bass, 1991 Learning styles and preference
ahead. Despite initial enthusiasm • Learning to listen, learning to teach: • Accelerated learning, Colin Rose,
the power of dialogue in educating Dell, 1985
when the new models came out, • Frames of mind: the theory of multiple
they decided they did not like them adults, J Vella, Jossey-Bass, 1994
• Mastering the teaching of adults, intelligences, 3rd edition; Howard
after all. Our unsold stock rose to JW Apps, Krieger, 1991 Gardner, Basic Books, 1993
60 per cent of our annual turnover. • Quantum learning, Bobbi DePorter,
The brain with Mike Hernacki, Dell, 1992
The HR and Sales directors soon • Mindmapping, Joyce Wycoff, • The adult learner: a neglected species
came to regret their policy of Berkley Books, 1991 (4th edition), Malcolm Knowles,
recruiting nice people from the line • The brain book, Peter Russell, Gulf Publishing, 1990
Plume, 1979 • Understanding and facilitating adult
instead of sales professionals. When
• The owner’s manual for the brain, learning, Stephen D Brookfield,
sales dived again, panic and Pierce J Howard, Leonian Press, 1994 Jossey-Bass, 1986
frustration set in. I have now
Educational psychology Performance technology
designed and run a training course • Punished by rewards: the trouble with • Handbook of human performance
aimed at improving sales, and gold stars, incentive plans, A’s, praise, technology, Harold D Stolovitch and
although I am happy with it the and other bribes, Alfie Kohn, Erica J Keepseds, Jossey-Bass, 1992
Houghton Mifflin, 1993 • The ASTD technical and skills
proof of its success is going to training handbook, Leslie Kelley,
depend on the results it produces. McGraw-Hill, 1995
So what about evaluation?
Phil: Well done Bobbie! You have company’s specific business need Epilogue
expressed the crucial problem, lack and this should aid your Well, my comments and
of sales, and you have taken a evaluation at the end of the day. suggestions to Bobbie (and,
landscape view of the reasons why What gets measured in this case indeed, to all of you), have
it has happened. Through your is improvement in sales volume hopefully solved some of the
probing and identification of and product mix, and reduction issues that have been raised
problems in recruitment policy and in stock levels. There will be throughout the last 12 months.
procedures, combined with a other indicators, too – the morale Thanks for staying with me on
sound knowledge of your own of the sales and production this year-long journey. I hope
organisation, your competition and teams, the optimism of senior you feel the road we have
the external economy, you have management, bonuses travelled has been
managed to get alongside the MD, and incentives. worthwhile.
HR and Sales directors to work
together to implement a cocktail
of solutions. Next month …
It seems to me you have worked ‘It’s your business to know’
through these problems using the A brand new Training Journal supplement starts with an overview of
‘Performance Tuner’s model’ I core business themes.
outlined in February’s ‘TTT’.
You’ve also undertaken some
‘Train the Trainer’ is a supplement to Training Journal, a Fenman publication.
proper business analysis before
Clive House, The Business Park, Ely, Cambridgeshire CB7 4EH.
you designed your programme. Editor: Debbie Carter (tel) 01353 665779 ext 210
Your plan is therefore tied to your

Train the Trainer

iv