Always on the lookout to become even better at what you do?
Want to become even better at who you are – both as a human being and as a trainer or facilitator?
Here are 4 questions that will give you ideas on how to achieve this – and hopefully also inspire you to keep on growing!
1. How can I give more ownership to the participants within their learning process?
People love freedom, autonomy, and feeling that they contributed to something worthy.
Ask:
How can I give them more autonomy and choice, within the workshop plan?
How can I give them FEELING of more autonomy and choice?
How can I empower learners, invite them into a more active attitude, motivate them to take over control of their process? What do I need to say, do, ask, demonstrate?
How can I keep on track towards my learning goal, while giving them more ownership and being flexible?
How can I adjust content-based parts of the workshop to make them more facilitative?
2. How can I develop more self-awareness as a trainer?
All of us are set in our ways – we developed a certain style in our communication, and in the way we do workshops.
And that is wonderful! Because it makes us authentic and unique.
Yet, it also comes with some dangers.
The main one is that we might have blindspots where we are missing out to do (even) more impact and that perhaps our style can be challenging for some of our participants.
So how can you develop more self-awareness as a trainer?
This question is best answered by yourself – but here are some ideas to get you started:
Build opportunities to get as much feedback as possible – keep asking co-trainers, clients and participants for feedback, and help them with specific questions on which aspect of your training would you like to get feedback on
Look for opportunities to expose yourself to new environments and different groups
Observe other trainers in action and notice what you can learn from them
Record yourself in action and watch it to give feedback to yourself
If you are looking to put these tips in practice more strongly and consistently, you might want to join us at Train the Trainer program – it is a place in which we dive really deep into all of these!
3. How can I respect the individual preferences of participants (even more)?
We adults are stubborn creatures. We have preferences, opinions & experiences that we hold dearly.
We like things to be done our way.
We know what we believe and what we care for.
And we stubbornly refuse to engage with things, people and activities that are not aligned with those preferences.
So what can you do about it as a trainer? Start by respecting that. By speaking the participants’ “language”, supporting their needs and preferences.
And then, once you have them on board, also occasionally challenge them to think in a new direction.
Ask:
When am I not respecting (enough) the individual needs and preferences of my learners? In what situations, when I get into what emotion, when they are what type of a person? How can I get better at that?
How can I give them more freedom and ownership to adapt the learning process to their own needs?
How can I listen to participants’ needs and preferences better?
How can I build this workshop in a way that I truly put the learner in the center?
How can I be more flexible as a trainer? Which skills, competencies, and habits should I develop for that?
4. How can I relate it (even more) to their real life?
If there is one thing that truly makes or breaks learning motivation in adult learners, it is the relevance of the content and tools to their real life.
The more relevant you can make it to their “real life” and work, the more motivation, energy and engagement will you get from them.
And again, you are the only one who can answer the questions “How can I relate it (even more) to their real life?” – but here are some ideas to get you started:
How can I use more examples? In which parts of the workshop am I missing more examples or colorful stories?
How and in which part can I invite them to share their experiences?
What are their actual problems and challenges in life and work? (think about it, but also ask them)
How can this content and tool make their life and work easier/more effective/happier/more productive/more meaningful etc? How can it support them in better results?
What is the true value, in their “real life”, of all the tools and models that I am sharing with them?
Moment to reflect:
- Which of these 4 will you be focusing on already in your next workshop?
- Which of the 4 would bring the biggest positive impact into your workshops?
Curious to find better answers to all of these questions?
still wondering, “How do I do all that?”,
are looking for more practice and feedback,
would like to dive deeper and find even better answers to all those questions,
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