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Training – Your Place or Mine?
By Richard Hadden and Bill Catlette

Employers of Choice invest a lot of time, money, and people, in training. Some happens on-the-job, and some through videoconferencing, but much of it is done in a training center classroom or hotel meeting room. While American companies, and to some degree others worldwide curtailed training activity last fall, training, like many other aspects of life, appears to be returning to some sense of normalcy, however differently that may be defined.

Our hope is that, just like the renewal that occurs each spring, our collective training efforts will reemerge fresher, stronger, and more effective. This issue of Fresh Milk is devoted to helping that happen.

Whether your company conducts classroom training using internal professionals, outside experts, external classes, or, more likely, a combination, you're spending considerable time and money doing it. In fact, in a lot of cases you're spending more than you need to, and getting less in the way of knowledge transfer than you have a right to. Don't blow your investment - and yes, it should be treated as an investment. If you're going to do it, then do it right, and 'right' starts with paying careful attention to the details - things that in and of themselves may seem trivial, but taken together make a big difference. Like...

Location.

Probably…no...definitely, the worst place to conduct workplace training is… at work. Distractions are legion. When the overhead squawk box isn't beckoning for a class member to "call the operator, please call the operator", in a voice that sounds like your mother when you tried to sell your little brother to a neighbor kid, some brazen, but utterly clue-free middle manager, will inevitably barge in, when a participant is saying something really important, to "borrow" a class member, for something that just can't wait.

And I don't care if the training center is a drab catacomb hidden deep in the bowels of a Victorian era factory, or a state-of-the-art showcase in your new corporate headquarters, if it's within walking distance of participants' workplaces, you won't be able to offer enough M&M's (anybody know what the new color is?) and other "return-on-time" prizes to have a full classroom when you reconvene after a break, no matter how good the training is.

So unless the training is truly of the on-the-job variety, our suggestion for location can be summed up in two words: offsite.

The best place to conduct training is probably your company's own offsite conference or training facility. Again, emphasis on the word "offsite". If your company is big enough and lucky enough to have one of these, you can probably attest to the benefits gained by learners, who are able to focus on learning. Again, onsite doesn't count. We've done training in opulent onsite training centers, complete with the latest high-tech gadgetry, original art on the walls, and all of the aforementioned interrupters. And we've trained in the league room of a bowling alley in Newburgh, Indiana. The Newburgh session was far more productive than the one in the crystal palace.

And while we're at it, offsite doesn't have to mean expensive. OK, we were lucky with the bowling alley, but there are lots of other things you can try before heading for a standard commercial facility.

• Most decent-sized country clubs have meeting space, and many are delighted to have a corporate group around, especially on Mondays, when their golf course is likely closed for maintenance.
• A lot of public libraries (especially the newer ones) have very nice meeting rooms which they gladly rent for a pittance. Yeah, they generally ask you to pick up after yourselves, but for the money you're saving, it's worth it.
• Not long ago, we spent 4 days training managers from a manufacturing plant in the training room of a neighboring power co-op. It seems the two outfits had worked out a reciprocal deal where, in order to do "offsites", they would use one another's training facilities.
• Many of those corporate universities we talked about are seriously underutilized, and the owners are not above renting them out for a nominal fee. The possibilities are endless.

At any rate, used correctly, they're well worth the investment. Even here, though, location makes a difference.

We like to have a good time as much as anyone, but you've got to ask yourself, "Are we having our training session at Pebble Beach because it's the best learning environment, or for some other reason?" We once had a client, headquartered in a city known for its, shall we say, varied nightlife. They would bring people in from all over the world for a few days of training. After a couple of meetings based in downtown venues, during which participants absorbed too many drinks and lap dances after hours to absorb much of anything in class, they started conducting training in very nice resort locations about an hour from town. The company learned something, and so did the trainees, for a change.

The little things

No matter where you end up conducting training classes, here's a list of little things we want you to worry about, to get the most for your training investment.

• Brains need calories. (Though one of us looks like he eats all the time, it's actually the other one who does!). You don't need an elaborate spread, but for goodness sake, feed people, on the company's dime, even if you disregard our advice and do training in your own building. Breakfast, lunch, and snacks. Not only does it fill the stomach, it sends a much-appreciated message to participants. Go easy on the sugar, and strike pasta and other heavy carbs from the lunch menu, unless, of course, you have a naptime on the agenda. One more thing - if lunch is served in the classroom, ask the caterer to leave the raw onions in the kitchen. They may taste good, but come mid-afternoon, they'll be more than a memory.
• 'Test-drive' the chairs in the room. If you wouldn't be willing to park your derriere in one for 8 hours, get something better, or be prepared to have lots of breaks.
• If using a classroom-style, or a U-shaped setup, use table skirts, so those wearing dresses or skirts can sit comfortably.
• Can you see the EXIT sign when the room is dark? Do people know where the exits are? Do we have to explain why this matters?
• Make sure the room is the right size. Training rooms are kind of like shoes. They have to fit. Too big is hardly better than too small.
• This one we learned from former National Speakers Association President Mike McKinley. Bring a roll of duct tape, and tape over all the door latches, so that when people do come and go, not everybody has to know about it.
• Pay attention to ceiling height (high ceilings suck up sound), and avoid ballrooms with beautiful crystal chandeliers. They were meant for dances, not training sessions. When the ventilation system comes on, the umpteen thousand crystal pieces will clink together and you'll swear you're at a wedding reception. Then again, maybe you'll just swear.
• If the trainer needs a microphone to be heard, ask her to use it. If she says "I think you can hear me without this thing," they probably can't, and beside, by the end of the day, she'll sound like Brando in The Godfather.
• Here's a real pet peeve. If you're using flipcharts, use flipchart markers, for Pete's sake, not the dry erase variety. Dry erase markers are for dry erase boards.
• If an A/V presentation enhances your message, use one. If not, don't. If a trainer has to look at the screen to know what's on it, bench them until they know their stuff well enough to present it. Don't even think about using an overhead projector, and at least consider that there is a world beyond PowerPoint®. Programs like Astound®, Harvard Graphics®, and Freelance Graphics® do the same thing, and in some cases, better. Sales trainer and speaker Jim Pancero uses Astound (so does Richard), if for no other reason than that everyone else uses PowerPoint, and it makes his presentations stand out.
• Pay close attention to the lighting in the room. There should be ample light where people are reading or writing, lots of light on the speaker, and as little as possible on the screen. Last year, we were listening to a speaker make a presentation before we were to go on. The guy was good, but we noticed a fascinating phenomenon. And we've tested it several times since. From time to time, the speaker would step out of the light. When he did, the audience began shuffling, talking, and some even left the room, even though his delivery didn't change. Each time he stepped back into the light, the audience sat up, took notice, and hung on his every word.
• Don't wear your cellphone on your hip while speaking. We know you have one. We don't need to see the service light blinking.

In learning, environment deserves more credit than we give it. Whatever you do, whether you conduct training in your own offsite Taj Mahal, or the conference room at the Red Roof Inn, remember that one of the most fundamental needs we all have, is to be, and feel, competent to do our jobs.

Please print the following attribution for this article: Bill Catlette and Richard Hadden, co-authors of Contented Cows Give Better Milk, help clients clobber the competition by having a focused, fired up, and capably led workforce. They deliver powerful conference keynotes and leadership training. They can be reached at 800-940-7006 (+1-904-720-0870 from outside North America) or www.ContentedCows.com.