Training Mania

I recently facilitated the popular 7 Habits of Highly Effective People workshop.  In this three-day course, you focus on developing paradigms, or ways of seeing and thinking, which help you live life on purpose and build strong personal and professional relationships.

I love the habits because they apply to each and every aspect of life, but the funny thing is that although I’ve taught this course many times, I’d never thought about how the habits might apply to the world of Training and Development…until now!



HABIT #1—Be Proactive

This is the habit of personal responsibility and believing your world is shaped by your ACTIONS, not by your CIRCUMSTANCES.  I like to think of this habit as the “NO WHINING and use your imagination” habit.  

When you’re developing a course or facilitating, do you truly believe your actions will make or break the outcomes of the class?  Sure!  This seems pretty straightforward, however, actually living this belief can be challenging. Have you ever been guilty of saying or heard others saying "If only…":

• “The managers would have prepared their staff for what to expect in class.”
• “I had more time to develop/facilitate this class or learn this content.”
• “We had a training system that would do X.”
• “My participants were faster learners.”
• “I had a bigger training budget.”

Each of these “if only” statements are reactive.  They tell the world “I have no control over my situation…everything happens TO me.  There’s nothing I can do to change things.” 

When you fall into this negative rut, what can you do?  It's all about thinking proactively and challenging yourself to present new ideas that will help to improve the future for you and your training organization!  There is always something you can do to make a difference!  Consider what you can do to influence your situation.  Be creative and move into action!  

What if you’ve already tried to change your reality, but it didn’t work?  Try again!  Take a new approach.  Never give up or resign yourself into thinking you will never change things. 

Be an amazing role model for others and show the world the amazing gifts you have to offer!  That’s what true trainers are all about!  



HABIT #2—Begin with the End in Mind

This is the habit of visualizing your biggest hopes and dreams and writing them down in a personal mission statement.  You design what your future is going to look like.  You create a map of where you’re headed.  

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with this one wild and precious life?” Mary Oliver

This habit made me think of creating a personal training mission statement to articulate exactly the type of trainer I want to be so I stay on track!  I started by considering what I’d want people to say about my training skills and my training impacts when I retire.  For me, my personal training mission will include things like doing things to consistently making learning FUN and challenging learners to find new ways of doing things.  It will also include language about never hesitating to learn new content, and staying true to my passions to facilitate “soft” skills at all opportunities because I believe technical skills are important, but relationship skills and encouraging others to embrace their personal gifts is what makes a bigger difference in the personal and professional arenas.            

What would your personal training mission statement say?  Are you a “fly by the seat of your pants” kind of trainer who just shows up in the classroom and just starts training?  Or do you review your learning objectives for the day, and visualize what success will look like? 

We know effective trainers teach to their objectives, so why wouldn’t you create personal training objectives for yourself so you have a solid roadmap to follow to reach your goals?  I challenge you to create a personal training mission statement and read it each day before you walk into the classroom or sit down to create a new class.  Just think of the difference it can make with your outcomes!



HABIT #3—Put First Things First

This is the habit of planning and preparation.  It’s about scheduling your time wisely, saying “no” to things that are not important, investing time in personal development, and living your mission.  Do you have a time management system to help you live your mission?  Do you have skills to say “no” to the items that pop up in your day that may seem urgent, but are not important?  This habit equips you to gain control of the wickedly busy schedules we all have!

As I thought about this habit and training in the classroom, I considered a trainer’s duty of starting each day by identifying the most important objectives and staying true to the activities that will help achieve those goals throughout the day.  This is truly putting “first things first.”  

As a manager of trainers, at the end of the day I would often hear “I am behind schedule.”  When I would ask about what happened to cause the delay most times the replies would be about participants asking a lot of questions.  Questions are great in training, right?  Absolutely!  But do all questions need to be answered RIGHT NOW?  No!  You could answer “What if…” questions all day if you allowed it.  But you cannot always cover all scenarios and questions as they come up because you likely have other “first things” to cover.  

So...how do you fit it all in and keep true to your goal of putting “first things”?  We want to prepare our learners for the real world, but we often get sucked into black holes, going down trails that don’t need to be traveled, all in the guise of “service” to our participants.  As trainers we need to learn how to effectively manage questions in the classroom.  My favorite tool is the parking lot!  Once question and answer time has past, have participants write down their questions as they come up and post them on a flip chart.  By the end of class, if their question hasn't been answered, you can follow up at that time.  What seems to be urgent and important to the participant at that time, may not actually be urgent and important to the entire class.  It is OK to say “not now”,  just be sure you provide an avenue to get the answer, before class is over.  (Note: this doesn’t always have to be the trainer answering the question…it can be directing them to a link where they can find the answer, assigning the question to their mentor, or asking another participant in class to assist with answering the question at a later time).  If you set the ground rule up front that all questions will be answered, but some may need to be “parked” due to time constraints no one will feel slighted and you will have time to put "first things first." 


Want to learn about how training applies to habits 4-7?  Stay tuned for a future post! 

How would you apply habits 1-3 to your training role?  Leave a comment to share your ideas!