TRAINING
  

JUST BECAUSE YOU BUILD IT...
DOESN'T MEAN THEY'LL COME

Just because you have a captive audience doesn't mean it's a captivated audience.

Just because you are transmitting content doesn't guarantee it's being received.

Just because it's a training session doesn't mean people are being trained.

You can call something "glue" all you want, but it doesn't mean it will adhere to anything.

Most trainees are usually there for one reason... because they have to.

It's easy to get tooshies into chairs.

It's harder to get content into brains.

Capturing a few hours of someone's schedule doesn't require much thought.

Capturing hearts along with minds and convincing both about the value of training requires quite a bit more.

ATTENTION PRECEDES RETENTION

Whether the training is delivered via classroom or self-study, a program must get your learners to tune-in and buy-in.

Great training doesn't have to entertain, but it must engage.

It just has to grab and retain the interest of the audience.

It has to mean something to them.


WITHOUT SALES AND MARKETING, IT ISN'T TRAINING

Though you think you are providing training for free, you are actually selling it to your learners.

Your wares are knowledge, skills, new information, and attitudes.

Your trainees must buy it with their attention, their time, and an allocation of brain space.

To get them to buy, you need a good product. Relevant. Attractively packaged.

Knowledge-consumers must see what's-in-it-for-them. Why it's worth the investment. Why it's beneficial, not only to the organization or its customers/clients, but for them as well.


PREVENTING TUNE-OUT

A career in broadcasting taught Chuck that he was never more than a button push or channel twist away from losing an viewer or listener.

It doesn't taker much for them to simply go away.

Trainees can tune out without access to buttons. They can go away without leaving. They can continue to stare without seeing a thing.

The mind can go on holiday. Bore it, talk down to it, or confuse it and it will glaze over.


So once you capture your audience's attention, the training must work hard to keep it. Here are just a few ways:
• Pacing content well
• Delivering in a style that keeps learners attentive
• Delivering content in digestible chunks
• Rewarding success
• Maintaining respect for the learner and the dignity
• Frequently reminding the audience why it is important
• Keeping production value high
• Making it easy to keep up but easier to catch up.
• Keeping the connection between the content and your learner visible at all times

We pledge to create programs that keep an audience engaged.


HAS QUANTUM MECHANICS TAUGHT US NOTHING?

What little our firm knows about quantum physics is that nothing really matters until you measure it. If that is how entire entropic galaxies work, why wouldn't it also be true for a little--certainly by intergalactic standards--training program?

We can determine entry-level level skills with pre-tests. We can measure learner competencies through evaluation.

We can also track the effectiveness of the training itself-- whether it met the goals and whether the goals were appropriate.

We can build in measurement through formal testing or more informal feedback.

Measurement can determine return-on-investment and justify the cost of training.

We can figure out what success looks like, and then take a ruler to it.

IT SHOULD MAKE BUSINESS SENSE

Training ought to withstand scrutiny and live up to stringent business standards.

Answering organizational challenges is a business initiative, so training ought to make good business sense.

We understand training. We also understand business. We get both to converge.

We know that a good training program may require a certain level of investment if it is to succeed, but there is a point at which additional budget contributes no additional value.

As astute producers and business people as well, we can help clients determine criteria to measure the business return, spending what is needed, but not frittering away cash unnecessarily.

We help clients
• Squeeze out the most a budget can offer and get the most bang-for-the-buck
• Create training with extended shelf life
• Find economies without compromise to quality or effectiveness
• Create programs that can be economically updated in the future, preventing premature obsolescence



We know that the real cost of a program is more than its initial budget, but the cost to implement it, the cost to revise it, and the cost to replace it if it does not have flexibility, adaptability, and a long shelf life.

We can help clients make sure that their projects not only make instructional sense, but make business sense as well.