Empower the Participants
A poster in my training design room proclaims Let the inmates run the asylum. The message suggests that we should encourage and empower the participants to play an important role in designing and delivering training.
I used to think that the role of the learner is to listen to the trainer’s presentation, pay attention to the slides, take notes, and think of how to apply the new skills and knowledge to the workplace.
An Accidental Learning Discovery
Several years ago, I had to unexpectedly substitute for a trainer who had caught the flu bug. Since I had no knowledge of the training content, I was forced to change the learners’ role and assign them the responsibility for learning. I required and rewarded the learners to create content and share what they discovered with each other. I was totally engaged in my improvisation—and so were the learners. The fact that they learned more effectively and enthusiastically should not have surprised me because there is significant research evidence that shows the powerful effects of peer teaching.
Learners as Trainers
In many of my training activities, I require and reward the learners to play the role of the trainer. This works effectively because people learn more when they teach others. As a specific example, I use an activity called Each Teach. I teach a set of principles and procedures to only one half of the participants. Later, I pair up these participants with the other half for peer training. An interesting outcome of Each Teach is that both the trainers and the learners gain greater mastery of the training content.
Learners as Training Designers
In most training design projects, I analyze the content and skill, specify the objectives, construct test items, outline the training content, and design training activities. In this process, I learn much more than what my participants would learn when they progress through the pre-digested package. Inspired by this fact, I frequently require the participants to play the role of training designers. The participant-designers learn a lot in these activities, especially if they work collaboratively with a group of cohorts.
In an activity called Bequest, I ask the graduating participants to create a job aid, a poster, an infographic, or some other tool to help the next generation to learn more effectively. Knowing that they have to design one of these adjunct materials to support the session, the participants are more engaged in the earlier training.
Learners as Subject-Matter Experts
Asking the learners to play the role of subject-matter experts is another effective training technique. By analyzing related literature and by interviewing expert practitioners, learners create their own content and learn more about it.
Here is a specific example of this approach from an activity called 200 Pages that I use for training people how to typeset text for easy reading and retrieval. I require each learner to study random pages from different books and prepare a checklist of what makes these pages effective learning resources. Later, these learners share the key principles of text formatting that they discovered.
Learners as Evaluators
At the end of my training sessions, I frequently ask the learners to interview and test each other to assess the mastery of the training objectives. For example, in an activity called The Storyteller, I instruct the learners to form into small groups and listen to a story from one of its members. Using a structured rating scale, the learners provide immediate and constructive feedback to the storyteller.
The Rule
Learners are capable of playing multiple roles in the training process. If we set aside the arrogance about our indispensability, we can share our roles with the learners for everyone’s benefit. This is why I use (and train others to use) this important rule for faster-cheaper-better instructional design: Encourage and empower the participants to create content and conduct activities.