Giving Instructions

The company I work for has in place, a great program for newly promoted trainers, that aims to bring their training platform skills to higher levels. Needless to say, I am a believer of the program. In fact, whenever I get the chance, I make sure to sit-in on the classes and teach some of the subjects. I'll try to talk more about the course I teach in a different post. 

Yesterday, I had some time to observe the Associate Trainer Trainees do a demonstration on the course Facilitation Skills and the picky little me, of course, has things to say. 

First, I think that the topic of giving instructions is often under covered in training courses. For something so fundamentally present in all training classes, one would think that trainers will are equipped with the skills to give out clear and seamless instructions. 6 demos later, I think not. 

My take on giving instructions (condensed to the most important ones):

1. Instructions should be redundant in form. It's not enough that instructions are read, they should be flashed on the screen (for visual learners) and elaborated on. In fact, I would even ask my trainees to say the instructions in their own words to make sure that they are understood. 

2. Demonstrate and use examples to make the instructions clearer.

3. Solicit questions and encourage participants to ask if there are any unclear instructions. 

4. When using tools (cut-outs, pictures, etc.) to be handed out, make sure to hand it out after saying/reading the instructions. This helps make sure that the focus of the participants are on you and not on the material that you will use. 

5. Practice your instructions on someone before the session. Write down your instructions and read it to someone you know. If they understand it, then chances are, your audience will too. 

Of course, I shared my thoughts in general and I think I might have reiterated on the first one, since all the demos used one media for giving instructions. 

Trainers are known to use SLEs as tools of the trade and knowing how to operate the "knobs" of this tool makes sure that the activity achieves its purpose.

Image courtesy of: blog.brokep.com