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Link the content of your training
event directly to the aims or objectives set. Of every
component of your planned training event, ask yourself, `How
exactly does this relate to the intended outcomes?' If the
link is tenuous, the element concerned may be an optional
extra.
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Remember that most activities take
longer than we imagine they will. This is particularly
important when devising new activities that you haven't tried
out before. It is better to allow 45 minutes for such an
activity, then fill in with something else if it only takes 30
minutes, than vice versa.
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Don't ride hobby-horses too hard!
When we've got a strong belief in something, it's all too easy
for us to plug it so hard that it becomes difficult for
participants to take – particularly if they have views rather
different to ours.
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Research how relevant and useful
each part of your training event feels to participants. In
follow-up questionnaires or interviews, ask which parts of the
training event content were most useful, and ask which things
could be left out if necessary.
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Give participants your content
rather than tell them it. It can save a great deal of time to
have the main principles of your training event wrapped up in
handout materials or summaries, so that participants can spend
their time with you exploring the issues rather than trying to
write them down.
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Check that your content is
authoritative, up-to-date and correct. It is very useful to
find trusted colleagues elsewhere who will be willing to look
at your handout materials and overheads with a supportive but
critical eye, and give you feedback about anything that may
need to be adjusted.
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Remember that content changes.
Participants will regard your training event as being as
up-to-date as the most recent developments you refer to during
the session. Make sure you have some new references as well as
well-established ones. A handout sheet listing these is very
much appreciated.
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Let participants help you to develop
your content. Next repeat session can benefit a lot by
incorporating questions and answers which emerge from your
present training event. A sheet collecting together such
questions and answers is very useful as handout material for
future training events.
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Focus on what participants will do
during your training event. The activities you devise will be
the most important aspect of your participants' view of the
content of your training event.
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Have plenty of spare `content' up
your sleeve! You never know when an activity will take only
half the time you allowed for it (for example when everyone
already knows a lot about the subject). Sometimes, you'll have
to drop a training event element entirely because you find out
at the last minute that everyone has already covered it
elsewhere. Have ready a range of alternative things that you
can use to fill participants' time usefully.
