Have you ever thought about the best Trainer you have ever seen and what made them so successful?  I often think about those trainers that influenced me and the reasons why I wanted to try and train like them.  I’ve been so lucky to have worked with some fantastic Trainers, and I’ve managed to figure out why they are so good - they use magic powers!  So, what are these mystical ‘magic powers’ and how can you get them?

Firstly, I want you to think about all of the resources that make for good training like pens and handouts and aids etc.  A lot of them you can carry about in your trainer bag, but there’s one particular resource that definitely won’t fit in your bag, and that’s the people in your audience.  They are one of the most precious resources you can have to make the training successful, and if you can tap into their ‘power’, this will be the thing that makes the ‘magic’ happen.  Here is how you too can get the magic powers working for you:

Engage – Telling people lots of information from a PowerPoint slide show isn’t training, get them involved and engaged in sparking and holding interest.  Activities and questions are your fundamental tool to get this happening.

Motivate – Keep them all motivated by using positive re-enforcement and praise when an activity or question is done correctly.  Even those who say they don’t like this sort of feedback will want it when everyone else is getting it; it is infectious.

Facilitate – Get the audience sharing their stories and experiences and then facilitate what’s happening to ensure you keep up the motivation and engagement while keeping to the subject and time.  Stories and experiences are one of the best ways we retain information as our brain links them together and stores them in long-term memory, especially when it’s been something of benefit or interest.

Teamwork – When the team works, learning takes place.  Getting the team to work together early on building rapport will pay dividends; using icebreakers and setting a common contract are a great way of early team-building.  Also, get some good team activities going through the session, and if there is feedback required, getting them to give peer feedback is very powerful to reinforce learning and behaviours.

On our PTT Train the Trainer courses, we use all of the above and show you how to do the same with practical sessions where you will get the chance to practice and refine using the ‘magic powers’ for yourself.

Scott Fraser is a Master Trainer at Target Training and delivers our PTT Train the Trainer courses and our Advanced PTT Train the Trainer courses.  You can read more about him here.