It’s a natural reaction to get tied in emotionally with something you’ve put a lot of time and effort into like when you’ve designed and delivered training to the best of your ability.  If you’re pro-active, you may have asked for feedback in good faith but how do you feel when someone tells you something you don’t like or don’t want to hear after putting in all that effort?

The chances are that you won’t like it and I’ll readily admit that I’ve been there in the past.  I’ve worked on many training projects that have taken days, weeks and sometimes months with “blood, sweat and tears” invested into them.  With all of this effort, one of the overriding emotions is of ownership no matter how big or small the project and therefore we will be naturally defensive if we don’t get the feedback we want to hear whether this comes from our managers, peers or delegates.  One of the lessons on my learning journey to become a professional trainer was to change my mindset in many ways:

Remove the emotion – It’s going to feel difficult with all that effort but even before you’ve debuted your training, think of it as an object that can always be developed and improved.

Remember who the training is for – Remember this training isn’t about you, it’s being designed and delivered for the benefit of the people who will receive it.  Always keep in mind that the reason it’s required in the first place is to make that all significant change in a workplace happens.

Encourage feedback – Tell everyone that you are open to feedback and honestly believe it when you say it. Remember as per the point above, it’s all about benefitting the audience then and into the future.  Share with them the reason why it’s so valuable to gain their feedback and give examples of development/improvement from any previous comments.  Ensure you get feedback from both training delivered on the day and then from both individuals and managers of those trained to endure the training remains current and fit for purpose.

It’s all about improvement – Both strengths and area’s for improvement will give you a piece of great evidence to improve both what you deliver and how you deliver it.  Don’t forget that the only way we can truly develop as trainers is through continued feedback; it’s the mechanism that will ultimately make you a fantastic trainer.

Join us on one of our courses, we’d love for you to give us some feedback!

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.