Since forever, I’ve worked in the field of learning and development--many times with a job title that has contained the word “training.” In those roles, one way that work came to me was a straight up request for training. Someone within the organization, often in a leadership role, would approach me and explicitly ask me to design a training program for a certain area of the organization. Often, these requests reflected the current delivery method of choice (in-person classroom training, video, webinar, eLearning) and several parameters for how the fulfillment of that training request looked in their head.  

Here are a few actual training requests I have received over the course of my career:

• ​We need a day-long class to show the managers how to do the hiring process correctly.
• We need a sales playbook and a 4-hour webinar with each area vice president presenting their individual section on how to sell the new product.
• We need a detailed manual on how to complete[basic transaction] in the proprietary software.
• We need a microlearning video on setting up [complex functionality] for the whole company.

On the surface, training requests may seem like a simple set of marching orders. Go forth and start writing the manual, shooting the video, and scheduling the big conference room at the office to make the request a reality.

If only it were that simple.

I learned pretty early on in my career—and I’m reminded on a regular basis—that training requests are the beginning of a very important conversation about the perceived problem, who it impacts, and how to get rid of the problem. I’ve also learned the hard way that skipping over the needs assessment part and delivering exactly what people initially ask for has a pretty good change of making no one happy. What starts as “do exactly this” later becomes “ugh--why did you do it like that?”

​It's important to treat training requests as what they really are--a starting point for future discussion.
The trick here is to listen—but listen differently. Listen around and beyond the original request to figure out what problem the requestor is trying to solve. They actually don’t want a too-long webinar where people “multi-task”, or a game-filled in-person session that misses the mark, or a non-user friendly manual that no one will read. They want a solution. They want the current less-than-ideal situation to be resolved. 

In short, they are using the best words they can think to use to pitch a solution to a problem.
They are saying “my car needs new brakes” instead of saying “my car doesn’t stop very well.” They are saying “I need a new refrigerator” instead of “my food isn’t staying as cold as it used to.” They are saying “I need a haircut” instead of “my bangs are hanging in my eyes and it’s hard for me to see.”
Taking this ​approach reminds us to take their solution as a starting point for discussion. Listen for the problem, not their proposed solution. This is the value L&D brings to the conversation. 

Now, when I hear those types of initial training requests, I acknowledge what I heard, and restate what I think the need is, removing the proposed solution until we learn more. Here are examples of what that sounds like:

When they say:
“We need a day-long class to show the managers how to do the hiring process correctly.”

I acknowledge and restate:
“It sounds like people aren’t going through the hiring process they way you expect. Is that correct?”
 -------
When they say:
“We need a sales playbook and a 4-hour webinar with each area vice president presenting their individual section on how to sell the new product.”

I acknowledge and restate:
“It sounds like the sales team needs to know how to position and sell the new product, and we want to make sure the VPs are involved so we get the right message out in front of them. Is that correct?”
 -------
When they say:
“We need a detailed manual on how to complete[basic transaction] in the proprietary software."
​
I acknowledge and restate:
“It sounds like there are users who need to know how to do the basic transaction, and we need to figure out how to get the right information in front of them at the right time. Is that correct?”
-------
When they say:
“We need a microlearning video on setting up [complex functionality] for the whole company."

I acknowledge and restate:
“It sounds like we need to make sure that key users groups need to learn how to set up [complex functionality]. Is that correct?”

Once we have at least a cursory agreement on the problem we’re trying to solve, and the requestor knows that we’re listening and want to partner with them to address the real issue, it’s time to ask more questions. Throughout this process, we’re trying to learn the answer to the question “What does success look like?” Here are a few foundational needs assessment questions to help us get to that ultimate answer:

• ​Who are our core learner groups? (job titles, locations, time zones, work arrangements)
• Who else should be aware of this content?
• What existing written processes and procedures exist so far?
• Who are our Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)?
• Who are the leaders who should be involved?
• What are the key dates that impact this training need?
• What prompted you to make a training request?
• What knowledge and skills should they be able to demonstrate after training is complete?

Asking these questions helps us not only build a strong working relationship with the requestor, but it helps us gain their buy in on the approach we ultimately take. 

What are your go-to needs assessment questions? What are your tips and tricks for working with training requestors? Include your ideas in the comments. 

As humans in today’s fast-paced world, we often value getting the job done as quickly as possible. When it comes to helping people learn, lecturing’s, aka “just tell them everything they need to know,” becomes the unfortunate default mode of information delivery. Unfortunately, the process of knowledge transfer doesn’t work like a bank deposit, and we can’t just extract knowledge from one person and implant it in another. Instead, individuals need to engage with information so they understand what to do with those details and make them into their own, internalized knowledge. 

You know who loves stories? Little kids. Do you know why? They are trying to figure out what the world is all about and what to do with all of the things they are experiencing for the first time. Just like adults use stories to help children understand the world, stories help adults make the transition from bland best practice or potentially useful technique to thing-I-actually-do. Let’s look at three examples of how stories can be incorporated into training to engage people in the learning process and help adults actually learn.

In training, many times we’re covering abstract ideas, and sharing models for how to apply those ideas. Stories help us make that jump. Here's an example:

During a training with customer service professionals, we're trying to help them understand the importance of getting to know individual customers and catering to their unique needs. 

"Each customer is different. Every person who calls us on the phone has their own point of view and personal struggles that we may know nothing about. We need to find out what matters to them and emphasize those points as we speak to them. Overall, be careful about making assumptions about people’s wants and needs based on your personal preferences."

"Here’s an example of learning about our customers and tailoring our approach to their wants and needs.

While working at a table at a church conference, my job was to discuss health insurance benefits with pastors currently working in congregations. I was there to promote a great new benefit where pastors could earn $250 for completing an online health assessment quiz. For me, taking the health assessment was a no-brainer, because I thought, “Yay! Free money!”

I quickly learned, though, that this was not the prevailing opinion among the pastors. Several stopped to express outrage that the church was trying to BRIBE them to take the health assessment. Since many of the pastors prided themselves on being more concerned with doing good in the world than with money, having a financial reward for doing something that they should do anyway became a disincentive. 

One church leader realized that a different approach was needed. She used the concept of stewardship—which means taking care of the gifts God has given to you, including your money and your own personal health. She told pastors that it was their duty as leaders of the church to model good stewardship by taking the health assessment (especially since another benefit was helping their congregation to earn a discount on their health insurance premiums).

​By keeping the wants and needs of the audience in mind, and realizing that they may be very different from our own, we figured out how to position this benefit in a way that resonated with our audience. " 

This story takes an abstract concept (everyone is different) and drives it home. Since many people may identify with the person who would gladly take the health assessment to earn money, seeing a completely different, and often unexpected, viewpoint can be shocking. Adding details about people and context for why they have the values they do, can be eye-opening.

When you first learn a concept, it may sound good in the abstract, but you're not sure how to apply that idea in the real world. In professions like being a police officer or a fire fighter, stories are a way that seasoned staff help rookies learn from other people's experiences. Here's an example of how to use stories to share real-world examples.

With new corporate trainers, using proximity technique to deal with disruptive students in a classroom environment.

"When trying to manage students who are disrupting the classroom, using proximity can be helpful. In short, standing near a student can help them to realize that they need to change their behavior."

"During student introductions at the beginning of a sales training class, Alice, a branch manager sitting at a table in the back of the room, was explaining what she hoped to gain from class.

In the middle of Alice’s introduction, Jim (the top insurance salesperson in the region) answered his phone. He was sitting at the front table in the classroom, and there was no way for the whole class NOT to hear his conversation as he loudly explained the concept of accident forgiveness.

I asked Alice to pause for a moment, then walked over to Jim, and stood next to him for a moment. He looked at me, I smiled at him, and then he put his hand over his phone long enough to say, “I’ll step outside to finish this call.” I nodded to let him know that I appreciate it. Once he left, Alice finished up, and the next person did their introduction.
​
In this case, standing next to Jim was the cue he needed to realize that he was doing something disruptive and self-correct his behavior."

​The story involves people with names and characteristics. This shows on sometimes challenging student, a high performing salesperson, and a situation that may resonate with students. It also shows how using a relatively simple solution can solve the problem, and help the trainer maintain control of their classroom. This story shows students how they can apply the skill, which may also help them identify when they could use a specific skill in their classroom.  

When I’ve observed technical trainers, most of them are great at taking people through the step by step process needed to make something work. However, many times the question “why would we ever do this?” is missed. If people don’t get why the process matters, they will have a hard time mustering up enough energy to pay attention. Here's an example of how to use a story to set up a scenario within a technical training course.

Showing students in an intermediate Microsoft Word class how to use the mail merge feature to create mailing labels. 

"We’re going to create mailing labels. This would be helpful if you needed to mail the same item, like a marketing campaign, to multiple people. You could even use a mailing list that you had saved in Excel as the starting point for your mailing labels."

"Joanie and Chachi are getting married and having the big wedding of Joannie’s dreams.

Now that it’s time to address invitations, her best friend, Jenny Piccalo, points out that addressing 500 envelopes by hand is going to be excruciating.

Joannie has a great idea! Why not use the Excel file they’ve created and use the Mail Merge feature in Word to create mailing labels! They can even use one of those handwriting style fonts to help them match the script on the invitations.

Let’s look at how to set that up."

Especially in technical training, sometimes we get so caught up in the “click here, click there, GOOD LORD NOT THERE” aspect of it that we forget to tell students why they’d ever bother to do the process we’re explaining. Giving them a why, in this case a why that aligns with concepts people know (the joys of managing the postal aspects of a big event) and incorporating fictional characters (who doesn’t love a little Happy Days reference?) adds a layer of lightheartedness that is often missing from technical training. 

​Why do you think telling stories in training is beneficial? What is your favorite story to tell? How does it enhance the learning process? Include your thoughts in the comments.