ABOUT THE EXPERT
Steve Willis is a Master Trainer and Vice President of Professional Services at VitalSmarts.
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I spent last week in the classroom—the back of the classroom. No, it wasn’t for misbehaving. I observed a couple of our certified trainers deliver training. I don’t get to do this very often, so I wondered how this experience would compare to the view from the front of the class. I prepared for what I thought I should expect and settled in for a two-day experience. Yet nothing I did prepared me for the end of the class.

The trainer had wrapped up, answered questions, and closed on a high. I was turning my attention to something else when I heard the unthinkable. He said, “I really enjoyed having you here for the last two days and hope you learned some new skills and approaches.” Now hang on, because while I have heard this last part many times, it was this next part that really caught my attention. “I’ll be coming around your work area this next week and will stop in to see how you’re doing with your skills and answer any questions you might have.”

Wow! What a novel idea! What difference would it make to be able to re-connect with the participants? Coach them? Encourage and praise them? Help them apply their skills to the situations and circumstances that are most pressing? So here’s my question for you: Do you know what happens to your participants once they leave the class?

Share your thoughts below.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jillian Herrick-Frazier is a Master Trainer.
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What if the person I am dealing with is not reasonable, rational, OR decent?

Great question. In our day-to-day lives we all have dealt with someone we could put into the category of not reasonable, rational, or decent. The thing is, the more I interact with people the more I believe most people are in fact reasonable, rational, and decent. And when they are behaving badly toward me or others, more often than not there is more to it. This does not make these interactions any easier, but it does motivate me to use the skills to improve and minimize the difficult encounters.

I suggest looking back on the three elements of a crucial conversation: high stakes, strong emotions, and opposing opinions. Are the stakes high? Meaning, do you have to work with this person in order to do your job? Will this person always be part of your life? If so, you may want to reframe the question. First, consider someone you believe to reasonable, rational, AND decent. Why would my best friend do this? Why would my soul mate do this? Why would my favorite boss do this? It’s kind of interesting. When you replace the person you believe to be malicious and evil with someone you believe always has your best interest at heart, you may start to see things differently.

Lastly, consider yourself. I don’t know about you, but I like to think I’m a fairly reasonable, rational, and decent individual. When I substitute myself for the other person, I almost always see things differently, which helps me to master my stories and get back in dialogue. It’s not always easy to do, but this question is here to help us take pause and consider things in a different light.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Candace Bertotti is a Master Trainer.
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Sometimes participants say they have no problems to work on. They like everyone and everyone likes them. Not a problem in the world. How can I help them get something out of the training?


If someone claims not to have any conversations to work on, I’ll go speak with that person one-on-one while others are working and give him or her some ideas. Here are a few questions to trigger some ideas for them:

• Any relatives that annoy you (siblings, in-laws, kids, cousins, etc.)? Any touchy issues at home? Do you volunteer or belong to a church—if so, any tough issues there? Any issues ever come up with your neighbors that you wish you handled differently? Any relationship that you wish was closer?
• Have you ever had a conversation that you know could have gone better? It didn’t have to be extreme, but you know there was room for improvement. Use that example and come up with how you could have handled it differently.
• If you were to go have dinner with your colleagues after work, what would you complain about?

If none of these questions help, I find that sometimes the idea of speaking up—or having a problem-free life—can be a strong part of someone’s identity. Thus, for a participant to admit the need for improvement in an area is to imply some crack in his or her identity. I try to let these participants off the hook a bit and say, “I’m sure you speak your mind and it sounds like you do it often and effectively. Consider this course as an opportunity for you to become even better at it—to take your already great skills up a notch.” Invite them to consider one place in their life where they could get even better results.

ABOUT THE EXPERT
Steve Willis is a Master Trainer and Vice President of Professional Services at VitalSmarts.
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It seems like a simple question that should elicit a fairly straightforward, simple answer. But nooooo, Al wanted more than the standard “8:00 A.M.” response. So he asked again, “When does training start?”

The setting was our VitalSmarts best practices meeting, and Al Switzler was trying to get us to think more deeply about our preparation and to pinpoint the time when we “turn on” for training. “So many times the presenter turns on the charm, enthusiasm, energy, interest in participants, the smile (Al went on for a while, but for the sake of brevity I’ll summarize the majority of his list with, “etc.”) once the clock strikes that magical start time hour.” He went on to say that training should start much earlier than the time printed on the invitation letter, and that if you are currently starting at that time, you’re starting too late and missing huge opportunities to engage the participants and set the appropriate climate.

With this in mind, I’m interested in hearing when training starts for you. What do you do to make sure it starts off well? Share your thoughts below to get the idea flow started.

How do you build and maintain a high level of energy while training?

Starting out with energy and enthusiasm sets the stage for the kind of engaging session you want to create as a trainer. Your energy level affects the group as a whole. If you have low energy and plod along, they will too. If you remain engaged and interested, and have an appropriate energy level, so will they! Now, when we’re talking “energy,” it does not mean a “rah-rah,” exhausting whirlwind of movement, gestures, and loud voices. It does mean bringing a sense of vibrance to the learning environment. Here are some ways I weave that in—at the beginning and during the afternoon lull.

Starting out:

• Before the training even starts, make sure to engage with each and every participant. Greet them as they arrive, ask them questions about their work or their role, and see if you have anything in common. Smile! Find a reason to laugh a little to create a “lighter” mood.
• Have music playing as folks arrive as well as during every break and at the end of the day. Pick something that has broad appeal and is slightly upbeat.
• Open the workshop with a “hook”—get them interested right away. After introducing myself, I often talk about the applicability of what we’ll be learning to all parts of their lives, not just work. I ask, “Who has teenagers? Who has difficult neighbors? Who’s involved with volunteer activities?” and then state, “You will learn skills and tools that will help you in all those areas!”
• If everyone in the room does not know one another, do introductions, but avoid lengthy “around the room” introductions. A fun process I learned from a colleague is something we refer to as speed dating. The goal of this exercise is to meet as many people as possible in three minutes. Ask everyone in the room to stand up, give them a few questions to use—name, role in the organization, a hobby or interest, etc. Put the timer on, full screen! When the time is up and people return to their seats, take a poll of how many people they met.
• Within the first twenty minutes, get participants working at their tables to identify typical scenarios or challenging situations where the concepts and skills we’ll be working on have relevance. This gets the group buzzing and folks interacting early on. Collect a few ideas from each group and post them on a flipchart for reference later. This also gives you a good opportunity to connect with them and their interests and allows you to “preview” key content areas.

Throughout the session:

• Move around and use your space. A remote mouse will allow you to walk away from your laptop. If you are using flip charts, post those with key content so that you can move to and/or write on them as you reference them throughout the class.
• Look for creative ways to break into small groups so that people are continually interacting with different folks. This also gets them out of their chairs and moving around.
• When groups are working on exercises, make sure to walk around and engage with them. Offer thoughts, ask questions, compliment their work, and make easy jokes without taking them off track.

In energy lulls:

• Change up some of the exercises so that they are partnering with others instead of working in table groups. Make it a “power exercise” meaning that you ask them to stand, find a partner across the room, and power through the exercise in a timed two- to three-minute period, remaining standing.
• When doing a table exercise, rather than counting off around the room to mix the groups, have folks count “1-2-1-2 . . .” around their OWN table. Then have all the 2s rotate clockwise to the next table for the exercise.
• Plan for two short breaks in the afternoon—about ten minutes each—rather than one fifteen minute break. They really need it! Turn up the music during the afternoon breaks and make sure it has an upbeat tempo—no chamber music! Show the VitalSmarts viral videos or fun photographs during the breaks or just as participants are coming back.
• Chocolate helps. So do table toys for fidgeting, such as play-doh, slinkies, or pipe cleaners.
• Pay attention to your own energy level. Do what you can to increase it if necessary—tell an engaging story, take a brisk walk outside during break, or eat a bit of protein.

Please share your own ideas for keeping the learning environment high energy!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dave Angel is a Master Trainer.
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How do you respond when you show a video and a participant comments, “That scenario has nothing to do with my life. Nothing like that would ever happen here. That just doesn’t seem realistic.”?

That’s a very good question. I can remember going through the training for the first time and thinking those same thoughts about a video scenario or two. But then I realized that I was focusing on the scenario content rather than on the skill set I was learning. Talk about light bulbs going off for me! When I stopped getting caught up in the content of the scenario and allowed it to simply serve as the framework for practicing the skill, my learning skyrocketed. I was able to target and practice the skill set without being distracted by whether the scenario was relevant for me. Then, as I moved through the rest of the training, I was cognizant of the skill set rather than the scenario.

ABOUT THE EXPERT
Steve Willis is a Master Trainer and Vice President of Professional Services at VitalSmarts.
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You’re in a session doing your utmost to train some people up. You ask a question. A participant responds. He’s somewhat correct, but also somewhat wrong in his response. What would you do?

Would you. . .

A) Affirm the participant for responding, and fill in with the more accurate information.
B) Inform the participant he was inaccurate, and fill in with the more accurate information.
C) Ask another participant to respond.
D) Start answering your own questions to avoid future problems.

If you answered A or B, you’d be grouped in with the majority of the trainers I interact with. They use the “yes-and” approach (say something like, “yeah that’s right,” and proceed to correct the mistake) to address the gap. The problem here is that if you use this approach with a response that is inaccurate rather than incomplete, you send the participant away thinking he or she was correct, and set him or her up to experience difficulties later on during attempts to apply the flawed understanding.

And the correct answer is. . . E) none of the above. Drat that trick question!

During a recent meeting with one of my ultra-favorite, really-smart, rock-star heroes Dr. Ethna Reid (If you’d like to know more about Ethna, her research, and her results, click here), I found myself pondering the following comment: “The fewer errors students are allowed to make, the more discriminating they will be about correct usage.” The more I thought about it, the more it really resonated with me.

In many ways this flies in the face of what seems like the best response in the moment. A participant makes a flawed attempt to use a skill or makes a comment that falls short of the mark. You want to correct the point without making the participant look bad so you jump right in, bridge the inaccuracy with a “yes-and,” and transition to the next idea or concept. Old habits (and the bamboo plant gift in my office) die hard.

Instead of giving way to this urge, prepare your participants to be more effective by 1) pointing out the correct and incorrect portions of their responses, and 2) giving them an opportunity to correct it themselves. Do this and you’re sure to see your participants move beyond a surface understanding of training skills to discriminating usage.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Barbara Hauser is a Master Trainer.
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How do you balance discussion (i.e., answering questions, debriefing, taking stories from participants) with staying on track with material—especially if it is a really good discussion?

This is such a good question. I like to do two things. Right up front, when we establish the ground rules for participation in the program, I say that I’m going to assume the role of discussion leader—for the purpose of keeping us on track so that we can get to the practical, skill-building part of the program. I’ll add that there’s often a need for folks to process the content by talking it out. To honor that, we’ve built in several small group discussions where they will have the time and space to do a lot of sharing. We do want to hear from individuals in our large-group discussions too—and that’s where I’ll keep everyone mindful of the time constraints! When we hit a point where the discussion threatens to go on too long, I’ll interrupt, acknowledge the value of what the person’s saying (e.g., “The situation you’re describing is a great example of this principle”), and add, “As the ‘time warden/discussion leader,’ let me suggest that we move on so we can get some practice using our new tools.” (Or something like that.) I find that people really appreciate it when you take a firm stand to manage the time you have together wisely and when you set things up at the beginning so it’s safe to do so.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Candace Bertotti is a Master Trainer.
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Is it ever appropriate to move to silence?

The first question to ask yourself is, “Is this conversation crucial?” If the stakes aren’t high (someone was rude, but you’ll never see them again), emotions aren’t strong (sure you disagree, but you’re not upset or that passionate about it), or there are no opposing opinions (it may be a touchy issue, but you’re all in agreement), then silence may be an appropriate course of action. That said, know that your silence communicates something, and by not speaking up, you inherently give other people the power to determine your meaning rather than stating it clearly yourself.

If the conversation is crucial, then what?

If you find that your motive for speaking up is not healthy, your negative emotions are controlling you, you lack respect for someone, and/or you don’t feel safe, it may be appropriate to move to silence—but only temporarily while you take a quick step back. Be careful not to use this “pause” as an excuse to sweep the problem under the rug or venture down a road of paralyzing analysis and unending preparation. Taking an hour or two to collect your thoughts, connecting to a healthy motive, finding a way to respect the other person’s dignity, and/or finding a private space to talk can make a big difference. Your opinion that someone else is an idiot is better left unsaid. Starting a dialogue about working better together with that same person in a private, safe space is essential.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
 

David Maxfield is coauthor of two bestselling books, Change Anything and Influencer.

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This question was first asked on our LinkedIn Training Community. To Join visit us on LinkedIn.
How can I measure the ROI of a VitalSmarts training?

The challenge with any kind of skills training is that people can learn the skills, but then either fail to use them or use them in areas that don’t produce a return on the organization’s investment. For example, a participant might use the skills to save his/her marriage, jumpstart his/her career, mend a broken relationship at work, or resolve a long-standing customer problem. These are all positive outcomes, but they may or may not produce a return for the organization. This post is designed to show practitioners how to develop measuring and implementation tools that make sure their training results in significant returns.

1. Identify Crucial Moments, Failure Modes, and the Costs of Failing. Conduct an organizational assessment to identify leverage points where improvements lead to bottom-line payoffs. In addition, get a clear picture of what failure looks like in these crucial moments, and what it costs.

Example. We are working with a joint venture between two Fortune 500 firms. Their collaboration has great potential, but they’ve also identified six Crucial Moments when their teams tend to fail. Below are three of these six Crucial Moments.

• Absence of Move to Action (lack of ownership and follow up). This crucial moment happens when one party believes they have a commitment from the other party to take action, but then they don’t see the action being taken. Sometimes there is ambiguity over who owns the task or has responsibility for executing it. Other times there are disagreements about the priority of the task, the timeline for the task, the resources that will be put toward the task, etc. In summary, people are not seeing the cooperation and responsiveness they expected.
• Willingness to Increase Shared Pool of Meaning (Trust and Humility). This crucial moment happens when people begin to suspect they are being given a “sugar-coated” version of the truth. Often they believe others are hiding bad news from them, or that others are overly focused on protecting their reputations.  In summary, people are beginning to question whether they are getting the full truth. They want the good, the bad, and the ugly, and they don’t’ think they are getting it.
• Unwillingness to budge on requirements. This crucial moment happens when the business or the project is unwilling to budge on requirements or timeline when more obstacles or difficulties are encountered than were assumed during initial scope.

In this particular case, the typical Failure Mode is silence followed by violence. People build up grudges for several weeks, often until a key milestone is missed, and then launch a round of blame directed at their business partner.

Measurement. We measure these Crucial Moments along four dimensions: frequency, severity, dialogue, and solvability. We ask participants how often they find themselves in each of these Crucial Moments; how costly the Failure Mode is when it happens; how well participants engage in frank, honest, dialogue during each Crucial Moment; and how quickly and successfully they solve the problem.

Our expectation is that the frequency and severity of the Crucial Moments won’t change. They are a function of working in a tough environment. But we expect dramatic improvements in dialogue and solvability. In other words, problems still happen, but now people solve them quickly and successfully.

2. Train to the Crucial Moments. If you haven’t identified high-leverage Crucial Moments, then participants will select their own targets—based on what they care about most. While their targets may produce excellent returns for the organization, they are usually too varied to accurately measure.

Instead, identify Crucial Moments and then use the applications and contracts in the training to focus on these moments. Make sure participants practice the skills to solve the problems you have identified as highest leverage. Of course, participants will still use the skills to improve their marriages and get their kids to complete their homework, but there will be a much better chance they will also use the skills to create a return for the organization.

Measurement. Build assessment points into the training. We measure participants’ efficacy expectations—their confidence that they can use the skills to solve the problems described in the Crucial Moments. For example, “How confident are you that you can use these skills to solve XXX when it happens?”

3. Employ all Six Sources. Often, training is the final puzzle piece that makes change happen. These are cases where the organization has built alignment around the need for change, and has removed the barriers to change, so that individual skill building is all that’s left to do.

But, other times, training is relied upon as silver-bullet solution to a problem that requires more than individual ability. Make an honest assessment of the non-training barriers that could prevent your training solution from working, then take action to remove these barriers.

Example. We often work with clients who need front-line employees to speak up to their managers, and who need managers to speak up to executives. We use our Influencer approach to help them discover the range of barriers—beyond training—that can prevent the honest dialogue they need. The intervention then addresses all of these barriers, often using the training as the context. For example, we might have the training led by the participants’ manager and focus the applications and contracts on speaking up to him or her.

Measurement. We work with the client to identify potential obstacles in each of the Six Sources of Influence, and then use surveys to track our progress at removing each of these obstacles.

4. Measure Return and Investment. It’s difficult to estimate returns. We focus our measurement on the Crucial Moments, and ask, “If this problem becomes one that is quickly and successfully solved, what would that be worth to your organization?” Often the benefits aren’t purely transactional; they also include benefits to the brand, to reputation, and to opportunity. And this makes them a bit subjective.

Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Get the best estimate of dollar returns that you can. Involve multiple stakeholders and combine their estimates.
Investments are somewhat easier to measure. We usually include the costs of the training, of the time spent by trainers and participants, and any travel included. When a Six Source approach is used, then we add in the costs of the various non-training solutions.