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Stories, Anecdotes and all that

 Until a few years back, a training could be structured like a movie. Start with some humour or entry. Share an anecdote, share some facts, quote CEOs, make a couple of discussions, encourage participation and engagement and boom you are home as a trainer. 

Give or take there are many variations of this method. You can add a dash of inspiration, razzmatazz, charisma, gift-of-the-gab - none of these make the training stick. Yes, it is great engagement scores, but little more than that. 

For a training to stick - the audience has to do the difficult work. And as learning facilitator, knowing well that they will go outside and forget it, you need to plan to bring them back in and practice. Many times. And then measure them on the practice or on the outcome that you expect or on the ultimate business outcome. Rinse repeat. 

As you do this a few times, people in the company/cohort, realise that this is the way things are learnt, behaviour is changed and people grow and companies progress. Yes, each of them is a landmine in itself, but avoid all of these and your training program wins. 

So, if you are attending a training that is structured with anecdotes and Steve Jobs did that and this, consider yourself shortchanged. 

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