This Is How Impact Factory Creates Effective Training

Business, Communication.

What sort of training is most effective? - organisations are turning more and more to external training companies to develop the' soft' skills of their staff. At Impact Factory we have evolved a way of working with our clients which produces truly effective training programmes that take into account different and changing needs all the way from the briefing process right through to the delivery of the training itself, and beyond. With so much expertise available what do people need to look for to get the best from the training they buy in?

There are three stages that go into the creation and delivery of effective training: it has to be specific to an organisation, the group of people to whom the training is available and most importantly the group to whom the training is delivered. - there must be a good initial briefing reflected back to the client in order to ensure that the objectives are understood. Here' s how we see these three objectives broken down. The more detail the better, so that everyone is clear how the training will fit into the goals of the company. There should be a period of consultation with the client and prospective participants whilst the training is being designed. Companies who go to the trouble of providing well - detailed briefs, should be presented with something better than' off the shelf' courses by the training provider. This is to ensure that there are a number of different perspectives heard, which can be taken into account when creating the training.

Now most really good training companies achieve these first two objectives. - input from a variety of people helps present a broad picture. It' s the third objective, that truly sets, however excellent training apart from the good. In the same way that training companies can provide off the shelf programmes, so trainers can deliver courses in a proscriptive and inflexible way. It is the function of the trainer in the room when the training is delivered. In other words, they may be good trainers, but they follow their training manuals step - by - step even when something unplanned would be more appropriate. Beyond that, Impact Factory trainers, however are rigorously trained to be able to create, develop and modify these processes to fit the needs of the people on the day.

Every Impact Factory training ever designed has a clear set of objectives and a manual which will include a series of processes, exercises and games to fulfil those objectives. - for instance, after a series of tried and true communication exercises there might be a session given in the manual only as" an hour on added value" . That level of flexibility keeps every training session we run alive and relevant. The processes for this session would be developed by the trainer based on the dynamic of the group of people in the room and what would most benefit them. Here' s an example. There were eighteen people who were giving up their Saturday just before Christmas. We ran a Team Event for a group of 18 software support and customer service staff.

We had created a one - day programme for them to include' team building' , creativity and a look at how the future of this department might develop. - this resulted in a process where three natural teams, within the department, or groups created a tongue in cheek political manifesto for running the department. They clearly said at the beginning of the day that they wanted' fun' , but didn' t want any' role play' , but they also clearly demonstrated during the day a desire and ability to play hard and well. It was then followed by a party political gathering where each group electioneered, bargained and generally, made promises tried to get the others to vote for them. This approach may look dangerous and cavalier at first glance. It was tremendous fun, helped people deal with serious issues of agreements between the groups, but most important of all, suited this group of people down to the ground. Indeed, if attempted by untrained people it can easily turn into a disaster.

Impact Factory trainers work hard to give participants a relevant experience as opposed to just delivering a training well. - however, when run by experts it is very safe, very effective and produces comments like" this is the best training i have ever done" . Our skill is in providing the appropriate training to fit the group of people who are there at the time. The experience is what is important. When you think about it, if we took this training, which was developed on - the - spot for these software people, and made a reluctant, non - playful group go through the same process it would not produce the same result. When you look at the reason that role - play is so universally disliked it' s because people have had, or fear they will have, a difficult or humiliating experience. We look for ways to introduce' real life re - enactments' using situations or examples brought in by participants.

Impact Factory trainers and trainings don' t use set piece role - plays or inflict role - plays on unwilling people. - they may well end up' playing them out' , but are likely to say afterwards things like' how did they get us to do that? '. Our trainers will always deal with the experience that people are having rather than trying to give people the experience the manual says they are supposed to have. This way of working is entirely dependant on the ability of the trainer in the room being able to assess the people, create the processes and' bounce' the participants into willingly taking part. This is how Impact Factory creates effective training.