Train the Trainer — be your own Trainer
At the end of each month, we have started to dedicate a chunk of our Friday to training ourselves. This new initiative and self- led learning spot has yielded some thoroughly interesting results. Granted we are blessed that our COO is a qualified teacher with a Masters in education and has over 2 decades of training experience — shout out to Kevin. But we are fast discovering that rather than rushing to spend money and effort bringing in external trainers, it has been far more rewarding to train ourselves internally. To the extent that our COO is now conducting Train the Trainer modules and will be training any of us (as well as clients) that wish to also learn this valuable craft. Starting with myself, this experience piqued my interest and I will soon be starting with him. The idea of pooling our talents and interests into some kind of knowledge library that we can pass on to others is really exhilarating.
As professionals and in our personal lives we each have different passions and interests and often with the fast pace of work we do not get to discuss or really highlight each other’s individual talents. By offering up the chance to train in our specialty, we now have the ability to do this. So while our Antea Fotiou has a penchant for CSR and my jam is well-being and coaching, we have quite a tool kit of abilities and experiences that we can now share as well as access.
A short burst of learning as an entire team, even if it is refresher training once a month, is invigorating and bonding. It crosses ranks and age differences and reminds us all that learning is indeed life-long and one must never assume to know it all.
What we discovered is that in-house training is not only a great teambuilding event but also very empowering for the whole company. There is a different dynamic when the trainer is one of your own. It encourages team members to really consider their learning opportunities within their organization and show cases their employer as an invested employer in their learning and development. Obviously there will always be specialist training you may have to buy in but as far as time and willingness allow, offer the opportunities internally before rushing out externally if it is a subject matter that already touches on your team’s existing talents.
Wherever you are on your journey or indeed on the globe, for any info on any of our additional HR services such as the Train the Trainer modules with Kevin, hit me up for a chat.
