Training 2.0: Upgrade Your Workshops with These 10 Tools & Tricks

The competitive labor market is driving organizations to find new and innovative solutions for up-skilling their existing workforce. Training programs that employ virtual reality and gamification are especially appealing. While these are exciting alternatives to traditional instructor-led training (ILT), they can be over-complicated and expensive. Before you invest in the latest trend, check out these 10 simple tools and tips to help you create more engaging training experiences.

1.) Vegas Rules. Make people comfortable enough to share their greatest aspirations — and frustrations — by establishing confidentiality from the get-go. What happens in training stays in training.

2.) Play-Doh, Pipe Cleaners and LEGOs. Fidgeting helps us focus. Provide quiet distractions for learners to play with while they’re thinking. Given the option to occupy their floating attention by creating play-doh snakes, pipe cleaner bracelets and LEGO tech stacks for apps, they’re less likely to reach for their phones.

3.) Notebooks. Studies show that people who take notes by hand learn more than people who type notes on a laptop. Provide notebooks for participants to collect their learnings and musings.

4.) Parking Lot. Stay on track by moving off-topic questions and discussions to a parking lot. We ask learners to record these worthwhile thoughts on a post-it note and stick them on a designated poster so we can revisit them at a later time.

5.) Snacks. People get peckish. Fuel their learning by providing hearty, healthy snacks all-day long. Fresh fruit, protein bars and even individually wrapped bite-size chocolates are all good options.

6.) Dice. Before asking participants to do a teach-back or report out, have each person at the table roll the die and ask the person who rolled the highest (or the lowest) to do the talking. This is a great way to make sure the extroverts don’t dominate the conversation.

7.) Nametags. Increase engagement by helping everyone call each other by name. Table tents work well, but nametags are usually even better, especially if activities will require your learners to move around the room.

8.) Playing Cards. Playing cards offer a couple of ways to divide people into groups so everyone gets an opportunity to work with different people throughout the day. Divide them by numbers: “All the 10s are at the table in the back,” or by suit, “The spades should gather by the couches.”

9.) A Big Clock. Position a large clock somewhere visible to facilitators, so you can stay on schedule without having to look at your watch or phone.

10.) Code Word. It’s way too easy to resort to jargon when you’re trying to explain complicated concepts. Before the training begins, get everyone to agree on a code word that can serve as a jargon alarm. People are more willing to yell out “Macintosh” or “Purple” than to raise their hand to say, “I don’t understand. What does that mean?” Chances are if one person is confused, others are, too.

Kate Cooper leads Reverb, SingleStone’s training brand. Reverb partners with clients to create custom training experiences.