Title: Ask Bob Pike
Time: Tuesday, September 13th at 9:55am Eastern
Listening method: Phone + Web Simulcast
To attend, visit:
http://attendthisevent.com/?eventID=14701017

What’s one question you’d like to ask about getting employees more engaged at work while also increasing your enjoyment of what you do? Send me your question at BPike@BobPikeGroup.com.  I’ll answer the top 10 questions submitted in a webinar on Monday, September 13 at 9:55 a.m. EST.  With a $95 registration fee, it is free to current subscribers of Creative Training Techniques newsletter. Details are available on the membership website: CreativeTrainingTech.com.

If you are not a current subscriber, you can either renew your subscription for $120 a year here or sign up here  and pay the $95 fee for this webinar. You can pay for the webinar by clicking the button below.

1. Covering Too Much Information

This is when we want the audience to know everything we know and are determined to share with them all knowledge recorded since the invention of language. To avoid being the Person Who Knew Too Much:

• Limit the quantity of information. Only cover three key points per hour.
• Concentrate on the quality of your information and include reinforcement exercises.
• Mind Map/Review the key points of your training.

2. Leaving Out Emotion

Don’t get caught in the all-business trap of impersonality. This is a sure-fire way to bore. Instead:

• Be sure to include your passions, frustrations, hopes, dreams, setbacks.
• Share your experiences first. Don’t be too technical.

3. Treating Every Audience the Same

Many trainers don’t take the time to get to know their audience. This is not to say you should spend the first half-day of every training as if you’re with good friends in your neighborhood café, but you should allot a few minutes each day to something other than content. Gain insight into the “personality” of your audience. Try to:

• Customize your presentations, but remember that you can’t be all things to all people.
• Meet and chat with your participants before and after the presentation.

4. Inadequate Preparation

No rehearsal, no practice, no supportive smiley faces on the overhead sheets. Trainers striving to be the best take the time—ahead of time—to prepare for their trainings. Of the total time you spend as a trainer, 80% should be spent preparing your presentation and 20% in front of your audience. Remember to:

• Have the room ready on time—be ready 20 minutes before the workshop begins.
• Keep the room between 69–71 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Be current.
• Know your presentation so your notes are checkpoints, not scripts.
• Know where everything is, from your airplane tickets to your paper clips.

5. Stealing Time

This sin covers a wide range of time-related mistakes such as glancing at your wrist watch, not stopping after key points to allow time for the audience to process, finishing late, and poor pacing. To avoid this sin, be sure to:

• Leave your watch at home, in your pocket, or in your purse.
• Stop to let your audience process what you’ve taught them.
• Finish on time.
• Practice your pacing during rehearsal

6. Distracting Habits

The smallest thing, be it a repeated word, a habitual gesture, or a speech pattern, can be a training killer. If you are aware of the things you do that drive your participants crazy, you can fix every single one of them. To cure yourself:

• Watch yourself on video tape.
• Practice in front of the mirror.
• Cultivate honest reviews of your performance.
• Be open to constructive criticism.

7. Lacking Enthusiasm

When people do what they love, they should be enthusiastic, right? In the business of training, this is particularly important. Because so much of what the audience takes away from a training rests squarely on the performance of the trainer, and because enthusiasm energizes and motivates, the best trainers are also the most enthusiastic. To be your best:

• Welcome participants to the training.
• Avoid the monotone: Make your voice come alive!
• Err on the side of sincerity.

8. Flouting Protocol

Despite the inevitably professional nature of a training, whether in the spheres of business, education, or another environment, there still exists the sin of non-professionalism. This can include negativity, swearing, or inappropriate attire. Sticking to protocol requires:

• Keeping it positive and respectful—no put downs.
• Saying something good or saying nothing at all.
• Using positive language—don’t use vulgarity, profanity, or racist or sexist remarks.

9. Not Keeping Your Agreements

This is as simple as saying what you mean and meaning what you say. If you don’t cover the material you promise, break for lunch a half-hour late, or keep participants late because you weren’t prepared, you will not be viewed as a top trainer. To keep your agreements:

• Keep a good, learning-friendly schedule.
• Break for lunch on time.
• End the day on time, or even a few minutes early.
• Treat your participants’ time as if it were your own.

Laurie Kagan

Reprinted with permission from Kagan Online Magazine from Kagan Publishing and Professional Development. www.KaganOnline.com

I got up at 5 a.m. to have FUN! At 6 a.m., I did a Skype video call to the Intercontinental Hotel in Tokyo, Japan where the launch party for the Japanese version of The Fun Minute Manager was being held. (The English version of the book I co-authored with John Newstrom and Robert Ford was published last summer. Now, just a year later, the Japanese version was published by the Japan Management Association!) For almost 45 minutes, we had a lively dialogue around 10 of the ways we could put more fun in the work place, while reducing stress and improving productivity. All of these were from chapter four in the book.

Next was the question and answer period. The two questions they asked were: where are you right now – at home or at the office?  They could see books and framed golf objects in the background on my side of the video.  The other question was: Can you name all of your grandchildren? (One of the 10 ways to add fun in the workplace is the recognition of personal milestones. I mentioned that our 21^st grandchild had just been born (Kennedy Grace Davis) and  grandchildren 22 and 23 were due in November and March. I said I could, but not to ask me all the birthdays! I’d never remember those without the excel spreadsheet my daughter Liz put together with all the key family dates: births, anniversaries, etc. Seldom during a Q&A period am I asked personal questions. I later found out why.

After the call was over, I got an email from Ayako Nakamura, our Japan licensee, who had put together the event and who had overseen the translation of the book. She said in part:

Thank you so much for being with us today. It was a great time with you and we enjoyed talking to you and seeing you via Skype. It also helped increase my credibility for what I do.

I saw they were impressed by you, who you are, and how you have “fun at work” yourself. It might seem unusual for you to be asked such personal questions, but this is a great sign. They wanted to ask those questions because they wanted to get to know you more personally – which is critical in the Japanese culture to build relationship.

Relationship – it is crucial to creating a great place to work, to increasing productivity and reducing stress, and to increasing the impact of everything we do. It is also critical to participant-centered training programs.  Since training is a process, not an event, it is important to help participants build connections with one another that will last beyond the class. Do you want to break down barriers in an organization?  One way is to help people see each other as people, rather than simply their roles within the organization.

I finished the session by asking Ayako to get another translator for a minute. Then, through that translator, I told the group how grateful I was for all the work Ayako had done not just with getting the book translated and published, but for all the work she is doing in Japan helping Japanese companies utilize creative training techniques to develop participant-centered training.

William James, the American psychologist, said the greatest need of every human being is the need for appreciation. Who will you show appreciation to this week – both in your personal life and your professional life?  Think about it – and then take action. Show appreciation today!

Until next month – add value and make a difference!!

Bob Pike

P.S. What’s one question you’d like to ask about this article? Send me your question at BPike@BobPikeGroup.com.  I’ll answer the top 10 questions submitted in a webinar on Monday, September 13.  With a $95 registration fee, it is free to subscribers. Details are available on the membership website: CreativeTrainingTech.com.

How do I know? Throughout the convention, I had various people come up to me and tell me they had been in a program I led three years ago, five years ago, and one even said 20 years ago. Each of them said something like, “That training changed my life.” Now most of the time when someone says that I simply respond, “Thank you very much.” This time, for some reason, I asked, “How?” And the responses were eye opening.

One person said it changed their focus. Instead of focusing on the end-of-course evaluations, the focus shifted to what each participant took away and ensuring that they had an action plan. Another said they still remembered the phrase, “Just because I said it, doesn’t mean you learned it.” As a result they put more focus on having participants revisit key content to ensure that it moved from short-term memory to long-term memory.

Nice feedback to receive to be sure, but certainly not of the magnitude to warrant the comment, “That training changed my life.” Right? Wrong. Each person went on to share with me, in one way or another, that training had become their profession as a result. They saw they could really make a difference by helping people develop skills and gain knowledge. And that they could see results on the job after the class, not just receive wonderful scores on end-of-course evaluations.

Several all said they had used what they learned in doing volunteer training for nonprofits and in teaching their Sunday school classes. Lives were being touched and transformed because their professional skills transcended the workplace.

And that’s why we create this newsletter content each month–to empower and equip each of you to get results in the training that you do. And I hope we’re succeeding. Until next month–add value and make a difference!

By Bob Pike

Bob Pike

On the Thursday before the event, my guest had to drop out because of a family conflict. To most golfers, this may not sound like a major problem except that a substitute has to have an established handicap and be available to play for three straight days on seven days notice.

Others might say that I should just withdraw and play next year. However, the waitlist of members wanting to get into the event is so long I might be in my 80s before I got in the event again.

I think there is application here to both training and to life. Both are messy. You can plan and prepare – be ready to deliver that perfect program – and suddenly you’re thrown a curve ball. Materials don’t show up, equipment doesn’t work, participants drop out or send substitutes you didn’t know about.

What we need to be able to do is to take it all in stride. And how do you do that? Here’s some tips that have helped me over the years:

1. Don’t expect perfect. Expect the unexpected. Then if it happens you’re less surprised.

2. Take a deep breath and think. Stop right now and do nothing for 15 seconds. It seems like a long time, doesn’t it? You can think of a number of alternatives to any situation in a couple of minutes if you’ll simply focus and give yourself the time to think.

3. Act. Not to decide is to decide. Taking any action at all can allow you to evaluate whether you’re taking a step in the right direction – or not. It is easier to adjust when you have momentum than when you’re at a standstill. Ask any ship’s captain or a child trying to balance on a still bicycle.

So back to Hazeltine. On less than a week’s notice, air travel is cost-prohibitive. Most of my friends that golf have schedules as busy as mine. So I reasoned that it would have to be somebody in town.

My first choice was a buddy that had played several years before. The weekend of the Invitational was his wife’s parent’s 60^th wedding anniversary.

Then I thought of my son-in-law, Brad Pluth. As a PGA teaching professional he had a full calendar of lessons. But instead of deciding for him, I called and asked. He did some checking, rearranging, and was able to make it happen.

We had a terrific event, finished seventh out of 94 teams, and had a ball. So, write those three tips on a 3×5 card, and the next time the unexpected happens in training or in life:

1. Realize that you didn’t expect perfect – you expected the unexpected.

2. Take some time to think – don’t simply react.

3. Then act.

Until next month – add value and make a difference.

Bob Pike

Prime the Pump

Get your audience ready for your presentation with an article that is distributed by e-mail or mail beforehand or place it on participants’ chairs a page with a paragraph or two they can read as other participants come into the room. Of course, you can always start off with an opener, teambuilder, or classbuilder for creating the “Set” of the presentation.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you present the same topic to different groups, you will find that participants in different groups ask the same or similar questions. To deal with those frequently asked questions, prepare an FAQ sheet that has the questions and your response. You can distribute the FAQ sheet before the presentation or refer participants to it if the question arises: “That’s a terrific question, and one that I am commonly asked. Please refer to the FAQ sheet where I address this question in detail.”

Another way to handle those frequent questions is to address them before they are asked. “A commonly asked question is…”

Mix It Up


Variety is the spice of life and the secret ingredient for a successful presentation. If your presentation consists of lecture, lecture, and more lecture, you and your participants have a problem. You’re working too hard, and they’re learning too little. If you have a lot of information to cover, you can lecture, but throw in frequent structures for interaction and processing. Take a brain break. Watch a video clip. Have participants move. Role-play. Play a game. Wake up participants’ minds and bodies with a varied presentation that is more fun and more memorable.

Technical Difficulties and Delays


For a long time, I dragged my feet on making my presentations too reliant on technology. The reason? Just about every PowerPoint presentation I went to experienced at least some type of technical meltdown. Sometimes the problem was getting the right hookups; sometimes it was a computer glitch. You name it, I’ve seen it.

   Every good presenter needs a backup plan. Have an activity ready for participants that doesn’t require technology. Set your participants to work or discuss a topic, and you are free to solve the problem and get the presentation back on the right track.

   Also, carry a toolkit with cables, adaptors, and duct tape (of course), and know enough about computers, projectors, and sound systems that the success of your presentation isn’t completely in the hands of tech support.

Note Taking Handout


Taking notes is important for two big reasons. First, by writing down what they hear or see, participants are writing the message to their minds in another format. Second, once the presentation is long over, participants have their notes to refer to, aiding with implementation.

   My favorite way to encourage note taking is to provide a handout. The handout has enough information to organize the notes for participants so they don’t have to write every word you say, but at the same time, it is not completely filled-out. Participants still complete missing key information.

The Big Picture


People have different learning styles. Some are perfectly content jumping from detail, to detail, to detail. Other learners are more global and have a difficult time processing the details if they don’t know how the details relate to the big picture.

   There are three times during the presentation that are ideal to paint the big picture. First, and most importantly, is right at the outset. Describe the theme, agenda, or schedule and be explicit about how the information ties together. Next, after an activity or presenting information, have participants process the relationship between the information presented and the big picture: “How does X relate to Y?” And finally, at the end of the presentation, connect the dots again. You can verbally summarize the content, but even better yet, have participants do a Think-Write-RoundRobin, summarizing the presentation: Everyone thinks about it, writes their own summary, then shares it in turn with teammates.

Get Emotional


If you want your message to be memorable, make your participants feel. Emotions influence what we pay attention to. So get your participants to feel happy, sad, surprised, mad, curious, proud, appreciative, courageous, hopeful, or amused. Use stories, jokes, video clips, and anecdotes to evoke a strong emotional response to reinforce your message.

Be Enthusiastic


You’re the presenter. If you’re not excited about the subject of your presentation, then why should your participants be excited? There is obviously good reason you’re presenting. Either you really like the subject, you really know it, or both. Share with your participants what intrigues you, what you find fascinating, what surprises you.

This article first appeared in the Kagan Online Magazine, a free resource for teachers and trainers. Laurie Kagan is an international presenter and author of 12 books including The Dynamic Trainer.

How do managers view training right now? Is training a punishment? (You’re doing a lousy job – I’m sending you to training!) Is it a reward? (You’re doing a great job – I’m sending you to training!) Or is it an investment in skills and knowledge to help improve performance? Do we even know?  What are you doing right now to ensure that managers view training as an investment, not a cost?  As an integral part of the job – not an interruption?

How are participants prepared to attend a training program? Are they simply sent?  Do they have a course outline?  Do they understand the objectives?  Do managers sit down with employees and explain why the training is important both for the participant and the team? Do they set personal learning goals before they attend the program?

What happens during the program to get participants ready to use what they learned back on the job? Is there skills practice so they get comfortable applying the knowledge and using the skills? Is there reflection time so participants can think about what they’ve learned and how they can apply it to their jobs? Is there time for action planning? Do we have participants think about the barriers they might face so that they can problem solve during class in order to improve transfer back home? Do we help them get accountability partners from within the class so they can support each other for the first 90 days after the class?

What is the environment like when participants return to their jobs after the training? Is the manager supportive? Does the manager set up a post training appointment to hear about what the participant learned and review the 30-, 60-, 90-day action plan for applying the skills and knowledge to the job? How about coworkers? Are they supportive? Is there time allowed for the learner to apply the skills and use the knowledge?

All of this is common sense, but it does not make it common practice. But here’s my suggestion for getting started.  Take one program and implement one thing from each of the four areas above to improve the transfer of training. Track it, get feedback – and then improve the next time.

Until next month – add value and make a difference.

Replace the dreaded roleplay in training class. Have them make a comic to demonstrate the action.

@jmarrapodi

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