How To Prepare To Facilitate Training

The Importance of Previewing Training Venues

It could have been a disaster. One of my best practices when training in a new venue is constantly previewing the facility. Weird room configurations, problems with the equipment syncing, and a host of other issues can all be resolved much more calmly the day before than on the actual training day. That often means when flying to a different location, I take a flight earlier in the day to check out space during working hours.

That’s exactly what I intended to do during a recent training in Southern California. I was planning on checking out space, but my colleagues convinced me it was not necessary for two legitimate reasons. The training was an hour away from where I was staying, and it would be a long commute. More convincingly, this was technically not an unknown facility.

The California location has similar offices throughout the country. One of the benefits of using this particular space is that we had been in their offices in other cities, knew the quality of the facility, and were familiar with all the amenities. So, there shouldn’t have been a problem, and I skipped my preview.

That was a huge mistake. On the day of the training, I put the address of the building into my GPS. When my computer-generated navigator said, “Your destination is on the right,” I gasped. What I saw was a building enveloped in black construction wrap. It didn’t look like it was inhabited.

I found a parking space, double-checked the address, and it was the address I had been given. Still believing there was a mega mistake, I googled the facility and was reassured that it was the correct building.

Had I followed my advice, I could have avoided hyper-ventilating an hour before starting a workshop. I could have also emailed all the participants, alerting them to the bizarre-looking building hosting the training. Because I didn’t preview the building, none of that was possible. I started the training feeling rattled, and we had to start late because others also struggled with finding the building.

Murphy’s Law in Training

It is fast becoming my favorite Murphy’s Law story. Get a group of trainers together, and sooner or later, the conversations will center on their near disasters—those pieces of training that could have gone wrong if they hadn’t had their training emergency kit to save the day.

Anyone who has trained more than three times has probably experienced Murphy’s Law – what can go wrong will probably go wrong. The key is to realize Murphy’s Law will happen more often than not and be prepared with a Trainer’s Emergency Kit when Murphy raises her sarcastic head.

Essential Items in a Trainer’s Emergency Kit

An extension cord is one of the favorite items in trainer Delphine Black’s emergency kit. It saved the day the time she was teaching a presentation skills workshop with eight participants. For whatever reason, the client gave her a room that seated 150. Unless Delphene did some major rearranging, the space would be too intimidating for the group. And the last emotion you want people to practice their presentation skills is to feel intimate.

The solution was to move lots of furniture around to make it workable for a small group. But once she did that, she had different problems – the new furniture arrangement was far away from a power source for the projector, computer, and video camera. It was only because Delphene always carried an extension cord that she could conduct the class in the most conducive arrangement for the environment she was given.

Gaffer Tape

When you think about an extension cord, you also want to think of gaffer tape to ensure that no one trips over the cords that you connect to it. Why gaffer tape instead of duct tape?

“Typically made from vinyl or sturdy, durable cotton cloth, this tape is pressure-sensitive, and once it has been pressed into place, it produces a strong adhesive bond. This incredible tape differs from other strong, industrial tapes like duct tape. Its adhesive is a synthetic, petroleum-based substance instead of an adhesive made from natural rubber. Unlike duct tape that can be hard to remove, this unique synthetic adhesive provides for clean removal.” – Jennifer’s Blog

Index Cards

Anne Harlow’s favorite item in her emergency kit is her index cards. She has multiple uses for them. For example, “Instead of having people count off for an impromptu table team activity, I have numbers pre-written on cards and hand them out. It saves time and confusion.”

She also uses the cards to break the silence with a group that is not interacting or participating. She writes questions or answers on the cards and then has participants pick one.

In classes where everyone has to present or role-play, she writes numbers on the cards and then has participants pick a card. They present when their number is up.

International Training Essentials

For Donna Steffey, who does a great deal of international training, her favorite item is her neck pillow, “so I can sleep anywhere.” She also always carries a printed version of her slides, and a thumb drive with the presentation even if she is using her computer and the presentation has been downloaded. And, she always travels with toys for the group.

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