It doesn’t matter whether “training” appears in your job description or not. Love it or hate it, you have just been made responsible for introducing some new stuff to your fellow employees.

Naturally you want to do a good job. And you genuinely want to help your colleagues succeed.

Furthermore, you know that it takes very nearly the same amount of effort to create a dull, mediocre training as it does to create something powerful. So why not create something with real impact?

So you start at the end result -- when the participants are back on the job.

Imagine you are a fly on the wall watching two people going about their work. One of them took the training you created. The other did not.

From your perspective as a fly on the wall, how do you determine which is which?

Remember, a fly can’t read minds. The only way the fly can determine whether someone knows something is by observing their behavior.

What is the trained employee doing that the untrained one is not? What are the specific actions you see as this fly one the wall that lead you to conclude Jose took the training, and Jane did not?

Incidentally, while true-false questions and matching games are common in training, you may notice a conspicuous absence of these in the day-to-day work of Jose and Jane. “Proof” that they know something new shows up in their actions.

So what are the implications of these imagined observations for the training you are about to put together?

1) Start by thinking through what participants need to DO rather than what they need to know.
2) Create exercises or practice scenarios that imitate as closely as possible what participants should be doing back on the job.
3) NOW -- and only now -- you are ready to identify what participants will need to know in order to do the activities you designed.

Here's alist of questionsto help you dig down to the specifics of what participants need to DO back on the job.

When they take your training, your participants will be impressed at the value of what you provided. But if your workplace is accustomed to lecture and “death by PowerPoint,” the manager requesting the training might not be so impressed by the early drafts.

Next time: How to negotiate with the manager so that everybody wins.

What do you think we were hoping you would do as a result of reading this post? What would a fly on the wall observe watching you? Let us know in the comments!