Waving your wand about – it’s not all Quidditch you know…
Trainers are asked to be the wearers of many hats when they are asked to deliver learning – they need to be an excellent presenter, a great facilitator, superb communicator, time manager &, of course, a subject matter expert.
They are also, often, asked to be magicians.
Any learning programme is designed to be delivered over a particular timescale – this is carefully thought out and mapped to ensure that the content is delivered in a logical process, with sufficient time to cover the topics interactively & allow for regular breaks.
So why, oh why am I always being asked to fit a quart into a pint pot??!!
First of all, let me put the trainers perspective out here – being asked to present 2 days of content in 1 for example is pretty hard work – all your lesson plans need to be amended, your exercises changed, your presentation altered, and, in some cases the delegate materials too. Your carefully planned course content & learning flow is now entirely jiggered about & you are up against it from the get go. Add to that the often asked ‘can we have a short lunch break to finish early’ scenario (funnily enough, this happens most on a Friday……….), and you are also then being asked to deliver without a proper break and opportunity to review how the morning has gone and revise/adapt what you need to cover in the afternoon.
Professional trainers are exactly that – professional – but this is often unappreciated by clients & delegates alike.
Asking learning providers to condense content is perfectly legitimate – particularly if you are working within strict budget constraints and need to maximise a learning budget. Completely understandable, workable & sensible.
But…..when your provider advises you on suitable content to fit your requirement (because you work in partnership with them don’t you?), they are not suggesting topics & timescales for the fun of it. They are trying (or they should be) to find the best solution they can to your learning needs whilst making sure that the trainers they are supplying to you are being treated appropriately so they can do the best job they can for you.
We don’t make it up as we go along.
So the next time you ask for content to be condensed, course timings to be changed, breaks to be shortened & still expect all your learners expectations to be met, your learning objectives to be covered & learning retention to be checked & monitored, please remember that a lot of work has to go into this to make it possible.
We don’t just wave a magic wand and see it all happen instantly.
We leave that up to Harry Potter and his gang.