I sat in a hotel conference center where I didn’t want to be, in a room full of people I didn’t really know or care about, and a facilitator told me to look at the person to my left and tell him about a current issue at work I needed to resolve. I didn’t want to do it. The person to my left was annoying and all too happy to accommodate the facilitator. I was grumpy when I told him about my issue, and what happened next forever changed my idea of what a great training experience is.
Engagement Leads to a Great Training Experience
That day I learned that training is not only about lecture and rigorous note-taking. For the very first time, I learned that engaging with the materials and my colleagues gave me a training experience I could take with me permanently. I had a facilitator who did more than speak at me, she facilitated and eight-hour session of discovery and team development. I had worked with this team for years, and we had never established this rapport!
Training as a Career
At the end of the session, the facilitator asked me if I had ever considered a career in training. Although I was facilitating training at that conference the next day, I hadn’t considered it as a career. Well, at least not yet. By the end of that week, I had approached the training department and discussed my potential contributions to their team. Before the year was over, I worked for them.
As we wind down our year at Endurance Learning, I think it is important to remember a great training experience as a participant.
What can you point to as an example of a great training experience? What did it lead to? Let’s talk about it in the comments.
