Awesome Training Experience!
A few months ago, Becky (our corporate trainer) asked if I wanted to go to an outside training class with her on employee coaching. Since my goal this year is to develop better relationships with my employees and provide them with opportunities to expand their skills, I jumped at the chance.
The program was done by InsideOut Development. The material is copyrighted so I won't go into any details that aren't on their website but we covered how to prepare for difficult conversations and how to coach employees.
I spent the whole day with Human Resource people which was a bit different for me. They're much more touchy feely and I'm much more "here's how you do it so go do it". It's the difference between HR and IT, I guess.
Despite that, I had a great day!
Both Becky and I came out of the program very jazzed about bringing it back to our company. I applied the methods to several conversations with a peer and my employees in short order and Becky lobbied to get certified as a trainer so she could train other managers and supervisors in the company. She got the OK, went to a very thorough and exhausting two day class and we were good to go.
Becky set up two four hour sessions for 30 of our people and I volunteered to be her assistant. When we took the class, there was a primary trainer and another person who stayed in the back of the room, monitored and assisted in the activities. It worked well so we modeled our session on that.
Becky is so different from me. She spent hours writing up notes, bookmarking pages, rehearsing...I just went through the presentation (provided by InsideOut) and my class notes. But, we were both prepared for our tasks.
The first day was the introduction to the concepts and some role playing. I thought it went quite well. In fact, one of my peers who absolutely detests group training and activities came into my office that afternoon and said he thought it was valuable and much less painful than he thought it was going to be. If you knew this guy, you would know how big of a win that is.
The second day was focused more on dealing with difficult conversations and generated some good conversations in the group. We asked them to choose different partners to work with than the day before and I think that helped them get some new perspectives.
The role playing that day was loud and I thought that was fantastic. You could see that most people were really getting into it and that was great. Based on the feedback after the class, most people thought it was valuable and that made me feel even better about our decision to bring the program in.
The next step is a follow up to see if people are using the method, how it works for them and to check if they need some help with it. We scheduled a meeting for a month from now to see how it's all going.
Here's something I found interesting from a personal perspective. I had a ton of energy and excitement the first day and even got up before my alarm on the second day to get in the office and get started on my day. However, after we were done with the second day's class, I crashed. I was mentally and physically fatigued beyond what I think I should have been based on what I did.
I think it was a major adrenaline crash and I need a rest before I can get back effectively to my usual duties. My hat's off to teachers and trainers who do this day in and day out. Their stamina must be incredible.
The program was done by InsideOut Development. The material is copyrighted so I won't go into any details that aren't on their website but we covered how to prepare for difficult conversations and how to coach employees.
I spent the whole day with Human Resource people which was a bit different for me. They're much more touchy feely and I'm much more "here's how you do it so go do it". It's the difference between HR and IT, I guess.
Despite that, I had a great day!
Both Becky and I came out of the program very jazzed about bringing it back to our company. I applied the methods to several conversations with a peer and my employees in short order and Becky lobbied to get certified as a trainer so she could train other managers and supervisors in the company. She got the OK, went to a very thorough and exhausting two day class and we were good to go.
Becky set up two four hour sessions for 30 of our people and I volunteered to be her assistant. When we took the class, there was a primary trainer and another person who stayed in the back of the room, monitored and assisted in the activities. It worked well so we modeled our session on that.
Becky is so different from me. She spent hours writing up notes, bookmarking pages, rehearsing...I just went through the presentation (provided by InsideOut) and my class notes. But, we were both prepared for our tasks.
The first day was the introduction to the concepts and some role playing. I thought it went quite well. In fact, one of my peers who absolutely detests group training and activities came into my office that afternoon and said he thought it was valuable and much less painful than he thought it was going to be. If you knew this guy, you would know how big of a win that is.
The second day was focused more on dealing with difficult conversations and generated some good conversations in the group. We asked them to choose different partners to work with than the day before and I think that helped them get some new perspectives.
The role playing that day was loud and I thought that was fantastic. You could see that most people were really getting into it and that was great. Based on the feedback after the class, most people thought it was valuable and that made me feel even better about our decision to bring the program in.
The next step is a follow up to see if people are using the method, how it works for them and to check if they need some help with it. We scheduled a meeting for a month from now to see how it's all going.
Here's something I found interesting from a personal perspective. I had a ton of energy and excitement the first day and even got up before my alarm on the second day to get in the office and get started on my day. However, after we were done with the second day's class, I crashed. I was mentally and physically fatigued beyond what I think I should have been based on what I did.
I think it was a major adrenaline crash and I need a rest before I can get back effectively to my usual duties. My hat's off to teachers and trainers who do this day in and day out. Their stamina must be incredible.
