Everyone who has ever trained or educated fellow humans, whether at work, in seminars, in associations, or for civic groups, has stories to share. In fact, anyone who's ever attended a training session has stories to share. I have a few that still make me laugh every time I tell them. Here's one of them.
If I share mine, will you share yours? Send email, respond in "comments" below, or post in the HR Forum.
Picture me in my mid-thirties having just started my own business; I had taught university and adult education classes, but I had never trained an employee group. My friend, Leslie Charles, subcontracted work with a civil service department to me to help get me started.
I arrived at the top floor of a government building to find a glorious view out over a river from floor to ceiling windows - and the entire classroom was oriented so the attendees could look out the windows all day. With no hesitation, I spent the first half hour moving ever chair in the room. I did not plan to compete for attention with the view, the seagulls, and helicopters taking off from nearby rooftop platforms.
People straggled in to the session that was about self-image and self-respect. At ten minutes past the starting time, the room was half full but people were still arriving and disrupting. To pass a few minutes, and "make friends" with my audience, I had been greeting attendees.
Then, I started the session with a question, warned by other trainers who had worked with this group, to get it over with on the front end. "How many of you are here under duress?" Every single hand in the room went up - all 45 of them.
Dumbfounded, I headed to the hall to get a drink of water and to just catch my breath for a minute. (Truth told, I was trying to figure out what to do next because the audience was really looking at me with downright hostility.)
Tap, tap, tap, on my shoulder. One of the attendees - the brave one - had come out into the hall. She looked at me expectantly, and asked, "We'd like to know if you're going to come back in the room." Pause, pause, pause; I'll never forget her gleeful, "we-won" tone: "Because if you're not," she said, "we're going to leave."
The story had a happy ending, however. I did go back in, told them all they had scared me to death, and that I was a new trainer. I asked them to make the day a positive experience just for themselves, to choose to get something out of the time they were investing.
We did fun, on-topic ice breakers and, as the day passed, you could feel the tension in the room slip away. The evaluations were great and I spent several years training state and federal employees, as a portion of my consulting work.
Image © Marcin Balcerzak
HR Carnival Is New
Writing as the HR Maven, Deirdre Honner is hosting the newest Carnival of Human Resources. Some terrific posts this week, and I recommend you take a look. Some of the best HR and management writers online contribute to the Carnival, so it's worth your reading time.
Plus, the HR Maven lives in my state and who can resist posts named: Carrots Suck, Give me Bacon or a blog called HR Gumbo - wish I'd thought of that one, as a hobby cook? (Makes me hungry just thinking about them.)
Image Copyright Mark Tantrum
More About Training
Before my first training session, I practiced and timed my presentation so I was sure I could present the material in the time allotted and have plenty of time for employee participation. About halfway through my material, I looked at the clock and saw that it was 2:00…time to let the students get back to work. I still had a lot of important information to cover so I put my presentation in overdrive, talking as fast as I could and leaving out the rest of the activities I planned. Flustered, I wrapped up, apologizing for keeping them over, even though they didn’t seem to be in a hurry. Later when I was telling my supervisor what happened, he said, “I thought you had until 2:30?” I had gotten confused about the end time and let them go after only 30 minutes instead of one hour.