Sometimes when delegates on your training course are negative, disinterested or even disruptive it is often because they have been sent by their employers but are not interested in learning. It can be helpful at the beginning of the training to ask why delegates are there. You can begin to draw them in by asking them what they would like to learn or gain from being there, so they start to look at what they can actually get from the day.

Executive and senior delegates often fall into the category of not believing they need to be there. Encourage delegates to have their say about the way they’d been coerced into the training, let them tell you how busy they are and how much time this training is wasting, if they have the chance to get it off their chest they are more likely to relax and start to participate and respond to the training. Also having confided in you, you have begun to earn their trust.

If a delegate is particularly disruptive, a preferred approach is to take them aside from the rest of the group to ask them what it is that is bothering them. Tell them what you have observed (in a detached rather then accusatory way), tell them what effect it is having on the group and what change would be preferred. You could apologise for doing anything that could have upset them, and say that you wouldn’t like the rest of the group to suffer as a result. Tell them if they are still unhappy you would like them to tell you privately at the end of the course so that you can take their suggestions on board.
Setting reasonable ground rules can help such as listening to the contributions of others, no interrupting, etc. If you can discuss the rules as a group at the beginning then there is a lot of peer pressure to comply.

If a delegate disagrees with the content of a course a good course of action is to ask the opinion of the whole group on the subject, it may be necessary to think on your feet and to adapt content to suit the majority.

As a last resort, if a delegate is convinced that the training is not useful to them and continues to be disruptive you could politely ask the delegate to leave. This should be done in a break or to one side, never in front of the group.

Listening is the least-effective form of learning. Lectures are the least effective way of teaching.

Emotions are the clues to our brain that determine how important a memory is.

It’s how our brain determines whether it’s worth saving, and how deep into the momory it goes. People will remember what they feel far more than what they hear or see.

In other words, know how to get your learners to feel

I’ll look at this in the Ten Tips list.

1) Know the wide variety of learning styles, and how to incorporate as many as possible into your learning experience.

And no, we’re not talking about sorting learners into separate categories like “He’s a Visual Learner while Jim is an Auditory learner.”, or “He learns best through examples.” Every sighted person is a “visual learner”, and everyone learns through examples. And through step-by-step instructions. And through high-level “forest” views. And through low-level “tree” views. Everyone learns top-down and bottom-up. Everyone learns from pictures, explanations, and examples. This doesn’t mean that certain people don’t have certain brain-style preferences, but the more styles you load into any learning experience, the better the learning is for everyone–regardless of their individual preferences.

(And while you’re at it, know that most adults today do not truly know their own learning styles, or even how to learn. The word “metacognition” doesn’t appear in most US educational institutions.)

2) Know the fundamentals of current learning theory!

3) Know why–and how–good advertising works. Be sure you recognize why this matters.

4) Know why–and how–good stories work.

5) Consider the learner to be on a kind of hero’s journey. If Frodo is your student, and you’re Gandalf… learn as much as you can about storytelling and entertainment. Learn what screenwriters and novelists learn. Know what “show don’t tell” really means, and understand how to apply it to learning.

Humans spent thousands upon thousands of years developing/evolving the ability to learn through stories. Our brains are tuned for it. Our brains are not tuned for sitting in a classroom listening passively to a lecture of facts, or reading pages of text facts. Somehow we manage to learn in spite of the poor learning delivery most of us get in traditional schools and training programs (and books).

6) Know a little something about “the Socratic method”. Know why it’s far more important that you ask the good questions rather than supply all the answers.

7) Know why people often learn more from seeing the wrong thing than they do from seeing the right thing. Know why the brain spends far less time processing things that meet expectations, than it does on things that don’t.

Know why it’s just as important to study and keep up your teaching skills as it is to keep up your other professional skills. Yes there ARE professional organizations for trainers, with conferences, journals, and online discussions.

9) Know why using overhead slides to deliver a classroom learning experience can–sometimes (often)–be the worst thing you can do.
Although yes, in many cases using slides for some select pieces of a course are important, beneficial, and crucial. What we’re dissing is the practice where the entire class, start to finish, is driven around some kind of slides or presentation.)

10) Know how — and why — good games can keep people involved and engaged for hours. Learn how to develop activities that lead to a Flow State.