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Fried Training Talk- "You Never Trained Me On ..."

Published: Friday, October 11, 2019
Updated: Friday, October 11, 2019

     I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a trainer say, “I don’t understand why (insert employee name here) did that, I told her/him not to do that myself. I tell every class not to do that,” and every time the response is, “The employee says you never trained him/her on that.”

     There are many reasons this conversation repeats including but not limited to: cognitive overload, classroom distractions, time it was trained, improper emphasis; even, they just plain forgot.

     As instructors we want to dissect, diagnose, and understand the reasons (and sometimes we can address the cause straight on). The truth here is from the trainee's standpoint most of the time the reasons don’t really matter. Their action (or often inaction) is a symptom of ineffective training.

     If the instructor's “I told them” defense is cross checked with “Did they show you they understood?” most of the time the answer is no. There are many ways trainees can show their understanding from role playing in class to actual task analysis on the work environment. (Many times a paper test does not show that a trainee is going to do Something differently.)

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     So since this is a discussion let me ask you, how you handle it when you hear someone say they were never trained on something your records say they were trained on?

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I stay curious and use that moment as an opportunity to teach, coach and remediate. Looking back on the day it was trained, checking attendance and finding the loop holes in the content will keep us taking accountability as the facilitators and solicit feedback from our audience to learn new ways. Ensuring future state, learner has what they need to stay effective and available for any future questions. Keeps the finger pointing down and the Teacher/Student relationship at a healthy trust state.
Ms. Tenschert- Using it as an opportunity is awesome. I agree that approach will keep the finger pointing minimal and preserve a positive trainer/trainee relationship.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "I stay curious". Do you mean curious about why they feel they weren't trained?
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As I matured and developed a more collaborative training style, I started using myself as a bad example (I had a wilder youth!) when using storytelling to illustrate points- providing real-life situations the new hires could find themselves in and showing the correct and incorrect ways of handling them. This grew into role-playing scenarios during on-boarding. We soon saw that adding a bit of humor and color to our policy reviews resulted in greater retention of knowledge (and less snoring).
I also had a bit of luck as I was a field trainer as well, so when I was working with them "in-vivo" I could say "Remember when we discussed 'X' in Orientation? Yeah...this is where that applies" to reinforce the learning.
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Keith, I was at my last organization, but I had more control over what I trained and how it was trained. In my current position I inherited the on-boarding / orientation program and it's a bit of a battle getting it to change (I still sneak in a funny story or two, though!). I think that while storytelling is a great medium, I take it a step further and make sure the stories are ones the audience can relate to...no hypothetical situations, they're all based on real incidents.
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Shane- I'm glad you liked the question. I definitely agree that using storytelling and other techniques to engage will lower or even eliminate the "I never got trained on that" statement. I'm envious of your program if you are all the way there.
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Very good question, Keith; I can recall a number of times early in my career where I've said "Yes, I trained them on that / told them about that" in response to a coworker's defense of "I wasn't told / trained" when they violated policy or protocol. After I made up training check-off lists, my younger self would also point out where they signed and say "You signed this- it shows that I trained you, it's not my fault you didn't listen".
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