The Sad Training Slides Story…
We’ve all been on great training courses. The stuff you learnt was great, the trainer was great, and you left the day thinking, “That was great!”. Six months later, the training slides are still sitting in your drawer. Meanwhile, you believe you’ll get to them one day because the training was great!
Sadly, in an impromptu desk tidy-up, you reluctantly throw the slides in the bin. Regretfully and not without thought, the slides, and the scribbled notes, are thrown away. Or maybe just one last flick through to convince yourself that there is nothing worth keeping. And then 8 hours spent sitting on a training course, in the bin.
You spent 8 hours sitting on a training course when you were already busy. Meanwhile, the company spent money for you to do so. Furthermore, you know that you want to be better because of that phrase you’ve heard, ‘If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backwards”. But all to waste. Here are 5 ways of ‘How to Make the Most from the Training Slides in Your Drawer’ because you know that the learnings can help you:
1. Turn the Training Slides Into a One-Page Summary
The reason we keep the slides is that they have all the notes that we made on the training course. The reason we throw away the slides is that there is simply too much to go through. Set aside 20 minutes and write down a summary of bullet points or create a mind map of the key ‘take-outs’ from the slides. This is an 80:20 approach, knowing that you’ll glean 80% of the information that you need in 20% of the time. This one page will be a reference page that you will look at in the future because it contains only the rich learnings that you need.
2. Discuss the Slides Over Lunch With a Colleague
Agree to meet a colleague for lunch, who was on the same training course, and discuss the slides. This will help resurrect the learnings from the training course, and you’ll find a renewed motivation to use what you learnt.
Find out more about how ‘Sticky Learning ®‘ will avoid the ‘slides in a drawer problem’.
3. Teach Someone Else What You Learnt
By teaching someone else what you learnt on the course will have two benefits. Firstly, you will be ‘forced’ to put into your own words the learnings, which in turn will help you recall what your learnt and secondly, your colleague will benefit from your training and they’ll ask you questions, which will challenge your recall further.
4. Call the Training Provider and Ask for a Refresher
Arrange a 20-minute call with the training provider and ask them to run a 121 20 minute refresher over the phone. Most training providers will be happy to do this because they want to help you to use your learnings.
5. Review the Most Important Section
Identify the most important section of the training course and keep this, throw away the rest. Add this section to your reading pile. Review the slides, with your scribbled notes and identify 3 actions that you will now do as a result of these learnings, and then throw away this section.
To avoid having to do the above 5 actions, use Sticky Learning ® to ensure that your people get the very most from their learning.
