How do you show your worth as a trainer – particularly to your supervisor when your supervisor isn’t a trainer? It can be challenging, even frustrating. Indeed, merely judging yourself as a trainer objectively can be difficult. Neal McKenney relates this story of how he proved—to himself and to his supervisor—that he earns his keep:
“I recently conducted a two-day control-room team-development training course for nine individuals who will be responsible for the safe operation of a nuclear power plant.
“After a two-hour student-led exercise, we were about to begin a discussion to evaluate what we learned –when my manager walked in to do a performance evaluation of my teaching skills. “Realizing I was under the gun, I opened the floor by telling trainees, ‘So, talk about what happened and what you feel you learned.’ (I usually just say, ‘So…,’ but I thought I should elaborate, given the situation.)
“I then sat down. What followed was an hour-long, self-directed, highly charged, open discussion of what had occurred and what participants had learned about themselves and each other, without intervention on my part.
“At the end of the day, I saw my manager and asked him, ‘So how did I do?’
“He laughed and commented that what he saw was great, but he wasn’t sure if he could write up an evaluation of my teaching skills because he really didn’t see me do anything.
“I asked him, ‘Did you observe the students understanding the learning outcomes and how it pertains to their job performance?’
“He responded, ‘Absolutely.’
“And finally I asked, ‘Was this learning self-directed?’
“He replied, ‘Absolutely.’
“So I suggested he report that he observed higher-order, self-directed, objective-based learning and complete his evaluation by saying that the instructor must have had something to do with it.
“He agreed!”
McKenney is a senior nuclear instructor with PECO Energy Co in Philadelphia, Pa.
[This tip originally appeared in Bob Pike’s Creative Training Techniques newsletter.]
