If you are used to classroom training and know the value of interaction among participants, moving to one-on-one training can be frustrating. You need some training techniques that will spark the same level of interest, result in retention of the content, and yet fit your one-on-one situation. Here is one activity that allows you to revisit content, give control to the trainee, encourages directed thinking, and allows you an opportunity to give positive feedback.
At the beginning of the session, bring a small file box containing laminated 3”x5” cards on which you have written questions that the trainee must know how to answer before the end of the training. These cards can be categorized according to the content; alphabetized; color-coded by type of information, by function, or by process; or with your own method. The content will drive the division. Give the trainee an empty file box containing appropriate dividers.
At the end of each day, at the end of a training segment, or whenever it is appropriate, sit down together and ask questions that the trainee should be able to answer at this point, pulling cards from the file, one at a time. If the trainee can answer the question, the card goes into his or her file box. If the trainee cannot answer the question, keep the card. The goal, of course, is for the trainee to have all the cards in his or her file box at the end of the training and be able to keep the file box as a job aid.
This technique provides for thorough revisits of content, especially if you revisit all of the questions one more time at the very end of the training. That will enable the trainee to review any information that has not been retained.
It is a given that you must praise the trainee for correct answers and provide the answers for any cards that you return to your own file. The trainee must never be made to feel like a failure.
This activity excerpted from One-on-One Training: Effectively Training One Person at a Time by Bob Pike, Dave Arch and Lynn Solem, copyright 2009. Available from www.BobPikeGroup.com and used with permission of the publisher, Creative Training Techniques Press.
