I was in Atlanta last week on some corporate training, and aside from learning the application I also learned how to become a better trainer. (Much as how you learn to be a better speaker by watching others.) This post outlines the things I will try to do more, and in some cases less, when teaching my courses.

  • There is no logical reason anymore to use a travel agent. The lowest price is available for N number of aggregators. The reason why you use an agent is for the extra knowledge and personal touch they bring to the experience. Same thing with in-person training. If someone is there for in-person training, it is imperative that you go off-script to bring your own experience to the material. If you don’t have it, you shouldn’t be teaching the content.
  • Look at the fury hurled at airlines, partly in part to their inability to deliver you to your destination on time. Yet it seems that trainers get off easy on this. If a class is 9 – 5, then start at when scheduled, and finish exactly at the finish time.
  • And don’t have 15 breaks all the time. If everyone is done the exercise, move onto the next. Yes, in a smart class the material will be done faster, but you should be able to supplement it. (see the first point)
  • If a single person is struggling with an exercise, have someone who is finished pair up to help them. Both will learn more.
  • I tend to operate under the assumption that everyone in the class can read. This means that you do not need to read your slides word-for-word, and move the mouse over each word as you do it
  • You probably shouldn’t show real customer stuff on the projector. Especially when it has fields like ‘password’ on it.
  • If you have printed materials, bring a couple extra just in case. And make sure the extras are the current revision.
  • If there are multiple ways to configure your application / environment, make sure that you are using the one that the class is using.
  • Turn off your IM client(s), and your bittorrent software, etc.
  • Speaking of which, clean up your desktop and have your system setup in such a manner that ‘Open File’ doesn’t go into your pirated music folder
  • Timebox labs and go over lab solutions on the projector at the end of the box regardless of whether people are all done.