Want to get more from the next conference, training or coaching?
Are you going about learning the wrong way?
By Boyd Petersen
I can’t believe how much I have learned and, at the same time, how much I have forgotten from conferences, trainings and coachings I have attended.
Why do some conferences and trainings make a big difference in your life while others are useless after a few weeks? What’s the best way for you to learn to be more effective in your position? Are some just motivational and not instructional?
The wrong way to learn from a training course
Have you ever been to one of those intensive two-day conferences or programs and you start hitting overload at four hours? Then when you get home and it has been a few weeks, you realize you can only remember a few key nuggets from the conference? And when you review your notes, you have forgotten the stories that made them usable and important to you and your business?
All of this is natural.
I once attended a two-week course to become a Certified Network Engineer for Novel and for Microsoft. I passed the tests and became a CNE and MS-CNE and MCSE, but within weeks I had forgotten more than I should have.
Another time, I went to a conference where Tom Hopkins was the trainer and I loved it, but after the first day, I was in overload. I later bought his books and CD sets and ended up learning much more at home.
The right way to learn from a training course
Several years ago I signed up for a course with Keith Rosen, a management coach trainer, to learn how to coach sales people and other business managers. I wanted it all at once—a one or two-day intensive course—but he only offered to teach the class once per week for 10 weeks.
Keith explained to me that we needed to learn at a slower pace so we could implement the trainings we had learned about and then add to that a week later. After taking Keith’s course, I found I had learned how to coach effectively and my sales people had learned much more from me and were accelerating in their sales abilities. This was because I was implementing things one step at time rather than dumping it all on them at once.
I find it’s the same thing now as I teach this to other business owners and managers. If they want instant or quick results, they don’t learn, implement and then learn the next step. The process either becomes overwhelming or they forget a lot of what they were taught and then don’t see the results that they could have achieved.
When taking courses to develop new skills, like taking those CNE classes, it’s better to take them over time, one at a time, rather than all at once and risk being burned out each day about 1 p.m. after an 8:30 a.m. start.
I find that when teaching business managers to be coaches it’s not hard for them to fully implement the concepts, if I teach just once per week. It also allows me to have a one-on-one meeting (30 minutes) with them to make sure they are implementing what they learned, answering their questions and doing some accountability to make sure they are ready for the next class. When they complete this training and show they have learned the materials, they can be certified as management coaches.
The right way to learn from a conference
I find that if you go to a conference and have several speakers teach during the day and you get to move between the classes or they take turns teaching, you’re less likely to get overwhelmed and to be able to take nuggets back that you can implement.
The information doesn’t get lost because, as you listen to each speaker, you take one or two things from each one, and then it’s easier to remember their trainings and why you liked what you heard. You will also remember their stories because you can tie them to the person who told them. It’s always easier to remember when you hear a few stories from several people rather than many stories from one person. The stories will also relate to the one or two things that were takeaways from that speaker.
Last year, the Business Success Conference in Salt Lake was designed to teach and inspire business people in many subjects. We had five presenters offering five classes each. You could move from one class to another to suit your needs. It went well, and many in attendance said they loved that they could get the information in bite-sized pieces which made it easy for them to digest and implement.
This year, the big conference for Salt Lake business people is called the Business Game Changer. It will feature eight speakers who will each spend 45 minutes giving attendees just one in-depth business success nugget they can take away. It will be held Feb. 16 at the Larry Miller SLCC Campus –Miller Free Enterprise Center (same location but different building than last year).
Multi-day workshops are both good and bad
Another popular way of learning and teaching is using a workshop format. Workshops are so effective because they allow attendees to step away from life and learn alongside a trusted community.
A workshop can help you go from not knowing what you are doing to having a completed project. I have been at personal relationship, sales, business management, startup launch, website formulation and even business creation workshops. Those that are put together right can really help you get going and help you learn what you need to know. The less successful ones have been overwhelming. It’s up to the organizer to know what is too much information, what can be learned and how to space the information taught into bite size chunks that the attendees can handle.
The big key is a great trainer who will keep you going without overwhelming you and a good manual that allows you to keep notes. Some multi-day training that I have attended and have impressed me include Eban Pagan, Jeff Walker, Jeff Gitomer, Cary White, Tom Hopkins and when they were alive, Stephen Covey and Chet Holmes. There are others that I have heard are great, but I haven’t experienced them myself.
One personal relationship workshop I went to was good but a few weeks later, I was struggling to remember all the things that were taught; it had no manual or handouts. I later pulled out the notes I took on it but they were so scattered, I couldn’t follow them because the workshop had had so many activities and it hadn’t been appropriate to write some of the times.
Another workshop I attended was like the CNE training. There were no materials so I feverishly took notes. I got burned out by lunchtime and I took very few notes after that. Many people didn’t come back after lunch and even more were missing the second day. I heard that many people even asked for their money back. The workshop featured a single nationally-known speaker who spoke about being a better business owner / manager. However, the format was more of a monologue and the speaker meandered all over the place.
In contrast, a few years ago I presented a two-day workshop that was all about marketing and how it had changed in the previous 15 years. By the end of the two days, every individual had a marketing plan that was soft validated by the other participants in the class. They also took away many notes in a workbook, the marketing was actionable and they made business friends that they could not just network with but also bounce marketing ideas off of.
The class attendees gave this workshop great reviews as they left class and again, two weeks later, when we emailed and they completed a survey about what could be improved. Not one of the 22 people dropped out of the class and they are still using the information they learned at this class today.
The bottom line for evaluating training courses or workshops is that it’s essential to find out about the person or people that will be doing the training, the style they use, what materials are provided during and after the classes and whether there is a way to ask the instructor questions after the classes have finished.
Want to know about some good training coming up? Check out these:
Business Game Changer conference
Feb. 16 from 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. Larry Miller SLCC Campus.
Each of the eight great speakers will give you one great business nugget that you can take back and use in your business that week. This is the premier conference for group business training this year. Don’t miss this! Lunch will be provided as part of the admission.
Click here for more information (http://www.speakupspeakers.com).
Game On – Coaching managers to be great coaches
This training teaches How to build stronger teams by going from manager to coach – Learn What You Need To Know to Coach Your Team To Success
Free webinar on Feb. 8 from 11 to 12:15 p.m. MST.
Join in our webinar for the list of the 20 things most managers lack to become a truly great business coach.
This is designed for anyone that is, or wants to be, a manager/coach of:
Executives
Sales,
Accounting,
Call centers,
Marketing,
Customer service or
Any other team of people
You will also learn how true coaching will keep great employees longer and build good employees into great employees.
Are you ready to get your Game-On?
Go to: https://sad-swirles.207-244-241-165.plesk.page/gameon/