Maybe it’s time to do things differently

Despite our understanding of how people learn; despite the fact that we have more tools available to us than ever before, why is PowerPoint still so prevalent in training? There are soooo many reasons, but there are three main ones:

1. Confidence: The person at the front of the room doesn’t have the confidence to run that session without relying on very detailed, very visible content.

2. Control: EITHER the person at the front of the room is scared to lose control to the group, OR many other stakeholders in the organisation have insisted on ‘signing off’ every tiny detail of that session.

3. Capability: The person running the session isn’t a facilitator – they are a subject matter expert. Their skill isn’t in facilitating learning it’s in whatever the topic is about, so THAT’S their comfort zone. To ‘give value’ they cram a presentation full of everything they know and dump it on people.

It’s just like when we get a month’s worth of rain in one day… the ground can’t cope. That’s exactly what happens when we flood people with information!

So How Do We Overcome This?

Session Plan

Firstly, learn to rely on a SESSION PLAN not slides: All the information you need is there, but your reluctant participants can’t read it all for themselves off the slide. It gives you all the structure and back-up you could ever need, but it also gives you flexibility. If you design a session plan rather than a slide deck, you think more creatively about the content and how it can be brought to life.

Manage Stakeholders

Secondly, be clear about which stakeholders have input, when and what they have a say in. We also have to trust that the participants (if they are experienced) have an idea about what will help them. When people get hung up on specific words, colours and fonts, they have completely lost grip of what makes training helpful.

Support and Upskill Subject Matter Experts

Finally, help your subject matter experts to understand that training isn’t telling. They don’t need to be expert facilitators, but help them to prepare their session using 6 simple steps of training design and follow the MASTER structure, and their sessions will be transformed. They won’t need to incorporate any advanced tools or techniques so it won’t be scary to deliver – just way BETTER.

Alternatives to PowerPoint

Whether you’re running a session face to face or virtually, there are LOTS of alternatives to PowerPoint – I discuss these in THIS EPISODE of the Training Design Podcast.

Finally, I’m not against PowerPoint – I usually create a few slides for the training workshops I design. the Power Hour Ready-Written materials come with slides. But slides SUPPORT the session, they don’t drive it. And when designing training, your slides should be the LAST thing you create.

This video explains why, and THIS ONE covers how!