Effective training
Posted on October 26, 2005
I spent 2 hours just before lunch today in training. It’s nothing formal, this morning I was told to go sit with someone and learn the ins and outs of a certain process here at my office. The goal is for me to just be familiar with it and possibly be a backup in the event that the main person is out.
No big deal, right? Wrong! An hour may have been appropriate, but after that, my eyes pretty well glazed over and most everything that was said did not sink in. I just wanted to get away and spend some time sorting through the documentation, but we continued for 2 full hours. I headed straight to the cafeteria to get lunch and on my way back to my office I ran into this person again and she said her boss had said to only take an hour and just realized we spent 2. I wish I would have known, I could have pushed to wrap it up sooner. Time constraints are always an issue and I’m glad we took the time that we did, but in my opinion, it was a wasted second hour.
What does my frustration with corporate America have to do with church tech? Not much, mainly I’m just venting, but there is a lesson here and this served as a great reminder.
When training someone in the church, whether they are staff or volunteer, try to do several sessions in smaller amounts of time than one extended period. Granted, there are time constraints sometimes, as I mentioned, but do your best to use your time wisely and effectively.
Also, keep in mind if the training is technical in nature and the trainee is non-technical in nature, then it may not instantly sink in and if there is not a complete understanding of this new process, that can result in frustration, lack of motivation to do the task and insecurity in one’s ability to complete what they need to complete.
One prime example of training comes when implementing a new church management system, such as Fellowship Tech. Take the time needed to train the people that need training and do it in a way where they come out with a thorough understanding of what they need to do.
Maybe the key is if you notice the person’s eyes glazing over, get it wrapped up and do more next time, or at least take a break!
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