Imagine after 8 hours of training, Participants left the room. As a trainer, what percentage of knowledge do you think trainees took? How can they apply a piece of knowledge to their real work and transform it into an experience? To master a skill, learners need to keep doing it repeatedly or practice again and again until they perform it well. Like Shu Ha Ri, to reach the Ha or Ri level, you need to go through the Shu level – It means “repeat” and “Practice makes perfect”.
Practice knowledge right away when you are learning
Knowledge that can’t be applied is dead knowledge. Therefore, learning and practicing right away is always most effective. Because people can apply what they learned right away before they forget. I always have some small activities during a training that belong with each session. I will ask all participants to engage hands-on, so they can better understand what they learned in the previous session. Something you need to take into account if you want to create activities during your training session:
Mistakes are welcome
We learn from mistakes. Do you remember the first time you learned to ride a bicycle? Did you fail? After that, you do better, right? A mistake is part of your learning, and in a practice activity, it’s the right time to make a mistake. Because it doesn’t have any risk.
Everybody needs to join
Don’t just pick some trainees to practice a skill and leave the remaining trainees to just watch. All learners have a chance to practice; instead of some people doing it only, this will give everybody a chance to interact, learn from each other, and review when they practice.
E.g.: It can be a game, presentation, Teach-Back… but everybody needs to join.
Collaboration
Have games or practice activities that support and encourage collaboration. This will increase social skills and help them learn from each other.
“Better to learn from your friends than from your teacher”
Besides that, this also creates competition. But in this case, competition is not bad if it is managed well in a positive atmosphere by people who want to be better and learn more.
Individual accountability and learning goals
Each individual has different knowledge levels and expectations; as a trainer, you need to help trainees understand their own level of competency. Therefore, take time to discuss with your trainees to understand and be familiar with the training outcome. Also, writing down their learning expectations and individual accountability will help a lot.
Having a learning goal will help trainees stay accountable during training to achieve it. So your Practice Activity during training needs to align with that goal as well. Any practice or game that doesn’t relate to that learning goal is wasting time and doesn’t bring any added value.
