Three Key Steps for Training

I went to college to become a high school teacher. My degree is in secondary education with an emphasis on history and math. I did my student teaching but never took a full-time job as a high school teacher.

I did, however, spend several years as a trainer in the early years of my consulting. And while I learned many important aspects of teaching and training over that time, I think the following three-step process is far and away the most effective way to teach or train.

1. Tell them what you're going to do (prepare them).
2. Tell them what you're doing (show them).
3. Tell them what you did (review/reinforce).

Let's break this down.

Tell them what you're going to do (prepare them). As simple as this sounds, telling the learner what you're about to demonstrate puts their mind in the right place to actually absorb the information. But the key is to tell them the steps you're going to take along the way. For example, "We're going to process a new member application, which includes the steps of looking up the record, adding it if they aren't already there, selling them the correct membership, and applying payment or creating an invoice." Now their brains are ready to absorb what you're about to show them.

Tell them what you're doing (show them). This is the part where too many trainers start. Using the example above, they jump right into the record and start processing a membership, and half the learners are sitting there thinking "Wait, what are we doing? What's she showing me? What if there's no record in the database? What if there are data errors? When do we add the actual membership record?" And rather than hearing what is being taught, they are wondering about all the things they weren't already told.

Tell them what you did (review/reinforce). Once you've demonstrated the process, the final step is to say "So here's what we did: We looked up the record, we updated their data, we added their new membership, and we processed the payment."

1. Tell them what you're going to do (prepare them).
2. Tell them what you're doing (show them).
3. Tell them what you did (review/reinforce).

These steps are deceivingly simple but rarely followed. But if you really want to improve learner retention, these are the steps that will get you there.