How to Design Training

I’m very active on LinkedIn and I realised that many people I’d started my career with are now in very senior positions, or have international roles doing very exciting things. I am still doing (more or less) what I was doing 20 years ago: designing training workshops, learning materials and live learning events. I wondered if this meant I was a failure.

I am also aware that many small consultancies like mine and putting more content on line – creating videos, running webinars, and so on. My infrastructure is so bad, I can’t do any of those things. We struggle to watch iplayer. Sometimes I feel that I’m being left behind.

But focusing on what I HAVEN’T done, and what I CAN’T do isn’t going to bring success, so I flipped these thoughts.

I chose not to climb the corporate ladder for 2 reasons: 1) because I wanted my children to be brought up by their parents, not a childminder, as 2) because the further into management you go, the less involved in training you are. I am a creative person at heart, and my skills aren’t in managing schedules and budgets. By staying as a researcher, designer and occasional deliverer of training for almost 25 years, I’ve got pretty good at it, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of. In many ways, I am like the old-fashioned craftsman – whilst you can learn the basics quickly, it takes years to consistently deliver quality.

Not being able to do things ‘on-line’ doesn’t mean I can’t help people and share my expertise. In fact, many of my clients prefer ‘old-fashioned’ solutions and the face-to-face element. I can engage with people virtually – just not in real-time, hence my fondness of LinkedIn and other social media sites.

Which is why I’ve decided to share my expertise via a series of ‘How To’ guides to anyone who subscribed to my mailing list. These guides will focus exclusively on training design and share, in a practical way, how I create various types of learning materials and events.

If you are already a subscriber to Keystone Development and Training, you will have started receiving these practical guides – one a week. If you aren’t you can SIGN UP TO RECEIVE THEM HERE – the Guides are sent out weekly. Or, you can subscribe to my regular newsletters if you prefer less frequent contact.