Development Dives
Our Development Dives program is dedicated entirely to training design & delivery. Regardless of where you are on your training journey our Development Dives program offers services designed to meet your needs. We offer services for professionals in learning & development, HR, or anyone interested in developing a comprehensive set of training essentials. Services are offered around three areas of training: Before Training, During Training, & After Training
Before Training - Effective trainings begin with targeted efforts made before the training even begins. We do this by asking and answering the right questions. What do your learners need? How can we best meet that need? Is that need measurable? What supports do your learners need to practice the new skill? Development of effective training requires us to make informed decisions about the direction we would like to go. Learning is a process that moves in a continuous circle and as trainers, we are moving repeatedly through this cycle when developing trainings for maximum effectiveness. Topics covered when learning what to do before a training begins include: conducting needs assessments, writing training objectives, understanding your adult learners, instructional design, preparing relevant materials, building your knowledge about how we learn, training delivery options, planning for mishaps, time management, etc.
During Training - Before training, professionals have answered key training questions to strategically and intentionally plan for and design effective, relevant trainings. Once this happens, we focus on what trainers should do during a training. We have all experienced a “good” and “bad” training. What made those trainings good? What made those trainings bad? Most of your answers can likely be categorized into what the trainer did or didn’t do before, during, or after the training. Planning is an important piece of any training but is not the only piece. We know from experience that to truly excel in any area, we must do more than just understand theory, we need to practice it. What we do during a training develops our skills as practitioners. The topics covered when learning what to do during training focus on actively strengthening those skills. Topics include: learning engagement, dynamic facilitation, presentation tools & tips, asking quality questions, facilitation techniques, train the trainer, formative assessments, etc.
After Training - Effective training programs always include work after the training occurs. This is a critical part of the training design & delivery process. Reflection is a necessary piece when learning & development are involved because it allows professionals to assess what went well, what did not, what needs to be changed and more. With out it, we will not be effective in our roles and have no way to know for sure if our time and effort was worth it. After training we reflect on training and look at the various ways we can evaluate and measure training success. During this phase, practitioners might look at how well learners engaged with the material, the types of questions learners had, whether learners were able to apply what they learned in practice, how long did they apply it for, what roadblocks prevented them from applying their learning in practice and more. Topics covered when learning what to do after training focus primarily on reflection, formative & summative evaluations, training transfer, and professional development.