Workplace training should always be beneficial, not a burden. Unfortunately, too many people experience training as a teaching environment; which is listening to someone else talk.

This method certainly has its place, but if you’ll pardon the pun, sticking strictly to this method is “old school.”  Workplace training happens best when it engages learners in ways that appeal to those specific learners. And for some, teaching doesn’t cut it.

This issue raised its head again during a recent conversation I had with a training coordinator of a large manufacturing company. Many of that company’s seasoned employees—those working there for 25+ years—distain participating in any kind of training whatsoever. They view training as something the company must do so it doesn’t get sued, not as something that can help them in their work.

This is evidenced in their in training feedback comments with statements like, “I just want to do my job and retire. Stop making me attend training classes.”

An alternative method of instruction—especially useful for these situations—is facilitation.

To differentiate the two in their most basic forms, teaching is when a person provides information to learners. It’s pretty much one way information flow. In facilitation the learning objectives are met by drawing out and building on the expertise of the learners themselves as the facilitator poses thought-provoking questions.

This particular method can be quite conducive to learning, even for employees with decades of on-the-job experience. First of all, rather than being talked down to, experienced employees are engaged to contribute their own expertise to the learning process. 

Secondly, as people reflect and reason with each other, new mental pictures emerge. Since new learning “sticks” better when it’s related to previous learning, people are more likely to remember the ideas and perspectives that surface during conversations that they had a part in creating.

If your employees are resisting training, it may be the delivery method itself that’s bothering them. Depending on the subject matter and the type of learners you have, facilitating may produce much better results.

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Filed in Work, Training, Motivation, Workplace, Train the Trainer