We are always charged to do more with less.
At what cost?
In multiple situations I have designed and delivered classes, targeted at a specific size audience. Hours of development time were invested to identify the most effective learning activities, calibrate the number of teams and estimate time to debrief. Then, the class was “crammed” with too many people and we were challenged to “make do.”
Many reasons are given for overbooking the class:
- We are too busy to go to class, so everyone waited until the last session to attend.
- We are trying to save money by providing fewer sessions, but have the same number of people to train.
- We have no way of knowing how many people sign up.
- That’s the way the supervisors want it.
- That’s the way we always do it.
- We didn’t know it mattered.
It matters.
You can see it in the Level 1 evaluations. Right sized classes tend to have more positive evaluations. Participants’ feedback is more positive about the facilitator’s skill, the learning they experience and the individual attention they received.
More importantly, a higher level of learning is achieved when class size follows the original design.
Debriefing of information is not rushed.
Time for clarification and answers is sufficient.
Understanding of content is better facilitated.
The class size issue may be caused because Leader Led training is not the right approach for the situation. Training professionals must adopt a consultative approach to determine how content should be delivered. Consider:
Should the leader-led class be supplemented with pre-work to allow for more classes with shorter length?
Can technology be used to deliver all or part of the content?
Should blended learning be employed?
Can all or part of the learning be facilitated on job?
What other methods can be used to deliver content?
The challenge for organizations is to determine what objectives it wants to achieve for each training class and provide the resources to meet the objective. The organization must be able to trust the training professionals to deliver learning using the most effective and efficient methods
If Leader Led training is the answer, then…..
Instructional designers should design a class for a specific class size.
Training managers and administrators should arrange for a room that will accommodate that size class.
Leaders should value the learning investment and not insist on overbooking the class.
© Linda M. Farley www.LMFarley.com LMF@onr.com
Follow Me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/LindaFarley
{ 1 comment }
Good information, Linda. I always like reading about how to address the issues trainers face in trying to do more with less. An article at VelocityMG.com asks: Why not do LESS with less? It must have been a hit because now they’re offering a free webinar.
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