If there is one delegate comment that is sure to stir a reaction in me it would be “…But in the real world…” It doesn’t happen often but when it does I always seek to understand why (whichever learning tool we’re using) the delegate feels this way and why there is a perceived disconnect between what we’re doing and what happens in their everyday business life.
Speaking to some delegates recently I’ve been truly appalled at some of their previous experiences attending training where actors have been used. Examples cited have been the ‘customer’ walking in and physically throwing their keys at the Advisor/Consultant and other grotesque caricatures that really don’t represent ‘the real world’ in any way, shape or form. One participant told me that after attending training to gain the appropriate accreditation for their role as Service Advisor the experience of having to endure this kind of extreme behaviour by the ‘customer’ resulted in him being physically sick on the journey home.
Last week I was running a 2-day programme that I’ve developed called ‘Maximising Opportunities in Aftersales’. Every relevant member of the team in the business from Directors, Heads of Business, Aftersales Managers through to Service Consultants is participating in the programme. This is important because the success of the training will depend on the leaders’ abilities to reinforce the behaviour on a day-to-day basis back in the business.
Day 1 is concerned with the theory (brought to life with lots of active learning and participation) and we cover process, mind-set, how to earn a genuinely positive CSi score (and not cynically manipulate it), how we can sell the benefits of our business over the fast fit and independent competitors and confidently answer customers’ concerns over price differences.
Day 2 is all about practice. I work with a wonderfully talented actor who is able to re-create real characters that are exactly that – real. Because of the poor training practices described above many delegates absolutely dread the second day, despite reassurances that it will be engaging, interactive and that no one is being judged or scored. ‘Time Outs’ are actively encouraged so that we can discuss what is happening.
And finally to the point of my blog; at several times throughout the day I looked around room to find the participants and observers totally immersed in the moment – in their minds they were at their place of work with this customer and totally oblivious to the environment they were actually in. And that’s how you create ‘the real world' in a training environment.