Imagine two training rooms, side by side. Both host safety training meetings. What makes one room crackle with excitement and learning, while the other room seems to have no energy?
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In Room A, the instructor drones on and on, doing all the talking, while trainees check their watches, look longingly at the exit, or just slouch at their desks with a 10,000-yard stare in their eyes. When the session breaks, there’s a dash to the door.
In Room B, there’s lots of talk back and forth between instructor and trainees. There’s action, too, as trainees demonstrate their learning or add information from their own experiences, and nobody really wants to leave, even when the session breaks.
What accounts for the difference between Rooms A and B? That’s one of the most common questions safety training experts get. The way it usually comes in is: “How do I make my safety meetings livelier, more memorable, more effective?”
Here are some of the secrets behind safety meeting success. We’ll divide them into two parts. Today, preparing for the meeting; tomorrow, conducting it:
- Prepare, Prepare, Prepare. Nothing turns trainees off faster than an instructor who doesn’t seem to know a whole lot more than they do, or who is awkward or halting in presentation. Thus, the advice is to study up on your subject—and on your audience. Where do they work in the facility? What is their area’s safety history? What specific hazards that you want to train on are observable in a walk-through of the area done before the meeting? What are the trainees’ names and what do they do? As you assemble this information, try to anticipate what questions or concerns trainees may have. And, of course, check the literature before you train to make sure what you say is the latest, most up-to-date information on the topic.
- Check your equipment. A projector that doesn’t project, markers that don’t mark, or a sound system that remains silent undercut the learning. It’s even worse if the reason they don’t work is because you don’t know how to operate them. Your credibility is shot from the first blank screen, upside-down slide, or “Error 404.”
- Hold the session near the work. This will not only reduce time off the job (alleviating worry about getting back … or “wander-aways” that can’t seem to make it back) but also facilitate taking the group out to the shop floor to look for potential hazards or demonstrate safe procedures.
- Broadcast your purpose before the session. Get trainees thinking about your training session even before you start. Send out a memo or post notices a couple of days before the session on what you’ll be covering. And if it has to do with a recent incident, explain how your training relates to it. A short visit to the work area to talk up your upcoming message will also get noticed. The old rule of “the speed of the leader is the speed of the team” applies here. The more important the training seems to you, the more it will be to your trainees.
Have you taken all these steps? Then you’re ready for your training session.
In tomorrow’s Advisor, we’ll explain how to make training sessions more relevant and memorable.