Activity Ideas for Instructor-Led Training in the Workplace
Want to make sure your training participants are active and engaged? Let’s take a look at some ideas for getting your audience involved.
Sharing of Ideas and Stories
Have your participants share their ideas on the topic. You may be surprised how productive this is. Often the insight from others strengthens everyone’s understanding. If you are working with a large group, you may want to split them up into pairs or smaller groups of 3-4 people so that everyone has a chance to contribute to the discussion.
Participants can also share personal stories related to the training and discuss case studies. Sharing stories often leads to thoughtful conversation on the topic at hand.
Polls
Present interesting poll questions that give participants a chance to think and share their perspectives. Give people a chance to discuss the results. Were they expected or were they surprising?
Hands-on Practice
Give your audience hands-on practice with the product or skill that you are presenting about. Introducing a new product? Give your trainees a chance to try it and use it themselves so they can gain a better understanding of it.
Role-Play
You can have participants role-play common situations. For example, if you are discussing customer service skills, have the representatives role-play common issues. One representative can be an upset customer while the other practices solving the issue and handling the problem.
Work Time
Set aside work time so participants can use what they have learned immediately while the information is still fresh. Often people don’t truly understand something until they have a chance to try it themselves. Giving people time right away ensures that they will be able to use the training.
Create a Document
Use the training session to collaborate on a document that used in the future. For example, if your audience is made of sales people, they may collaborate to create a guide to best practices for reaching out to customers via email. This activity can be especially helpful if you have a mix of experienced and inexperienced participants, as the new employees can walk away with something to refer to as needed.
Conclusion
Including interactive activities can go a long way to engaging your audience. When these activities are focused on business and training goals, the training becomes more real and more easily transferred to daily work tasks.