Never Quit
I use (and train others to use) a dozen important rules for faster-cheaper-better instructional design.
Here’s one of these rules: Never stop your design and revision activities. Keep improving, updating, and modifying the training package.
I Am Slow
Thirty-five years ago, I designed a training game called Barnga, which dealt with cross-cultural communication. Last week, I tweaked the game with slight—but significant—changes. I average about a dozen revisions a month to this activity.
Looking at any one of the hundreds of training packages that I have designed during the past four decades, I can honestly say, “This current version is not complete, is not up to date, and is not as effective as it could be.” This is not because I suffer from imposter syndrome or because I am a perfectionist. It is simply because I firmly believe that training design never comes to an end. It is always in a process of continuous improvement.
Nonstop Tweaking
Some of my original training packages have come out with flying colors in field tests, received awards from professional organizations, and praise from clients. And yet I keep on continuously monitoring and modifying the training packages. Every time anyone uses the training package, I collect and use feedback from the participants and facilitators to improve the training. I also follow up by collecting information about the transfer and application by monitoring the results in the workplace and in the real world. I bully most of my clients into investing as much time and money for monitoring and improving existing training as they do for designing new training.
I keep revising existing training not only to improve their overall effectiveness but also to respond to changes in the training context and content. The marketplace keeps shifting. Virtual workers spring up in different corners of the globe. Best practices continuously transform standard operating procedures. Rules, regulations, and policies keep shifting. People delight in debunking established models and principles. So, continuous improvement of existing training is not a luxury. It is a necessity.
Improving Training Content
I continuously improve the usefulness and validity of the training content partly by frequently interviewing subject-matter experts and expert practitioners. I read the latest books and journal articles on the training content and encourage my facilitators keep reading the latest content materials. I attend conferences and monitor online discussions. My life-long learning suggests suitable changes to the content.
The participants suggest additional changes to the training content. A follow-up activity to most of my training sessions encourage participants to ask questions about perceived gaps, contradictions, and confusions in the content. I respond to these questions, frequently seeking help from subject-matter experts. I incorporate these enhancements into the body of training package. As an interim measure, I create lists of Frequently Asked Questions with suitable answers. I post these FAQs online and distribute them as follow-up documents.
Most of my training packages require and reward the participants for generating content and questions. I continuously filter these inputs and incorporate them in the training activities. In addition, I collect the final products from participants and add them to an archive of samples. Future participants find these samples from the past to be very useful references.
Improving Training Activities
I encourage the facilitators to modify all training activities to suit the constraints, resources, and preferences of each new group of participants. I also talk to each group of participants about improving the activities they experienced. Based on these, I continuously adjust the training package to accommodate these situations:
Increased numbers of training participants resulting in large groups or reduced numbers of training participants (sometime down to a single participant)
Tighter schedules or liberalized schedules
Less experienced facilitators and more experienced facilitators
Increased variations in the experience and knowledge level of participants
Online delivery of classroom activities
Since important learning from most activities occur during the debriefing discussions, I collect provocative questions from facilitators that encourage thoughtful discussion. I incorporate these questions in ensuring editions of the facilitator guides