Acronyms in training
Please don’t forget, please don’t forget…
In my early days in training, my main fear was to forget what I have to say at the x slide (I always have a slide that horrifies me no matter the subject or how many times I would have had facilitated the session), the second thing I was afraid of was not to forget something important to the participants that would alter their learning experience.
So among the first things I learned was an acronym to make sure that the first minutes of the session would go well, the rest of it, like everything in life, can be full of surprises. PIORAL is my way to make sure I have everything in order. What would that mean, you ask?
P - participants (the most important part of a training)
I - I, as a trainer (where I come from, what I did, a few words - short and to the subject)
O - objectives (what are the goals of the people that came to the course)
R - rules of training session (phone hotel, respect, listening, etc.)
A - agenda (what will happen for one hour, one day, one week, one year)
L - logistics (each to know where water is, where is the toilet, the emergency exit etc).
Having these things in mind, during a practical test at a company where I was very keen to work I forgot one of the key things: to tell them at the part about me what was my name. I talked about the experience, why am I there and so on, except talking about the name my parents gave me. Several days after the hiring process ended during round three, after an initial list of 200 applicants for that job - my boss handed me the feedback. And my technical presentation about using graphic design in everyday life has been so successful among colleagues, that despite my mistake I got the job.
I wrote this article because at one of the workshops held two weeks ago at the Oratorica, someone asked me after the session how I remember all the things I have to do and say when I'm working on a training or a workshop. So here is the start of articles under the tag ”Life of a trainer” that will offer ideas, tools and information for those who are just starting facilitating events.
Photo by Jo Szczepanska on Unsplash
