You spend a lot of time developing trainings, but how much time have you spent on developing yourself as a trainer?  A well thought out training may fall flat without the right trainer.  It’s worth spending a little time understanding the “why” and “how” of your training style, not just the “what”.  

Before you start creating your training, it’s important to give some thought to the “why” you are training.   What are the goals and objectives? Those will help you tailor the “how” – which is the method(s) you will use to build your training.

Types of Training

There are many training methods but we’ll focus on five common ones for adult learning since that is the most common age demographic for training.  You may see them called different names but for our purposes they are:

• Liberal
• Behaviorist
• Progressive
• Humanistic
• Radical

Each of these methods have theoretical underpinnings and volumes of published work about them but for simplicity, we’ve developed a very high level chart to understand the major characteristics of each.  

It’s important to understand your learners and why they are coming to a training so you can tailor your teaching style.  For example, I am generally a “progressive” trainer. I like the style because it teaches through a very practical lens, fosters problem solving skills, and creates a learning environment that is very democratic.  It is a natural style for my worldview, but depending on the training, I may consciously try to adopt a different style.  For very technical job skills that must be performed exactly, I incorporate more of a behavioral method.  For empowerment training, I try to use more humanistic methods.

Not sure what type of trainer you are?  Here’s a quiz that will evaluate your teaching style.  It’s a great starting point for thinking through how to tailor your adult learning efforts.

If you’ve made sure your organization is ready for a consultant, and found one that is a good fit for your project  – congratulations! That’s half the challenge.

Now, in order to get the most out of the consultancy, you will need to build a strong partnership with your consultant.  The more you can orient and engage with the consultant, the better equipped they will be to deliver tailored and useful support.

Here are 5 steps you can take to ensure your consulting partnership is off to a strong and successful start.

1. Provide a project lead that can dedicate time to working with the consultant.

Identify a staff person who will be able to share necessary context and insight with the consultant as well as serve as the coordinator for gathering internal feedback. Ideally, this person will be able to provide feedback on deliverables and garner continued support from stakeholders for the project.

2. Share background information about your industry, organization, and the project.

Having this context helps the consultant develop a strong foundation for the project, and focus their energies on building upon existing evidence and lessons learned.  What is shared depends on the project but may include:

• Organizational documents (strategic plans, branding guidelines, etc.)
• Key communication materials (annual reports, program brochures, etc.)
• Project documents (logic model, evaluation report, etc)
• Other relevant research or reports on the issue or constituents

3. Schedule a project launch meeting with consultant and key staff.

It is critical to make sure the consultant, project lead, and other key staff are on the same page regarding expected roles, responsibilities, and outcomes. Carefully review milestones and deliverables, and agree on the process for working together and making decisions.  This can also be an opportunity to share background and context, including any considerations or limitations to keep in mind.

4. Develop a work plan that all stakeholders agree upon.

As a first order of business, your consultant should draft a work plan based on the launch meeting to be reviewed and approved by the project team and other key staff. This document should clearly articulate the project goals, outcomes, and deliverables as well as detail key tasks, roles, and timeline. While the timeline may need to be adjusted as the project gets underway, it is important to work closely with the consultant to develop a work plan that is realistic and meets your needs.

5. Communicate openly, honestly, and often.

Provide clear direction during the launch meeting and honest feedback on the work plan. Sharing any possible barriers or limitations up front will build trust, and help the consultant to better mitigate challenges and/or delays. Set a schedule for regular check-ins between the project lead and consultant to share progress updates and discuss any challenges.

 

There may be many reasons why your organization is considering hiring a consultant. Perhaps you need a strategic plan and want an independent person to facilitate the process, or you are developing a new program and need expertise your staff doesn’t have, or you need to conduct a needs assessment but don’t want to bring in additional staff.

These are all good reasons. Consultants are often used by organizations to support efforts or provide expertise and perspective.

What Consultants Can Do

• Help your organization reach its goals
  • Facilitate strategic planning process
  • Offer a fresh perspective on an organization’s strengths and opportunities
  • Share expertise for program development and evaluation
  • Identify and secure funding
• Help your staff be more effective
  • Take on projects that take staff away from their core responsibilities
  • Identify areas for capacity building
  • Provide training and support
  • Improve communication and conflict resolution
• Help you save money
  • Develop new systems for managing operations or providing services
  • Identify inefficiencies and help solve them
  • Offer creative, innovative solutions for cost savings
  • Complete short-term projects without having to hire new staff

What Consultants Can’t Do

But that doesn’t mean consultants are always the right answer for your organization. It may not be cost-effective to bring in a consultant to complete a job that could be done by existing staff, board members, or partners. There are also certain things consultants can’t do.

Consultants can’t drive change. Although they can identify opportunities for change, make the case for change, and help facilitate the process, it’s the organization’s leaders that make decisions and staff that implement change.

Assess if your organization is at a place to make change.  If not, hiring a consultant to do just that is not likely to result in long-term, sustainable change.  

Ask yourself:

• What change do we want to make?
• Who are the decision-makers in the organization regarding this change?
• Are they on board?  If not, what needs to happen for them to support this change?

Consultants can’t work in a vacuum. Unless you’ve hired a consultant for a stand-alone/ independent project, you’ll need to be prepared to partner with them. A consultant needs your insight and guidance to produce relevant recommendations and solutions. They may provide training and oversight, but you and your staff will need to implement.  

Ensure you can designate staff time and resources to work with the consultant and implement their recommendations.  If that’s not feasible, it’s not the right time to hire a consultant.

Ask yourself:

• Who are the key decision makers?  Do they have time to spend with a consultant to ensure the “big picture” issues are addressed?
• Who would the internal lead be?
• What are this person’s current responsibilities?  Would some of that work need to shift?  And if so, to whom?

Consultants can’t (always) meet all expectations if a project is underfunded or has a short timeline. Consultants that have expertise and skills that put them in high demand understand the time and effort it will take to deliver high-quality solutions. It may take longer, or require more resources than you are able to put in.

Ensure you have a well defined scope of work, and then look across the lifespan of the project to determine the real costs — both from a resource and financial standpoint.  If you do a project in-house would you need to hire new staff?  Or reallocate efforts from other projects?  

You may find hiring a consultant is the right answer but if both parties are not comfortable with the scope of work, pricing, and timeline, there will likely be disappointment all around.   

Ask yourself:

• How important is this project to your organization’s mission? What value does it add?
• What are the costs if you don’t do the project?  What are the costs if you do the project in -house?

Balance the internal costs against the costs of a consultant.  While consulting costs are typically front-loaded, they may save you money in the long run.  

Good consultants add value and help you meet your goals, but you need to know when, why, and how to use them to make the most of the partnership. Consider the questions outlined above to help you assess whether hiring a consultant is the right solution to meet your organization’s needs.

I’m going to dispel a commonly communicated falsehood: there are no born leaders.  Leadership is a skill and good leaders continually hone that skill.  Unfortunately leadership training doesn’t always accompany the rise to leadership.  As a result, there are extremely smart, committed people in leadership positions who don’t necessarily understand how to position their team for greatest success.

Good leadership should inspire a team, organize work for greatest impact, promote positive team dynamics, and groom the next generation of leaders. Less skilled leaders often do the exact opposite, creating rather than solving problems.

Leadership skills take more than a blog to impart. However, as a start, here are five strategies that can make immediate improvements in your leadership style.

Reframe decision making to avoid “group think”

Leadership is not a co-op. Less skilled leaders often confuse “gathering input” with “group decision making.” Strive for the former, not the latter. Engage your team and make them feel they can bring ideas and input to you. But do not create an environment of Freirian leadership where your team feels it’s their right to weigh in on everything and decisions are collectively determined. This is such a common issue, we’ve taken a deeper dive on it in our blog article: A Frearian Fiasco: the problem with Freirian approaches in leadership. There’s a time and a place…and most importantly a productive way to be participatory. If you don’t hone your leadership skills in this area you risk becoming a facilitator rather than a leader.

Create a pyramid organization

When I’m brought in to work with a team, the first thing I’ll ask to see is the org chart. And it often looks something like this:

There is no possible way a leader can effectively manage a team that is structured this way. It forces the leader to be too in the weeds, with too many direct reports. It creates a team dynamic that is unstructured and inefficient. But many less skilled leaders like this model because they “have their finger on everything.”  But that isn’t the job of a leader – this model creates a “Jack of All Trades and Master of Nothing” leader. You don’t need to know everything – you need trusted, skilled “deputies” who collectively know everything and help you focus your energies where most needed to drive success.  For that happen, your org chart should look more like this:

This structure allows you effectively manage a team by investing in and working closely with “deputies” who are responsible for defined areas. Their teams report to them and they report to you.  This way you can focus on just the issues that need senior leadership rather than the management and administration of everything.  A word of caution when you switch to this model – stick to it.  Do not undermine your new deputies’ abilities to build their teams by letting staff circumvent them and come directly to you.

Avoid a focus on “fairness”

I know, that sounds like the opposite what you should do but when you focus on being “fair” to individuals the team loses. When I ask leaders why they are focused on “fair” I often hear that they want people to be happy and feel valued. I agree, but a focus on “fairness” won’t deliver that result. That’s because many leaders equate fairness with equality and kindness. Let’s look at each individually:

• Equality: In order to build a productive team and a positive work dynamic, you need to recognize that not all things are equal. Instead, focus on building the skills of the individuals that make up your team – different team members will need different things to be at their best. Recognizing those differences and investing in improving skills is what makes team members happy and valued. Put it together and it looks something like recognizing the differences in your team members – finding ways to encourage the high performers and ways to guide others so they can grow into working at their highest potential. This is what fairness looks like when you’re focused on the team and not the individuals. It will result in a team that delivers great results and is happy to do be doing so.
• Kindness: Kindness and fairness are not synonymous. While I don’t advocate for a “fairness” centered leadership style, I do advocate for kindness. You do want to create a positive work culture. But you can do those things while recognizing the differences in skills in your team.

Be a master communicator

Communication is what you say for sure, but it’s also how you say something, and how your actions support or undermine your words. Think through your plans before you communicate them – are your actions in line with what you want to say? Are you avoiding certain conversations because they are difficult? As the leader, people take their cues from you. And what you do says far more than what you say.

Say the same thing to everyone all at once

Say what you mean, mean what you say and say it to everyone. The easiest way to create confusion and division is to have separate conversations. It allows team members to interpret individualistically rather than understand something as a team. This is particularly true when it’s a tough conversation like a change in direction or roles. You don’t want to blind-side someone with information that will personally affect them – so talk to them first to give them a heads up. But then have a team wide meeting where you communicate the new direction to everyone at the same time. Be sure to invite questions for clarification and let the team know that you are open to hearing their concerns but do not open the conversation up for debate. If you do, you will give the impression that the meeting about about discussing the pros and cons but that the decision hasn’t really been made one way or another just yet. It will delay your ability to move forward and impede your team’s ability to be successful.

There’s no faster way to tank a project than not to have strong leadership. Spend the time to hone your skills and you will be helping your team deliver successes.  If you’d like help in developing the leadership skills within your organization, we can help.  Contact Amy at amy@devipartners.com

Paulo Freire changed adult learning.  His participatory approach was revolutionary and continues to shape adult education. It is a collaborative approach centered on dialogue and problem-posing, in which teacher and student are “knowledgeable equals in a situation of genuine two-way communication” (Freire, 1973, p. 52). It is powerful and effective when done correctly in the right context.  I’m a big advocate and use Freirian approaches when I train.

However, it’s not the best approach for leadership…and a lot of leaders are employing it, even if they don’t realize it.

The schematic at the top of the article shows how participatory the Freirian model is – it’s obvious why it’s such a successful learning approach. But, it’s also obvious why it’s a terrible approach for leadership.

8 Hints You May Be a Freirian Leader

1. All team members are welcome at all meetings.
2. You want to develop an egalitarian team culture of equals.
3. All team members are invited to provide strategic input even in areas that are in not their areas of expertise.
4. You use the word “fair” a lot.
5. You think in order for the team to have a positive culture it has to have a “flat” non-hierarchical organization.
6. You hesitate to position yourself as the leader because you believe everyone has areas of expertise and leadership.
7. You want the entire team to engage in dialogue about any issue.
8. You allow, and even encourage, collaborative decision making with the team.

Why Freirian Leadership Isn’t Effective

There are so many positive words in that list – welcome, egalitarian, equals, fair, positive, collaboration – using a Freirian approach to leadership has got to be a good thing, right? Wrong!  And here’s why:

• It’s chaotic: This approach works in education because dynamic environments encourage learning. But the goal of a team is to produce results and this unstructured model inhibits productivity. Decisions can turn into debates. There’s no clear process or path. It’s so “evolutionary,” allowing for a flow of ideas, that any new idea can drive the team in a new direction.
• It’s Inefficient: It’s not streamlined. Different people may be doing similar things creating, at best redundancies, at worst total confusion. Most importantly, it makes is hard for experts on your team to do what they do best. Instead everyone weighs in when you already have someone who knows the best and most efficient way to do something.
• It doesn’t manage expectations: Because everyone has a seat at every table team, members may form unrealistic expectations about their role. There’s often scope creep into areas that are more interesting to a person, leaving core activities unstaffed.
• It hampers mentoring and growth: Because there’s a level playing field, junior staff are denied the opportunity to work under an experienced member of the team and hone their skills through mentorship.
• It’s ineffective: A team with a Freirian approach often lacks strategic direction and measurable goals. The organic nature of the Frierian approach makes structured planning a challenge. Because this approach is so dynamic, it often lacks the ability to monitor progress towards goals. The direction of the team is constantly shifting so there is no measureable impact.
• It lacks a captain: Frierian approach creates a leaderless team – much like a boat without a captain, it’s likely to flounder. Leadership sets the vision, plots the course and helps team members understand their roles and what they are working toward. Without that leadership the team will lack a shared vision of success and the plan to get there.

Breaking the Freirian Cycle

So if you identified with any of the 8 hints it may be time to take a look at your leadership style. You can create a collaborative, positive culture without letting everyone participate in everything.  Except for team meetings, meetings should involve only those on a particular project.  And speaking of those team meetings, use them for updates, not decision making as that gets into group think rather than collaboration.  Collaboration comes from working together to implement projects, not from collective decision-making.  Formalizing a chain of command provides structure and mentorship to younger staff – something far more valuable than being everyone’s “equal” when you have no experience.  Having a strategic plan rather than an organic evolution of ideas provides the team opportunities to deliver big wins – boosting team morale and feelings of value.

So next time you start using Freirian buzz words and you’re not in a learning setting, stop yourself. What is it that you really want to accomplish?  How can you do that in an organized structure and as a strong leader?  Devi has decades of leadership training and project management.  We’d be happy to help you think through your own leadership style and how to build a positive team that delivers positive results.

Training 101 is the first article in our training series, Avoiding Training Traps . This overview article sets the stage for our best practice, evidence-based training approach.  

Most of us working in the social sector have conducted training, but few of us are truly trainers.   Often times, we’ve inherited a presentation and stand in front of a room reciting the slides. When I talk with professionals in the social sector, most can identify what isn’t good training but when I ask what is good training, folks often fall silent.  

A good place to start is understanding where training fits in the education continuum.  And what that means.  

Classroom Learning vs Training

All types of learning are education – whether teaching yourself a skill, enrolling in college or attending a job-related training.  But what we learn and how we learn it is very differently in each one.

We often emulate lecturers whose classes we sat in during college.  But there’s a big difference between classroom learning and training.   

• Classroom learning is formal education taught by an instructor.  It is broad to develop expertise in all aspects of a topic.
• Training is more informal education facilitated by a trainer. It is focused on mastering a particular task or skill.  

Devi has a great deal of experience in training so to help you think through differences between classroom learning and training take a look at our chart below — these differences should drive how you train and how you engage participants.   It’s important to note that these are generalities and exceptions abound.  For instance, graduate school for professional degrees use group work quite a bit and highly technical training for things like computer programming can be much less participatory. 

Principles of Adult Learning

Training, more than classroom learning, tends to have more adults as participants.  And adults learn differently than younger students.  Adults have a lot of competing priorities on their time and focus.  They retain information that is interesting, applicable to their daily lives and reinforced with interactive exercises. Make sure the information is realistic, practical and useful. 

When training adults, it’s also important to remember adults are far less homogenous than younger students.  They have a lifetime of different experiences, different ways of understanding and learning, and different ways of interpreting what you’re saying.

Principles of Facilitation & Training

Your job is to facilitate a learning experience with your participants.  In order for training to be really effective, you need to be a really effective facilitator. Keep in mind the key principles of facilitation and training.

Key Principles of Facilitation:  

• Interaction:  There is a lot of participation and engagement
• Equality:  Trainers and participants work together as part of the learning process
• Shared Responsibility:   Participants share in the learning success.

Key Principles of Training:

• Set expectations at the beginning
• Create a safe space
• Keep it simple
• Stick to the script
• Keep an eye on the time
• Train individuals, not groups

Taking the time to understand the basic of training will make your training stronger and your participants will retain what they learned – which can improve outcomes.  Facilitated training is designed, it doesn’t just happen.  It harder than it looks but we’re here to help.  Future articles will go in-depth to each of the Key Principles and Training as well as provide insight on effective interactive activities and how to neutralize negativity.  

For more information on a tailored “train-the-trainer” or other training needs, contact Amy at amy@devipartners.com.