Erskin Cherry : Structuring Training Plans

Unpicked prickly pears

 

Really knowing something is not just about information, but how to organize that information. While you might want to know how to get rid of the prickles, you'd probably rather know not to pick a prickly pear with your bare hands first. –Erskin

A training plan is the outline or script you follow to present a topic. It is not something you show to your audience. Instead, it is your notes on what you want to show and tell, and in what order. For this guide, I'm using structure to refer to the way you organize the information in your training plan. You'll start with a general structure for the types of information important for every topic. Then you'll choose a specific structure that best fits your topic for the main material.

Table of Contents

General Structure

No matter what the topic, there are some things every training plan needs to cover. Use this outline when creating a new training plan or to ensure your existing plans have all the basics covered.

OrderStep MnemonicGoalMethodExample
1What is this?Identify the training by name so everyone can make sure they are in the right place.Present the training title both visually and audibly when you start."This is the Prickly Pear Pie Preparation class. Let me just write that in ridiculously large letters on the whiteboard here."
2Who am I?Give folks a name to ask questions of and enough background to establish your knowledge of the topic. Establish the pattern for introductions.Again, visually present or highlight details as you say them."Hello my name is Erskin. I'm the Head Baker on the night shift, which means if something goes wrong with anything that went into the overs after 4:00pm until closing, it's my fault. I've been at the Downtown Bar & Bakery for 4 years and know at least a little bit about our entire menu, and a lot about about baking in particular."
3Who are you?Learn who your audience is. Establish a pattern asking and answering questions. Make it easy to remember their names.For smaller groups, write down everyone's name and department. Arrange them to match the seating arrangement next to your own name. Draw a rectangle to represent the table if it helps. For larger groups, at least write up a list of the departments or roles the audience represents.
4Where are you?Make sure the audience knows everything they need to before taking this training. Reinforce a pattern of asking and answering questions.Rather than just list off requirements, state them as things that the audience should already know. Then ask questions which confirm this knowledge."You folks already know about baking fruit pies, right? What are four types of apples that would be good in a pie?"
5What are we learning about?Provide a basic definition and overview of the training topic so there is a context for the information to follow. That is, state the scope of the training. Reinforce a pattern of asking and answering questions.This summary should dominate the visual presentation at this point. Don't be afraid to repeat or rephrase the description. Ask the audience directly if what you have said and written makes sense."Today we're going to talk about preparing prickly pears for pie. We'll cover procurement, preparation, and prolonged preservation in particular."
6Why do you care?Provide a per person (or per department/role) benefit, goal, or requirement that this training will cover.Use the list you created from the "Who are you?" step to ensure you answer this question for everyone that is present and only those present."Rebecca, before you leave here today you and every other line cook should be able to prepare a peck of prickly pears for any of our styles of pie."
7Show timePresent the topic.See Topic Specific Structure below.
8What did we learn about?Review the basic definition and overview of the training topic to remind them of the context for the information presented. Ask the audience if they have gained this knowledge.As you review the summary, relate it back to the more detailed material you just covered. Again, combine visual and verbal presentation."So that's it. We talked about prickly pear procurement–Pear Co. has the best, but take the longest to deliver and PearsByPost will do in a pinch. We talked about preparation–always wash twice; even for crunchy pies, always remove the prickles. And we talked about preservation–always pickle prickly pears in pairs, never refreeze a prickly pear. Does all that make sense to everyone? Did I miss anything?"
9Why did you care?Review the per person (or per department/role) benefit, goal, or requirement and ask the audience if they have achieved this.Use the list you created from the "Who are you?" step to ensure you ask everyone, or at least every department or role, if they feel they have learned what they needed to meet their specific goals for this training. These are the goals you set for them in the "Why do you care?" step."Is there any line cook here who couldn't pickle ten prickly pears for me right now? Rebecca, you confident of this? Mike, if I said I needed a dozen pears for next week, could you order them?"
10Who am I?Reminder everyone how to get in touch with you if they have further questions, comments, complaints, or concerns.Both verbally and visually present your name and department or role again prominently. This time also provide contact information such as email address, phone number, and where and when you can be reached in person.
11How did I do?Specifically request feedback on the training.Ask for feedback in person. Also, collect structured feedback through a survey immediately after the training while everyone still there and things are fresh in their minds. The survey should be short, easy, and allow for both structured and free-form feedback. Online surveys are great for this when the audience has laptops at the training. See Measuring Effectiveness below.

Topic Specific Structure

Topics can be presented different ways. Which way works best for learning will depend on the topic itself. Let's say you wanted to teach someone about the features of forest. You could go through each feature one at a time from least to most interesting, starting with the trees and ending with the magical unicorn grotto. You could talk about the features as they developed over time, starting with the oldest tree in the forest as sapling, the lake that formed a few years ago and then dried up again, and finish with the pack of wolves which arrived only last winter. You might present the features in the order someone walking through would encounter them, from the sprigs of new growth at the edge, to the dark heart where no sunlight touches the forest floor. Each of these is a different structure for the same information. Choose the one that best suits your topic based on the guidelines and example structures below.

What Makes a Good Structure

The way you organize your presentation is the same way your audience will try organize the information in their minds. The best choice depends upon the topic itself, how the information will be recalled, and how well it supports the learning process.

  1. Pick a structure that fits the information itself.
    1. For example, processes and historical events are naturally organized by time because earlier events influence later events.
    2. Positional arguments, by comparison, work well with a hierarchical structure where the main points are presented together and supporting information is for each point is presented together as part of the main point.
  2. Pick a structure that supports the way the information will be used later.
    1. Again, a process is well suited to being organized chronologically because this is the same order people will perform the process in.
    2. When troubleshooting a complex system, separate parts of the system are checked separately for problems. Presenting information on each subsystem separately puts the keeps details that will be needed during actual use together.
  3. Pick a structure that aids the learning process.
    1. A structure that matches how the information will be used later already helps by connecting the learning with actual practice.
    2. For more complex topics, it may be more important to organize the information to support learning even if it means going against the other two goals.
    3. If some information can be explained as a variant or  more complicated version of other information, present the simpler information first. This allows repetition and taking on new information in small portions.
    4. Presenting information in an order where the one part allows you to deduce the next lets the audience be a part of the learning process. This type of inductive reasoning works well when part of the information you want to teach is the historical context.

Common Types of Structure

The number of ways to organize information is smaller than you might expect. All of these structures serve as tools to allow you to focus on one part of the whole topic at a time, instead of having to hold the whole topic in your mind at once. While you may occasionally find a better structure for your topic, start by considering one from this list of the most common structures.

  1. Take a Tour: Location
    1. Organize information based on how things are arranged in the physical world
    2. This works well as a high level structure
    3. It can be for locations as broad as countries of the world, or as local the parts of your body
  2. Just Sort It: Alphabetical
    1. Organize information based on the letters in their names
    2. This is structure of last resort, useful mostly for reference materials
    3. One of the most arbitrary structures, avoid it if at all possible
    4. It is especially weak as a high level structure
  3. Watch the Clock: Time
    1. Organize the information by how it happened (or will happen) in time
    2. Often a great choice for historical information or "how to" process instructions
    3. It can work well as a high level or low level structure
  4. Group it Up: Category
    1. Organize the information into groups based on similarities of the topic details themselves
    2. Topics of books in a library or the products in a grocery store are example of this structure
  5. Rank and File: Hierarchy
    1. Organize the information based on its ordered relationships
    2. This structure is well suited to information which has relationships of importance or rank between various parts
    3. Company organizational charts is an example of this structure
  6. Get to Specifics: Deductive
    1. Organize the information in stages from the most general overview or idea to specific details
    2. This works well when you have a common base idea and details which are variations on that idea
    3. It is generally effective, especially as a high level structure
    4. One example would be describing pears in general before talking about different varieties
    5. Another would be starting with a general problem and then breaking it down to main causes and then again to specific actions to address the problem
  7. Draw a Conclusion: Inductive
    1. Organize the information in stages from specific details up to the general overview or idea
    2. This structure presents supporting information before presenting a conclusion. This can help overcome a natural bias to an unpleasant conclusion
  8. Tell a Story: Narrative
    1. Organize the information based on how a person has or might interact with the topic
    2. Narrative structures provide a way to let the audience related to the information by relating to the protagonist of the story
    3. User stories are an example of this structure

Let's get meta

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This guide also has a structure. Since it covers the process of creating and running training, it mostly follows a time based structure. That is, it covers the material in the same order that you would do the task it covers. It still starts with a title and the author and an overview of what it covers. But once it gets to the topic specific material, it starts where you would start if creating a new training plan.

  1. Start with a general structure
  2. Pick a topic specific structure
  3. Create the training plan in that structure
  4. Train people with the plan
  5. Get feedback
  6. Make the training better based on the feedback

But wait! Right now the words you're reading are just after step 2 on that list, but the next section is about actually giving training. That's step 4 if you structure things strictly according to time, like the list above. The section on step 3 on creating the training plan doesn't show up until after this one. This is why I said this guide mostly follows a time based structure.

Why talk about giving training before you create the training plan? This is a case of choosing a structure which supports learning the information, even if means not always following the time based structure that naturally fits the data and matches the way the information will be used. Knowing how to effectively present information will change how you create your training plans. Once you know that repetition and creating a dialogue with your audience make your presentations better, you'll want to directly incorporate them into your training plan. Because of that, this guide talks about giving training first, even though it is out of order in our time based structure.

Combining and Nesting Structures

Don't worry if you find certain structures overlap. Inductive structures, where you lead the audience to draw a conclusion from initially presented information, often combine naturally with the narrative structure by adding a protagonist who also reaches the conclusion. The step by step nature of time oriented structures can overlap with location based structures when they describe a process that takes place over multiple spots. These structures are less separate things and more different approaches to encourage you to think about your topic creatively.

You also can, and should, nest structures. Think of a company organizational chart. You might use location for the highest or outermost structure, that is, grouping people by each physical office. For each office in turn, you might use a hierarchical structure and organize people by departments and how they report to each other. You could then nest another structure and sort each specific department's personnel alphabetically. Remember that the purpose of structuring information is to group it into parts that are small enough to hold in your thoughts at once without being overwhelmed. Nesting structures lets you organize information at one level, but still save details for a lower level structure that better fits those details.

Let's get meta

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While this guide mostly uses a time based structure at a high level. At a lower level, however, it uses different structures for the various lists of numbered items. The table in the general structure section is still time based. The points about what makes a good structure, however, are organized not only by time (how you are expected to consider the points when picking a structure) but also deductively. That is, the most complicated goal (the one which can override others, has the most supporting points, and is the most abstract) is saved for last.

How is the list of common structures organized? (Hint: It's not, really. Is there a better way to organize it? What does better mean in this case?)

Next Up: Presenting Information