How My Worst Experience as a Trainer Helped Shape My Business.

I will never forget one of my most difficult, but eye-opening experiences as a trainer. I was facilitating the second day of a four-day professional development program to a group of eight Independent Contractors. The Independent Contractors were new to the organization and the industry. The industry used a lot of technology, some of which were very antiquated, with complicated inputs and commands. So, new contractors needed extensive training on that technology and product knowledge to effectively perform their job. A separate department provided that training, of which I had little control. The training I developed and led was created to help them set up and grow their businesses with a business plan and marketing support.

From the beginning, three of the participants were disengaged and frustrated. Their negative energy was palpable, but I was confident I could turn them around. While I was delivering the content, I observed these participants texting back and forth with each other. They tried to be discreet, but the smirks on their faces were getting more prominent, and the other attendees noticed. It felt like we were on the outside of a party we weren't invited to. In today's world of cell phones, this may not seem all too unusual or even dramatic, but what transpired after I confronted them changed the way I would develop, design, and train in the future and is a core value of my business.

Ont the next break, I pulled them aside to confront them about their behavior. They gave me an earful. While they felt the training was relevant and essential, they were not ready for the content because they had not received the foundational training they needed. They didn't know how to sell, so how could they grow? They may have been disrespectful, but bottom line, I knew they were right.

Often, in organizations, we want to jump ahead with the required expectations of the job without evaluating other foundational processes and systems. I like to use the rowing team as an example. If you evaluated your onboarding, processes, systems, benefits, compensation, and talent development, would everyone be rowing in the same direction? Success happens when everyone can work together to achieve a common goal. The best training in the world won't succeed unless the foundation is built to support it.

This experience, although uncomfortable, was a lesson in the value of a thorough assessment when creating a training program. In my case, we had to go back and evaluate everything from our recruitment message to onboarding, as well as our training plan and align it to fully support the Independent Contractors in all stages of their development.