Connecting: Training should address employee learning styles

When you describe a new project to a trainee, does the trainee really understand your expectations or walk away confused, foggy and unsure of your expectations? It's important to understand that everyone has a different learning style.

David Lewis and James Greene say in their book "Thinking Better" that there are basically two kinds of learners: Stringers and Groupers. Stringers prefer a systematic, methodical approach with a careful plan of action and tend to build progressively with what is known as "basement-up learning." Stringers often overlook the broad concepts.

Conversely, Groupers have a learning style known as "top down" and need to get the overall view before getting to the details. They enjoy looking for relationships, and they excel at overall knowledge but are shaky with details.

With this in mind, how should you approach training? By using the basic rules of presentation:

Reveal the whole picture

Explain the details

Recap the process

Also known as "Tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em, tell 'em, and tell 'em what you told 'em."

Reveal the whole picture

Great presentations begin with an overview: "Tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em." By starting with the end in mind, you give your employees, (especially the Groupers) a mental and verbal template or map. It shows them where they are in relationship to the final destination.

For example, you want an employee to create a company newsletter to be sent to 500 employees. The tasks involved might be gathering information for the various parts of the newsletter, entering employee information in a database and using mail merge to mail the newsletters. Confusion results if this important step of revealing the whole picture is overlooked.

Not long ago I was visiting with a young married couple friends of mine who are moving to Chicago as they advance their careers. Neil, a new college graduate, is preparing to move up into middle management with a national retail firm.

Neil dreads the training period because of his former experiences with on-the-job training. "They start in the middle of the project, taking for granted that I know what they are talking about or that I have been trained in that particular area. I have no idea where they are going or how the parts of the job relate to each other."

Neil explained how there was no order to the conversation, and there seemed to be no effort in planning the discussion as to the overall view of the job and the steps to implementing the task.

"If they would first show me the end result, then I would at least have a mental map of where we are headed." Now even the Stringers can appreciate that as long as they know that you are getting to their favorite part: the details.

Explain the details

Explaining the details is the "Tell 'em" part of the presentation otherwise known as the body. Using the newsletter example, you might ask the employee if he is trained in using a database program and if so, which one. What about mail merge?

In other words, do an assessment and ask questions as to the expertise of the employee. Gather enough information to develop customized training for that individual. Perhaps she doesn't need extensive training but only needs to know how to use mail merge.

Use this time to pause and let the employee ask questions. The questions she asks will help you determine if what she needs to know can be answered in the remainder of your presentation or if there are unforeseen issues you have failed to address.

If you are speaking to a Stringer, make sure he understands how particular details relate to the entire picture. When speaking to Groupers, be available to discuss the importance of being detail-oriented and the impact of missed details on the entire picture.

Recap the process

This is the wrap up, or the "Tell 'em what you told 'em" part of the presentation that should have the two of you agreeing on the expectations, the process and the vision. Ask the most important questions:

What are the requirements of this job?

Can you explain to me what I just explained to you?

How do the details relate to the overall requirements?

What training do you need before you can successfully meet these requirements?

Understanding different learning styles and using good presentation skills helps create order out of chaos as it empowers your employees to be successful.

(Marlene Chism is president of ICARE Consulting in Springfield.)