Why do we Love Conferences & Hate Training?

I've spent the last couple of days at Training 2015 sharpening the saw in my talent toolbox. As a trainer and instructional designer, I'm continually looking to improve my craft. I've learned a ton in the different sessions, much with direct applicability to my job, and look forward to trying out the new ideas.

I love conferences, and my friends might consider me a conference junkie. During this event, I've been struck by the fact that most of the workshops I've attended have been lectures with PowerPoint slides, one of the things that people lament about as being the dreadful part of training. I've been totally engaged by the content, and left making connections to my world. What is it about conferences that make them engaging that is such a contrast to much of our training that puts people to sleep?

At A Conference

• User selection
  In most conferences, there are choices to be made during workshop slots. Program titles and descriptions are provided, and attendees select the sessions they would like to attend. There is interest and investment in attending.

• Audience match to the topic
  In a conference, we have like-minded people in attendance. 
  
  Conferees generally have some grounding in the topic, even if it is new to them. The jargon is familiar, and the context of the topic is understood. Slides are crafted to impress, since the presentation is often to a peer group. 

• Expert's View of Specific, Condensed Content
  Workshops are presented on topics in the presenter's area of expertise. Many times, the presenter has submitted a proposal that was reviewed and vetted by a selection committee. Since the audience is often new to the topic, the high points are covered to provide a taste of that expertise and enough insight to be able to ensure the attendees leave feeling informed, and often equipped with something to implement. There is a laser focus on a slice of the presenter's knowledge and experience.

• Right-sized Timeframe
  Workshops tend to run 60-90 minutes at a conference. This constraint creates the need for careful planning. When a person is asked to present at a conference, s/he is given a small window of time and needs to determine exactly what will fit into those few minutes. Workshops must fit into that schedule another program needs to occupy the space when it concludes.  

At a Training

• Someone else determines attendance
  In most companies, training fulfills a requirement. Whether it is compliance or learning a new software, it is someone else's idea that the learner attend.
  Learners may not be vested or interested.

• Varied Audience
  In theory, at a training event, the audience is level set. A particular type of employee is required to attend. If the trainer has done a thorough needs analysis, strengths and weaknesses of the population are understood and the curriculum matches the need.
  More often, training is one-size-fits-all with no variance for needs of differing populations.

• Expansive Content Presented by a Facilitator
  Training is often bloated with unnecessary content. Nice-to-know is not separated out from need-to-know. Classes are presented by trainers who may not be experts, but rather new learners a few steps ahead of the trainees. If an expert is invited in, s/he may not be able to distill content to critical points. Additionally, content may not have relevance to the learner's job today. 
  Too much information creates cognitive overload, and learners become overwhelmed, unable to filter out key points.

• Timeframe May Be Too Long
  Living in a faced paced society combined with the impact of television has shortened learner attention spans. Six or seven hours of training, especially when learners are not completely engaged, is exhausting. Unless the material is properly scaffolded, the learners will lose ground as time goes on. 
  Time is bloated to match the content.

So What?

What does all this mean for us? How can we create right-sized learning that learners are invested in? 

1. First, we need to consider the needs of the learner. We need to understand their current job and how this training fits into it. 
2. Second, we need to strip out any fluff and keep the main thing the main thing. What's the critical nugget(s) that your learners need to leave with? We need to make sure to identify that and reinforce it throughout the program.
3. Thirdly, we need to think about designing to a timeframe, rather than build until it is finished and determining the time at the end. If you know you have a half day to accomplish something that might have taken three without a constraint, you'll work hard to ensure that the key points are the keys.
   

Impossible, you say? I'm not so sure. We do it with conferences all the time.