Engage Participants and Have Them Eating Out of Your Hands for Better Training Results

Thinking back a few years ago, I remember this remarkable lesson I learned about getting better training results.

After all isn’t that what we all want? Training participants learning and retaining more???

I was on vacation and I was watching people feed the birds.

I couldn't help but remember how the children chased after all the birds trying to catch them.

Almost every kid between age 3 and 7 eventually started to run and stress and chase the birds. It was quite amusing because *the birds always ran away*! But, then I recall watching the adults interacting with the birds and noticed something fascinating…

The adults did not chase the birds. They would toss a few seeds or small pieces of bread and the birds would “magically” come to them. And, in some cases, they would hop up into their hand and eat right out of their hand! (IMPORTANT LESSON: That is what you want from your training participants,right?)

Here are 3 insights from what I watched for you to apply to improve your training:

#1) When you chase anyone, their instinctive reaction is to run away. Even when you chase them with something they want! The kids had bags of food in their hands and the birds still ran. Just like you have the solutions to so many challenges and problem your participants are facing, you can still make them run away. The more we chase, the less we catch! True for birds. True for training participants.

Think of it like magnets for a moment… you need to make it so you magically attract them and not violently repel them.

Instead…

#2) When you toss out a few tasty bits, you start attracting to the point of having them eating out of the palm of your hand. As trainers we can offer many “tasty bits”: W.I.I.F.M.

• Reduce stress (if done correctly)
• Make more money
• Have more FUN
• More personal satisfaction

This isn’t some trick. If you have something of value to offer and your training participants see this, they’ll move closer to you because they want more. This isn’t manipulation, it’s human nature! (Or animal nature, because it’s just as true for the birds 🙂)

Here's the kicker…

#3) When the kids watched the adults making this strategy work, they tried to do the same thing… only better. Instead of offering a few “tasty bits”, they dumped out a huge handful of food all over the ground.

What happened was very surprising! The birds were overwhelmed. They moved on to other people to try to get food from someone else even though there was “all you can eat” right in front of them!

You can overwhelm people and get few, if any, to jump into your palm.

Think about “micro learning” and ways to provide content rich nuggets so they learn but are not overwhelmed.

Remember…

Don't chase away the learners.

Don't overwhelm them.

And, only give out a few tasty “tidbits” at a time.

Follow these steps and learners will more happily flock to you.

Now, say it with me — “Let's make learning engaging & FUN again!”

If you’ve read this far, thank you for your attention. It goes without saying that it means the absolute world to me. I hope this piece helped you in even the slightest bit and if it did, please share it with a friend that could also benefit from this.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. What do you think? Please comment below...the more discussion the more learning happens!

P.P.S.  The results are in from the question I asked last week and the winner is..."5 Proven Ways to Increase Retention, End Boring and Make Training FUN!"