Elemental Truths: How to Plan Training for Executives and Professionals

The main purpose of executive training goes far beyond instruction about current innovations, the key purpose is to build a collaborative unit capable of long term success.

Content Considerations

When you plan to bring together a group of professionals it is very important to demonstrate that you respect their time as a high value item. In order to demonstrate that respect it is imperative that you provide the training in digestible segments. For a day long planning you should never attempt to train on more than three main concepts. Any training that could be conducted in less than that amount of time should be provided as independent material for that self-starting professionals are capable of absorbing on their own. Any training that requires more than a day broken into four segments is too large for one training and should be deconstructed into manageable portions.

Let's Break that Schedule Down

To make the absolute best use of the time break your morning into two blocks of ninety minutes. Plug in a decompression break between the two morning sessions. Schedule a lunch break with enough time for participants network process and absorb. Develop the afternoon session on the same pattern. Never, expect participants to attend to training for more than ninety minutes at a time. In fact, that ninety minutes is really a series of shorter focus elements that combine to create the actual ninety minutes.

Avoiding Death by Power Point
One of the most prevalent complaints listed on professional development feedback forms is frustration participants experienced at being read to. One more time for emphasis. DON'T READ TO YOUR PARTICIPANTS.

Successful professionals didn't get to be successful professionals by not being able to read. What need is valuable information presented in a manner that allows dialogue and interactions.

Slides are a jumping off point. A good rule of thumb is no more than one slide every three to five minutes. More than that is distracting. Less than that can be monotonous.

Expert Insight
Keep in mind the average adult attention span is about twenty minutes. That mean in order maximize your impact the most important information of your training should take place in the first twenty minutes of each session. That means each of your ninety minute sessions into four twenty minute sessions with time for transition and refocus between each focus topic.

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