For maximum impact, get employees to train each other

The best-conceived training course can still fail if it doesn’t engage the employees taking it. And there are ways to engage employees that go beyond having them regurgitate what they’ve (supposedly) learned.

One such way: Get the employees themselves to teach others.

Teach thyself
When people have to explain – and defend – what they’ve learned, they retain it better and grow more committed to it.

So consider training some of your respected senior people and letting them train the rest. Of course, you’ll want to monitor the training and check afterward that all participants have learned what they should have.

Another principle to apply: “Don’t tell me; let me tell you.” In the best interactive employee training experiences, participants have opportunities to tell one another and the instructor why the new methods are important.

Remember, adults don’t like authority figures telling them to modify their behavior, during training or otherwise. But if you let them explain to others why what they’ve learned is important, you bolster everyone’s chances of internalizing the training.