According to a June 2009 report by the Conference Board's Corporate Leadership Council, 21 percent of employees are "highly disengaged" at work. The report also found that the number of employees exerting high levels of effort has dropped by half — and that those numbers correspond to a simultaneous drop in managerial effectiveness.
With findings such as those, no wonder companies are searching for ways to more effectively train their management staff. The traditional teacher-lecture training scenario may not provide the results companies desire. For such training to be useful, it needs to:
- provide specific tools managers can use
- present information in ways managers can easily absorb and retain
- change managers' behavior and provide ways for them to change employee behavior
Engaging users
In "Training Takes Time," a post on the SmartBlog on Leadership website, the author writes that although adults can listen for 90 minutes of a presentation, they will remember only 20 minutes of information. Therefore, trainers should break up their presentation every 8 minutes with some type of interactive activity to help trainees better retain the presented materials.
One of the best ways to offer interactivity and boost engagement and retention is through audience response technology. Audience response systems boost the effectiveness of training programs by allowing presenters to target the specific tools and topics that participants need while validating their understanding of the materials.
Electronic polling devices provide trainers with the ability to obtain real-time feedback so that they can adjust their presentations to the needs of the audience or change the way they are presenting the information. That adaptability saves time and money and improves the training's effectiveness.
Here are five ways that you can use an audience response system to boost attentiveness and retention:
1. Pose an interactive question questions every 8 to 12 minutes in your instructional presentation. Participants will pay closer attention and will be interested to see how their responses fit with those contributed by peers
2. Pose an interactive question after teaching a major concept. Immediately display the resullts. Foster discussion about the wrong answer choices to help promote better understanding.
3. If a significant number of participants have failed to master the concept, provide another example of the concept and teach it a second time. Poll the group a second time and do a pre-post comparison of learning results. Discuss the results.
4. Schedule a class review session. Use the interactive system to provide participants an opportunity to indiciate which topics are of specific interest to them. Allocate review time accordingly.
5. Use the interactive system for a quiz. Provide scored printed results back to participants showing each question and the correct answer so they can direct their individual review efforts toward those learning points that require more work.
To learn more about how you can leverage technology to enhance your training programs, call us at 407-872-3333, or visit or click here. We will be happy to consult with you and prepare a custom web demonstration of a solution that meets your needs.
