How Outcome-Driven Training Will Get You the Best Results
When designing training programs, it’s easy to fall into the trap of including too much content. You want learners to have all the necessary information, but overloading them with details can cause them to lose sight of the key objectives and be unclear about expected outcomes.
The Dreaded Rabbit Hole
You could be an instructional designer, a subject-matter expert, or any other version of ‘content creator’ and have found yourself asking, ‘How did we get down THIS rabbit hole?”
The rabbit hole is, of course, a content development plan that started with five simple objectives yet has made its way into 10 topics, 12 sub-topics, and eight training days. THAT rabbit hole.
My First Experience in the Rabbit Hole
I was asked to develop customer service training for public sector employees. I LOVE training customer service. I was excited about the content and eager to make it the most comprehensive, insightful, and enjoyable offer possible.
My research and excitement led me to more and more essential content. Communication skills led to conflict resolution, which led me to emotional intelligence. Add in stakeholders catching a whiff of a new course in development that had to include their content, however loosely related it was, and suddenly, our one-day training had turned into a multi-day seminar—packed with theory, frameworks, and endless PowerPoint slides and scenarios.
Suffice it to say it did not test well in the pilot. The learners were overwhelmed, questions were rare, engagement was minimal, and by the end, I realized I had drowned them in content instead of guiding them to practical, actionable skills. I had fallen into the classic trap: more content didn’t mean better learning.
I wish I could say that was the last time it happened, but (of course) it wasn’t. However, through years of trial and error and correcting the path, I’ve honed my design process in such a way as always to ensure we never lose sight of the desired outcomes.
Here is a better Story
We were tasked to help an organization that does much of its work by committees. These committee members have full-time jobs and volunteer their time to sit on and conduct the committees’ work. This organization is focused on building capacity, creating future leaders, and mentoring their people into new roles. With limited training time for them to be off work and in class, we had to ensure the time spent was laser-focused on outcomes.
And lofty outcomes at that!
Creating business plans and budgets, collaborating with other committees, executing their plans, and reporting. This situation could have easily gotten out of hand with content creation and days of training on the whats and whys.
Instead, following our design process, our roadmap was:
- An initial training workshop to kick off newly formed committees
- A set of workshops throughout the year to keep committees on track with their progress.
These workshops were key in providing:
- timely content based on the activities being conducted
- time to carry out the work of their committees face-to-face, in a supported and collaborative environment, where outcomes were abundantly clear upon completion of each workshop.
How did our roadmap achieve a successful result?
Here’s a sneak peek of some key tips from our finely tuned design process to keep your eye on the outcomes.
1Start with Clear Learning Objectives
Before you begin, define what learners should be able to do after the training. Use SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) to guide content selection. If a piece of content doesn’t directly support an objective, it’s probably unnecessary.
2Use the ‘Need to Know’ vs. ‘Nice to Know’ Filter
Focus on essential knowledge and skills, and find another avenue for supplementary materials/training for those who want more details. This process keeps the core training concise and impactful.
3Keep It Engaging and Action-Oriented
Long-winded lectures and excessive reading can lead to disengagement. You want learners to actually ‘do’ something at the end of training that will change outcomes, so have them ‘do’ it IN training. They don’t need five theories of ‘why’. Use interactive elements like scenarios and hands-on exercises that align with the learning objectives.
4Test for Relevance and Brevity
Pilot your training with a small group and gather feedback. Are learners overwhelmed? Are key takeaways clear? Do they feel confident enough to put into practice what they learned, and did that transfer to positive outcomes? Use this input to refine your content and cut anything that doesn’t add value.
Training isn’t about how much you can fit in—it’s about what impacts your outcomes.
Stay disciplined, and always keep your eye on the outcomes, and your training development will remain focused, effective, and engaging—without disappearing into a content rabbit hole.
How Can We Help?
We have a series of questions we ask at the start of training design to ensure focus and outcome-driven design. Book a FREE 30 minute discovery call with me to learn more.
About TouchPoints Learning & Innovation
We are an enthusiastic team of experts in learning, change and innovation. We help organizations solve business problems through facilitated creative problem-solving, team development services, outcome-driven innovation, and custom training development and delivery.
