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Frequently Asked Questions
1. What training do I need?
It depends. To work this out, we would need to have a meeting or phone conversation, where we discuss what’s happening with you and your team. It is always a collaborative process. We work together to uncover your needs (they sometimes aren’t exactly the presenting needs and can change and take shape when we discuss them). We then design the program, and check in with you to ensure that it makes sense.
2. How do you incorporate my team’s special needs?
Our initial discussion, where we take the brief, will uncover your particular needs. One of our watchwords in program design is flexibility—so your program can be designed in whatever way it needs to be, to meet your needs. Your involvement in the up-front, pre-program work is absolutely essential to getting the design right and making the program a success.
3. How do you handle participants who don’t want to be in the workshop?
We try to avoid this situation as much as possible, and we do this in the up-front process that we go through. We talk to leaders/organisers of training programs about participants and ask questions about their predisposition to the training program. It truly needs to be a collaborative process between the facilitator and the people who are organising the training. If it seems like some people are very resistant or anti, we suggest that they don’t attend the program, because they generally don’t learn anything. People who don’t want to be in the room, generally should not be. They disrupt the energy in the space, annoy or distract the other participants and they generally don’t learn anything. For these reasons, we generally advise that training programs be marketed as opt in workshops.
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4. How much will this cost me?
It depends. Every program we run is tailored to the client’s needs and desired outcomes. We often start designing the session using many tried and tested exercises, flow, content, techniques and so on. This means we are not reinventing the wheel every single time, which saves money in the design phase. We do provide a quality service. Our clients are usually very serious about their training initiatives and are not just throwing money at a problem. We also have a preference for running sessions no shorter than half-days where possible. This is because we prefer all our training programs to have an interactive element, and this takes time. We don’t deliver lectures (unless it’s a keynote speech) and engaging the audience is one of the best ways to aid retention.
An indicative cost for a standard half-day program that has standard pre-program work, materials, delivery and follow-up would start at $2000 plus GST, plus expenses. Some programs (eg Negotiation) start at $3000 plus GST for a half-day, plus expenses. We do work within client budgets.
5. How long should the session(s) be?
It depends on what you want to achieve. This is something for us to discuss in our initial meeting or phone call. Shorter sessions have less interaction and therefore less opportunity for retention; major change shouldn’t be expected in 1 - 2 hour sessions. Some modules (eg Leadership, Internal Consulting Skills, Presentation Skills) need longer time frames to adequately cover all the content and exercises.
6. What are some other programs you have run?
We have run quite a few national programs—two that focused on Quality Client Service for two international professional services firms. We have run an MBTI-based Leadership program for an institutional bank that went over 12 months. We designed and ran a national Professional Image program for an international law firm. We have run Presentation Skills for over 3 years for a national arts organisation. We have designed and run a two-day Scoping Program for that same organisation, which is run 2 - 3 times a year. We have designed creative and unique team (values/behaviour focused) sessions for a global finance organisation. We have designed and run individualised half-day programs for 6 support teams for an international professional services firm. We have run half-day negotiation programs for partners and directors of a global consulting firm.
These are just a sample of the programs we have run. They are all different, yet the one thing they have in common is that the client wanted a quality program delivered by a professional and confident facilitator.
7. What are your qualifications?
Please see the About Us page for specific details of our qualifications. We believe in lifelong learning, and are always updating our skills, knowledge, tools, and delivery techniques. A skilled facilitator uses all of their life experiences to create an environment where people choose to learn. This is what we do.
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8. What makes training succeed?
There are many factors that make training succeed. Involvement from the organisation in all aspects of the training, from beginning to end, is essential. This is what partnering really means—working together to create an impactful learning event. Qualified participants—people who actually want to be in the workshop and learn—make a huge difference to the success of training. Great training programs happen when the teacher and the participant collaborate together to create the learning. Gifted facilitators, relevant content and well-run and debriefed interactive exercises all make for great training programs. These are all items we seek to include in every single training initiative we are involved in.
9. What makes training fail?
The things that make training fail are essentially the opposite of the above—when the organisation leaves the facilitator to sink or swim, is not behind the program 100%, is not adequately involved in pre-program work, abandons the training program and/or the facilitator if things get off track. All these things can contribute to a training program failing. If there is not an appropriate fit between the organisation and the training provider/facilitator, this also makes for poor training. Generally speaking, it must also be said that a facilitator who lacks confidence or competence also contributes to an ineffective training program. We go out of our way to make sure that these things are absent from training programs we are involved in.
10. How do you rate the success of your programs?
We use evaluation forms that are handed out and completed by each participant, at the end of every program we run. We collate the results and forward this to the leader or organiser of the training program. These evaluation forms are tailored to suit the client’s needs, and reflect the particular areas they wish to be evaluated from the training program.
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11. What kind of follow-up to you do?
We always like to follow-up with clients on programs. This is part of our standard procedure. We usually follow-up with an email or phone call, about 4 - 8 weeks after the program has concluded. Depending on the program, the follow-up can vary. For example, we ran a two-day pilot program for a client in March, and in May we did a 1½ hour session (which included the participants) to follow up and refine the program, before we ran it again in September.
Follow-up is particularly important for some programs. Where sensitive or core issues have been raised in a session, it’s really important that participants have a chance to air any new thoughts or feelings that have come up for them since the session. This can be done by the manager/leader of the team either one-on-one or in a group format. Where a really creative or different-from-usual program has been run, this is another situation where the leader of the team really needs to follow-up with their people, to give them a chance to share and air thoughts/feelings. This type of follow-up should not focus on the session that was held (past focus), but on what is happening now—how have things changed, what’s new, what’s good, what’s not, etc (present and future focus). If it is relevant, then questions can be asked about how the session has helped, or not. This is particularly useful if the program is part of a series or ongoing training initiative.
We use follow-up to modify our approach, content, exercises, flow, and so on. Follow-up, as well as our evaluation process, keeps our programs fresh, alive, and relevant.
12. What are my commitments?
Training programs always work best when the client is involved in all aspects of the training process. We make this easy for you, and have a fairly standard process that we use and modify throughout the training program lifecycle. Your involvement should include, at a minimum: pre-program work; consulting with the organisation to discover needs; working with the facilitator to design the best session (on specific items such as Reality Bites); enrolling participants and making sure they are the right ones to attend and know what is expected; assisting with equipment and logistics; and coordinating and involvement in follow-up. Client involvement varies from co-facilitation of the actual session through to content-free coordination. The very best training programs usually have higher client participation and involvement.
13. Where can the training be held?
Anywhere your participants are. We are based in South East Queensland, but travel and work nationally and internationally. You might also wish to consider the actual venue, and the pros and cons of holding the training session on-site, vs. at a specific location. We will help you create the best learning environment by sharing our previous experiences with you.
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14. How do I get started?
Contact us to arrange a face-to-face or phone discussion. We find it useful to start with what’s happening with you now. What is going on with your team? What’s working, what’s not? What are the development areas for your team? What issues are you facing? What opportunities? Challenges? What would you like the training program to deliver? If you could get anything you wanted from the training program, what would it be? Are there any specific skill areas you want covered? Also, let’s talk logistics—dates, times, locations, budget, etc.
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