How to Target a Wide Audience while Training

Don’t be surprised if your first request for project management training comes from one specialized area within your organization. Because complex, specialized assignments and projects can surface in any business area, a group may suddenly realize that their staff needs project management skills in a hurry. As you work with them, you begin to discover that some of their training may have to address their specific practices and may even need to use some of their specialized vocabulary. Time pressures may tempt you to give up the big picture of planning an organization-wide project management training program, but try to hold your ground and simultaneously focus on your long- and short-term goals. Separate the universal from the specific as much as possible so that you can develop your training in “chunks” that can be redeployed in later project management training workshops. Even though it may seem counterintuitive at the moment, this disciplined, modular approach will pay off in greater rather than less flexibility.

In planning your training, strive for:

Modularity. Plan learning activities that are as self-contained as possible. These can then be placed in a variety of learning contexts. For instance, a simple exercise may be appropriate for a short overview session and as part of an intermediate workshop. Rather than creating a long multiple-section document containing handouts and other learning resources, keep each item as a separate file so it can be compiled into any number of different learning aids.

Reusability. The principle of reusability means that your learning modules should avoid including such data as date, workshop name, or even page numbers whenever possible. These elements can be added at the time a specific workshop “goes to press.” The added time you spend today in separating this data from the substantive learning content will pay off many times over when you are able to incorporate the same module in another workshop with little or no modification

Adaptability. Once you have achieved reusability, the next level for which to strive is adaptability of course content. Plan content so you can expand or condense presentation material to fit different learning needs and different time slots. In this book, you’ll find some of the same materials in the half-day overview that you’ll find in the two-day course. Whenever possible think in terms of how a piece of course content can be juxtaposed with related materials in other courses to create customized versions for your learning customers. Over time, you’ll become increasingly adept at this valuable skill and will be able to quickly assemble custom materials from course content you’ve already developed.

“Findability.” I have a large collection of computer data, audio recordings, and videotapes that have accumulated over the years. The only problem is that when the time comes to access a file, listen to an opera, or watch an old movie, I far too often spend long periods searching for my targeted item, all the while saying “There it is!” to dozens of things I thought I’d lost forever. Despite vows to the contrary, I’m very bad at organizing and labeling personal media. Fortunately, I’ve learned to do a better job with the materials I use for training. As a zealous convert, I want to recommend that you do everything possible to organize your course materials so you can find everything required and reuse and adapt the modules when you’re developing a new course or workshop.

Article added at: 11.15.2006 by Kelly Huston