Diane Kehoe (00:16): Welcome to Network's Online University. Welcome, all, to Networks for Training and Development Bootcamp. Um, this session is a brief discussion to kind of give you a behind the scenes look at what happens when training requests come in and our thought processes as a team as to how to get from a training request to actually, you know, executing that request in an event, or even after that event, what we do. Diane Kehoe (00:50): To get started, I'm going to be asking each of our team members to discuss from their point of view. But we're all going to jump in. So to start, the first thing, obviously, is there's a training request. And I know, Shauna, for us, that usually comes to you. So would you like to discuss what happens what h, comes in? Shauna Roman (01:12): Sure. Hi, everyone. Uh, Shauna Roman with Networks for Training and Development. And as Diane mentioned, I usually would receive, not all, but many or maybe most of the training requests to, uh, usually via email, occasionally phone calls. Shauna Roman (01:31): Um, and so a couple of things that we look for is obviously what is the subject, right? So some people might ask for a training on a particular topic, maybe for their staff or maybe for their, their group. And in some cases, if that subject falls within a certain area outside of my expertise or a, another team member within Networks is more well-versed, I'll forward that request directly to them. Other considerations, we look at, you know, what's really being asked. A lot of times, people think they know what they need. (laughs). Diane Kehoe (02:08): (laughs). Shauna Roman (02:09): Uh, and maybe that's not the case. (laughs). You think you need, uh, you know, staff training on communication in the workplace, and maybe you need a strategic plan, right? So we have a lot of conversations, uh, usually on Zoom, sometimes on phone, via, in person, et cetera. So there are other considerations, the size of the audience, the target audience. Is it just for a certain number of folks? Is it for a large audience? is it going to take place in person, virtually? Is it hybrid? Um, there are so many considerations. And we try not to draw out the process, because we know that at the end of the day, people need to get, you know, whatever they are, are requesting, right? There's costs associated with it. How many of us are involved? Um, what other considerations, guys, in requests that I'm missing? I really captured it all? I'm shocked. Diane Kehoe (03:13): I think you did. Shauna Roman (03:14): (laughs). Diane Kehoe (03:14): Yeah. Yeah. Shauna Roman (03:14): Okay. Diane Kehoe (03:14): I think the biggest issue was the one where we have to talk and say, you know, "Well, okay. What do you want?" And then when we hear them, we hear something else entirely. Shauna Roman (03:24): Yeah. Yeah. Very good. Diane Kehoe (03:28): Yeah. Shauna Roman (03:29): Okay. So that's, that's our requests in a nutshell. Diane Kehoe (03:32): Okay. Michelle, um, I know in a recent conversation, this came up with us. So I'll let you handle the how do we deal with the who is our audience, you know, and how you start that initial curriculum development stuff? Michelle Sparling (03:48): Mm-hmm. Absolutely. So once you know what you're topic is, and let's say it's communication, like Shauna had said, you need to think through who are the people that you're going to teach about this topic, right? Who are you going to teach about communication? What's their skill level? Um, do they have experience around this? Um, why... it, it's another big one that Shauna mentioned. Like, why do you need this? What's going on? Is there a reason? Is there a rationale behind needing that? Is there ul, an ulterior motive (laughs) for the person requesting that training? Michelle Sparling (04:22): So you have to dig deep to find out a little bit more about your audience so that you can best develop the curriculum that's really going to meet their needs and figure out what they really need. Um, and, and we'll talk more about techniques, but, you know, surveys and asking questions, um, are really, really important to set the stage for, um, figuring out what, you know, what you're going to do and really who your audience is. Michelle Sparling (04:47): Any other things that anybody would want to add? Diane Kehoe (04:50): Well, I know one of the glitches that happens is sometimes we get asked to do a training, and it's mandatory. Some people are just told to show up. So it's not even having that ability to say, you know (laughs)... It's like, "Oh, here they are." Diane Kehoe (05:04): So that's kind of another element in there, is, you know, well, okay, they're already coming with maybe some baggage. So we have to make sure where we figure a way to stimulate their curiosity and to make them want to be there (laughs), you know? Michelle Sparling (05:23): Mm-hmm. Absolutely. And really, looking at that wide range of people when it is expected that they attend a training, some people are going to have a lot of experience and some people aren't. And how do you teach across that broad spectrum? And it takes some practice to figure it, that out. Diane Kehoe (05:39): Okay. Jess (05:39): The, the other [inaudible 00:05:43], I, I think it kind of fits in here, but it's also this kind of broader scope of when we get a training request and, you know, depended upon the organization you work for and who the request is coming from and all of that, you know, there's been many instances over the years where we've declined or we've said, "You know, that's out of our skill set. That's..." And we'll, um, maybe refer folks like, "Check in with this group or this organization." Jess (06:10): And other times, we've said no because it just doesn't match who we are for a variety of reasons. So, um, I guess I'm just sharing this, that it's also okay to say no- Diane Kehoe (06:21): Mm-hmm. Jess (06:21): ... if that's something that's within your purview to do. Diane Kehoe (06:23): Mm-hmm. Michelle Sparling (06:24): Yeah. Really good point, Jess. Mm-hmm. Diane Kehoe (06:26): Yeah. And I know sometimes, some of you folks who are listening are like, "Well, I'm the training coordinator. And if a director says, "Make a training," I make a training." You know? (laughs). So we know you're in that position, but then you have to figure out and make sure how do you take that training topic and make sure you mesh in all the values and other stuff so that that training has some, is reflective of the organization. Yeah. Diane Kehoe (06:59): Just a big one I know is the marketing of a event. Jess (07:06): Hey, everyone. So this is Jess. I don't think I introduced myself earlier. So marketing, okay. So we live in the digital age. Marketing by and large is done virtually. However, I'm just going to say this up front. I think we're also shifting back to a point where, remember the days of paper flyers? People get so in, inundated with emails about events that going back to ye old paper flyer may be coming back (laughs) around. Jess (07:37): Um, but beyond that, there's a ton of considerations with your marketing. One, what is the event? Um, creating the graphics that are going to be reflective of that event, just from that, that visual component. When you get into the what is the training about, ensuring that you're clear and as succinct as possible in your training Diane Kehoe (08:00): (laughs). Jess (08:00): title but also your training description. Diane Kehoe (08:03): (laughs) Jess (08:03): Try not to be too wordy. We love words at Networks. We love ellipses. We love hyphens. We love colons and semicolons. (laughs) And Parts one and through 27. Um, and there's nothing wrong with that whatsoever. But just insure that you're as clear as possible when reflecting what the actual session is to your intended audience. But also be sure that you're making it enticing for maybe others that may not be in your current audience to say, "Hey, that sounds like that could be really helpful for me. Let me find out more. Maybe I do want to attend that as well." Jess (08:42): Um, so, you know, your, your distribution of the marketing, whether it is by snail mail with paper flyers, which like I said, I think we're coming back around to that slowly. Uh, whatever platform you're utilizing for your distribution list to get this out to your email distribution, um, be sure that you have that optimized so it's not hitting people's spam folders, which does happen. So there's a ton of different platforms out there that are useful. I'm not going to point out any one in particular. But do your research. If you're interested, get in touch. We can tell you what, what we utilize. Jess (09:19): And then we get into registration. So one of the biggest pieces, for me, with registration, from a data standpoint is who you are. Where you're coming from. What's your industry background? But beyond that, what are your accessibility needs? Are there any needs that you may have? Do you need the materials digitally? Do you, um, need a sign language interpreter? Are you in need of large font? Are there sensory needs we need to take into account that certainly come into play for virtual but definitely, 100% come into play when we're talking about an in-person session? Jess (09:56): And then that final piece, and there's tons more regarding all of this, but we're trying to keep this succinct. So I'm grazing, glazing over all of this, is that presenter communication. Oftentimes, that may come from me. But within Network we designate a point person that oversees the training, taking it from Point A to conclusion. And generally that person, um, takes care of the, uh, presenter communication if we're bringing in an outside person to do that. So insuring that their materials are accessible. They know what time to arrive. They know who the audience is, all of those other pieces. So you want to be sure you're designating, if it's not yourself, whoever that person is to be communicating adequately to your presenter. Um, if it's not yourself or it's not som- you know, within your organization. Who's going to have that seamless communication to be sure that things go off as much as possible without a hitch. Joe Murphy (10:57): You mentioned at [Glegg Gauge 00:10:58] some of the accessibility stuff that we need to make sure when we're planning training is there, the sign language interpreter, any, any other, large font. But that's, that process really should be starting and it does start in the very beginning. That's one of the initial conversations that's happening a- as we- as we're doing our planning. It's a lot easier to make your training accessible, it's, if you do it from the very beginning. Diane Kehoe (11:23): Yep. Joe Murphy (11:24): Don't back in. Retrofitting a training to make it accessible for someone, s- somebody, excuse me, can be a pain in the neck. Diane Kehoe (11:32): Yeah. Joe Murphy (11:32): And it's not worth it. Make it, make it accessible for everybody. Let's, let's think, think in the very beginning. You don't know who your audience is. So we, we had an issue the other, two weeks ago. We didn't, someone didn't request a, ASL interpreter. Well, that conversation should've happened earlier. And it wasn't an accessible training. Diane Kehoe (11:51): Yeah. I know, for me, one of the, in my role at Networks, I'm responsible for securing the vendors for all these services that we get. So I have to get the mailing list company or the registration platform. But I don't make that decision in isolation. As a team, we discuss it. But sometimes it's reaching out to those vendors because they don't always put it on their website. Are you accessible? Tell me what your accessibility framework is. And that's a question you need to ask because if your med- if your registration or your marketing isn't accessible, you know, how can people register? Recently I had so- a colleague who was blind, contact me with an email and say, "Hi, Diane. I'm sorry to interfere with, you know, interrupt your day. But this registration, this, um, email I got talks about an event. But I don't see any information here about registration or even description." And when I looked at it, the actual email that came from whatever software they were using, it came as a picture. So this person who was blind could not read any of the words describing the event. And could not get the link to register. Joe Murphy (13:21): Hm. Diane Kehoe (13:21): So you need to make sure from the beginning that the software you're using as an organization is accessible to... I know one of the things that we also do to you, Jess, is we'll throw you a loop in that venue thing. Because I know you're responsible for that. And say... I remember, uh, you know, we've done things like, "I want people to feel like they're at summer camp." (laughs) And then you go, "Okay, which of the venues do we have that might fit that little box?" But you want to create an atmosphere. You want to create an experience for your trainees. And sometimes that experience and that atmosphere starts with the venue you choose. Diane Kehoe (14:02): Anything else, folks? Okay, now we made it through that. We've got our event planned. We've got the curriculum designed. We've gotten all that done. It's the day of the event. Joe, would you like to take us on the day of the event? Joe Murphy (14:18): Yeah, I, I thought this would be an easy one. But the more I think about it, it's ever changing right now. S- we're recording this August 1, 2022. So as of last week, we have a new event policy that just came, came out. Um, and with COVID, and everything else, this keeps changing. So we, we need to figure out what is going on in that location where we're at. Um, we do a lot of stuff in the City of Philadelphia. But that's not the only place we do work. We do work in North Central P.A. We have an office in Hawaii. Um, so we're, we're all over the cou- the country, the world really. Um, so we have to take that, that into consideration. Joe Murphy (14:56): We also need to take into consideration, is, is it in person? And Shauna brought that back in, um, her first section there. Are we doing an in person event? Are we doing a hybrid? Or are we doing, uh, totally virtual? I can't stress enough, if you're doing a virtual, set time aside before the training starts. Don't have your presenter come for a 1:00 training, come, come in at five, five of 1:00. Come 20 minutes early. Come 15 minutes early. Just do a quick run. Make sure the Power Point's working. The sound's working, everything. The, we use, um, Rev for closed captioning. Make sure Rev is turned on and working prior to the event happening. So at 1:00 when the training starts, you're not going crazy trying to figure out what, what's going on. Diane Kehoe (15:38): Mm-hmm. Joe Murphy (15:39): Um, so, we, we need to look at what, what the venue is. If we're actually doing something in person, how can we space people out in these days of COVID? Uh, and keep social distancing in, in place. Uh, is it a place we need to bring hand sanitizer? What needs to be there, um, while we're there? Are we going to have food? I mean, before, one of the, you know, before Joe Murphy (16:00): For COVID, we always had coffee and white refreshment juicer before training. That's a little different now with COVID and we have to figure out how you're going to do that. And we haven't had a lot of in-person events in the last two years. Trying to think. Have we had any? Diane Kehoe (16:17): Uh, think, well, just the basic, uh, Nori love, Philly love. Joe Murphy (16:20): Yeah. Diane Kehoe (16:21): Yeah. A little of where we go, but we're not in that intimate connection, you know, like we were. Joe Murphy (16:27): Right. Diane Kehoe (16:28): But we know we're starting some of those up hopefully in the near future. Joe Murphy (16:32): So that starts, we have to take into consideration where we're at and- Diane Kehoe (16:35): Yeah. Joe Murphy (16:35): ... what that would look like. We had an interesting conversation a couple weeks ago. For years, we kept a old, um, overhead projector just in case somebody, one of our presenters would ever come in to a conference or a session where we're ru- running and out of nowhere, somebody came with overhead slides. This is 'bout three, four, 'bout four, five years ago. Joe Murphy (16:57): Um, but that, that overhead, um, had not been turned on in probably 10 years, (laughs), but it still worked and, and it was a great presentation and ,you know, and people have different styles. Some people like, like to present the way they always have. Um, so you need to have, need to have some of that conversation. Joe Murphy (17:15): Anybody else wanna more sta- one thing with the event. I'm sorry. It actually happens prior to the day of the event. If it's an in-person in- event, we have one of our co-workers go out and check it out. We checked that location out to make sure it's successful 'cause all hotels, most hotels I should say, are going to say they're accessible or they meet codes. So do they meet ADA code? Yeah. But does that make it accessible? Not always. Joe Murphy (17:42): We had a conference couple, one year where the one bathroom door, the handicap bathroom door actually opened up the wrong way and you really couldn't get a wheelchair into the handicap bathroom door. Was it accessible? By code, yes. But, unfortunately, it was the female bathroom door and the person we sent was a male, so he checked out the male- the men's bathroom door and the men's was fine. (laughs). Diane Kehoe (18:05): Yeah. And we had to make some quick, you know- Joe Murphy (18:08): Mm-hmm. Diane Kehoe (18:08): ... adjustments with the venue to make sure that that person had, is comfortable in the experience as everyone else. So that happens. Diane Kehoe (18:18): I think that brings up the fact, though, that you've made a request. You know, we've said to people, "Do you need any accommodations?" We've made sure we've advertised accommodations. When they registered, we asked about accommodations. The worst thing now that could happen is someone arrives that needed that accommodation and it's not there. Joe Murphy (18:38): Right. Diane Kehoe (18:38): So you should always have that point person in any, in an event, a larger event that coordinates connecting the accommodation to the person who needed it, but in your smaller events, uh, as a corporate trainer, make sure if you need a sign language interpreter, they're there. You know, make sure that if they needed large print, you've got it because that is like a slap in the face to the person. "You've asked me what I need, I told you and now you don't have what I need," and own up to your mistakes if it happens and make sure that you fix that as quickly as possible even if that's- Joe Murphy (19:20): Mm-hmm. Diane Kehoe (19:20): ... "I'm so sorry, we don't have it, but I will get you this. I- I don't care if I had to FedEx it to you the day after the event, but I will get this to you and my apologies." So make things right if you have to. Diane Kehoe (19:34): I know sometimes we've had to run some interference with venue staff. Um, we, and you want to do so in an educational way and not in an no- oppressive way, but they very thoughtfully in their minds created a table where folks who used wheelchairs could sit and one of our staff very gently walked up to them and said, "I'm sorry, but we don't do things that way. We would like people in, who use a wheelchair to sit anywhere they choose. So could you please space these tables out more so that anyone in, who uses a wheelchair could choose any one of the tables to sit. We don't have a wheelchair only section." (laughs). Yeah. So, it's educating them and you know, "Hey, I never thought of that. You're right," you know? So you want to be educating them. Diane Kehoe (20:29): And we educate our presenters along the way. We actually have presenter guidelines that we send that say, "This is our expectation of you as a presenter. Uh, it's going to be accessible. Uh, we're going to have you stuff ahead of time, whatever." Diane Kehoe (20:44): Um, anything else? Michelle Sparling (20:46): Something really simple, (laughs), get there early. (laughs). Diane Kehoe (20:50): Yeah. Michelle Sparling (20:50): I was a keener. Diane Kehoe (20:51): Oh, my gosh. Can't- Michelle Sparling (20:53): Hour, at least an hour early and, and if it's not your venue, if it's not your training space, make sure you know simple things like what's the wifi password. If you're using, you know, we've used universities before and their computers, make sure you know how to connect the technology properly. Um, there's been more than one occasion where I've reached out to Joe and I've had to FaceTime him, (laughs)- Joe Murphy (21:16): (laughs). Michelle Sparling (21:16): ... how to connect my technology with an existing technology because we had to use that particular technology. So just make sure that you have all of the details settled in advance, get there early. Michelle Sparling (21:29): Um, even in today's world, we've even faced locked bathrooms and what's, how do people get in to go to the bathroom. So there's a lot of little things that you can really, you know, take a close look at- Diane Kehoe (21:41): Yeah. Michelle Sparling (21:42): ... um, and you should. Joe Murphy (21:44): This may sound strange, too, in the world we're living in, if you're a trainer that goes to other ABCs to present, check your material at home. Make sure your, if you're bringing your own LCD projector, I haven't used my LCD projector in two years now. If I had to go, I would make sure, I would have to make sure it- it's connect- can connect and work. I got new laptop. Joe Murphy (22:03): Um, so if, you may have technology you haven't used in a couple years, but all of a sudden, now you're gonna start u- utilizing that you always took for granted worked fine. Diane Kehoe (22:12): Yeah. Joe Murphy (22:12): But make sure that stuff works. Diane Kehoe (22:14): Always consider, too, the comfort of your pres- your audience. Uh, with Joe and I presented at an agency, um, and we were told there would be about 10 people there and when we got there, there was this little boardroom and in walked 20 people who this boardroom was not going to accommodate. Um, but what we did is we changed the activity. Instead of the activity being something they did in that room, we sent them around their whole agency and I think probably it worked better. You know, we created activities to get them out of that cramped room. Diane Kehoe (22:52): Anything else before we move on to after that event? Jess (22:55): The, the other thing I'll add, Joe, this piggy backs on what, on what you said, making sure your technology works in advance. I learned the hard way. I had my PowerPoint on my laptop. I also had it, um, in the Cloud. I also had in on two different jump drives. I'm glad I had all those backups because the day of the event, it wouldn't, my laptop wouldn't read either of the jump drives, I could not get online, so I had to go back to pulling it up that I already had it preloaded on my laptop. Everything went wrong. (laughs). Diane Kehoe (23:32): (laughs). Jess (23:32): And it could've went wrong. Joe Murphy (23:33): Like us all. Jess (23:35): I- I- Diane Kehoe (23:36): And- Jess (23:36): ... personally now live by the mantra two is one, one is none. Always have a backup or triplicate or quadruplicate backup. (laughs). Diane Kehoe (23:46): And I'm sorry, but you also have to be prepared. Could you do your training without that PowerPoint? Joe Murphy (23:50): Yup. Diane Kehoe (23:51): Because we have been in a position where the technology has been such a disaster, shot up, (laughs), where we were literally, Diane Kehoe (24:00): Fortunately, we had printed out the PowerPoint so we, literally, we sitting around the table, (laughing) you know, with the printed copies and walking through that presentation without that PowerPoint. (laughs) But you should, as a trainer, be able to do that if you needed to because you never know. (laughs) Okay, we made it it through the event so what do we do after an event? And I'm gonna ask Nikita. Could you jump in here? Nikita Arnett (24:30): Sure. So, two things that we like to do, uh, for every network's training or event, um, afterwards, we will ask for feedback from our audience. Before the pandemic, when we still had in-person trainings, that was usually in the form of a piece of paper with a couple of questions. Now, the feedback, surveys, evaluations, whatever you want to call them, usually go out via SurveyMonkey or Microsoft Forms or a Google Form or Tesla Form, I don't know these days. (laughs) So there's ev- there's all kinds of ways that you could get this feedback, um, digitally now. Um, and we just wanna know whether or not the session or the training, um, met people's expectations. If they felt like they learned anything. And we usually provide a space for them to say, you know, like an open-ended answer, you know, so they could tell us like, "I love those presenters, they were great, bring them back!" Or, "Actually, this was a snooze fest and we don't like it." (laughs) Um, so, we just wanna know how people feel about the trainings. And I'm sure that many of the people who are watching this video are also trainers and they're used to doing that kind of thing. Nikita Arnett (25:48): Another thing that we always like to do after an event is debrief. No matter how many times we've done a specific training or held a specific event, we like to debrief amongst the team just to see, or just to talk about, you know, what went well, what, you know, we could change next time, how we feel the audience responded to things. Or, you know, like the whole tech thing, you know, it, maybe we won't use this venue next year because we didn't like how their tech was set up or the, how something happened, you know? So it's always good to just check in with your team after our training to see if any improvements could be made for the next time. Diane Kehoe (26:30): Is there anything else anyone would like to share, right before we- Joe Murphy (26:33): S- so I think most of us do those type of evaluations. But the one thing that you need to make sure is, is you actually read 'em and take y- those evaluations but actually use the information in it to make your training better. It's great to have evaluations but there's so many times when people don't even read 'em. If we bring an outside presenter, we make sure the outside presenter gets those evaluations and so they're being hear- hel- heard. Don't get overly upset if really rips in eval- in evaluation. Joe Murphy (27:03): I've seen some of the best presenters in the world, we brought some world-class presenters in over the years, get ripped. And not know why. Every other evaluation's perfect but, for some reason, it just didn't agree with f- for somebody and this presenter, in particular, (laughs) got pretty well destroyed in the eval. And she took it, she took it to heart and she f- was trying to figure out what she did wrong and was trying to f- and we kept looking at everything else. We looked at the other, other evals. I think it was just the person, at that point, but we wanted to make sure. And she wanted to make sure she didn't do something wrong. Which I, really, I was really young in at this point in this, in this training game and hearing her and seeing her, how she took those evaluations, really, uh, changed how I looked at things. Diane Kehoe (27:47): Yeah. I know here, at networks, when we, one of those open-ended questions is, is there something else you wanted to learn about this? Frequently, w- as we plan for the coming year, we go through those evaluations and say, "Was there anything in the evaluations that we need to consider as we plan our activities for the coming year?" You know, because that pretty much guides us, like oh, we need more of the same or oh, we need to go to the next level or we need to take it from a different angle. So, frequently, our customers can tell us what needs to come next, you know. Shauna Roman (28:26): Uh, Diane, I was gonna say something similar. And it becomes almost a loop so that the post-event feedback, um, becomes a way that, informs the next training request. Diane Kehoe (28:39): Nice. Shauna Roman (28:39): Right? Or the next, uh, set of, uh, events that we develop. Um, so it does become this loop where we're putting on an event and then we're learning from it and offering something as follow up that's helpful for our audiences. Diane Kehoe (28:54): And that can also become a loop for you, as a trainer, because if you're seeing something in there, you know, I couldn't hear the presenter, uh, I think the presenter was talking too fast. Well, don't take the badly. Say, "Oh, wow, okay. Maybe I do talk a little fast." Sometimes, when we're nervous, we do. Um, it just happens (laughs) Joe says, "Me, that's me!" (laughs) Uh, it, for all of us, I think, as we get nervous, our nerves makes us talk faster. You know, or maybe we lose our train of thought and stutter and all, but that's okay. Take that as a, wow, this something I, as a trainer, have to personally develop within myself. And take those things that way rather than as a negative. Every piece of feedback you get from your customers is a chance for your organization to improve and for you, as a trainer, to improve. Jessica Stover (29:49): Um, the other thing I'd add into that, say, with the stuttering, is it just something that, 'cause stuttering is like super hard to work on. I mean, it's, treatment for that is like (laughing) really tough. So, if you kn- are a known stutterer, for example, when you get stressed, and if you're comfortable, just put that out there to the attendees ahead of time. Like, "Hey, listen. If I really get into something, I'm really excited about something, I may start to stutter. Hang in with me. We'll get through it. But just know, if you hear me stutter, I'm really excited." You know, if you're comfortable doing that. Not everyone is. Diane Kehoe (30:22): Yeah. Well, we're kind of out of time. But that's okay. We could sit here and talk about this for long, lo- long times. Uh, we're passionate about training and so when we get to talk about training, we just go on and on. So, I'd like to thank you all for your time to listen. Thank you to all my teammates here for taking the time to be with us and to discuss how we're doing things. All right. Have a good day, folks. Nikita Arnett (30:52): Bye.