10 Practices to Avoid in Your Next Training Program [Part Two]

In the cannabis industry, it’s extremely important for all of your employees to be well-trained in order to not only run your business well, but also avoid any potential legal issues. However, designing a great instructor-led virtual or classroom learning experience can be hard, with limited time and resources. While none of the following practices will necessarily render your program completely ineffective, avoiding them will help ensure that you and your learners have a successful experience in the classroom and beyond. This is the second of two blog posts looking at this topic. Make sure you check out the first five tips by clicking here.
6. Leaving the training program untested. The program isn’t ready for launch until it has gone through an extensive beta test. For example, ask your peers to review the program and provide their input. Then, after you make initial changes, conduct a session with a group of learners who already know the material. Seek feedback and continue to revise the program until you launch. An untested program is usually an ineffective one.

7. Disregarding the scope. Identify the parameters of the scope of your program before developing your learning objectives. This practice increases the likelihood that you will not venture into areas unrelated to the topic. If you don’t define the scope beforehand, your learners will notice how often you digress, adding to information overload and confusion. For example, if you’re teaching your budtenders how to properly assist a customer and check IDs, don’t include information on irrelevant growing techniques. Determine what the training will cover and stick to it as much as possible.

8. Believing “one style fits all.” When preparing the curriculum, incorporate audio, video, product samples, and role-playing exercises for learners to experience. This takes into consideration their individual learning styles and their need to be challenged and involved. After all, not many learners can maintain interest if you speak in a monotone, show one bulleted slide after another, and provide no leave-behinds.

9. Asking no questions. In addition to assessments, throw out questions frequently during the program for learners to test and apply their knowledge. The alternative—waiting until they’re back on the job so they can practice what they’ve learned—usually leads to performance problems that reflect poor training on your part.

10. Skipping the evaluation. Requiring learners to evaluate their learning experience and your presentation gives you the incentive to improve it every time. Read their feedback and decide how you can integrate it. On the other hand, if you think learners rarely complete an evaluation sheet—so there’s no need to give them one—their feedback to you may come in the form of costly indecision and mistakes on the job.