Implement

Creating a Safe and Comfortable Learning Environment
Facilitating the Training Experience
Using Icebreakers and Energizers
Conducting Closing Activities
Evaluating the Training

Creating a Safe and Comfortable Learning Environment

Adults learn best in a pleasant environment where their physical needs are met. If possible, when selecting a room make sure there are adequate measures for controlling the temperature. Rooms that have windows that provide natural lighting and contact with the outside world are preferable.

Beware of the following conditions that may distract from the training session:

• Windows that provide outside noise or visual distractions such as people walking by or nature scenes

• Inadequate facilities (uncomfortable chairs, no tables to write on, inadequate lighting, and poor acoustics). Note: For large groups a microphone may be needed. A lavaliere microphone will allow the trainer to move freely around the room.

Sometimes it is difficult to control room conditions. Simply acknowledge to the participants that you are sorry for the discomfort and state what you can and cannot control.

Enhancing the Room

Even the drabbest meeting room can be made more pleasing through the use of decorations. Bring in posters that pertain to your topic, wall hangings, flowers, tablecloths, and candles. Use colorful markers when writing flipcharts.

Setting Up the Room with Chairs

How the room is set up will greatly affect participant interaction. Four common room arrangements and their benefits and drawbacks are described below.

= Trainer = Participants

Getting Started

Once the training room is set up, you are ready to welcome participants to the training. As participants enter the training room, welcome them, ask them to sign in, give them name tags and any training materials or handouts for note taking, and remind them of the starting time. Start the training as close to the scheduled time as possible to signal respect for participants' time.

Help Participants Know What to Expect

Emotional safety is essential in creating a positive learning environment. For participants to feel comfortable in a new training situation they need to know what to expect from the training and what is expected of them as participants. The trainer should review the following with participants:

• The goals and objectives of the training

• An overview of the agenda including:

  • Stop and start times

  • Times for breaks and meals (if appropriate)

• The trainer's role (i.e., a facilitator rather than a speaker or presenter)

• The participants' roles (i.e., active contributors to the group discussions and activities). The trainer should emphasize that the participants have a lot of wisdom to share with the group and that everyone will be greatly enriched if people participate fully in the training activities

• Where they can take care of their basic needs [e.g., location of restrooms, telephones, and places to obtain food and drink (if not provided by the training)]

Learn About Participants' Strengths and Needs

See "Conducting a Participant Strengths and Needs Assessment" for conducting a needs assessment at the beginning of a training if not done before.

Create Ground Rules

Ground rules (also called group norms) are guidelines that help create a safe environment and enable tasks to be accomplished efficiently. Examples of ground rules include:

• Honor everyone's input regardless of educational degrees, professional or community status, or personal experiences with the topic

• Value each person's unique opinions and perspectives

• Agree to disagree, but do so respectfully

• Speak one-at-a-time

• Allow each person time to talk

• Start and end on time; come back from breaks promptly

• Keep personal comments said during the training confidential

• Support those who may have anxiety talking about emotionally difficult topics

• Step outside your comfort zone

• Speak for yourself, not other people (i.e., use "I" statements rather than "everybody" or "other people")

• Take charge of your own learning (i.e., take breaks when you feel necessary, ask for clarification)

• Have fun even though the topic is a serious one

• Ask questions

• Feel free to "pass" when discussing a certain topic

It is preferable for a training group to develop their own ground rules that reflect what is important for them to feel safe. However, if there is limited time, the trainer can suggest a set of ground rules and then ask the group for any additional ones. For example, in professional audiences it may be important to add the ground rule "put all cell phones and pagers on vibrate or turn them off." The trainer should address any participant concerns about the ground rules and then ask for people to follow these throughout the training. Tape the list of ground rules on the wall so all participants can see them. Refer to them if necessary during the training.

Create a "Parking Lot"

Explain to participants that the parking lot is a place to put questions, comments, or concerns that are important but slightly off the topic currently being discussed. Assure them that everything placed in the parking lot will be addressed by the end of the training (and keep your word, revisiting the parking lot as appropriate throughout the training).

After the trainer has "set the stage" for how the group will move through the training together, she or he can then move into the icebreaker or warm-up activities. "Using Icebreakers and Energizers" describes these in more detail.

Facilitating the Training Experience

As a trainer, your goal is to help participants learn new information and build skills. The best way to help people learn is to use facilitation techniques that recognize and build on the knowledge, skills, and experiences they already have.

All of the training methods that were discussed in "Selecting Appropriate Training Methods" will be greatly enhanced through the use of good facilitation skills. For some of you, the following information is undoubtedly a review. However, even the most experienced trainers may find a few new ideas or strategies to add to their trainer's tool kit. This section is divided into three parts. The first part covers general guidelines of facilitation and the second part describes effective strategies for working with multicultural training groups. The third part addresses additional considerations.

Part 1. General Guidelines for Facilitation

Encouraging Group Participation

When participants take an active role in their learning, they are more likely to "own" the information and skills covered in the training. People are more likely to participate actively in the training session if you do the following:

• Maintain relaxed body language.

• Use an icebreaker to help participants relax, get to know each other, and get ready to learn. (Specific examples of some icebreakers are described in appendix A)

• Set group norms (sometimes called ground rules) to help make the training a safe, comfortable, and productive learning environment.

• Ask participants to give examples to illustrate a point. This strategy ensures that examples are relevant to participants.

• Bounce back to the group questions you receive from participants, as appropriate. "What do other people think about this?" and "What other ideas do you have?" are ways to show participants that you recognize their expertise.

• Show participants that you appreciate their contributions by saying things such as, "That's a good point," "Thank you for bringing that up," or "Many people have that same question."

• Link discussion back to comments participants made earlier in the session (e.g., "As Monique (or we) said earlier, this is a very emotionally charged subject.")

• Bridge forward to what comes next (e.g., "After break we're going to practice putting these new insights into action!")

• Move around. If you stand behind a podium, you are likely to appear distant or inaccessible to participants.

Open-ended questions can be used early in a training to get a sense of participants' expectations and baseline knowledge levels. Open-ended questions send the message that participants' input is welcome.

Open-ended questions are a simple way for trainers to acknowledge that participants have valuable information and experience to share. However, using open-ended questions often takes longer than lecturing. If you find that you are running out of time in a session, you may need to limit responses from participants (e.g., "We have time for one or two more comments.").

Active Listening

Active listening skills can help participants feel like their ideas are truly an important part of the training experience. In addition, active listening helps the trainers understand participants' concerns. This greater understanding helps you tailor the training to better meet their needs. An effective, active listener uses both verbal and nonverbal skills to acknowledge participation, clarify information, and encourage dialog.

Managing Time

Time management can be one of the most challenging aspects of conducting a training session. It takes a skilled trainer to cover content in a way that involves and engages participants within a limited timeframe. Some ways to manage time effectively are:

If you run into a situation in which you have too little time to cover all topics on the agenda, you may need to negotiate with participants about what they most want to cover. By allowing them to identify what is most useful to them, you make the most of the time remaining and meet participants' needs.

Giving Feedback

As noted above, it is important to give positive feedback to participants throughout the training. In addition, it may be necessary to give corrective feedback at several points in the training, as you help participants build their skills and knowledge.

Corrective feedback is never a personal attack on an individual;it is always offered as a way of helping someone increase knowledge or improve skills.

"Checking In" with Participants

A good trainer is able to read the body language of the participants to ascertain the appropriateness of the training content, the pace of the training, and the energy level in the group. This can be done informally on an individual basis during breaks or more formally with the entire group. Asking questions such as "How's everyone doing?" (and allowing time for honest responses) or asking people to summarize the key points from a particular segment of the training will help trainers assess whether participants are grasping new information. Mid-training adjustments may need to be made if it appears that many of the participants have not understood the material, appear bored, or need additional help with concepts or skills.

Trainer observations during role plays, demonstrations, or small group activities can provide assessments of how well new material is understood and integrated. For example, if after teaching a group of women how to do a self breast exam, you notice that people are performing it incorrectly during a practice session, you can review and reinforce the correct method. Be careful not to put all of your focus on the one or two "challenging participant(s)" to gauge how the entire group is responding to the training (discussed in detail below).

Working with Challenging Participants

In most training groups there are a couple of participants who pose some challenges to a smooth and effective training process. The table below summarizes some of these challenges.

Part 2. Strategies for Working Effectively with Multicultural Training Groups

Ensuring Cultural Sensitivity

To be effective, trainers must be aware of cultural issues that can affect the training environment. Culture can influence people's values, attitudes, beliefs, and behavior, and therefore has an impact on how people learn, communicate, make decisions, and interact in groups.

Many people think of culture simply as a person's race or ethnicity. However, culture includes many different aspects of people's lives. That is, people's cultural background may be influenced by their:

• Race/ethnicity

• Gender

• Regional differences

• Language

• Sexual orientation

• Level of formal education

• Profession or job

• Spiritual beliefs and practices

• Physical ability

• Age

When you work with multicultural groups, keep in mind that although people from a specific cultural group may share common traits, all members of a cultural group are not alike. Individuals within cultural groups have their own personal experiences, personality traits, values, and belief systems. It is therefore important to respond to a person's needs and not assume that the person will respond in a certain way because she or he belongs to a particular cultural group.

For those of you who train health professionals, keep in mind that there is a "culture of medicine." People who work in health care have a common language and view of health and illness. These views may or may not be shared by community and patient groups. Therefore, when training audiences that are made up of both health professionals and others who do not work in health care, make sure that acronyms, medical jargon, or other abstract concepts are not used unless they are well explained. Also, it will be important to be alert for biases and assumptions that health professionals may share but which may conflict with community members' cultural values, attitudes, and beliefs.

Some tips for dealing with power differentials within an audience are the following:

• Acknowledge that the situation exists.

• Emphasize that each person's unique perspective and experience is equally valued and refer to other ground rules that address issues such as these.

• Avoid participant introductions that emphasize academic degrees or professional status. Instead ask people to describe their connection to the topic.

• Lay advocates might need to pair with a health care professional "buddy" when addressing professional audiences so that they can learn what the expected protocol for training these groups is (e.g., Do the professionals want a personal story or a PowerPoint presentation?).

Self-awareness

To fully appreciate cultural power and differences, trainers must:

• Recognize their own culture's influence on how they think and act.

• Understand the complexities of cross-cultural interactions and fully appreciate, value, and respect participants' diversity.

• Be aware of the impact of institutional and societal racism, sexism, ageism, and other such "-isms," and acknowledge how these forms of oppression can influence group dynamics.

• Share appropriate personal experiences from one's "own" culture while not attempting to be an expert on other cultural groups.

• Be aware of their own power within the group and use that power appropriately (i.e., acknowledge that everyone in the room has something important to share and that you, as the trainer, hope to learn from the group).

Cross-cultural Communication

To improve cross-cultural communication skills, trainers should:

• Avoid statements based on stereotypes. If generalizations are used, they should be clearly labeled as such and modified with terms such as "many" or "some."

• Appreciate the different ways that people from various cultures engage in group discussions. Silence, for example, has a different meaning, depending on personal experience and cultural background.

• Ensure that all participants have an opportunity to express their ideas to the group during discussions.

• Remember that participants have different levels of proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and understanding the language used in a training session.

Finally, even with all cultural considerations in mind, there is no substitute for exercising good common sense and judgment in considering how, what, and when to address various issues in a training. Almost any training activity has the potential to be culturally offensive when facilitated by someone who does not demonstrate respect for participants. Demonstrating respect for participants is crucial and opens the door for mutual growth and learning.

Body Language and Movements

Trainers also must be aware of the different ways people share information. In addition to talking, people use body language, physical contact, and body movements to express themselves. Be aware that the appropriateness of physical space, touching, physical contact, and eye contact can vary depending on cultural norms, personal experiences, and personal preferences.

Part 3. Other Considerations

Other considerations on training facilitation:

• Training team composition sends a message. Whenever possible, trainers' cultural backgrounds should be representative of participants' backgrounds. Diverse groups of participants will benefit from seeing people from their own communities among the trainers. In addition, a multicultural training team models cooperation and sharing among cultures.

• Trainer styles differ, just as learning styles do; therefore, be careful in designing the training on the basis of an individual trainer's preferred style.

• Acknowledge areas of weakness and expertise. If given a direct question, make an attempt to answer it in an accurate and forthright manner. If you do not know the answer, admit it. If you can get back to the questioner with the correct answer at a later date, do so.

• Keep training goals and objectives in mind at all times, but especially when processing. Be aware of participants who might take over or seek to control. If you are uncomfortable with conflict, or uncertain about how to address it, seek training in conflict resolution. Conflict inevitably occurs whenever two or more people come together, so be prepared.

Review the Characteristics of Effective Trainers

Those who are conducting cancer education training programs need to posses certain skills to be effective. Consider using the "Trainer Skills Checklist" located in appendix B to assess your owns strengths and needs.

Using Icebreakers and Energizers

In addition to the training methods discussed in the "Plan" section, icebreakers and energizers are important parts of participatory trainings.

Icebreakers

Icebreakers can be a good way to start your training. They warm-up participants, put them at ease, get people involved, and open up communication. Icebreakers create a positive learning climate within the group. They foster interaction, build group identity, stimulate creative thinking, acquaint participants with each other, and help establish comfort.

Considerations for selecting an icebreaker:

• Think about the group with whom you are working.

• Consider participants' ages, cultural backgrounds, educational levels, occupations, and personalities.

• The length of the icebreaker depends on the length of the training. More time can be devoted to icebreakers when the training is a full day or longer.

• Icebreakers should make people feel comfortable. Do not use an icebreaker which would embarrass someone, or at which people would fail. Use an icebreaker that makes you feel comfortable, not one that raises anxiety.

• Choose icebreakers that encourage everyone to speak. This is especially important for shy or timid participants. Once their voice is "in the room," shy participants are more likely to contribute to subsequent discussions.

• Icebreakers are best when they are related to the topic of the training. However, sometimes it is important to have a "fun" icebreaker not related to the topic to lighten the mood or create a comfortable environment!

Conducting Closing Activities

Close the Training

It is important to close a training. Often this step is overlooked due to time constraints. In addition, some trainers feel that the evaluation serves as the closing activity. However, closings are different from conducting an evaluation of the program. They provide a way to summarize or "wrap-up" the training content as well as an opportunity to "close out" the emotional aspects. Done well, they help participants draw a boundary between the training and the rest of their lives and prepare them for the reentry process.

Put Closure on the Content of the Training

Participants should experience a sense of closure with regard to the content of the training. Some examples of ways to do this are listed below:

Trainings where there has been a lot of personal sharing or where participants have formed strong emotional bonds need closure so that participants are not left with unfinished feelings.

Put Closure on the Emotional Component of the Training

Examples of ways to put some closure on the emotions that were generated by the training include the following:

Evaluating the Training

It is important to give participants an opportunity to give feedback about the content of the training, the trainer(s), and the logistics of the training. There are a number of ways trainings can be evaluated-some more formal and some less formal. Ideally the evaluation should relate back to the training goals and objectives. Choose an evaluation strategy that will be most appropriate for your audience. While health care professionals might be familiar with Likert type scales, diverse community groups might prefer a less structured approach. The sample evaluations that follow range from a more structured, quantitative approach to a very informal, qualitative instrument.

Many trainers feel that it is important to wait at least some amount of time before looking at training evaluations. Right after a training you may feel somewhat vulnerable so try to wait until the next day, at the earliest, to review the evaluations. When reading the evaluations, remember that feedback is a gift. Most gifts come from well-intentioned people but not all of them are "on target." Read each evaluation carefully, then review them for themes. Trainers learn most from the reactions of the majority of the participants rather than focusing on one or two comments. Although "outlier" comments can be helpful, most often they say more about the participants than about the trainer or training. If you are using a quantitative or Likert scale evaluation form, enter them into a database if you have one and then review the average scores for each item. If you are using a qualitative evaluation tool, summarize participant comments and reactions.

Finally, in order for evaluations to be most useful, trainers need to develop an action plan for incorporating useful feedback into future trainings.