I once delivered the same customer service workshop over 200 times in a two-year period. Thousands of employees attended.

Over time, I learned I could split the classes into three distinct groups:

Motivated: Enthusiastic employees who were eager to learn.
Neutral: Employees who willing to go along, but weren't fully engaged.
Hostile: Upset employees who used the class to air their grievances.

I was the same trainer each time. The survey results were almost always extremely positive, even with the hostile classes. Yet it was only the motivated employees who I could count on to go back to work and implement new skills.

So what was different?

The big variable was the manager. The motivated employees all had a manager who did three specific things that the other managers didn't do.

I’m going to share their secrets with you along with a tool I use to put these secrets into action.

Secret #1: Preparation

"It's too hot in here. That's my first complaint."

The employee made it clear she didn't want to be in the customer service training class. We had a few moments before the workshop began, so I spent some time talking to her.

She hadn't been told what the class was about or why she was attending. "Mandatory training" was all her manager had given her. So she had arrived expecting to be upset.

This happened a lot.

Employees often showed up to training without a clear idea why. All they knew was the trainer was from corporate (me) and they were required to attend. It wasn't a great set-up.

A few classes were different.

Those employees had been thoroughly prepared by their manager. Specifically, they knew the answers to three important questions:

What is the training about?
Why is the training important?
What will I be expected to do with that I learn today?

#2: Attendance

A lot of managers chose not to attend the training with their employees. Most said they were too busy, which is manager code for "not a priority."

Employees resented this because they felt their manager should be there. The hostile classes used their manager's absence as an opportunity to air grievances.

The motivated group was different. Their manager was always there.

They kicked off the class by reinforcing what the class was about, why the class was important, and how it was going to help them all.

These managers participated and encouraged their team to get involved, too. They knew they would have to reinforce the new skills with their team after the class ended, so they learned all they could.

Secret #3: Follow-up

Many managers never followed-up with their employees after the training. They didn't coach their employees or give them any feedback. These managers couldn't reinforce the training because they didn't attend.

As a result, their employees quickly reverted back to their old habits.

The motivated group of employees were different.

Their managers instinctively understood the 70-20-10 rule, which says that employees learn more from their manager and their job experiences than they do from formal training.

These managers always reinforced the skills learned in training. Having attended the training themselves, they were very familiar with the content. They coached employees, gave feedback, and celebrated wins.

The motivated employees' managers often asked me for more tools and resources. My free Customer Service Tip of the Week email was created when a manager asked me for a resource to help remind her team of the skills we covered in class.

Conclusion

The managers whose employees were motivated to learn did three specific things:

Preparation: they prepared employees for training.
Attendance: they participated in the training, too.
Follow-up: they reinforced the concepts taught in training.

I've created a workshop planning tool to help you implement these three secrets the next time your employees need training. You can download it here.

The tools works in nearly every training situation:

Live, in-person training
Live, webinar-based training
E-learning or other self-paced learning

You can learn more about using the tool from this short video.

Prepare employees for training from How to Design and Deliver Training Programs by Jeff Toister

The Popcorn Problem

Many people enjoy going to the movies.

Popcorn is a quintessential part of this experience. You get a bucket of popcorn to share with a friend, grab a favorite drink, and sit down to enjoy the movie. It's a relaxing form of entertainment.

People often sit down and watch a training video the same way they'd watch a movie. This is not how people should try to learn valuable workplace skills, but they do.

It doesn't work out well.

The most obvious issue is it's boring. Even the most exciting training videos aren't great entertainment. You certainly wouldn't watch them just for fun.

(Side note: Here's where some readers will say, "But, I saw that video with John Cleese or the FISH! video and it was fun!" Ok, if you doubt me, then try inviting some friends over to watch a training video. Or, ask that special someone if they'd like to training video and chill this weekend. Good luck with that.)

The less obvious issue is employees learn very little by watching a video straight through. They implement even less back at work. The challenge is caused by something called The Forgetting Curve.

People quickly forget what they learn in training unless they actively process it and apply it. This is necessary to move information from short to long-term memory, but this rarely happens when employees passively watch a training video.

That's not to say that training videos don't work. Blaming training videos for a lack of learning would be like blaming a hammer when you hit your finger and not the nail. There's nothing inherently wrong with the tool, but you'll get less-than-desirable results if you don't use the tool correctly.

The good news is there's an alternative approach to using training videos that's much more effective.