Bookmarked: Trainers Aren't Keynote Speakers

By Jonathan Halls

Trainers Are More Like Physical Therapists Than Keynote Speakers

This begs the question: If we’re not like keynote speakers, who are we like? I see more parallels between our work and that of physical therapists. If you damage a rotator cuff and get shunted off for some PT, your physical therapist knows that to heal, you need to perform certain exercises to stretch the muscles and strengthen functionality. An office visit will most likely involve you doing the hard work of stretching those painful muscles. If your physical therapist sat down and talked to you about the healing muscles then let you go home without stretching those muscles, healing probably wouldn’t happen.

It’s the same for training. If we talk to people about something but don’t get them to process it through discussion, activities, or some other form of practice, it’s unlikely that they’ll understand, let alone remember it.

Just as the physical therapist must get the patient stretching muscles and doing the uncomfortable and hard work of healing, we need to stop talking and worrying about the energy we bring to the room and instead concentrate on how we help learners tap into their own energy and what we can do to nurture their work of learning.

Bottom line: effective trainers have more in common with physical therapists than with keynote speakers.

Original Article