How to conduct an effective training/presentation

Trainings are boring, usually. The trainer projects a presentation and endlessly goes on talking about the topic, interrupted by the rare question, when a person suddenly wakes up and finds himself totally lost. I have even attended trainings where people doze off completely (with their heads hanging down) and the trainer pretends not to notice them and continues with the rambling.

But, today's training was different. This was a training on "Managerial Skills". So, i was kind of ready for the usual doze on employee appraisal, conflict management and the like. But, I was surprised, pleasantly so. The trainer, an Englishman, bought along with him lot of trinkets like a slinky, a rubbery piggy doll, some connecting blocks and distributed some to all of the attendees. None of us knew what they were for, but we were just playing around with them, while listening to his lecture. Later, during a break, I asked him what they were for. He said that the human brain works well if as many senses as possible are put into play. So, while listening to the lecture, if we were playing around with all those trinkets, it seems that our thinking process would be better in place and there is a very little chance of us dozing off, even during the boring parts. It worked like a charm. This is probably the only training where I have seen such participation from the attendees and no one dozed off!

The session just after lunch is usually the toughest to navigate through. Your head feels heavy and starts to automatically fall down and your eyes start to close! In probably all the trainings I have attended, I have had the need to take a small break and wash my face to avoid going to sleep. Not today, though! After we had assembled after lunch, he asked to take positions around the room and he threw a ball to one person. That person had to throw it to someone else and that person in turn, to someone else who has not yet received the ball and finally it came back to the trainer. He started this with one ball and eventually went up to 6 balls. Well , not everyone's catching skills are as good a Jonty Rhodes and we had the frequent drop and searching for the ball before the next one comes through. This went on for a couple of minutes and we were all very involved in the game. Then it abruptly stopped when he said "Good, now all of you are wide awake and ready for the next session"!

I am looking for more tricks of the trade he is going to unleash over the next two days!

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