Objection Sustained? Not if you hit objections head on

Not all people welcome even well thought-out and executed training. (Shocking, I know!)

Some find it irrelevant. Others, that it is an unwelcome interruption to their already overflowing schedules. There are also people who object to the nature of a specific type of training, such as compliance or harassment training.  Some are simply hostile to the entire notion of training.

In planning a training activity, we need to dedicate part of our needs analysis and instructional design time to investigate and plan methods to address learner objections and obstacles. We should never assume that negative attitudes are unimportant nor simply ignore (what may be) valid attitudinal barriers to our efforts. I’ve found that the best way to address these issues is by engaging a learner up front with the relevance of the topic at hand.

Make it personal; tell a story. This is important to her because there may be real consequences – organizational, legal, and personal – to her or her colleagues if performance objectives here are not learned and internalized. If you can’t discover the direct relevance of a particular course, see this earlier post or the Cathy Moore topic it refers to.