The Power Of Priming

Often, pre-communication (the ‘Welcome’ and logistics sent prior to training) and priming (the introduction of content prior to live training) are seen to belong only to face-to-face training. But we should be maximising the benefit of both pre- communication and priming for all modes of learning, especially live virtual training (webinar).

Consider the following 2 scenario’s after registering for a live virtual training:

Scenario 1
You receive a short message addressed to you and 7 other people. It simply says, ‘Thank you for registering. The link for your webinar is www.abcde.com. please click the link to join.

Scenario 2
You receive a message addressed just to you and it starts by using your name. The sender (facilitator) ‘Welcomes’ you and lets you know that they are looking forward to working with you on-line. They offer you the training link and suggest you test it prior to the training and if there are any issues, to let them know so that they can help you sort things out.

It doesn’t stop there. There are also links in the message that includes:

• A short video sharing some of the take-aways you can expect to leave with.
• There’s a short digital lesson for part of the training to be completed and sent to the facilitator (who gives feedback). nb – prior to registering for the training, it was specified that there would be a short task that would take around 30-minutes to complete prior to the live training.

Which live virtual training are you …

• Less worried about joining?
• Feel more comfortable about?
• Looking forward to the most?
• More prepared for?
• Feeling more part of?
• More likely to be engaged with and participate during?

Why Priming is KEY for live virtual training

Typically what we spend our time on when facilitating live virtual training is introducing learners to content ie talking about it, maybe involving them a little as we go. In fact, because we spend the majority of the time helping learners acquire the knowledge, they don’t have time to practice applying it. BUT, what if the acquisition element was done prior to learners joining the live virtual training – though eLearning, digital lesson etc. If that happened, we could use the entire live virtual training for learners to practice applying the knowledge with live feedback etc. In other words, they would leave being able TO DO rather than have HEARD ABOUT.

Here are a few suggestions for your next live virtual training that you are facilitating:

Pre-Communication

• Send a personal ‘Welcome’ message from you (even if it’s automated).
• Send a link to a ‘Welcome’ page on-line that has a video welcome from you (or send the video directly).
• Send a video summarising parts of the training.
• Send an audio file with past learners saying how they have used ideas from the training and how they have worked for them (testimonials).

Priming

• Create a digital lesson or eLearning that help learners ”acquire’ some of the content that you can then be build upon during their live virtual training.
• Ask learners to do some specific research on the content topic and be ready to share some findings on-line.
• For sales – Send a new product specification to learners and ask them to highlight 2 new features. During the training, rather than talking through the new specification, learners can practice creating a sales approach or proposal for the product itself as they will already have the product information.
• For appraisal training – Send learners a template appraisal preparation document with
  instructions
  on how to complete it. During the live virtual training, you don’t have to work through the preparation of an appraisal meeting, you can create pairs and help them conduct an appraisal meeting.

Call to action

Re-think pre-communication and priming. Maybe this is not just a nice-to-do nor just for face-to-face training. Help your learners feel comfortable, build repport and keep live virtual training for practice not acquisition.