Simple. Relevant. Applicable. Three principles to guide your instructor training content.

In the third part of his miniseries on keys to integrating mental skills work, mental performance coach Aaron Walsh shared the following: 

Three principles to guide our content. 

The second aspect of enhancing engagement is related to how we present to the athletes. Once we identify what needs to be delivered, how do we maximise our time with the athletes, so the work is meaningful to them?

Below are three principles I have leaned on to make this happen:

1. Simple — Psychology is a complex subject; however, there is no need to make the content inaccessible by using language and terms you don’t need to. You don’t need to impress them by demonstrating your knowledge of the subject matter. Additionally, I have made the mistake of presenting too much information. The more information you have, the greater the chances of being confused. If you keep the language simple and try to cover only a little, you enhance the audience’s ability to grasp the key messages.
2. Relevance — Any content we deliver must apply to the athlete’s needs. The athlete cannot integrate irrelevant mental skills into their performance. Not everything you know will be relevant to what they need. One good question for us to ponder is, “What do they need to know that is relevant to the challenges they will face?”
3. Applicable — The content needs to be translated into practical solutions. No one wants to be told they are “doing it all wrong” and then not have a roadmap for growth to occur. They should be able to walk out of a session with some tools they can apply to their performance that meet the demands they will face.

In reading these three key principles it struck me that if we substitute the words “trainer” for “athlete” and “mental skills” for “training knowledge” these three principles could serve as a guide for those of us who trainer other trainers, especially new trainers. 

Many instructor development training programs are condensed into a week, or less, and delivered as a one-time block of instruction. Given the limitations created by this format the tendency is often to try and offload everything we know from our years of experience, and everything from the science of learning, onto the participants in that one-time training event. The result is that they very often walk away overwhelmed, mentally overloaded and confused. They likely won’t say anything at the time, and they may even rave about the training, as the overwhelm does not completely sink in until they are back at their agency and trying to decide how to implement what they were taught. (Notice I said, “what they were taught”, not “what they learned” as they likely “learned” very little of the information.) 

This is not a knock on anyone. We are all doing the best we can within the limitations we are facing. It does, however, reflect the need to rethink instructor development training and start to think of it as an ongoing process that starts from before someone assumes a position as a trainer and continues throughout his or her training career, however long that may be. Some of that would be self-regulated and self-initiated learning, and ideally some of it would be intentionally and deliberately facilitated on the part of the agency and spaced out over a trainer’s career. 

For those of us who provide professional development contract training services the challenge is to slow drip information to the participants following the training to reinforce the principles and concepts covered during the training. This is something I am working on becoming more intentional about with my Performance Enhancement Imagery and Excellence in Training courses. Another option is to build in follow-up group coaching calls as part of the training, something Jeff Johnsgaard from Natural Tactical Systems is starting to do with some of his programs. 

Simple. Relevant. Applicable. I encourage you to use these three principles to guide your instructor training content and your own professional development.

Take care.

Brian Willis

Winning Mind Training –  Providing practical training to law enforcement professionals in the areas of instructor development, Performance Enhancement Imagery, leadership and mindset.  

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