Will Kenny
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"Think Pieces"
(free articles)
Best Training Practices
Will Kenny
3927 York Ave N
Robbinsdale, MN 55422
612-978-3050
Frustrated because your employees don't consistently apply the
best practices you've told them about, over and over again?
I help companies that are . . .
| Struggling to | |||
| Deliver a | |||
| Message to an | |||
| Audience | |||
You might find me . . .
- diagnosing and treating the failure of best business practices to be applied consistently by front line employees
- writing newsletters, press releases, print and on-line articles to keep a company in front of its clients and prospects
- coaching individual professionals to identify markets and products
- documenting guidelines, procedures, and tools to support enhanced employee performance
- scripting messages from executive management to team members
- assessing a company's culture to identify next steps in more powerful, unified execution of key strategies
- developing professional training materials to maximize the impact of knowledgeable "amateur" in-house presenters
- working with companies of between 1 and 160,000 employees
I remove obstacles to effective communication.
Most of the time, I'm working to strengthen one or 
more of the three key elements that create an impact on your employees, prospects, customers, partners, and suppliers:
- Defining and understanding your audience;
- Streamlining and strengthening the message;
- Optimizing your delivery.
Measure Impact Through Audience Behavior
Communication is about behavior. The only reason we communicate is to influence others, to get them to do something differently than they would without the communication. It's the most important part of most jobs (see "Your Job Description").
We work to change how employees do their jobs, how customers use our products and services, whether prospects buy from us, how regulators treat our businesses.
But make no mistake -- communication that doesn't have any affect on anyone's behavior is a poor investment.
Understanding Your Audience
I'm a great believer that knowing your audience is the most powerful factor in effective communication. Yet many times I encounter clients who have failed to focus on a specific audience as they plan training, publicity, or marketing tools (as discussed in "Audience, Audience, Audience").
I'll have a lot of questions for you about your audience: who they are, what they expect, what they are used to, what's important to them (or not), and what reasons they might have to be annoyed or resistant when you try to change their behavior.
Refining Your Message
It isn't unusual for clients to have a general idea of what they want to talk about, with their audience. But "a general idea" usually doesn't have much of an impact on what your audience actually does.
Often the keys to a more powerful impact are streamlining and structuring the content of your message. Iam sure that you have suffered at the hands of experts who know a lot about their subjects, and think that you have to know all that, too. They can't resist sharing everything they know, but they just confuse the daylights out of you . . . or put you to sleep! (Maybe they need someone who knows a little less to ask the right questions.)
Sometimes a little less information, skillfully presented, and in the right order, has a much greater impact than the full "expert package."
Perfecting Your Delivery
Even if you know what you want to say, what outcome you want to produce, and whom you'll be talking to, you can still fail to get the results you desire.
Careful delivery design ensures that your content is placed before you audience in ways that ensure retention and encourage action, ways that promote application of your message to their behavior.
Decisions about frequency of communication, classroom vs. on-line, modular approaches, types of interaction, use of media, and many other options help fit your message into the audience's experience in ways that greatly enhance the impact of your communication and training efforts. (Delivery design was the key service I provided in this case study.)
Please, Take a Look Around
With a little prowling around this site, you can:
- Get a lot of free ideas about training and communication, from my "Think Piece" articles and my reprints from The Training Tipsheet.
- Learn more about how I work, what I've done, and whether I fit your style and needs. Learn about my clients, what I've done for them, and even consider 7 reasons you might not want to work with me!
- Review case studies from past client projects to see how they overlap with your own needs and opportunities .
- Get biweekly "e-coaching" on training and communication through my free e-zine, The Training Tipsheet.
And if you don't easily find all the information you want, please drop me a line!
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