Creative Training Techniques Handbook: Tips, Tactics, and How-To's for Delivering Effective Training

The "Creative Training Techniques Handbook" is one of the very best books on delivering effective training there is on the market.The author emphasizes that adults must be handled with kid gloves, which means that the instructor or training specialist must respect their opinions, attitudes and previous learning experiences that may run contrary to what is being taught. Actually taught is a bad word.Pike also believes that the training specialist's job is one of facilitation. He calls it instructor-led participant-centered training. This is a common belief in training that people have the intuition to arrive at a solution or develop their knowledge on their own with only guidance and by keeping them involved.By involved the author means keep them writing, keep them creating, and keep them visualizing right down to drawing pictures. This means that lecture never gets more than 15 minutes before participants are engaged in some kind of learning exercise, and exercises are characterized by what he calls C. P. R. which means keeping the content relevant, allowing for adequate participation, and finding ways to review and reinforce key points.His book covers every imaginable event involved in the training experience. This version covers recent training developments such as webinars and eLearning. Bob even covers such things as the opaque projector, which for the most part was last used during the Eisenhower Administration and still requires a team of mules to move one. He even covers how to use a slide carousel (Kodak made the last one in 2004), and how to apply more than one film on overhead projectors. Actually, he offers too many essentials to be named here, but suffice it to say that anyone embarking on a career in training or simply having been assigned to facilitate training would do well to read this book and make it as important an item as their wallet.Bob Pike is one of the most recognizable names in training. He can charm the socks off professional training specialists (who can be a very tough audience). He dazzles a room full of them, and is particularly impressive showing them how to increase their memory skills in one 15 minute exercise.I have 25 years of training experience and I am already treating this book as a training bible.Turn to the Book of Bob.

There’s lots of good ideas in this book, especially around creative activities for reinforcing learning. I was able to fill 10 pages with notes of good ideas for my own workshops.But Bob’s philosophy about participant-centered learning (let students discover the answers on their own) can be handled badly and isn't right for many situations. For new employee orientation, I once had to walk around with a team of 8 people asking strangers things like “where is the cafeteria” and “what’s a typical workday look like” then come back and report to the rest of the class. It was stupid. 6 people passively following 2 eager team members, then coming back and watching these 2 members build a PowerPoint deck. It took us 2 hours and we could have learned all this by bringing in a panel of employees to answer our questions. Or just give us the damn answers on a handout. The most valuable part of the day was someone explaining the health care plan. No discovery; just straightforward facts.I’ve been to training like this and I call it “Daycare for Executives” where we do ridiculous activities to arrive at the simplest discoveries. Passing a ball without using our hands (to learn about non-verbal communication) or building a Lego castle (to learn about teamwork). Cut the crap! Give us some credit for being smart enough to learn things directly without having to let us explore and discover the simplest concepts.I know many audiences who would hate this, including executives, doctors, technical engineers. So Bob never discusses when his approach would NOT be appropriate. For that contribution to pointless training everywhere, I deduct 2 stars.

I am an independent corporate trainer and saw this book praised in a variety of places. I bought it and read it from cover to cover. While I was reading it, I kept saying to myself, "Isn't this stuff kind of simple?" When I finished reading it, I felt like I had not learned enough to justify the high price. These first impressions were not lasting impressions. Here is how I can tell: Whenever I feel nervous about a new training assignment, I open this book and quickly find solutions that turn my nervousness into confidence. I grew to understand that the simplicity I observed during my first reading is actually the result of skillful winnowing by an expert.Because of its price, I rated this book 4 stars instead of 5 stars. I understand the marketing justification for the price. Some stuff in the book is provided for HR professionals who train trainers. These people are usually buying the book with someone else's money. The publisher knows that and banks on it. But, given how much I continually get from this book, I figure at least the author has earned the extra money.

An excellent guide for anyone involved with training. I realized that the conceptual clarity is very important for any training activity. For example, I knew in general that training should be made interactive. But now now when I read in this book that people are more likely to accept something which they have themselves helped create, I understand how it works. Another significant concept I learnt is 'what are the trainees going to do with the training' or 'how it is going to affect their future performance'.The book also advises about the best possible room structure, chair formations, position of projector etc. It even guides about the ideal length and breadth and inter-position of instructor and trainee participants. All this adds excellent value to this book. Highly recommended. I am going to suggest to the head of my training unit that this should be made part of the reading curriculum of all the 'Training of Trainers' participants.

Insightful. Good to refer to for ideas.

This book has good training techniques, however the flow was not very well structured and a lot of the content is outdated (entire sections on transparencies and overhead projectors). The man (author) knows his stuff though.

A must have if you train or facilitate adult learning!!!