Management checking we are paying attention in training sessions

[onanaonandonandonandonandon]

Can anyone realistically take in 100 percent of content / information during training sessions ?

I've always really struggled with this. Even at school.

My attention wanes, but management have started to pick on people to summarise topics we've covered during training and are pretty nasty if people can't do this well when put on the spot.

It's not happened to me yet but I'm stressing out.

I also need time to learn new things and we keep having sudden meetings put in our diaries to do presentations and get questions fired at us to see where we are with our knowledge. I've done OK so far but worried I'll get it wrong and face the wrath of our VP.

Is this normal ? I'm really stressed.

@onanaonandonandonandonandon Yeah, that sounds like a pretty negative management style. It doesn't sound like they really understand how to motivate a team.

How did your manager/s respond when people cried?

I wonder if anyone is actually improving as a result?

If it is a bit you didn't understand you either need to.ask questions at the time or at the end- if at the end but you get asked then I would say " I have actually noted this as a question for the end" and then ask you question

Yeah I take notes.

They basically said it was deserved, for not knowing their stuff.

This is great advice thanks !

I think if the entire team is being made to feel a certain way, then that's a management issue.

I'd immediately start looking for another job if my manager responded that way to someone in the team crying as a result of their actions.

I was able to do what was required, thankfully.

We changed our entire product message maybe 6 weeks ago. We've had some trainings on it since then of course.

So they were putting us on the spot to understand if we actually know it now, as it's very different from what we were doing before.

It just seems underhanded to kind of do it on the spot like that, but ok. They just seem really unhappy with us.

Learning styles has been comprehensively debunked:

https://www.go1.com/blog/myth-learning-styles#

It's a good way of helping you retain information. So while it's not pleasant you're probably learning way more than you usually would. Training is unbelievably expensive so you can understand the desire for ROI.

@viridiano a lot of other stuff has happened too. That's why I posted. I'm just not sure if it's me / the team who are rubbish or if it's a toxic work culture. I'm feeling quite lost and scared that I'm going to get fired for not knowing something at some point.

I also feel like everything is a test to see how I handle it and if it's the way they think I should.

Like I was asked to host a session myself soon and then told we will have a prep session about how I should host. I said ' ok ' ' when ? ' and I got no response. I feel like, are they testing me to just put a prep session in the diary, rather than ' waiting around ' until my manager comes back to me? Is it all some sort of test ? For what it's worth, I will just find a slot in the diary for the prep session. But rather than thinking my manager just hasn't responded yet, the fact that it's a test to see how proactive I am, is playing on my mind.

Me too

Is it one manager or management generally? I'd feedback first about the negative and demeaning style first and then complain if it didn't change.

Also, have a standard answer pre prepared to give if put on the spot.

Whilst I find it quite pressured to be tested in this way, I have enjoyed the training... I have learnt x y and plan to use it in my role as follows. I didn't yet gets to grips with z and intend to spend more time with the training materials.and asking.colleagues.... blah de blah

Agree with this. I hate presentation style training with a passion, always have. I also struggled with a traditional school set up. If you want me to learn something, give me a manual or a textbook and I'm happy. I also need time to reflect and I'm likely ND. Usually the training we have at work is inclusive enough that I can by.

Had training recently with an awful trainer who was doing this sudden quiz style on the spot stuff and insisting every person speak up and give a 5-10 min answer on a topic of her choice. She asked for feedback at the end and I told her the training was neither inclusive or mindful of different learning styles. She was really arsey when other started to agree. Not sure why she asked for feedback if she didn't actually want it.

They'd eat me for breakfast if I gave that response.

I accidentally made a comment about my level of presentation probably not being the best it could be, as there was no time to prep and they had a massive go at me. I should be able to do it in my sleep and have the wrong attitude apparently.

Also are you allowed to record them? There's a bunch of new AI tools that record and take notes as they are talking.

They record the sessions and share recording afterwards. Which is good. I often watch it back.

I think you should try and look for a new job. The whole environment sounds miserable and as you say they don’t your professionalism. There are other places where they will value your hard work.
FYI I used to work in intensive care and our training wasn’t like this, it was up to us to identify if we hadn’t grasp something and we could ask the trainers to repeat anything we needed (of course we didn’t get that much ‘free’ training as it was the NHS).

Time for a new job....

You are saying "they" Is it one person or many who act like this in management?

Started with one, who's the big boss and now the others are following suit.

I trust that you are not really a trainer. They are not kids (and it's bad practice to pick on kids too).

If you think people aren't listening, then it's down to you to find a better way to engage them. And you should also be aware of different learning styles.

OP, I think notetaking is a good idea, so you can go back and review them if challenged by your boss. It's all a bit silly though, we all zone out from time to time. I have to take notes of webinars from time to time so that I can write a blog post of the main points afterwards and I miss the odd thing - if it's something crucial I'd go back to the recording afterwards but of course you can't do that with live events. It's also not easy to retain say five bullet points when they are conveyed very quickly and you only get three of them down.

Yes this is a good point. I have used Otter AI but I've seen other apps being advertised. Teams transcribes meetings (though it can be a bit hit and miss at times, but can be quite good for checking a point).

There's better ways of checking learning though. I'm a lecturer and put in mini quizes or activities to chunk my sessions up but I wouldn't pick on a person and ask them a question in front of the whole class.

Even if it is you/ the team being 'rubbish' (which I doubt - it's unusual that a whole team are bad), the way to approach that as a manager is not to keep testing people and telling them how they are failing.

What support are they putting in place for you?

If an entire team are failing then 99% of the time it's the person at the head that is at fault. It's very rarely the case that a team that is made up entirely of people who are inept/ can't do the job.

The more you say, the more obvious it is that this is a management issue.

Can you just vote with your feet and get out of there? If you have skills in tech then you will be desirable at a lot of places.

When they start losing staff perhaps they'll reflect on their management style.

That sounds like very poor management style. People can’t possibly learn if they are scared they’ll be put on the spot at any moment.

By contrast, we have learning sessions for new products which are followed up with an online test to check our understanding. We also get given the recording and meeting notes in case we need to refer back at a later date.

I wouldn’t say research had debunked it completely per se, more that educators shouldn’t pigeonhole individuals:

https://www.swansea.ac.uk/press-office/news-events/news/2021/01/new-review-says-ineffective-learning-styles-theory-persists-in-education-around-the-world-.php

I have taught in 2 different universities in the last 10y and in our educator training at both we were taught to be cognisant of the different learning styles when putting teaching materials together. One of the people providing this training was a professor in education, so I have faith in what he was teaching us! I stand by the fact I most definitely do not retain information I am verbally told, and really struggle paying attention in presentations, so would probably fare very badly in the OP’s setting.