The Challenge: Work examples of an unfamiliar concept are unknown to you, so you don’t know how it applies to the participants’ work lives.
Possible Approaches:
Send Out a Pre-Training Needs Assessment Questionnaire to Gather Work Examples
Have participants provide situations related to the topic in a needs assessment questionnaire. You can then refer to these work situations to exemplify the concept during the training session.
Conduct a Preliminary Needs Assessment During Training
Conduct a preliminary needs assessment when you have the participants introduce themselves, checking for their previous experience and expertise. That will help you identify participants who might be able to provide examples of the concept during the training.
Use a Common Example
Explain the concept using a common well-known example from daily life (family, food, nature-related). This will give the participants enough information so that they can volunteer how the concept occurs in their worklife.
Draw Work Examples From the Group
Draw from the group two or three additional real examples that are relevant to their experience. Since three are necessary for learning to occur, this will ensure that the participants will learn the concept.
Have Them Apply the Concept to Work Examples in Their Situations
You can also have small groups or individuals apply the concept to their specific situations and describe its application through examples in their work lives.
Even if you are well-versed in the topic and work in the same organization as your participants, you cannot predict if the situations you provide are relevant to the participants. Drawing examples from them ensure that they understand the concept well enough to recognize it in action in their work situations.
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