How to choose a training?

When a girl buys herself something to eat, she usually focuses on what she needs. When a girl buys a dress, “Fashionable — not fashionable” becomes an important guideline. Unfortunately, many people, choosing a training for themselves, think more not about what they really need, but are guided by what is in fashion this season.

There are seasons when people break into NLP. A year has passed — and the demand for the same trainings has disappeared almost completely. Fashion is gone…

Trainings are increasingly becoming a form of entertainment, a combination of pleasant and useful, where the importance of the moment of benefit decreases with each decade. And how to choose a training for yourself if you are not like everyone else, but a smart person? Solution: imagine that you are a manager, and an employee approaches you with a request to let him go to training — during working hours and for your money. You are the leader. How will you do it?

I personally will be very happy with such a request: the initiative of an employee to improve their own qualifications is a great initiative! At the same time, naturally, I will ask questions: “What kind of training and who conducts it? For what purpose is the employee going to attend this training? What knowledge (specifically!) And skills (even more specifically!) does he expect to receive there and how soon, according to his estimates, will the money invested in training return to our company as income?

Training training is different. Training can be both a joy, an easy bridge to bright prospects, and a dreary waste of time, or, God forbid, a source of mental infection. If you see a bright advertisement for «personal growth training» and go to this training, it is not at all obvious that you will get to the training, and not to disgrace, and that there you will be offered personal growth, and not a mixture of cheap advertising, empty calls, easy mysticism and heavy esotericism. Everything happens … Therefore, smart people, before making the decision “I’m going to training!”, First collect information about the training, think, if necessary, consult with experienced and competent people. In order not to get into bad training and get into good personal growth training, you should pay attention to the following things.

The first is a clear description (transparency) of what is offered to you at the training

On the website or in the advertising booklet, the objectives of the training and its main topics should be clearly and in detail described. Read all this carefully, if only to be sure that this is the topic and the format that is interesting and suitable for you. If you see only promises and advertising enticements, you don’t need to come here. “The choice is yours — to pass the training or remain a loser all your life! What do you choose? or “You can use this amount for good and take our personal growth training, or you can buy with this money … bottles of vodka …” Only narrow-minded people come across such cheap tricks. And here is a detailed presentation of the essence of the methodology that the coach uses — do not wait, experts do not load normal people with this. Another thing is if you approached the host and ask him personally — then look at the intelligibility and confidence of the answer.

The second is the experience and professionalism of the presenter.

It is better to go to a training that is made by a well-known, experienced, authoritative leader. It is important if the host has the appropriate professional education and relevant certificates. Unfortunately. With the development of the infobusiness, the Internet became full of training offers, the presenters themselves did not undergo any trainings, except for sales trainings … Probably, you should still go to real professionals.

The third is the reputation of the Training Center

Perhaps the leader is not well known, but if this leader conducts training under the roof of a well-known, reputable Training Center, then at least the reasonable quality of the training is guaranteed by the authority of the Center. When evaluating a training center, consider the following factors:

• Membership in a professional association. If the Training Center and its leaders are members of professional communities, this is an essential guarantee of quality. If not, then those are your risks. The best known are the Professional Psychotherapeutic League and the International Association of Personality Development Professionals.
• How many years has the center been in existence? New centers can announce the most interesting programs, but, most likely, you will face considerable difficulties during the training — uncomfortable conditions, poor organization of the process, amateur quality of conduction …. In new centers, the enthusiasm of trainers is usually high, but the organization and material base are weak.
• Does the Center have its own Mailing List and its own Forum? Read the mailing list archive — will it be interesting to you? Go to the forum of this center, look at what topics the participants of the trainings are talking about — evaluate whether you want to communicate with these people in the future?
• In addition, it is very important to pay attention to how professionally you were answered on the phone when you called the training center. If some random intermediary on your home phone answered you, then do not expect high quality services. If you sent an application to the site, how quickly did they answer you, did they call you back to clarify the application, were you reminded of the training on the eve of it — these elementary rules for any normal organization are often not followed in amateur associations of enthusiastic trainers who want to «save humanity» but bad management. Poor organization at the stage of group formation often speaks of the low quality of the services provided.

The largest and oldest training center in Russia is Sinton. You can always be sure of the quality of his trainings.

Fourth — feedback from participants

You can find feedback from participants on the Internet or hear it live. It is easy to find reviews from the Internet, but you should be careful about them: very laudatory reviews are often written by order, sharply negative ones (and accusations of sectarianism) are also ordered. It is safer to rely on the feedback of real people with whom you can talk: the main thing is that their opinions are based not on what they have read or heard somewhere, but on their personal impressions. There was no person at the training — do not listen to him. There was a person at the training — listen to him carefully, but do not rush to conclusions either. Probably, one should be wary of judgments with extreme meanings — with excessive admiration and criticism. Admiration may be the result of the coach’s hidden manipulations, and criticality may appear as a result if your friend accidentally finds himself at a training that does not suit him according to his convictions or, for example, in terms of the degree of rigidity. Such a recommendation will look objective, which will describe to you all the positive and negative aspects of the training, without disclosing its content. It is always better to talk to several people, not just one: it happens that someone will like an empty training, just as one person may not like a training that has helped many dozens, or even hundreds of people. When listening to reviews, look at the person: reviews from people who are close to you in spirit, worldview, level of education and type of emotionality are more important to you. Workouts that women like may not be suitable for men at all. Psychotherapeutic trainings are liked by those who want to slowly sort themselves out, and cause legitimate irritation among business and energetic people.

The two extremes are people who go to trainings indiscriminately (“I have already been to 40 trainings!”) And people who are afraid of trainings (“What can these trainings teach me? Only life teaches!”). Smart people go to training only when they need it, only to those that work for their life goals and only to those leaders who can tell them really important things.

See you at training!