Business Interview with Andrew Wood - 2

More from the interview with Andrew Wood, the MD of Trainer Bubble...

What is your eventual goal?

We hope to continue building on our offering and eventually expand into other areas. I am currently in talks with many different training related groups about offering something just that little bit different. I'm hopeful we'll have some serious gaming and e-learning products ready for 2009.

How does your investment of time balance against your success?

Because our materials are downloadable, most of the work is put in at the design and development stage and for the rest of the time we kick back and relax...I wish! We are continually working to improve things and spend a lot of time marketing and promoting the website. Of course the development time is continual and we are always striving to make each product better than the last. It is all really hard work, but we are very successful and it's definitely worth it.

If you had an unlimited budget, how would you change?

There is a lot going on in the serious gaming market, where customers will play business simulations in order to develop their skills. I see this being a real interesting area in the future and I think the demographic of learners coming through will demand this. I'd also like to market overseas in a more substantial way, as we get a lot of new business from this area and could expand here.

What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?

It was a shock to me how much of a money pit marketing can be. I don't remember who it was that said, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. I only wish I knew which half." They were right.

Business Interview with Andrew Wood

The Managing Director of Trainer Bubble, Andrew Wood was recently interviewed for an article in a local paper regarding his experiences with the Trainer Bubble website and his general thoughts on training. We thought it would be interesting for our customers to view the article and Andrew's views on the website and training, so we will display section of the article bit by bit over the coming weeks. Here's the first instalment...

Please give us a short summary of the website.

Trainer Bubble provides accredited training resources and course materials that trainers and leaders can download and use to run their own training sessions. When you purchase from our website, you receive a complete training pack of trainer’s notes and slides etc. ready to run your own training course. We also have a rapidly growing free section, where you will find training games, exercises, icebreakers and many other useful training tools.

What inspired you to launch the website?

We wanted to make training accessible to all and felt that a method of delivering training resources instantly to trainers and leaders was something that would really benefit our customers. We were also keen to develop a free collection of all the useful training games, icebreakers and tools that we have used in the past.

How did you come up with the name for Trainer Bubble?

The name came from a conversation/debate I had with a participant on one of my courses many years ago in which he said to me, "It's alright for you *bleeping* trainers, you all live in a bubble!' This statement always stuck with me and reminded me to remain objective and link learning to business needs. When I set up the business I decided to pay homage to the guy (whose name I sadly forget) and create a 'bubble' for trainers, hence, Trainer Bubble.

What makes Trainer Bubble different to other websites of the same type?

We were the first business of this specific nature to set up in the UK and since then we have been able to grow our offering beyond that of anyone else. We also have full accreditation for our training materials from ITOL, which really sets us apart. We are also proud that our free section is becoming one of the largest on the web.

Learning From Horse Trainers

Every now and then it pays to be reminded of basic principles and I got a reminder of this from an unexpected source a couple of days ago. I found myself reading an article giving tips in horse training techniques. The article caught my eye because some of the tips could equally apply to the way in which we train people.

I am not for one moment suggesting that horses and people are the same but that we can sometimes learn from the way in which other professionals work.

There were six main ideas that I liked because they reminded me of the importance of treating participants in the right way in the training room. I thought that I would share these with you whilst at the same time giving my take on how these techniques might also apply to people.

1. Warm the horse up both physically and mentally before starting.

Anyone used to training people will be aware of the importance of icebreakers and energisers. It seems that trying to go straight into a difficult training session without an initial warm up is not productive for humans or for horses.

2. Plan your training sessions carefully.

This is common sense whether training people or animals. It is also important to have a back-up plan in case your approach does not work on the day. We all have off days and we all learn in different ways, so we need a plan that caters for this.

3. Give simple cues.

Keeping cues and instructions simple makes perfect sense. We own a dog and I know from training him that confusing or difficult instructions do not work. The same applies to people. The simpler the instructions and information we supply the easier it is for them to learn.

4. Use positive and negative reinforcement during training

Feedback is important and it needs to be well balanced. If all of our feedback is negative we cannot be surprised if the people we are training lose heart. At the same time feedback that is 100% positive is no use unless justified.

5. Recognise when the horse is trying to make a correct response and give small rewards.

I’m not suggesting that we give a lump of sugar to people when they are doing well. But well placed words of encouragement can be their own reward (e.g. Well done. You’ve almost got it). Anyone who is used to training others will be well aware of this.

6. Know the lesson you are trying to teach and be persistent with that lesson.

This comes back to knowing the purpose of your training and making sure that everything you do is aimed at meeting that purpose. If both trainer and trainee are clear about lesson objectives and are persistent in meeting those objectives then success can almost be assured.

Of course, horses are not people. However, consistently applying these simple ideas must surely apply to training in just about any context.

This article was written by Karl Halliwell who is one of the course designers for Trainer Bubble training resources. Visit Trainer Bubble today to find out more about our Train the Trainer course materials.