Trainer in Black. 6
Fail #6
On Needs Assessment
Once upon a time, I had the task of conducting comprehensive customer service program for the frontline staff of a company. This involved around 100 people, and, as often happens, I needed to train them all very quickly (every trainer’s favorite task).
So, I rounded up the heads of relevant departments, agreed on convenient dates with them, and through them, scheduled the first training for their subordinates. Since these employees were responsible for essential operations of the organization, from lighting and ventilation to the cleanliness of both ladies' and gentlemen’s rooms, I could only gather them for a maximum of 30 minutes before or after their shifts.Being an ultra-early bird, I, of course, opted for the morning slot.The shift change for these workers was at 7:30 AM. I arrived at 7:00 AM, in my neatly pressed suit, prepared and ready with a solid block on basic customer service communication.
By the scheduled start time, all the invited participants from the first group had arrived — about 15 people. They were all dressed in work uniforms, entered quietly, and sat down without a word.
Here’s a key detail: the average age of these participants was 45-65 years old. As they settled in, the room felt unusually quiet — nobody was talking, the men weren’t shaking hands, and the women weren’t greeting each other. They just nodded in response to my enthusiastic “Good morning!” and quietly took their seats.
I didn’t think much of it at first, just chalked it up to the usual awkwardness of meeting a new person — especially one who would be “lecturing.”I began the program with typical small talk and tried to lighten the mood with a joke. The reaction? A solid wall of silence. The tension was palpable. But I had to push on.
I moved to the learning part and proposed a case study, thinking that when I asked them to work in pairs, they’d start engaging. Nope. My group remained as still as ever, seemingly lifeless: no responses to questions, no reactions to comments, no expressions on their faces, and emotions I couldn’t quite read. It felt like if I were to approach someone and tap them on the shoulder, there would be no reaction at all.
It felt like I was facing an impossible group — 100% difficult participants! Was it a test? A challenge? Who knows. Challenges aside, I needed to meet my KPIs, so I switched to my tried-and-true approach — sincerity. I said: "
Colleagues, we need to cover some important material. We have only half an hour. I’ve prepared interesting and important content for you. Right now, you’re not responding to what I’m saying, and we won’t get anywhere like this. Because training requires communication. Please, tell me what’s wrong, and what I can do to make this more comfortable for you."
At this point, I heard a faint sound, a chair creaking, which seemed to break the tension. A fly on the shelf slowly opened a bottle of cola, anticipating the thriller that was about to unfold. One of the men responded with a question so unexpected that I was momentarily speechless:
“When are you going to fire us?”
At that time, the "facepalm" meme didn’t exist yet, but my reaction was definitely EpicFail 2.0.
"Why would you think I’m here to fire you?" I blurted out, ruining all possible humorous outcomes of the situation. I managed to calm them down by assuring them that the goal of the session was certainly not that. I handed out some training materials on customer communication standards and ended the session there. Continuing the training under such tension would have been completely futile.
Fail #6: I didn’t meet the participants beforehand, nor did I assess their needs properly. Several factors came together here: I was relatively new to the company, had little interaction with the frontline staff, and while I had a general understanding of the company’s environment and culture, I hadn’t realized how much it could impact my program. My group was also significantly older than I was. From this experience, I learned that…
Tip #6: When preparing for any event, for any audience, it’s not enough to simply
“gather needs”. It’s crucial to meet with participants at least twice (depending on the scale of the program), get to know them, spend time in their environment (ideally, participate in their meetings, listen to their rhetoric, immerse yourself in their culture), and truly "walk in their shoes."
In my case, this was especially important because the “Generation X” participants have their own specific needs and require an individual approach to communication.
But then again, everybody does.
January 25, 2021