One training group I don’t really like training and I know many don’t as well are the small, small groups. This occur form time to time. By small I mean somewhere between 4 and 8 people over a period of weeks. Some new trainers might think this is great. Small group, less hassles, less to manage. But in fact with a small group the focus inevitably turns to you to entertain them. A larger group entertains itself. Early on the dynamic establishes itself and even in a quiet large group sufficient outgoing people will drive discussion and debate. A larger group can be split into many smaller groups to discuss and then compare and contrast. A small group just is. It often is too small to split and if there are sufficient quiet participants the whole attention of the group shifts to you for input, momentum and entertainment. So what can you do? My best advice. Don’t do it. Wait till the group members get to a larger group or move the group members to another group. If it must go ahead here are some tips but get ready to put on your tap shoes as well as you will need to be flexible and engaging all the time to hold the process together.
- Group project with a reward at the end.
- Do the assessment in the training.
- Reduce the time face to face as you do not need the same amount of time and dragging it out will make it worse.
- Individual competitions.
- Sit in the group and become apart of the learners rather than outside.
- Set up challenges.
- Discuss with the group how they would like to do the learning. Change your plans to fit them.
- Allow people to do work at home or at work. If there isn’t much discussion hen it might as well be done somewhere else.
- Ask them to get involved. How can we make this work?
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