Custom Training Programs

If you’re looking for training for a whole team or a small group, you might not need the formality of a standard curriculum and a fixed schedule. Instead, you might be interested in a custom training program, which takes full advantage of the most compelling benefits of remote real-time workshops. The schedule can be intensive or relaxed. Sessions can run from 1 hour to 1/2 day. The agenda can adapt more easily to the evolving needs of the participants. The program can run on a regular schedule or on more of an as-needed basis. The participants can change from session to session. In short, we have options that come from avoiding the constraints of a fixed-time on-site visit.

How It Works

We design a program together, based on your objectives, expectations, and constraints. We start with a general theme or topic, clarify the results you expect, draft an agenda and schedule, then we begin.

The typical elements of a custom learning program that we can choose from.

We can schedule a learning program with elements like these:

  • Self-study training
  • Guided practice sessions
  • Ensemble programming sessions (also known as “mob programming”)
  • Question and answer sessions
  • Group discussions
  • Working sessions, such as for exploring problems, making decisions, modeling
  • Lectures and demonstrations
We could combine these into an intensive program for one whole team, resulting in a customized training course. We could run them as a weekly or monthly resource center for various people to drop in when they need advice, guidance, or time to practise. We could agree on anything, limited only by our respective schedules.

Design Your Program or Just the Intro

In order to deliver a custom learning program that meets the needs of the participants, we have broadly two options: designing the learning program up front and delivering the program incrementally.

Design Your Learning Program workshop

Design Your Learning Program involves a comprehensive review with a small group of representatives (as small as only you) who represent the needs of the participants as well as the constraints of the organization.

We review what you want and expect from the learning program so that I can help you find topics, formats, and styles that will deliver the results you need. I propose various detailed topics, activities, and a rough schedule based on my experience designing training courses. We also discuss how the learning program might affect the organization over the coming months as people apply what they learn to their daily work.

I would like to help you avoid over-investing in training for which you’re not ready and under-investing in areas where you clearly need more capacity and support. In this workshop, sometimes we conclude that you need something very different from what you had in mind, and I consider it my responsibility to help you see that before you commit significant time, energy, and money to a particular plan.

This option is suitable when a small group of representatives needs to decide on the program on behalf of the participants. Many clients use this workshop to design a custom training course, often using one of my standard courses as a starting point for discussion.

Just the Intro workshop

Just the Intro involves selecting an overall theme for the learning program, then running an introductory workshop with the intended participants. In this workshop, I present an overview of the topic, share my overall approach, introduce some of the foundational concepts, and then work directly with the participants to determine what they need to learn next.

Through workshop activities, we explore the participants’ specific objectives, expectations, and organizational constraints. As a group we design the rest of the learning program together to propose to the program sponsors. The participants leave the workshop with material and exercises that give them a place to start practising while the program sponsors decide whether to approve the rest of the program.

This option is suitable especially for whole teams as part of their continuous improvement program. This option also works well for groups that don’t know exactly how much detailed training they need, but know the general areas where they need help, and prefer guidance from a trusted adviser rather than trying to figure it all out for themselves.

Booking

The Design Your Learning Program workshop requires up to 2 hours and works best with a core group of up to approximately 8 people. After the workshop, you will receive an assessment and a proposal for your learning program suitable to submit for sponsor approval. From there, you have the option to engage me to provide the program, find other suppliers, or undertake the program as self-study. Click here to see your options for purchasing and scheduling your workshop.

The Just the Intro workshop requires 1/2 day. It is designed for whole teams or communities of practice (team leads, product owners, first-line managers) and is suitable for up to approximately 20 people. The workshop covers the material that participants would experience in the first 2-3 hours of a standard training course on the central topic of interest. You will receive a report of our findings, a proposal for further training, some practice exercises, and a reading list to help you prepare for the rest of the program. Click here to see your options for purchasing and scheduling your workshop.

All relevant sales taxes will be applied at the time of purchase.

I just need a Standard Training Course!

If you decide that you’d prefer to book a standard training course, then click here to explore your options.