About A. Woodward & Associates Our company’s primary focus is to help clients develop healthy patient and staff relationships. Our consulting services are customized to your organization, and your specific needs. Areas of expertise include customer service, patient satisfaction and employee engagement. A. Woodward & Associates was established in 1999 by Anita B. Woodward, MBA, FACHE. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, we have clients in all parts of the country. Anita has over 20 years of healthcare management, customer service, and human resource experience, and her associates have a variety of complementary skills and experiences.
October 2008 Newsletter
How to Make Your Training More Effective
Although most of the work that A. Woodward & Associates does involves helping clients create and implement strategies to improve patient satisfaction or employee engagement and morale, we also do a fair amount of training. And we know many of our readers also conduct training sessions at work. Many of us are not professional educators. These tips are designed for the person who is a content expert, not a professional trainer. We have found them to be helpful. And we would love to hear from any readers who are professional educators. Please email us with your additional tips, and we will try to publish them in the next newsletter.
General Training Tips Have confidence. You know more about your topic than the audience. Think of yourself as the expert. Determine ahead of time how to make your topic relevant to your audience. If you are educating people about a new requirement, don’t get into debating its merits. Do open discussion about barriers to implementing the requirement. Use the power of the group. If you cannot answer a question, throw it out to the group by asking, "Who here has an idea that may help her/him?" That will give you time to think, and the audience may have a great answer! Always show respect for your audience. Even if they behave poorly, remember you are the professional. Do not let body language or facial expression show impatience with hecklers, people coming and going, etc.
Training in Small Groups Inservices on nursing units or in small departments can be informal and chaotic, with employees coming & going. These inservices are usually 30-60 minutes long. The key is to engage people’s attention early. Keep agenda short and focused. Consider taking handouts for people as an audiovisual aid. Open with a statement about how you think your information can make your audience’s lives better/easier. Use information from an "expert" to support your main point. The expert can be anyone from outside your hospital. After sharing the expert’s information, lead a discussion. The purpose is to let the group process this with your guidance, so they are more likely to accept and use the information. If you think there will be disagreement, open with a question that gives them permission to debate. It is better to surface the arguments now than after you leave. Your question could be, "What do you think are the pros and cons of this idea?" Other questions to ask could be, "When could this be relevant/useful/applied in this department?" "When might it not work?" "What are some barriers to implementing this suggestion?" Often the group will come up with its own answers to overcoming barriers. You just need to guide the discussion and keep it on track. Thank them for their time, and let them know you would be happy to come back and continue the discussion. Give them your contact info.
Training in a Workshop with 20 - 50 People This setting is a little more formal, and people are less likely to come and go because they are not in their own department. These workshops can be anywhere from one to eight hours. The key here is to keep people engaged by keeping them involved. Consider assigning seats so people meet new people and small groups of friends don’t sit together chatting during the presentation. Get them involved! Start by asking a question that is easy for the audience to respond to. Examples: "How many nurses do we have in the room, therapists, etc." "How many of you have worked here for less than one year?" etc. Provide your information, explain the issue. Use PowerPoint, videos, music, or other AV that are relevant. Do not simply read PowerPoint slides to the audience. Use them as an outline for your discussion. Use small groups to have the audience "work" with the information you gave, so they can make it their own. Have them brainstorm, role-play, create skits, etc. Plan this out ahead of time, and make sure your instructions are clear. Keep the audience focused by having them participate: have small groups report to the entire audience; ask entire group for input and flipchart their comments; ask for examples of best practices and barriers from their own experience; etc.
Training in a Large Group Large groups are often situated at a greater distance from the speaker because stages or podiums are used. These sessions tend to be 60-90 minutes long. It is easier for audience attention to drift in large groups, so use techniques to prevent that. Many of the suggestions from above can be applied, and we have also found the following to be useful. Just as in the workshop setting above, gain initial interest and attention by opening with a question that the audience can easily answer by a show of hands. Tell stories to make your point. You may not have the time or environment to use small groups, so stories may substitute for letting the audience “work with” your information. Have people turn to the person next to them and tell stories. Make your instructions simple, and limit the time, because this can easily turn into chit chat. Use some form of media if your presentation is over 30 minutes long. It will help keep the audience focused. Asking for audience input and flip charting their responses can be effective if you will be able to hear them. If you have a wireless microphone, walk about the room. Your movement keeps the audience’s attention. Be sure your gaze encompasses everyone in the room, not just those directly in front of you.
Enjoy the opportunity to share your expertise with others, while always keeping in mind that they are your customers while you are training them. Considering the customer’s needs is as important in training as it is in everything else. Please contact us if we can help you, either via email or phone: 216-631-1852.
Ten Biggest Customer Service Mistakes the Organization Makes Last month we asked for your input on the Ten Biggest Customer Service Mistakes individuals make in healthcare settings. This week, we want to update our 2004 list of the Ten Biggest Customer Service Mistakes made by healthcare organizations. Please let us know via email if you think these are still the ten biggest, almost five years later, or whether the list has changed. We are also still accepting comments on the Ten Biggest from the customer’s perspective, which was published in our July issue. To access that, go to our website and click on the news tab. The Ten Biggest Mistakes an organization makes, as originally published in 2004, were: #10 - No Service Recovery plan, or plan not effectively used #9   - Inadequate Recognition and Reward #8   - Inadequate Training in giving good service #7   - Inadequate Communication about service #6   - Lack of Employee Involvement/Empowerment #5   - No Standards of Behavior #4   - Lack of Patient Focus in decision-making #3   - No infrastructure to support service #2   - Inadequate attention by senior management #1   - Lack of accountability for service
Case studies and story ideas wanted! We are looking for good case studies to share, and we always want to publish articles that answer your questions or help with your challenges. Please email us with your ideas. Thanks.
About This Newsletter This newsletter is published for clients and colleagues of A. Woodward & Associates, and for others who are interested in customer service, employee relations, and organizational communication, especially in healthcare organizations. If you would like to add someone to our subscriber list, please contact us at anita@anitawoodward.com (or simply reply to this email). Be sure to provide the subscriber's name and organization.