TRAINER STYLES SURVEY 2008

Understand what ‘type’ of trainer you are - and what this means for your training.

Academy28 has teamed up with Training Journal to carry out a major survey into the behavioural preferences of trainers and how these impact on the training they deliver.

We all have innate behavioural preferences which impact on every aspect of our lives, both at work and at home. In the training room, these preferences manifest themselves in how people like to learn, their attitude to setting learning objectives and the goals they want to achieve afterwards.

The research will examine these preferences and the results will have an important bearing not only on how trainers should design and deliver training solutions but also on how the learning is ultimately transferred by each learner back into the workplace.

SKIP STRAIGHT TO SURVEY INSTRUCTIONS

Understanding personality

There are four dimensions to our personalities:

• Do we like to take immediate action or think things through first?
• Are we more interested in facts or just ideas?
• Are we solution-focused or people-focused?
• Do we prefer to be organised or would we rather go with the flow?

Within each of these four dimensions, there are two options or extremes. There’s no right or wrong option within each dimension but the combination of these factors means that there are 16 distinct personality ‘types’, according to the popular work of Carl Gustav Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology.

People have a tendency to align themselves to one of these 16 outcomes and that’s what we define as their behavioural ‘type’ or ‘preference’. On average, a typical training group of 10-12 participants is likely to be made up of at least six different personalities.

Given that a trainer will have a preference for one of the 16 personality types, the research will seek to highlight the implications of this for trainers, both in the face-to-face training room and in a virtual or remote setting.

By acknowledging and understanding your own preferences as a trainer, you’ll be able to apply this knowledge to create more successful learning interventions that deliver improved results.

The research findings will ultimately provide trainers with the chance to uplift their current skill levels to improve their own on-the-job performance, through their understanding of the impact of behavioural type in the training room and elsewhere.

What ‘type’ of trainer are you?

Instructions: There are two steps to complete to find out your 'type':

1. Complete a 10-minute online assessment. This ‘personal style and behavioural preferences tool’ will classify your natural inclinations around how you think and behave in various situations, into one of 16 distinct personality types. Make a note of Your Type. You'll find this in the second section of the report, e.g. You are an Innovator, as you will need this in step 2.

Take me to the online assessment.

2. Complete an online survey that will ask you to rate a number of different training methods, to diagnose your preferred choice of training activities (when you deliver training) and your preferred methods of learning (as a learner). When prompted, enter your 'type preference label'.

Take me to the online survey.

The closing date for entries is Friday 5 September 2008. All responses will be treated in confidence and will only be used in aggregated form.

As a thank you for taking part, you will automatically receive a free copy of a personalised report into your preferred behavioural style and you’ll have the option to request a copy of the final report when it’s launched.

The survey results will be published on the Academy28 website and in the November issue of Training Journal.

Tim Drewitt, Director of Academy28, said: “We’re looking to uncover to what extent the type preferences of trainers have a positive or detrimental effect on the success of the training event itself and how the learning is translated back into practice in the workplace. Talking to trainers, it’s clear that they’ve paid a lot of attention in the past to helping learners to participate more effectively in the training process but maybe not so much emphasis on their own delivery style. We hope as many trainers as possible will take part as we believe the conclusions will have an important impact on the ongoing development of the training profession.”