No matter how well prepared you are as an expert, if your participants do not understand the purpose of the training, have other expectations of you, or simply lack basic knowledge, the success of your training is highly jeopardized. With our four methods, you will succeed in a perfect preparation. Each requires a maximum investment of 30 minutes for motivated participants and sustainable training success!
Why preparation is so important
As a trainer or coach, you have surely experienced this as well: participants come to your seminar or coaching and have no idea what to expect. Instead of starting directly with the content, you have to motivate skeptical participants, clarify basic questions, and compensate for a lack of prior knowledge. Such a start disrupts your content and schedule.
It is particularly dangerous when participants see no added value in the training at the beginning: they do not participate, absorb little new knowledge, or do not apply it in their daily work. Thus, the sustainability of your training suffers even before you begin with the content.
Particularly in digital or hybrid training, this effect becomes even more apparent: without a clear clarification of expectations and preparation, it quickly becomes a mere "consumption" of content instead of active engagement. A deliberate preparation phase increases commitment and promotes active participation from the very first moment.
Prerequisites for the ideal start
A good start with motivated participants instead looks like this:
Your participants know why they are there and have individual, clear goals.
You know the goals of your participants and can address them directly.
Your participants have prepared content-related questions or examples from their daily lives.
You know the level of knowledge your participants have.
When these four points are met, a truly great seminar or coaching session is possible. Your participants are motivated, have a clear goal in mind, and focus on the important content. At best, they have already dealt with the topics beforehand and have exciting content questions ready, which also help their fellow learners.
Would you also like motivated participants and effectively used seminar time? With good preparation, this is possible! We show you four very simple methods for great training preparation and how you can use them without much effort. The best part: you can implement each method in 30 minutes!
4 methods to prepare your training
The following four methods have been tested by numerous trainers and are already widely in use. All methods are so fundamental that they fit almost any training or coaching. You can choose one of them or, ideally, use all of them.
1. Preparation method: "What is important to you?"
“What is important to you?” Asking participants about their expectations helps you clarify questions and specifically address wishes during the training.
Why? Often your participants come with different expectations at the beginning of the training. If you get an overview of these expectations, you can address them specifically in your training.
How? Your participants receive a few questions from you before the first live session. The questions should be answered in bullet points. Open-ended questions are well suited, for example:
“What effect do you hope to get from the seminar?”
“What behavioral change do you wish for?”
“In which situations do you want to be able to react differently/better?”
You evaluate the answers before the seminar or coaching. This allows you to prepare for specific wishes and expectations.
2. Preparation method: "What is your current level?"
“What is your current level?” Questions about current knowledge levels help not only you, but above all the participants, to identify knowledge gaps and prepare for upcoming topics.
Why? Your participants check their own knowledge on the seminar topic even before the training begins and can better prepare for the in-person event. If knowledge gaps are identified and eliminated before the in-person event, you can be sure that your content will be understood.
How? Think about which topics will be covered in the in-person event and write down two good questions for each topic. The questions should encourage participants to self-reflect and not yet test concrete content. Good questions would be, for example:
“How well do you rate your knowledge of (your topic)?”
“Which 3 terms do you associate with (your topic)?”
With this method as well, participants should have enough time before the in-person event to answer the questions and prepare for your topics.
3. Preparation method: "Start well prepared!"
“Start well prepared”: With preparatory tasks, you can gather examples from your participants' daily work routines while raising their awareness for your topic.
Why? Examples and observations of your participants from their daily work are a great basis for your in-person session. Additionally, the participants tune in to the topic during the preparation and sensitize themselves to it.
How? Sometime before the actual training, assign your participants the task of paying attention to something specific at their workplace. Provide them with assistance, such as a checklist with important questions.
Such a task can look different and depends on the topic of your training. For a seminar on “Communication,” it could look like this:
Task: “When communicating with colleagues, watch out for when communication problems occur.”
Checklist: 1. “What was it roughly about?” - 2. “How was it communicated (in person, email, phone)?” - 3. “What was the problem?”
One or two weeks before the seminar is a good timeframe, depending on the scope of the task. Consider whether you want to evaluate the results before the in-person session or if the participants should bring them directly to the seminar.
4. Preparation method: “Look forward to…”
“Look forward to…”: Communicating the schedule and topics clearly gives your participants confidence and builds positive expectations.
Why? Knowing exactly how your in-person session will run helps your participants adjust well to the topics. Clear communication creates a positive expectation and encourages them to express concrete questions and wishes.
How? Summarize the schedule and topics of your seminar briefly. To do this, you should ask yourself a few questions to clarify potential participant inquiries.
For example:
“What happens on that day?”
“How can my participant prepare? What should he or she bring along?”
“What is particularly exciting about that day?”
Keep it short! It is best to add a call to action to send you wishes, comments, or particularly important aspects. By the way, a personal video explaining the process and motivating participants to take action is particularly suitable for this preparation method.
Practical tips on the 4 methods
1. “What is important to you?”
Value: You learn about the participants' expectations through open-ended questions and can adjust to their wishes.
Practical tip: Casual formats with open-ended answer options are very suitable for this. Interactive online support with a quiz or survey is quickly set up and has high added value for your training. Bonus point for you: You can easily collect and analyze the responses.
2. “What is your current level?”
Value: Your participants identify and close knowledge gaps before the in-person event, and you can prepare appropriately for their level of knowledge.
Practical tip: Asking participants for a personal assessment (“How well do you rate your knowledge of the topic?”) encourages self-reflection without building up pressure.
3. “Start well prepared”
Value: Participants observe situations in their daily lives – you use these as examples in training to enable effective learning transfer.
Practical tip: If you use an online platform, offer helpful materials directly and flexibly as a download. For example, a checklist as a PDF. This way, no distributed paper can get lost and participants are flexible in how they integrate the tasks into their everyday lives: printed out, on a PC, or on a smartphone?
4. “Look forward to…”
Value: You give the participants precise information about the schedule and topics of the training, make them curious, and ensure a relaxed start.
Practical tip: A video in which you personally address the participants and mention the most exciting topics is best suited for this. This allows you to start building a personal connection even before the first session. You make the video available online for all participants. You also need very little equipment to produce high-quality videos yourself!
Conclusion
Successful training does not happen in the seminar room, but in the phase before it: Whoever clarifies expectations, activates prior knowledge, and makes relevance visible lays the foundation for sustainable learning success.
Good preparation determines whether your training just “takes place” or unfolds a real impact. Participants who know their goals, reflect on their level of knowledge, and have already engaged with the topic start more motivated and use the joint time more intensively.
Whether in-person, online format, or blended learning: The quality of preparation significantly influences the sustainability of the training. With clear structures and small, targeted preparation impulses, you create the best conditions for real learning success.
Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
Why is preparing for a training so important for learning success?
Good preparation creates clear expectations, activates prior knowledge, and increases participants' motivation. As a result, training sessions start more focused, and the joint time can be used more effectively.
How does an expectation query help before the training?
When participants formulate their goals and expectations in advance, it creates more commitment and clarity. Trainers can adapt content more specifically and better address concrete wishes or challenges.
Why should participants reflect on their level of knowledge before a training?
Self-reflection helps participants identify knowledge gaps early on and prepare specifically. At the same time, trainers gain a better understanding of the level at which the training should start.
How does a preparation phase improve the transfer of learning into everyday work?
Preparatory tasks already establish a connection to the participants' daily work before the actual training. This makes it easier to apply content practically later on and anchor it in everyday professional life in the long term.
