Before you choose a business training solution, you also need to determine your particular learning style. People lean best in different ways, and you'll get the most out of your training experience if you choose a learning mode that's best suited to your learning style. Ask yourself:
1) How do you learn best?
Do you need hands-on experience, or do you prefer to extract information from lectures or text? Do you enjoy the social interaction of learning with a group of like-minded individuals, or do you prefer to work things out by yourself? Is it helpful to you if the information presented is very structured, with lots of lists and worksheets, or is it easier for you to learn if you discover the information yourself through problem-solving or case studies?
2) What learning schedule works best for you?
Do you thrive in an intensive environment, such as the weekend seminar with all day workshops, or do you retain more if you learn pieces of content over a longer period of time, such as once-a-week sessions over a period of months?
3) What type of instructor do you learn best from?
While it’s certainly true that anyone can learn from anyone if the learner is motivated enough, it’s also true that we all have style preferences. Do you need a ‘drill sergeant’ type of instructor to keep you on task, or do you prefer a more informal person who acts as a facilitator?Once you've thought about your learning style, the next step in deciding what training to take is determining exactly what it is you want to learn.
Generic business courses can be a lot of fun (for both the participant and the instructor), but they rarely provide solutions for the specific problem you may be encountering in your business. Do you want to learn general information about ways of financing a business or do you want to learn how to write a proposal that’s going to attract risk capital investors? Will you be able to learn techniques to promote your web site by taking a seminar entitled “An Introduction to E-Commerce”?
If you want to learn how to solve a specific problem or learn particular pieces of information, you may need to find a specific seminar or workshop on that topic, or find a business trainer/consultant who can provide a learning solution tailored to your needs. Don’t expect someone presenting a workshop or a seminar on a generic topic to be able to provide an answer specific to your situation.
Many of us provide this kind of consulting service (for a fee), and some of us provide services such as one-on-one coaching, but you need to be able to describe the problem or tell us exactly what you hope to learn before we can provide the training solution you're looking for.
Lastly, to get the business training solution that will truly suit your learning needs, you need to examine your learning options. Click to continue on to the next page...
