What Great Trainers Do

11

Using Disclaimers to Sidestep Resistance

Address the disagreement before it addresses you.

——David Peoples¹

When trainers lead workshops, they’re typically focused on the benefits participants will receive from learning the concepts, attitudes, methods, or skills of the course. Many participants, however, will likely be very satisfied with their present approach. Otherwise they probably would have tried to change it years ago. Besides, their current mode of operation has undoubtedly become habitual and, therefore, ultra-easy to use. But now headquarters, or the training department, or some other distant entity has decided to pull them out of work to teach them something that many of them aren’t remotely interested in learning. Some people ...