ILT: the Endangered Species That Still Teaches Best

[seanpmcclean]

In a world of scroll, scroll, ‘click’, and speeding the video to 2.5. . . to get through it faster, Instructor Led Training (ILT) is the Unicorn 🦄 you didn’t know you needed.

And it’s becoming increasingly rare.  

To that end I’m going to share some tips to make the most out of this most precious of learning opportunities (whether it’s VILT chat or IRL):

• 🤫Shh! It’s not about the instructor - it’s about the other students!
• 👀 Look into fellow students:  Are they coming from similar industry, company, circumstance? (Pro Tip: sometimes the people with the most different perspectives can give you the best insights)
• 🎧Listen to their questions.  What are they asking, that you are not?
• Speaking of people. . . engage:
• Ask questions.  Ask for examples (from everyone, not just the instructor).  Ask “would you. . . “ (for real life examples)
• 📝Take notes on who answers.
• Examples, stories, and even tangents are gems you DON’T get from “On Demand”: take notes on those - they are gold.
• All that Listening, Looking, Paying attention is hard work:
• Pace yourself.  You may lose attention (that’s OK) - but bring yourself back to focus. . .
• Take Notes.  Things you want to investigate after.  People you want to connect with, or follow up with.
• Make Time for follow up - set appointments with yourself to review those notes, follow up with those network connections

Now, you may have seen the term “notes” a lot here.  These notes Don’t have to be complicated (And!  You can use AI to help clean them up).  If I get another chance (or there’s enough interest) I’ll post a sample you can use as a template for your notes in the comments).

Whew.  Hope that helps?  And to prove I’m not just “all about Instructor Led” let’s call this the first of a series - I’ll be trying to put together some tips and tricks for getting the most out of “On Demand” training next - with more on LinkedIn and Medium to come. . . 

Stay tuned, and “like” or comment if:

• There’s more you’d like to see
• There’s tips YOU have to add about getting the most from an instructor led class