Experiential training is gaining in popularity. It is particularly useful in, but not limited to, areas such as sales, management, creativity, communication skills and personal development. At its heart, experiential training means immersing the trainees in realistic simulations so they can experiment with their behaviours and techniques in a safe environment. Delegates will often say that they cannot believe in the simulations, but experience shows that they are normally treating them as completely real within seconds of starting.

One type of experiential training is role playing where, for example, a manager might have the job of discussing with a member of their team their performance. Most people find it difficult to act naturally in these situations. This is something that actors are specifically trained to do. In fact, they can be briefed to simulate specific problems that that manager may have to deal with. Furthermore, actors do not have an agenda relating to the employer. Instead they can focus on making the role play as realistic as possible.

Watching how colleagues perform in these scenarios can also be helpful and increase the speed at which staff learn.

A role play between may take place between a number of actors, with the trainees directing the actors and making suggestions as to how to behave. The results of that behaviour can then be seen.

One of the keys to any management training and employee personal development is to show people ways in which to approach their work with creativity. Everyone has untapped abilities. All that is required is to give them the confidence to tap into that resource and, sometimes, to give things a little nudge. Here are some suggestions for accessing creativity.

Ask your staff to improve one aspect of their job each day. They should focus on those areas over which they have control.

Encourage weekly lunchtime meetings of employees where they can discuss ideas they have tried, books they have read on creativity and maybe listen to visiting speakers.

Have a ‘Stupid Idea’ week. The idea of the competition is to come up with stupid ideas. Those ideas can be posted on a notice board and awards given to the very worst ideas. This is fun and encourages a sense of camaraderie amongst the staff. You will also find that the stupid ideas encourage good ones.

When discussing ideas at a meeting make sure people don’t respond to new ideas by saying ‘Yes, but…’ Instead, they should say ‘Yes, and…’ This will help to change a negative mind set to a positive one.

Finally, reward good ideas and positively reinforce a creative culture.

Bad management is one of those things that you might not always be able to describe, but you know it as soon as you see it. It’s very easy to fix you might say. After all, it just needs the manager involved to undergo some soft skills training. However, there are many barriers which prevent the requirement for management training being recognised.

First of all, if you are unlucky enough to have a bad manager, how do you tell them? Maybe, you don’t tell them but speak to your human resources manager instead. Either of these courses of action will generally be considered professional suicide. This is especially so when you consider that the symptoms of bad management often involve a refusal, or the inability to listen to others.

The manager, unfortunately, has to consider company politics. If they recognise that they need training, they may see this as an admission that they aren’t coping. It may well be that their manager would consider this in a negative light. Alternatively, the manager may be so confident in their abilities that it doesn’t even cross their mind that they could benefit from training.

Those companies who continue to thrive and grow, even in the current economic climate, do so because they have engendered a culture of learning and continuous performance improvement. Bad management in these companies is a thing of the past, as key individuals recognise the benefit of professional and personal development.

If you are looking for a doctor, you would assume they have the relevant medical training. If you need a lawyer, legal training would be a requisite. Even a burger flipper will have an NVQ in food hygiene, or possibly a degree from McDonalds University. Despite this, managers seem quite confident in their positions and abilities, even though they may never have had management training.

Some managers will point proudly to the MBA framed and hanging on their office wall. However according to some leading management thinkers the MBA is not a panacea, and may not suitably equip managers with the people skills that are a necessity to be an effective manager.

Some will claim that good management is just common sense. However, whilst there are very rare individuals who combine charisma with team building skills and a natural ability to motivate their staff, these people are the exception rather than the rule.

No manager sets out to be bad but poor management is one of the most debilitating things within a company. Management training is not a luxury, it is a necessity. Regular appraisals and 360 degree feedback, where staff report on their seniors as well as juniors are helpful tools in ensuring that poor management is spotted and the necessary training undertaken.

When choosing a management training provider, it is vital to understand what sort of training they will provide. Does it consist of sitting at desks watching PowerPoint presentations? When the training company says they provide interactive training, does that mean that every half hour or so they break off from the presentation and ask the delegates a question?

In either of those cases, you should look for another company. The only effective way to change staff behaviour is to actually work with what staff actually says and what they do. This can, of course be done in a number of ways. For example role plays with fellow members of staff can have some value but role plays are far more effective with properly briefed professional actors.

Many companies are reluctant to change trainers even when they suspect that their current provider is not ideal. This is because they perceive that supplier as having lots of background information about the way in which not only their company works, but the way the industry in which they operate works. In fact, this information is not as relevant as the personal skills which are applicable to all businesses and industries. The most important thing is to get staff actively involved in their training.