Training manuals are not glorified books with detailed speaker notes and cool looking pictures. Training manuals serve a very specific purpose and there is a science to creating ones that have impact. They are intended to give the reader the capabilities and skills to perform a predetermined task and not just to hold up the end of the couch with the broken leg once the training is complete. For example, the training manual may be used to teach a set of software users how to make the most of the software. Or, perhaps the training manual is intended to teach something less tactical like, how to plan a wedding. (Less tactical maybe, but with bigger potential to crash than any Microsoft product!) Whichever the case may be, a good training manual focuses on teaching and not on telling. That is what differentiates them from a self-help book. Here is a list of the five things that make a training manual more than a book.
1. Step-by-Step Instructions
A training manual, by definition, is an instruction manual that teaches. At its most basic level it must provide a set of step-by-step instructions for the reader to follow. The path from starting the task or process to completing it successfully must be outlined specifically and clearly for readers to follow. It’s like a recipe for success, leave out the eggs and that cake isn’t quite the same.
Provide step-by-step instructions.
2. Repetition Geared at Increasing Retention
Training manuals follow the fundamentals of instructional design. We know that the brain processes information in very specific and patterned ways. Repetition equals memory. Repetition equals memory! The more we hear, see or experience something the more likely we are to not only remember it, but actually store the information in long term memory. This means we can recall it later. Case in point, Michael Jackson’s “Beat It;” don’t you wish you could click “delete” for just a FEW of those repetitive memories? Training manuals are great for increasing reader retention, because by repeating information in various formats through the instruction process, they are actually training the reader’s mind to be able to recall the information later.
Repeat key concepts three times within the training document.
3. Examples that Demonstrate Success
Training manuals always provide plenty of examples. These examples can be as simple as a set of software screen shots that demonstrate a task or as complex as the integration of story and dialog to demonstrate the correct implementation of concepts. These examples are offered in the context of the step being articulated. Although books often employ the tactic of providing story-based examples for key points, this is often done as a conclusion to a paragraph or chapter. This form of example does not have the same impact that one, provided as a new task is being defined, does. Make sure your example or story is relevant, no one wants to hear your great aunt’s life story unless it’s going to help them remember the point!
Demonstrate how to successfully complete each step with an example.
4. Opportunities to Test Your Knowledge
There is one thing every good instructional designer or trainer will tell you is the most important thing you must do to assist someone in learning something new. You must provide them with an opportunity to test their skill and try the new task. In order for the brain to take new information and make it part of its permanent catalogue of skills, it must have experienced it. In addition, every learner needs the opportunity to try something new as they learn it and possibly do it wrong. Correcting themselves and figuring out how to do the task correctly greatly increases the chances the learner will always remember the correct way to accomplish the task later on. Consider the toddler learning to walk, the teenager learning to drive, the geek perfecting his pick up line….
Include exercises and activities.
5. Simple Formatting
Training manuals focus on the information to be delivered and not on how complex it can look. You’re not going for a flashy set of color copies here; you’re putting a simple interface on a complex set of skills. That is why really great training manuals attempt to create easy to follow simple formatting. Many use tables because they easily create content blocks for the reader’s eye to focus on. In addition, training manuals that have impact often use simple visual iconography to point readers to specific types of information. For example, a question mark icon may denote where the reader can find frequently asked questions.
Use simple formatting.
to use training document templates.
Five Quick Steps:
1. Provide step-by-step instructions.
2. Repeat key concepts three times within the training document.
3. Demonstrate how to successfully complete each step with an example.
4. Include exercises and activities.