The Importance of "Show and Tell" in Workplace Training

We all remember as kids having to stand up in front of the classroom and do a "Show and Tell" session to the class about our newest toy.

While this might be a great skill to teach young kids, it's also a great training technique for an adult class.

To improve the effectiveness of training, the more senses you can use, the more impact the communication will have.

That's because we remember:

• 10% of what we read
• 20% of what we hear
• 30% of what we see
• 50% of what we both hear and see

So in any training situation, demonstrations or "show and tell" are integral to training success.  If we hear something, a day later we will remember 20% of what we heard.  And if we see something, we will remember 30%.  So add both audio and visual information together and 50% of what was communicated will be remembered.

That's why training videos are so effective.  By showing (visuals) and telling (narrator), the viewer instantly knows what to do.  And if you add titles to reinforce (reading), you increase the effectiveness by another 10% to 60%.

As Kris Cole mentions in her book, Crystal Clear Communication you need to do show and tell, twice.  Once so people can  see what they need to do.  And the second time to help people to see exactly what happens or precisely how something works to determine exactly what is to be done.

How can you add more demonstrations to your training?