Take the right approach to training

Knowing your audience is key when it comes to training. You have to know what they know and what they don’t know, said Kurt Thompson, owner of K. Thompson & Associates, at the 2017 Irrigation Show, hosted by the Irrigation Association.

Begin by dividing information into the categories of must-know, should-know and could-know. Then, “start with all of the must-knows and almost forget everything else,” he said. “You don’t want to run out of time to get all of the must-know information.”

Say you’re teaching how to size pipe to a technician. Rather than giving the trainee a whole chart of pipe sizing, give them the maximum flow rate. Or, tell them what nozzle size they need and then ask them to call their supervisor if they have questions. In this case, teaching them how to calculate or use a chart is more could-know information.

“You’re going to be able to trim this down and give them time to get this practiced because when they leave your training, they must know how to do this,” Thompson said. Visit bit.ly/IrrigationShow17 for Thompson’s five steps.

Be sure to check out the February issue of Lawn & Landscape for stories on our 2018 Turnaround Tour winners. Until then, check out the Turnaround Tour page for a list of free webinars featuring our 2017 winners: bit.ly/turnaroundtour.

This issue features new Wi-Fi-based irrigation controllers, but 10 years ago we were reporting on the complexities of decoding for two-wire irrigation systems. Check it out here: bit.ly/2WireTech

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