How do you get resistant learners engaged?
It’s easy to spot the signs – lack of interaction, eye rolls, quietly checking emails or not even showing up at all!
Whether you’re an L&D professional, HR manager or just a colleague running an ad hoc session, it’s always difficult when you sense someone is disengaged during a session.
The thing is, often it's just the result of misconceptions around the purpose of training.
Why are some people so resistant to training?
Fear of change, fear of failure, fear of judgement.
People might think they’re being given training because they’re failing in some way. A sneaky form of performance management, perhaps.
Or they might be scared that new training means new expectations - what if they can’t keep up?
Others might simply be burnt out, stressed over their workload, and think that training will take up valuable time spent tackling their to-do list.
Whatever the reason, it’s rare (thankfully) that a colleague is disengaged because they enjoy being ‘difficult’.
They might just need a little reassurance!
Keep employees engaged during training
Here’s a couple of ways you can try to address any misconceptions without putting anyone on the spot:
1. Set the tone early
People don’t resist learning. They resist not knowing why they’re being asked to learn something.
It’s important to give context – make sure all your employees understand how the training relates back to their day-to-day role or goals before it takes place.
Give them that context upfront so they can start the session knowing the value it can bring them.
2. Name it, without blame
There’s no need to pretend everyone’s equally bought in. If you’ve got a mixed crowd, saying something like, “Some of you might be thinking, ‘I’ve been doing this job for ten years - why am I here?’” shows that you understand there’s different abilities in the room, and gives you an easy segue into addressing that.
(And yes, it may sound a little cheesy, but it still gets a laugh or two nonetheless!)
3. Give them a real scenario
The fastest way to cut through scepticism is relevance – see if you can link the training to scenarios they’d typically encounter.
It’s not always useful to go straight in with a model or tool straight away – try starting with a moment they’ve probably lived through. If you can ground the training in a real scenario they recognise, buy-in will follow.
4. Nobody’s too good for a refresher
Training doesn’t have to transform your entire outlook to be useful, sometimes it’s just a helpful reminder or new way of looking at something you already do.
It can’t hurt to gently remind someone of that if you’re still encountering real resistance from them during a session, especially if you can see it’s a little disruptive for others.
(And if we’re honest, most of us could do with a refresher now and then!)
5. Allow them the time and space to learn
Most important on this list, make sure your teams know that learning is seen as a core part of their role, and has dedicated time allocated for it.
If it’s seen as an additional task to fit in their schedule, training won’t be seen as important as their day-to-day.
If teams are too busy to have allocated time, that’s a bigger issue, and you might need to enlist the help of managers to get back on track.
Hopefully disengaged learners isn’t a problem you’ll encounter too often during training sessions, but whether as a trainee or a trainer, we’ve all experienced it at least once – so it doesn’t hurt to have a few tactics up your sleeve!
