Every leader wants their training sessions to be meaningful. We want to leave an impact on the learners and help them grow as organizers. 

But a major question we come across is – what are we doing to prepare for effective training sessions?  

There are so many topics, ideas, and emotions we want to express as leaders and social change educators, but at the end of the day, we need to take it one step at a time. 
So for each and every training session you carry out, you need to be thinking about very specific outcomes. Keep reading to learn more about why outcomes are so important – and how to aim for meaningful ones.

3 reasons why trainers need to be outcome-oriented

Trainers who aren’t thinking about their outcomes are going to be missing out on some serious opportunities. It’s not enough to throw around some buzzwords and hope that you inspire. 

So here are 3 reasons why your training sessions need to be goal-oriented.

It’s not all about the numbers

It doesn’t matter how many people came to your training if no one learned anything. 

Your goal as a trainer is to teach your learners how to solve a problem. So if you’re only focused on how many people silently listen to you for 2 hours – that’s not meaningful. 

Instead, you should be listening to your learners and finding out what problems they need solved. And then – base your outcomes off that. 

As you plan your training session, think “will this section help my learners solve X?”

If you continually ask yourself that as you go, you’ll find that your trainings will become more impactful. 

Trainings should be learner-focused 

Connecting to the first reason – all of your sessions should be learner-focused. 

Because in order to come up with meaningful outcomes, you have to give your learners a bigger role. You need to listen to their dreams, hopes, and challenges. 

The logic here is straightforward:

You listen to your learner → You understand their struggle → You plan a training session based on reducing that struggle. 

So being learner-focused becomes synonymous with being outcome-oriented.  And planning your training sessions while thinking about outcomes leads to a more meaningful impact. 

Capitalism

Every single day – we’re completely bombarded by thousands of advertisements. All of them tell us who we should be and what we should look like. 

And focusing on goals and outcomes allows us to beat the messages that capitalism feeds to us daily.

Ads tell us how to be a good consumer because they narrow in on our hopes and desires. If our goal is to be fit and healthy – the protein bar company will show us how their product will make us conform to conventional standards of beauty

But as organizers, leaders, and changemakers, we can highlight something different – our vision for a just future, and connect to our communities’ hope for the same. 

We can create training sessions that connect with our learners and focus on their hopes and desires.

The big difference – we’re not selling protein bars. We’re supporting people in their journey to become a leader that breaks away from the status quo.

Start with the goal

Think about outcomes every step of the way. When you’re planning a training session – what are the goals?

When you finish the training session – were those goals met? 

When you follow up with your learners – what do they think about the goals? And are your outcomes still aligned with their struggles and hopes?

It’s a reflective process that takes time. But keeping an outcome-oriented mindset will ultimately help you become a better leader. 

And help others become one, too. 

So let’s practice that reflective thinking – what are your current goals? And how do you measure the success of your outcomes?