I recently participated in a training for the roll-out of Veeva for a medical team at a large pharma company.  At first look, the trainer had many of the qualities you would hope for in a trainer.  He was fluent in the content, passionate about teaching it, and leveraged tools to enhance learning.  However, within moments of starting the training, it became clear that he had lost the entire team.  He made a simple mistake that is all too common for technical trainers.  He forgot that nobody cares about his system.

He made the mistake of thinking the system the “star of the show.”  He was fluent in the use of the system, was passionate about how simple the system was and how impactful it could be, and did a great job demonstrating it.  However, he simply forgot that the users don’t care about the system.  What they care about is how their daily work becomes easier, faster, and more impactful.

Here are some differences in what you do if you make the system the star or if you make the user the star:

You always need to teach both – the process and the system.  However, if you want to have high-impact training, teach the process and, in doing so, what buttons to click – not the other way around.