Most of us in 2025 know the importance of engaging learners in learner-led learning and of designing or choosing activities that support this.
A great training activity can challenge current thinking and lead to moments of real inspiration that result in real change in the workplace.
But a poorly chosen activity, or one that isn’t facilitated well, might have the opposite effect, raising questions in learners’ minds about the relevance or value of the training, or even the trainer’s credibility.
In this Insight, I thought I’d highlight three common errors I think trainers make when using training activities - and how to avoid them.
1. Using activities that aren’t relevant.
We’ve all seen it, haven’t we? Those moments when, concerned that the audience is drifting, the trainer digs into their ‘toolbox’ and pulls out an activity to get everyone moving. Before long we’re blindfolded and throwing balls at random moving objects - with one arm tied to a chair and a hanky up our nose.
For a few minutes, we’re utterly engaged, waiting for the moment of illumination. When we realise, finally, it isn’t coming, it’s a bit like watching the sausage roll we were eagerly looking forward to eating soak through its paper bag and deposit a nasty grease mark on our trousers. A bit disappointing.
The most important ingredient in any training activity is relevance. Whenever you choose or design a new training activity, the starting point should be:
- What are the learning points?
- How will this activity highlight those learning points in a new and memorable way?
- What behaviours will the activity require?
- How are these relevant to the learning and the workplace?
Creating learning activities that are engaging and memorable is easy. Creating activities that are engaging and memorable AND which challenge existing thinking, create lightbulb moments and inspire change, that’s the more interesting challenge.
2. Assuming learners will see the relevance.
Having designed a great activity that’s relevant, the next big mistake I see trainers make is to assume participants will put two and two together and connect the activity, the learning and their work experience together.
Creating activities that are truly inspirational and memorable might mean taking participants a long way from their real world. That can also be an important technique when you want to get people out of the pretence of say a role play and demonstrating real behaviour.
It’s your job to make sure that the learning is not only identified and explored, but that it’s connected to the workplace in a way that’s tangible and applicable.
And we should never assume that everyone will emerge from the activity with the same learning and insights.
Spending time debriefing any training activity is therefore a vital part of the process and it’s essential that sufficient time is allowed for this. This is the time to ask questions, lots of them, and to be guided by your participants. What was their experience? What learning can they extract from that?
Make sure they, and you, know how the learning will be applied and ensure you’ve made time, either at the end of the activity, or later, for some serious action planning where those loose ideas can be bound together in a formal commitment to change.
3. Designing the activity from our perspective, not their’s.
It’s easy to make the mistake that learners will enjoy a specific training activity as much as we would, that they have the same preferences for learning and that they’ll like the challenge.
The first point I’d like to make here is that learning happens in the stretch zone. It’s important to take people outside their comfort zone - but take people into their panic zone and not only will participants not engage with the learning, they’re also likely to react against the experience. And any learning is likely to be negative and unhelpful.
So, when thinking about the training activities you’ll use, think about where your participants are now. How far can you safely push them beyond their comfort zone? What have been their experiences to date? What options or roles can you give those who would find full participation too stressful?
Build in time for reflection and for thoughtful application of the learning points for those who need that.
And consider too the needs of those who might be neurodivergent or have physical challenges that make participation difficult.
In short, think about how you’ll make the learning relevant and accessible to everyone, not just the lucky few.
Training activities are a vital tool that can help transform learning from a passive and largely ineffective experience to one that engages, inspires and transforms. And by avoiding these three common errors, we can help ensure that power is unleashed.