Although our course design provides a solid stick-to-the-script foundation, we encourage certified trainers to adapt practice scenarios for their learners as needed. In fact, for Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue, we’ve developed practice scenarios specific to healthcare, education, manufacturing, and government (the first three are available now under Learner Resources; the last will be available later this month).

Regardless of what course(s) you facilitate, there are ways to personalize the practical application for your company. Master Trainer Emily Gregory shared three ideas in a past article:

• Change the jargon
• Draft your own
• Respond in the moment

Here’s a refresher on each of the ideas Emily shared, along with additional ideas and insights to help you and your learners connect with the course material. You can also watch this video in which Emily shares additional thoughts.

Change the Jargon

It can be easy to get hung up on the language in a scenario or activity. We understand that it’s most effective when the language in the course matches that of your organizational culture. When reading the scenarios out loud, revise the language so it’s a fit. When your learners go through the learner guide, encourage them to make slight edits to the terminology if it will help them. Simple word changes can keep learners focused on the concepts, not the word choices.

We also know sometimes our scenarios might not parallel some experiences of your learners. That’s ok—what is the main idea of the exercise or video? Is the meaning still relevant? Guide your learners beyond the what to focus on the why and the how of the exercise.

For instance, in our Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue course, the Start with Heart lesson has a video about the importance of focusing on what you really want. In the video, CEO Greta has spent six months searching for ways to reduce costs, and employee Luke gives Greta some hard truths about recent spending on a new building and office furniture. Greta feels attacked in the moment, but she takes a moment to focus on what she really wants. She shares her need to be more open about the project she’s managing to ensure her spending doesn’t appear hypocritical, even as she asks her team for budget cuts.

You might say your employees don’t have conversations like this, or that you’re not in an office setting. But the purpose of the video is to see Greta’s intent transform in that interaction—not that it’s in an office setting.

Draft Your Own

As mentioned early, we’ve recently added industry-specific exercises and practice supplements for Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue. But what if these don’t match your learners’ situations? Or what if you’re facilitating another Crucial Learning course? Use what we’ve provided as a springboard for creating your own!

Rather than drafting from scratch, use the ideas and examples we’ve provided as a starting point. For instance, some of the education supplement examples are geared toward K–12, so if you’re in higher education, what would be a comparable or parallel scenario in that world? If you’re in hospitality, how could you adapt an office scenario to fit your workplace? As you revise, remember to keep the why top of mind. Details can shift around to match your industry, even to the point of creating new scenarios—but the core principles and purpose of the exercises should remain in place.

Don’t feel like you need to create in a vacuum, either. Tap into the certified trainer community! You can always crowdsource ideas from our Facebook or LinkedIn groups.

Respond in the Moment

Being in the moment is always a good idea—and if it seems like changing the scenarios on the spot would help your learners, go for it! You know your learners best. If changing words like portfolio to project or employee to associate in real time is going to help your learners, do that.

You can also generate practice scenarios with your learners by asking for their input. Use index cards for in-person courses or the chat window for virtual courses. Ask learners to share their own challenging conversations that relate to the example in the material. Randomly choose one of their examples and have learners practice with that scenario instead of what’s in the learner guide. It doesn’t get much more real than that!

We’re excited to share resources that will help you customize your learning. Please reach out to us with questions or issues at our Help Center. And if you’ve customized scenarios like this, we want to hear about it! Feel free to share your experience in the Facebook or LinkedIn groups.

The post Giving Practice Sessions a Personalized Touch appeared first on Crucial Learning.

We’ve filled the Help Center with Q&As categorized by audience (learners, trainers, or course/learning managers) and then topic. For instance, the trainer categories are virtual courses and materials, ebooks, Trainer Zone, and VIP.

If your question can’t be answered by an article, then you can request individualized support by filling out the request form at the Help Center, and a Crucial Learning team member will get back to you within one business day.

Below we’ve rounded up several of the most frequent help requests we get from certified trainers. We hope these will help you with your troubleshooting.

1. I have a training coming up soon. What do I need to do? 

Make sure you have VIP ready to go at least one week prior to your training session! You’ll want to ensure you have the correct course installed and that everything is running as expected. VIP is a large download, and it could cause delays if you wait until the day of your training to download and test it. 

As you prepare for your training, we also recommend you review these documents found in Trainer Zone:

• Tips for in-person facilitation
• Getting started checklist for in-person facilitation
• Tips for virtual facilitation
• Getting started checklist for virtual facilitation

2. My IT department has questions about downloading VIP. Who should I contact? 

You can share information with your IT department by visiting Trainer Zone’s VIP Install page. Within the VIP for Windows and VIP for Mac sections, there’s a link to the VIP User Guide—you can download this PDF guide and share it with your IT department.

If your team still has questions, then you (or your IT team directly) can submit those questions via a request form at https://help.cruciallearning.com.

3. I don’t have enough virtual learner licenses. What should I do? 

Any questions regarding purchasing should go to your Crucial Learning client success specialist or senior client advisor. We recommend checking your learner license count at least a week prior to your session so you can purchase more learner licenses if needed. Not sure who your client success specialist or senior client advisor is? Reach out via the request form at https://help.cruciallearning.com, and we’ll connect you with them!

4. My password reset request for Trainer Zone is not working. What should I do?

If you haven’t received your password reset email, there’s a good chance it’s getting held up by email filters on the receiving end. You can troubleshoot any barriers with three simple steps:

1. Check your spam or junk folders for an email from help@cruciallearning.com. 
2. Check any quarantined email filters.
3. Add CrucialLearning.com to your list of trusted senders. You may need to reach out to your IT department to have them do this.

If you still are not receiving emails from us, fill out a request form at https://help.cruciallearning.com. 

5. I’ve reached out to the Help Desk, and I haven’t heard back yet. Or, I didn’t get ebook/webinar/newsletter I requested. What should I do?

If you are experiencing difficulty receiving any emails from Crucial Learning, there’s a good chance it’s getting held up by email filters on the receiving end. You can troubleshoot any barriers with three simple steps:

1. Check your spam or junk folders for an email from Trainer Zone at help@cruciallearning.com. 
2. Check any quarantined email filters.  
3. Add CrucialLearning.com to your list of trusted senders. You may need to reach out to your IT department to have them do this.

If you still are not receiving emails from us, fill out a request form at https://help.cruciallearning.com. 

6. How do I log last year’s trainings in Lives Impacted?

Trainers can only log current-year trainings themselves into Lives Impacted. For any trainings that happened before January 1 of the current year, you’ll need to visit Help Center at https://help.cruciallearning.com and fill out the request form. Be sure to include the course name, learning format, course start date, and number of learners.

Please note that trainings from previous years won’t count toward the Lives Impacted program, which locks in trainers’ statuses with what’s logged at the end of the year.

7. Where can I find, print, and share my trainer certificate? 

Log in to Trainer Zone, click on the person icon in the upper-right corner, and select My Profile. You’ll see links for all the courses in which you’re certified in the Certificates & Agreements section. Click on the link, and it’ll take you to a personalized website with your certificate and social badge.

If you want to print your certificate and/or save as a PDF, use the sharing tool button labeled Print on the far right under the social badge. Be sure to adjust the print settings to remove the webpage header and adjust the certificate to landscape instead of portrait. You can also share the badge straight to social media using the platform-specific sharing tools below the social badge.

8. How can I help my learners access prework through a ZIP file? 

If learners are reporting that they are unable to access the prework files downloaded from the Crucial Learning Platform, check that the learner has unzipped the files before attempting to access them.

Mac computers will automatically unzip files when clicked.

For Windows computers, single-click on the file name in the Downloads folder, then click Extract at the top of the window. Finally, click Extract all, then follow the prompts to unzip and place the new file. Be sure to access the new unzipped file once it’s there.

Still having issues? Fill out a request form at https://help.cruciallearning.com.

Jorden Sweeney, manager of technical customer support, coauthored this article with Jami Kapral, senior manager, trainer support. The two combined have more than 20 years of experience in education, training, and learning development.

The post Trainer Troubleshooting: An Introduction to the Crucial Learning Help Center appeared first on Crucial Learning.