We build managerial, employee &training competence

We design and deliver quality, high-energy, activity-based classroom and virtual learning programs that build skills and change attitudes.

what we do

Do you want your business to be successful?

Laurel and Associates, Ltd. can help you build managerial, employee development and technical skills through the design and delivery of participatory classroom and virtual training programs. We can also teach your trainers how to quickly design and then effectively facilitate high quality skill-building and attitude-changing training programs.

SET YOUR EMPLOYEES & MANAGERS UP FOR SUCCESS

High Performers Aren’t Automatically Great Trainers

It happens every day. An employee who excels at their job is tapped to start training other employees on their topic of expertise. This is despite the fact that the individual has never been trained as a trainer. I call this an accidental trainer.

There are problems with this. Through no fault of their own, other than being in the right place at the right time, the accidental trainer:

has no idea how to design and conduct a training program or manage participants.
is expected to conduct training on other topics unfamiliar to the trainer.
resorts to giving a lecture, which is generally ineffective.
doesn’t know how to create an environment that encourages and supports learning.
presents training programs that do not build the desired knowledge and skills in the participants.
is prone to stress and burnout due to the anxiety of being expected to perform a job they have not been prepared to perform.

My name is Deborah Laurel and I’m the President of Laurel and Associates, Ltd.

If your trainers are struggling and your employees are ignoring what the trainers say, that can lead to a loss of customers, downtime, injuries, lower productivity- and generally a waste of time and money.

Isn’t it time to see that your accidental trainers have the knowledge and skills they need to design and facilitate engaging skill-building training programs that have measurable results?

I have designed and facilitated training programs for public, private and nonprofit agencies, as well as for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and the United States Agency for International Development for the past 40 years. I have also trained and certified over 1000 trainers in the United States, Jordan, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, UAE, and Croatia in how to design, facilitate, and evaluate participant-centered, skill-building training programs.

I offer three packages to help your accidental trainers learn how to train:

Package A, Designing and Delivering Dynamic Learning

Package A, Designing and Delivering Dynamic Learning, is a five-day comprehensive Train the Trainer program that walks participants through a six-step lesson design process, the creation of learning activities and facilitator guides, presentation skills, how to create a motivational environment, and facilitation practice. Participants leave with a completed lesson plan, self-designed learning activities, templates, and a videotape of their facilitated learning activity. Coaching and support is provided for thirty days after the program.

Five added values of this program:

Accidental trainers will design and conduct professional and effective training programs.
Employees will learn and apply the skills they need to be successful on their jobs.
Employees will look forward to attending training programs.
Employees will be more productive.
Accidental trainers will become certified trainers

Package B, Increasing Training Effectiveness

Package B, Increasing Training Effectiveness, is a three-day Train the Trainer program that walks participants through a six-step lesson design process, the creation of learning activities and facilitator guides, and stand up presentation skills. Participants leave with a completed lesson plan, a self-designed learning activity, and templates. Coaching and support is provided for thirty days after the program.

Five added values of this program:

Employees will choose to stay because of the quality of learning opportunities.
Production deadlines will be met.
Potential applicants will be attracted to the company.
Employees will take advantage of available training programs.
Accidental trainers will be able to develop effective training programs more quickly.

Package C: Curriculum Design, Learning Activity Design, or Presentation Skills

Package C is a 2-day program that focuses on one of the three key training skills: Curriculum Design, Learning Activity Design, or Presentation Skills. These programs have an intensive focus on the participants’ current training needs and enable them to leave with either detailed lesson plans, learning activities and facilitator guides, or videotapes of their presentations. Coaching and support is provided for thirty days after the program.

Five added values of these programs:

Accidental trainers will have templates to follow in designing lesson plans or learning activities.
Accidental trainers will deliver more effective and engaging presentations.
The quality and effectiveness of training programs will increase.
Accidental trainers will be more confident in their training design and delivery abilities.
Employees’ skills will improve.

When we have worked together, your accidental trainers will have developed practical and effective skill-building training programs. They will have confidence in their own competence and expertise to design or deliver the training in a manner that engages your employees and results in changed behaviors.

Accidental trainers do not automatically become trainers when placed in a training capacity. Skills are needed to design and facilitate relevant, results-oriented, and popular training programs. Once they are certified as trainers, their programs will result in greater employee productivity, morale, safety, and retention.

Contact me for a white paper on Why Training Programs Fail- and How to Improve Them.

FREE Training Mastery Series

Does your organization have new trainers, solo trainers, or accidental trainers (subject matter experts who now have training responsibilities)? Are the participants in their training programs actively engaged in their programs, or are they bored and tuned out? Sometimes these trainers aren’t as effective as they could be, because they lack the necessary training skills.

This Training Mastery Series has been designed to help them learn how to design and deliver training programs that make a positive difference in their participants’ behavior.

I’ve been a trainer for over 45 years. I’ve designed and delivered highly rated skill-building training programs for managers, employees, and trainers in federal, state, and local government agencies, international agencies, private corporations, and nonprofit organizations.

Linda Jackson, Senior Client Manager/Automation & Training Specialist, had this to say about our program: “These training sessions are worth the time and money. Deborah is a wealth of knowledge and I left her training session feeling excited and encouraged.”

Please invite them to my free monthly Training Mastery series on the third Thursday of each month, from 11 AM to 11:30 AM CST, beginning on September 21, 2023.

Each month will focus on a key training subject or challenge. The monthly course schedule for the year can be found below.

Watch an interview with Deborah by BJ Stephens on First Aid for Trainers (now titled the Training Mastery Series.)

Recordings of past Training Mastery Series will be available via Vimeo later in the year. Sign up to be notified when they are available.

Training Mastery Series – Video Archive

A Learner’s Bill of Rights

February 16, 2023

When NOT to Lecture

The focus of this lecture is on when NOT to lecture, why that’s important, and how to convert a lecture into something more interactive and

February 8, 2023

How to Get Virtual Participants to Participate

We looked at 8 different steps: make them feel welcome, set the stage for participation, get them talking to other participants right away, prime them

January 27, 2023

Virtual Training Events for Spring 2023

Six Steps to Yes: This half-day skill-building workshop uses interactive exercises to help participants learn how to quickly create trusting relationships using six decision triggers. Participants will assess how and when the triggers have been used on them and practice using those triggers to provide instant influence. Join us on March 28 for this virtual event.

Location: Virtual training
Time and Date: 8:30-12:30pm, March 28th
Cost: $199

Presentation Skills: Come to this one-day skill-building workshop to boost your persuasive presentation skills and better inform your audiences, regardless of your field or industry. You will be engaged with interactive activities and gain insight into successful strategies for an effective presentation. Join us on April 26th for this virtual event and take your public speaking to the next level.

Location: Virtual training
Time and Date: 8:30-4pm, April 26th
Cost: $275.00

Blog

Laurel Learning Tips

Tip #994: Stop Talking Yourself Out of Delegating!

Supervisors and managers frequently talk themselves out of delegating, when, in truth, complete or partial delegation is possible. Below are typical reasons why delegation doesn’t

Tip #993: Why Employees Don’t Perform- and What to Do About It- Part Two

In Part One, we considered whether there were system barriers (Step #1) or circumstances beyond the employee’s control (Step #2) that interfered with the employee’s

Tip #992: Why Employees Don’t Perform- and What to Do About It- Part One

When an employee does not perform well on the job, the tendency is to immediately point a finger at the individual as being either incompetent

testimonials

The Impact

Deb is an amazing instructor and curriculum developer. Her Train the Trainer program helped to solidify my love for adult learning and coaching. Deb’s innovative methods and logical templates have helped me design many successful training programs. She is a wonderful facilitator, educator and coach.

Shelly WeberProgram & Policy Analyst at Department of Workforce Development

It’s my absolute pleasure to recommend the services of Deborah Laurel. Deb has worked with Compressed Air Challenge since its inception in the mid 1990’s. Without her expert training and advise, all our workbooks, and training material used today would not have occurred. Deb took the knowledge many of our engineers and turned it into an amazing training that has been successful and still going strong today. Both a fundamentals training and an Advanced Training were created. In her work with us, Deb took a bunch of engineers who thought they could easily relay technical informant and taught us how to teach adult learners. To deliver the material in small doses so the attendees fully understand each lesson. This was not an easy task, yet Deb pulled it off brilliantly. I would absolutely recommend the services of Deborah Laurel to anyone interested training or curriculum design.

Frank Moskowitz CCASS at Compressed Air & Gas Institute (CAGI)

In my nearly 20 years of training, this program gave me more clarity and useful tools for facilitating and designing programs than any other I have attended. The level of learning was phenomenal. The tools and tips are something that I can use immediately. The feedback was very insightful and again, something that I can put into practice. I recommend this program to all trainers, regardless of their experience level.

Jackie HardyTraining Director, CUNA Credit Union

You have a gift for delivering and designing learning. Not only did I have a blast in your workshop, the interactive nature of your workshop design ensured that I retained far more than I would have with more traditional learning methods. I have used so many tools from that workshop in my job. You are a natural for designing learning. You very quickly can identify the goal of the training, can work through powerful learning objectives, and then rapidly put together effective interactive activities to ensure knowledge transfer. Your approach to learning is clear, logical, and compelling. Thank you for sharing your gift for delivering and designing training with me! I feel blessed to have a mentor with such skill available to me as a new learning and development person. I would love to continue to learn from you!! Because of your training techniques, I enhanced my training and facilitation skills 100%. No kidding! I used what you taught and would recommend your training to anyone who needs to learn how to train, facilitate or needs to learn anything.

Thank you Deb for all the great learning!!!

Kim Robinson Manager of Learning and Development, Sage Publications

Thanks for the promised materials – your class is going to be SO helpful in making our training classes more fun and productive. We have 4 PowerPoint presentations that we give one after the other and I have had the hardest time doing these presentations because I have found them so boring. Now I am breaking them up with Jeopardy and worksheets and brainstorming in hope of keeping the class as well as myself awake. Your class will make a big difference in how we present our information.

Kathy FraserTechnical Trainer, Data Innovations North America

I have known and worked with Deb Laurel for over thirty years. She first taught for the Small Business Development Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when I was the director. I was so impressed with Deb that when I was putting together an advanced 5 day Train the Trainer for an Open Society program in Croatia I asked her to do the program. The students not only learned solid pedagogy but also accelerated learning curriculum design. She was invited to return to JJ Strossmeyer University in Osijek, Croatia to help them develop the first student-centered MBA in Entrepreneurship in Eastern Europe. She trained the faculty how to use participatory training methods instead of traditional lecture. Since that time, Deb has been my go-to trainer for the CUNA Management School, the Government Financial Officers Association, and the Walker Broadcasters Management Institute. I highly recommend her for curriculum design, facilitating training, and train the trainer programs.

Joan GillmanEmeritus Director, Special Industry Programs, Wisconsin School of Business, UW Madison