We all know that education is a life-long process, and it doesn’t stop at the workplace too. There is a constant evolvement of the corporates which makes it all the more assured for conducting corporate training. Companies, during corporate training spend on courses, facilities, systems, and tools.

But sometimes a little time or money is spent by companies on preparing as well as enabling the mind of the participants. If the participants do not pay attention to the training, then you can say that these investments are not paying off well.

Hence, if the organizations want to maximize their return on investment in corporate training, all training and development professionals, as well as participants, must pay attention to paying attention. For organizations to get the best out of corporate training, the employees ought to pay attention to them. Are you wondering how to do it? Is it even possible to control participants’ attention? With mindfulness training, yes it is.

Let us discuss all other factors that can help to control attention during corporate training.

1. Mindfulness

Mindfulness training improves cognitive functions which include attention, memory as well as executive functions. All of these traits are critical and need to be considered for learning. How to manage attention is at the very core of mindfulness. But, not all employees have a desire for mindfulness training.

Hence, training and development experts are responsible for bringing mindfulness in the training. This can be as simple as having a sense of relaxation in the body and mind, letting go of distractions and focusing on the breath. Once the training ends, the trainers can encourage participants to practice mindfulness, to make their minds clearer, more focused, and calmer. This will, in turn, improves their retention capacity.

2. Conducive environment

Where you train the participants is as important as the training material you use. A conducive environment is necessary to optimize the learning experience. The trainers can give time to participants to comprehend, reflect and open to new content by clearing their minds.

The trainer needs to respect the participants’ time. Some people can feel tiresome in corporate training, as they have to go through a long process of absorbing new information. Hence, training and development experts must ensure to provide a clutter-free learning environment. For example, trainers can arrange chairs in such a way that participants can interact with each other freely.

3. Eliminate distractions

During any training, participants naturally can feel distracted. The research says that it takes almost 30 minutes to bring participants’ concentration, once he/she is distracted. It is crucial for the trainers or training and development experts to identify all the generic or industry-specific possible causes of their distractions.

For complex tasks like learning something new, it is important to have no distractions. It is essential to eliminate the possible distractions from the training as well as stress the importance of being disciplined to participants.  Trainers can make participants committed to their learning experience by being away from distracting objects or devices.

4. Encourage reflection

One of the ways for the trainer to control their attention is to start each session with a few minutes to reflect. This should be done in between each session. What do you think, how will this help them? Reflecting on the lesson can help the participants to open to new content.

5. Take scheduled breaks

It is of course important for the trainers to schedule the material and learning of the participants. Similarly, it is also advisable for them to strategically use breaks so that the participants can soak the information. This will prevent their attention span. When the participants use their breaks to check their work, there is a high possibility of their learning getting affected. It is because checking on work does not allow any information to settle in the mind of the participants.

6. Problem-solving

Adult learners when undergoing any training, expects the focus of the training to be on the answers to their real-world problem. The training and development experts should put themselves in the learner’s position. By doing this, they will be able to structure the training in such a way that the participants’ attention is maintained.

The participants’ attention can be grabbed instantly if the trainer presents a problem that keeps them reading. Making meaningful, relevant, simple, concise headlines can help the participants easily find the content they need. In addition to these, by restating questions will allow all the participants to clearly understand the motive of the question.

7. Recalling

The aim of corporate training is to impart knowledge to participants and help them recall the important points. At the end of the training session, the participants can recall and apply the key points learned in the training. This can be done by paying close attention to details in the anticipation of the test.

8. Learning material

Adult learners are used to segmented information. The use of multimedia can be considered as one of the important ways of ensuring prolonged attention span and retention of the participants. It is because they can respond to better visual mediums than text. The only condition is to use relevant pictures and as and when required.

They can also retain the information well if the trainers make use of real stories, examples to make their point. The trainers who understand that different participant has a different learning style will structure his/her training accordingly. While using multimedia, the trainers should make sure to lay them a groundwork by explaining what they are about to see.