The third core principle of effective training is – The training must totally engage the audience.

Learning is not something most people do naturally, so they should look forward to the training. How do you do that? You do this by making the training interesting, fun and engaging. You do this by creating an open environment in which all individuals are equal and participation is encouraged.

The next step in conducting a totally engaging training session is to ensure that the training is just not some trainer droning on and on as the audience falls asleep. Expert trainers state that there are four levels of learning:
1. Telling It,
2. Showing It,
3. Involving Students,
4. Letting Students Teach

This is why visual aids are emphasized in training. Verbal communication is only about 10-15% of what we learn from (Telling It). We learn much better if there are visual examples or representations of what the trainer is talking about (Showing It). Visual communication increases learning at least four fold when used with verbal communication.

Involving the trainees in the training by workshoping ideas, having group discussions, demonstrating the concepts interactively, role playing, hot seating and having them do hands-on exercises will increase the absorption of the information even further. The combination of verbal, visual and involvement will heighten the leaning dramatically.