Is Your Training Structured Properly?

Especially in today's post-9/11 world where every person who thinks they have a training product to sell, it's important to evaluate the training you're purchasing or providing. Many of those, ah, entrepreneurs are selling hype, gimmicks, regurgitated training or just time. There is no doubt that many of the trainers today have an excellent operational background, but that's not all that is required to provide proper training that efficiently delivers the knowledge and skill objectives.

So, what should you look for in your own training or that of others?

First you need to make sure that the people (or person) delivering the training has a demonstrated expertise in two areas: 1) The material he/she is teaching, and 2) How to provide adult education regarding warrior skills

Admittedly not all training focuses on warrior skills - those being skills revolving around or supporting victory in conflict situations - but also sometimes on such mundane topics as report writing, evidence preservation, etc. Those mundane topics aren't "sexy", have a low "chicks dig it" factor, and aren't what we're seeing flood the post-911 training marketplace. What is? Training for skills used in situations that most highly motivated cops and soldiers (contemporary warriors) picture themselves in: High risk building clearings; immediate response / active shooter scenarios; hand-to-hand combat; advanced shooting skills; counter / anti-terrorism (and you might be surprised at the curriculum of courses being labeled as "counterterrorism" training).

If you are hiring someone, or selecting someone, to deliver training to your cops or soldiers, you need to be sure that the person has a requisite level of expertise in that topic. Interviews are good. Curriculum reviews - if you can get them - are better. Many trainers are very protective of their curriculums though because it is, after all, a substantial part of their financial future. That information is proprietary (usually) and they hesitate to share it with anyone for fear of having it stolen. Of course, once they've taught the material it's no longer secure or protected. Any student can take it, regurgitate it, repackage it, and start selling it with some new gimmick.

The person you hire also must have a proven background in training adults to operate in high-stress compressed-time circumstances. Why? Because training must be specifically structured for delivery to support operational efficiency in such an environment. How so? This brings us to…

Second, the training outline should identify several characteristics of the curriculum:

• What are the Training Goals: "Upon successful completion of this course each student officer attendee will demonstrate the ability to…"
• What are the Knowledge Objectives: "Upon successful completion of this course each student officer trainee will demonstrate comprehension and understanding of…"
• What are the Skill Objectives: "Upon successful completion of this course each student officer trainee will be able to demonstrate…"
• How is "Successful Completion" measured? Many courses are "rubber stamp" classes. In other words, if you paid the tuition, you're going to pass the class. However, of greater ultimate value to the contemporary warrior, is the training where successfully passing the class is not assumed, implied, or guaranteed. This is the training where student officer trainees must legitimately apply themselves to mastering the objectives. Documentation of performance in the form of written tests or a checklist of practical skills properly demonstrated should be provided for each student officer trainee at the conclusion of the course - even, and perhaps most importantly, for the ones who didn't pass.
• How are the Knowledge and Skill Objectives integrated for efficient use? Herein lies the largest challenge for most of today's trainers.

To properly support appropriate decision-making in high-stress compressed-time situations, the training delivery must be properly structured. To organize that training into a proper structure, certain analysis of the training must occur. The trainer, during the development of the curriculum, should identify the following:

• What are the knowledge objectives?
• Do any of them build on one another? If so,
• Which must be taught (and comprehended) first? Second? Third?
• What are the skill objectives?
• Do any of them depend on comprehension of Knowledge Objectives? If so,
• Which Knowledge Objectives must be taught (and comprehended) first? Second? Third?
• Do any of the Skill Objectives build on one another? If so,
• Which must be taught (and mastered) first? Second? Third?
• What mixture of Knowledge and Skill Objectives need to be mastered for successful completion of the course?

The answers to that last question state the Training Goals for the program.

So, the analytical process is as follows:

1. Break the training down into all Knowledge Objectives and Skill Objectives. The detail to which you do this is your option.

Example: When we teach new officers to shoot, we have to teach them Basic Marksmanship. This is a Knowledge Objective that they must comprehend before they can successfully attempt shooting. It's what I refer to as "Foundational Knowledge". After they understand what is meant by, "Stance, Grip, Sight Alignment, Sight Picture, Breath Control, Trigger Press, and Follow Through" then they can try to perform each item in the proper order. Once we get them on the range, they need to learn how to present their firearm. Another Knowledge Objective is what the "combination" is to their holster. What physical actions do they have to perform simply to get the gun out? Each is a separate skill objective. For instance, Move to cover, grip, release (perform combination), present (or draw), acquire sight alignment (if necessary), acquire sight picture (as necessary), give verbal commands throughout sequence, press trigger (as necessary). Each minor skill objective is a "Foundational Skill". The integration and successful performance of them together in the correct order is a Skill Objective.

2. Identify which Knowledge Objectives and Skill Objectives are Foundational in nature and which ones require integration of sets of Foundational knowledge or skill objectives.

This step prevents trainers from assuming knowledge held or skills mastered on the part of the student. Just because we know how to do something, and have proven our ability to do something, doesn't mean that the next cop over has or can.

3. Place the Foundational Knowledge Objectives first in your training as necessary to have them support one another.

4. Place the Foundational Skill Objectives next in your training as necessary to have them support one another and build properly on the Foundational Knowledge Objectives.

5. Identify the first level of combined objectives and place them in your training next as necessary to have them support one another and build on previously comprehended / mastered Foundational Objectives.

This step assists trainers in identifying previously overlooked Foundational Objectives or sets of Foundational Objectives.

6. Repeat step five above until all Knowledge and Skill Objectives have been included and properly ordered. As you repeat this process you should ultimately end up with a list of combined Knowledge and Skill objectives that match your listed Training Goals resulting from your answers to the question, "What mixture of Knowledge and Skill Objectives need to be mastered for successful completion of the course?" listed above.

Once you've balanced your Training Structure against your Training Goals and made sure they match, then you must delineate how those Knowledge and Skill Objectives are going to be tested. It's relatively easy to test a Skill Objective. The student officer trainee can either perform the Skill or he/she can't. Example: Field Strip your duty weapon for periodic maintenance. They either can or can't. Their ability to do so, however, also demonstrates their comprehension of any Knowledge Objectives that would include identifying the group parts of their weapon, i.e., slide assembly, frame assembly, magazine. It's the Trainer's responsibility to ensure that each Knowledge and Skill Objective listed is tested for comprehension / mastery and that the documentation is easily understood by a non-trainer.

What is that last line so important? One day the training you deliver may come under the scrutiny of a jury hearing a case against a police officer, or a police department. The people who make up that jury will, most likely, not have much experience (if any) in adult education, especially as it applies to the high-stress compressed-time operations characteristic of today's conflict arenas. Your test documentation must be easily understood by those "Average Joe" citizens.

Once you've completed the above steps then you have a complete Course Outline and Curriculum structure. If you take the time to do the analysis properly, I believe you'll be happy with the clarity that results. It definitively outlines your training and identifies any short-comings or assumptions you may have made.