In the majority of cases, train the trainer is doomed to failure for 3 reasons:

1. Training the wrong people
2. Pushing work downwards
3. Playing Chinese whispers

Online training and video is the only solution that provides on-demand availability, consistency of quality and clarity of message all with a relatively low time investment.

Training the wrong people

By definition, train the trainer does not include training the average user. So, two alternatives remain, train the superuser or train the non-user (e.g. team manager). Unfortunately, both make lousy trainers.

Superusers are very knowledgeable about the system, but overwhelm average users with their skill, jargon and speed. The result is an impression that the system is best left to the experts, one of whom happens to be readily accessible and now assumed available for 24x7 support. (The same problem faced by computer nerds when helping their family setup a PC.)

Non-users don't have the ongoing interaction with the system to keep their skills fresh, or even the basic system knowledge needed to conduct training. The result is shallow training sessions with an impression that the system must be difficult to understand if even the trainer can't use it properly.

Pushing work downwards

Train the trainer is a beautiful trick that allows project owners to tick the box on training while handing over ongoing responsibility and ownership for use of the system. Arriving with hopes of a nice buffet lunch, the new "trainers" leave with a few PowerPoint slides and a major new unexpected component to their job.

Project owners are given time and resources to raise the bar and change behaviour through the implementation. If they can't find time to prioritise training, there is no way that users or managers swamped in their day to day tasks can do so. The result is a gap, which no one owns and everyone will eventually refer to knowingly as "the training issue".

It's proven again, you can't get something for nothing.

Chinese Whispers

Training is important in terms of showing people how to use the system. But, it's vital in terms of convincing people that the system is useful and helpful. Teaching someone a skill is not the same as motivating them to use it.

Unfortunately it's this motivation and drive that is most quickly lost and distorted through the train the trainer chain. Each generation of trainer interprets the usefulness of the system and the important parts of the system differently, adding their own spin.

Exacerbating this loss of knowledge through imperfect copying is the natural inclination in a casual training session to skim through the material, downplay it's importance and just skip the parts we don't understand ourselves with an embarrassed laugh.

Train the trainer is like being in high school and asking your friend to talk to the cute girl across the room. They mean well, but feel silly doing the task, are vague in their message and don't share your commitment to the outcome.

Alternatives to train the trainer

Typical turnover for a business is 20-25%, so new people are starting continuously and every single one requires training in the system. The need for training is relentless and always urgent.

In my experience, on-demand training packages (e.g. online, video) is the only viable solution giving the required flexibility and control over message while keeping resourcing to a minimum. These don't need to be highly professional or polished, but do need to be reasonably easy to update and maintain.

Making train the trainer work

Despite the common problems above, train the trainer can work when:

1. Trainers are actually trained in how to lead the training (not just taken through the training themselves). Materials should be prepared and core messages clarified for consistent and continuous delivery to new recruits. Make it simple and time efficient to conduct training.
2. Trainers are chosen who have some interest in providing training. Whether this interest is intrinsic (I love to share knowledge) or extrinsic (increased chance of bonus) it must keep the motivation level high to conduct quality training with the core messages intact.

I spent all of last weekend crawling around in our attic, cleaning out 70 years of dust and laying insulation batts. Total project cost (batts, tools, safety equipment) was $570 for an 82sqm ceiling.

By far the hardest part was removing all the dust from the attic. Our tiled roof does not have any sarking installed, which increased the amount of crap that is able to find its way in. Worst of all, our original ceiling is lath and plaster, resulting in a concrete ridge every few centimetres creating nice little gathering spots for dirt. It's worth noting that this ceiling dust is nasty stuff, full of lead and other contaminants so you may like to consider a professional cleaning service. (I've heard this costs about $1,500AUD and is probably the route I'd take if I ever have to do this again in my life now that I've proven my stupidity.)

First, I tried using our household vacuum cleaner. After only a few square metres the bag was full and the machine would overheat. Cooling it back down in the attic environment was difficult, making this a slow process.

Second, getting more desperate, I tried our outdoor blower / vacuum. Predictably, and not as spectacularly as I expected, it was only able to pickup a small amount of the gunk which it then promptly spewed back into the air through it's course filters.

I then spoke with Kennards about hiring an industrial vacuum ($68/day), which I'm sure would have worked well and is the solution a number of my friends took. (I would have done this earlier, but picking up an industrial vacuum is non-trivial when you don't own a car.) Unfortunately, we have an unusually small manhole that the vacuum would not fit through. I considered removing roof tiles and battens, but this seemed like a high risk strategy particularly with forecasts of rain on the weekend.

So, in the end, I spent a day and a half removing many kilos of dust from the attic using a dustpan and broom on my hands and knees. I refined the process down to brushing along each 2cm x 40cm plaster crevice towards the beam, and then lengthways along the beam. This gathered the most dust and piled it for an easier lengthways brushing over the plaster ridges.

All in all, brushing was reasonably effective, but is definitely not recommended.

Compared to cleaning out all the crap, laying the actual insulation batts is fast and easy. I settled on Bradford Gold R3.5 batts, which were not at strong as the R4.0 I wanted, but were immediately available off the shelf at Bunnings.

Understanding as much as I could about R-values, it appears that the typical recommendation in Sydney is R3.0. The primary problem in our house is loss of heat during winter combined with 12' ceilings, so I wanted as much protection as possible. In Sydney, we have a habit of believing we live in a warmer climate than reality suggests (hence no central heating and constant comments of "I should have brought a jumper"). BTW, don't be confused when the US uses imperial R-values rather than metric R-values. R3.5 (metric) is approximately R20 (imperial).

The one area I still don't understand is the use of vapour barriers with bulk insulation batts. I know that the vapour barrier is important to stop the build up of condensation. I know that it should go on the warm side of the insulation layer. But, I could never work out if I need a vapour barrier in simple pitched roof with batts on the flat ceiling. I couldn't find any instructions for vapour barrier installation in this scenario and in the end, it appears to be something people worry about more in environments with an extreme difference between inside and outside temperatures than they do in a Sydney style location. So, I didn't install a vapour barrier.

There are 4 things you need to know when buying batts: desired R-value, gap between your beams (450mm centres or 600mm centres), total sqm to be covered and how the hell you are going to get all these massive bags back to your house. The beam gap is easily measured in the ceiling and the total sqm can be estimated from ground floor level. I'd definitely suggest buying extra batts, so you can shove them in around the edges and not be stuck in the roof covered in crap wishing you'd had just one more bag delivered.

Delivery of the batts is an obvious choice, particularly when without a car the alternative is to pile them into a taxi or walk them home bag by bag. Unfortunately, on this particular night at this particular Bunnings the task was all a bit much. We got there, but only after they (impressively) called in the store expert from his holidays to help with the computer. $35 for a huge pile of batts delivered next day delivery after 4pm.

Opening a packet of batts is like pulling the cord on an inflatable raft. In one of the few home handyman lessons my father has passed down, I didn't make his error of opening them inside a small bathroom before taking the pack into the ceiling. But, our tiny manhole struck again as I squeezed, pulled and wobbled 10 packs through.

Laying the majority of your batts is dead simple. They fit perfectly between the beams and are fairly easy to throw around. Even with the recommended face mask and overalls I ended up fairly itchy on my arms, so be sure to invest the $20 in this gear. The only slight complication is making sure that you don't cover all the electrical wiring, I just loosened any fasteners and laid it across the top of the batts.

Batts around the edges require some trimming. I bought a retractable knife which worked OK until I woke up to the idea of cutting them with a beam as the "chopping board" at which point it worked brilliantly. Our roof has a fairly high pitch, so even laying in the corners was not too difficult.

Basically, with some preparation (i.e. buy batts & safety gear) and a little determination you should be able to completely clean and insulate your ceiling in a weekend.

One week later I'm finally able to kneel down again. More importantly, over the 40C weekend our house stayed cool during the day (great) and then relatively hot at night (not so great, but proves the effectiveness of the insulation).

Something goes wrong and people in the business either reported it or found out. Fixing the problem is important, but not as important as keeping everyone informed and reassured that your team is on top of the situation.

Basic level emails always answer four key questions about the problem:

1. What happened? (e.g. Sales calls have been underreported)
2. How bad was it? (e.g. Minor, 150 calls lost out of 10,000 thousand - 1.5%)
3. Why did it happen? (e.g. Calls are awaiting validation of customer details)
4. What have we done to stop it happening again? (e.g. Validation status added to dashboard)

Good emails also include plenty of information and context to help reduce fear of the unknown. Working intimately with a system everyday it's too easy to forget that even frequent users often don't understand the language, acronyms or situations that you take for granted. Always try to answer the questions above but also take this opportunity to help learn more about their system.

Great emails recognise the fact that, as a service group, problem resolution is one of the limited opportunities we have to make a positive impression on the business. Good communication and fast resolution of problems usually increases customer perception and loyalty.

Within the framework of those questions, there are a number of common situations to address:

Investigating

This email is sent early in the problem resolution process and the main intent is to let people know that your team is aware of the problem and taking steps to resolve it.

The key messages are:

• We're aware of a problem in this general area.
• We don't have any specifics yet on the extent of the issue.
• We're currently investigating the issue and will update you by XXX.

This is your chance to make readers feel your team is communicating clearly and dealing with the problem with appropriate urgency. That is, you're doing most of the worrying for them.

Monitoring

This approach is used in situations when you know what happened, but are unable to work out why.

The key messages are:

• Problem A has been identified.
• After investigation, it appears to have affected the areas B, but not areas C.
• We've fixed all affected areas.
• We'll continue to monitor the situation, please let us know if you see any further problems.

Rather than highlighting the fact that your team can't understand why this problem occurred or guarantee that it won't happen again, this email should highlight your understanding of the business issues, ability to fix problems and vigilance in ensuring ongoing good service. That is, you're not bothering them with the technical details.

Fixed

Use this approach when the problem is well understood and has been permanently resolved.

The key messages are:

• Problem A has been identified.
• After investigation, it appears to have affected the areas B, but not areas C.
• We've fixed all affected areas.
• We've done XXX to stop this problem from happening again.

This email should highlight the skill of your team in recognising and fixing the problem for minimal impact on the business. That is, the world is a better place because this happened (and was fixed).