A Company Training Meeting Template

No one in the Army like training meetings.  I know that I hated them.  Someone gets up and presents a stunningly long deck of slides that eventually numbs the audience into resigned acceptance.  In fact, yesterday I was talking with a hard charging 11B E7 who has been selected for E8 and he was describing how his unit would conduct training briefings on Friday afternoon and they would drone on and on.

So to help all of you who hate sitting through the same I propose that instead of presenting a PowerPoint deck up on a screen you adopt a variation of what I have here.  This is a traditional company training meeting PowerPoint deck boiled down to a single 11×17 slide.  The beauty of briefing from a single 11×17 is that it puts the entire problem right in front of the audience.  Most people, me included, have trouble envisioning an entire 8 week training cycle in their mind.  In addition, when it is presented, piece by piece, slide by slide on screen, what is difficult becomes impossible.  This method resolves that.  It also gives the audience something to take notes on.

Here is an example of an 8-week training calendar on an 11 x 17.

 

Here is a single week’s schedule.

 

Moreover, here is the template that I used to build both.  This is what I call a slide starter.

 

The way to build one of these decks is very simple.  Open the slide starter file (Training_Meeting_Slide_Starter) and save as a new filename. 

Go to the instructions slide and select the appropriate content you want to add.  They are

Training Summary Table – This is for the details for each event during a single week.  It contains placeholders for all the key information the commander wants to summarize a training event such as training areas and supplies.

 

Notes – Here is where you put notes for each training event.

 

Weekly List – This is simply a list of each training event for a week, by date, with a simple red-yellow-green status.

Add your content until it is fully filled out and then print the 11×17.  Instructions on how to print 11 x17 are listed on the instructions slide.

Note:  Moving to 11×17 is a challenge at first for the briefer (it is a radically different approach to building the PowerPoint Deck) and it can be challenging for the person[s] being briefed.  I am interested in what you think about how we can overcome these barriers and what can be improved.

Thanks for tuning in.

 DK

mailto:dkarle@microsoft.com