Your staff and volunteers need much more training and practice if they’re going to be comfortable and successful askers. To help you, we’ve developed a number of exercises that you can do on your own, and during my Office Hours I’ve talked about a few that I find make the biggest impact when I train. I’ve also shared some of my general training techniques and how to present the concept of training to your board.

Last week I had the opportunity to lead a training for the Board of Trustees of the Overlook Hospital Foundation, and as always I was amazed at how receptive everyone was to taking the time to train. With the right information your board can be receptive as well.

To get you started, here are the most important things to remember when training with your board and staff:

• Training not only alleviates anxiety, but it builds courage, energy, willingness and expertise.

• Lecturing and training are different skills. The role for trainers is to help people find and practice their own words.

• People remember more of what they say than what they hear… and more of what they DO than say.

• At the end of the day, training design is more important than content.

Interested in learning more about these training exercises? Here are four of our most popular video trainings explaining how to conduct them with your board and staff:

• Features, Benefits, & Impacts Exercise – Donors contribute more when they share our vision for the future. The future is about the impact our organization can make, and yet we often are more fluent talking about today’s needs and the features of our organization.

• Find Your Own Words: Making the Case Exercise – Most of us don’t spend enough time getting comfortable with how we talk about the organization. Each time we practice our case for support – why we care – it gets stronger and more natural.

• Ask as You’d Be Asked Exercise – What’s natural to us as askers? How do we find that out? Join Brian in this tutorial as he walks you through the steps of a brief 15-minute exercise that will immediately strengthen your team’s asking. Great for any size group of staff, board, or other volunteers.

• Making the Ask Exercise – Most people don’t get enough practice asking. This is especially true for board members and other volunteers. Practicing helps people find their words and begin to understand how they can respond in the moment.