Tuesday's Tip #78: Custom, Paid Training vs. Generic, Free Training

free training learning Jul 27, 2021

Comparing Custom, Paid Training to Generic, Free Training

At first glance, you're probably thinking - uh - free - duh? But is it that simple? Let's take a look.

First, free training is ideal if you know exactly what you're looking to learn, for example "How to write a basic formula in Excel" or "How to send a meeting invite in Teams" or "How to create a signature in Outlook". These are each specific and generic requests. When I say generic, I mean it doesn't matter if you work in retail, banking, insurance or healthcare - you won't need a unique setup of instructions based on your job or industry. You can easily google these phrases and get hundreds of decent to good quality instructions and/or videos.

Much of the time free training is also static and asynchronous (not live). It is already written and recorded. Free training also tends to be more basic. The more complex what you're learning, the more important it is to apply it to your unique industry, job-type or data.

So there is definitely a place for free resources.

This is another reason I send out weekly tips (subscribe here if you don't get them).

When to Use Free Training

When you want to review high level features of an app
When you know exactly what you want to learn
When you have a very clear learning objective
When the topics you're learning are generic

My 2 Favorite Free Resources

Microsoft's Training - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/training

Many people don't know about the free Microsoft O365 training. You can train by app, browse basic videos, download quick start guides or browse tips and more.

GCF Global Online Training - https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/topics/office/

This is a great website with all COMPLETELY free text and video based training. It is organized by app. You can click on each topic and follow along with the text or watch the corresponding video.

Custom, Paid Training

So now you know when to use FREE, GENERIC training. When do you use CUSTOM, PAID training?

Let me start with a question for you. Have you ever signed up for a free class? A free webinar? Did you attend? If something came up or you didn't feel like going, how committed were you to showing up/attending? If you're like me and most people, the slightest conflict or reason to cancel and in your mind I think - well it was free - I'll do it later. Did you wonder WHY it was free? Did you question the quality or motivation of the person or company putting it on? I've occasionally signed up for something and IF i actually attend, i sometimes wonder HOW GOOD is it going to be if it's free? Even if it is good - I don't value it as much as if it were something I paid for. This can even happen if it's too cheap.

As consumers, we tend to be committed to the things we pay for. We honor these obligations more than the free ones. Furthermore, we tend to put more effort and perceive more value about the quality and content if it costs more (to an extent of course). Again, think of an example of a class or webinar or content that was free or cheap and contrast it with a seminar or training or digital content that was REALLY expensive. You attend differently, you show up differently, you pay attention differently, you read with concentration, listen with open ears and overall prepare your mind to learn and retain information.

I actually had this experience just his morning. I was on my morning walk and listening to audible. I was looking for a particular topic and I found a "free book". I noticed I listened with an attitude of "could this really be THAT good if it's free?" Also, I'm pretty sure with that attitude I didn't get the best out of it. Reminds me of the adage - "NOTHING IN LIFE IS FREE."

So paid training is important when you want to hold yourself or someone else accountable. Trust me, when you pay what you consider to be a lot - you won't skip the class. When you don't feel like going - you'll go anyway - because you paid for it. Sometimes paid training is just about holding yourself or your colleagues accountable. I've had free trainings and webinars bookmarked on my browser for years and never gotten around to them.

Custom training is critical when you need to go beyond the basics. You know how to write a formulas but you don't know how to apply what you know to your industry's or job's needs. Custom training is the answer when you need to take the knowledge to the next level, when you're having a hard time applying what you learned. It's also often the remedy for advanced learning, complex topics and unique environments. Customized training is also important when you don't know what you don't know. How do you google or search for something when you don't even know what to look for? That sounds more confusing than it is, but SO OFTEN in my classes, people will say things like, "I had no idea you could do that" or "I could have saved SO MUCH TIME if I had learned that sooner". These aren't things you can search for or learn because you don't know you need them. You may be working with a spreadsheet for years and you get the right totals and results but it takes you 2 hours every week. You take an Excel class and learn a new function and a new feature and your 2 hours a week is cut down to 15 minutes. REAL EXAMPLE. That's valuable but you could have never searched for it and found it. You didn't even know you needed it.

The other place custom, paid training is logical is when you're needing to train a company, department, or team. In these instances, it's important everyone gets the same training and has the same knowledge base.

When to Use Custom, Paid Training

When you are trying to apply your knowledge to your unique environment
When you are sure there are things you don't know about an app but you're not sure where to start
When you want to ensure accountability
When you want to provide the same training to your organization, team or department
When you want to customize training to accommodate your job, skill level, background or similar.

A Success Story for Custom Training

The biggest success stories around training are those that are custom. Just today, I had a call with an organization looking to schedule custom Teams training. They have been using Teams for almost 1.5 years but they haven't adopted it. A 30 minute call with me (included in custom training) allows me to work with their IT group to help them successfully implement and fully adopt Teams and then create custom courseware as well as a recorded class for their on-boarding which details how their organization uses Teams. This will allow for a full SharePoint and OneDrive integration with Teams as well as a migration away from their server. Something they've been trying to do for more than a year on their own (for "free").

Want to learn more - reach out to me. [email protected]