Trust in Training: Society's Effect on an Audience

It is important to be continually aware that a person usually will not be consciously aware of how and why they are reacting, yet even if they knew, they wouldn’t tell you. Society conditions people to hide their true inner drives and motives especially from those close to them (or even to themselves). Only when they are assured — both intellectually and emotionally — that it is safe to do so, will they reveal what they really need, want, feel, or think. A trainer’s job is to make a person feel as safe as possible in accepting, believing or doing whatever you want them to do.

Think and deal in terms of individual persons. You may be speaking or writing to ten or a thousand people at the same time. Yet, you are always communicating with only one person. People in a group may be very much alike in terms of mutual interests, but they think and react individually. People gathered together in groups are much more easily influenced than when alone. If one person in a group laughs, cries, refuses, agrees, or hates, the others are much more likely to do the same than if they were alone. But when you analyze what really takes place in such situations, you realize that each individual in the group has been communicated with and led to his decision to act at the individual level.

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CEO, A.E. Schwartz & Associates, Boston, MA., a comprehensive organization which offers over 40 skills based management training programs. Mr. Schwartz conducts over 150 programs annually for clients in industry, research, technology, government, Fortune 100/500 companies, and nonprofit organizations worldwide. He is often found at conferences as a key note presenter and/or facilitator. His style is fast-paced, participatory, practical, and humorous. He has authored over 65 books and products, and taught/lectured at over a dozen colleges and universities throughout the United States.