Informational vs Transformational Training: Which is best?
There are two distinct types of training and my goal is to help you understand and identify them, so that you can make the best choices for yourself. The types are Informational and Transformational.
This is not a matter of right or wrong, but rather which one will give you the most value for your investment based on your personal goals. There are some topics that are best addressed with Informational Training (ie. history, the sciences or accounting) and other topics that are most effectively taught using Transformational Training.
So let’s take a closer look at what is involved with each type of training.
What is Informational Training?
Informational Training is where teachers talk and students listen, take notes, take tests and so on. This type of training involves the student’s left brain. It’s intellectual and structured. It’s serious and rigid. You are told the answers, and you learn by repetition.
If you are not attuned to learning this way, you might get held back or have some fear about it because you feel there is a consequence for not getting it right. If you have taken a college course and sat in a lecture hall, absorbing and taking notes about what the professor was presenting, this was a type of Informational training.
There is a tie here to becoming “the best” or some type of competitive spirit. We all want to do well but here there seems to be an added consequential tie to becoming the best. You memorize what is needed and then answer questions on a test. The tests are graded and you are evaluated based on a scale, with achieving a 100% score as the goal.
The other type is Transformational Training.
Transformational training has the primary goal of empowering you to discover the answers for yourself. It may be a slower process, but it’s much more profound because it transforms you in the process. It is more right-brained, emotional and spontaneous. You apply what you learn to your own experiences and arrive at conclusions that lead you to your own unique discoveries.
Transformational training involves you in a creative process. It encourages your curiosity and intuition to discover more.
Both the Informational and Transformational types of training can be presented via teleclass, in-person classroom setting, reading material, webinars, workbooks and more. Just about any course model will work with either if the course creator / designer understands how to employ each type of training.
It is my belief that transformational training is the desired format for coaching courses. When you experience this type of learning, you are asked powerful questions along the way where you discover your best answers.
Transformational training, as I present it here at PCCCA allows you to let go, trust the Lord in this process, and arrive at understanding, internalizing your own set of aha’s as you discover them along the way.
This type of learning begins in your heart and then starts to flow effortlessly from the well-spring of your natural desire to live the life that God designed you to live.
Transformational training is ideal for creating leaders who want to make greater impact, be more and do more.
Our certification exams are created to help you apply what you learn. You don’t have to memorize facts and figures because our goal is for you is ability to apply concepts like a professional, not from rote memory. Our graduates have extraordinarily high scores on their exams because of how they learned and then applied their learning. Our exams are designed to help you succeed.
I would like to add that Transformational Training is also fun, challenging and stimulating. I am convinced after over a decade of using Transformational training, our proprietary training process has a lot to do with why our students take one course after another. Learning and application should be enjoyable and Transformational Training here at PCCCA is designed to make it that way for you.
I would love to hear from you in the comments below if you have experience with either Transformational, Informational or both types of training. If you are a PCCCA student or graduate, please share your thoughts about your training. Let’s talk.
© 2015 Leelo Bush PhD
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