It all started with what seemed like an innocuous question. And since then I’ve been wondering about a personal training practice to which I hadn’t given much thought recently—specifically the questions I use. My current practice was called into questions (here used as figure of speech rather than a reference to the specific training practice mentioned in the second sentence, or the actual inciting question referenced in the first sentence) during our annual REACH conference in August.

My experience with “why” has been an interesting one. In fact, I’ve been able to identify several distinct phases that I’ve experienced.

ABOUT THE EXPERT Steve Willis is a Master Trainer and Vice President of Professional Services at VitalSmarts. READ MORE I was recently reviewing a training industry report for 2012. There were all kinds of bar, pie, and other hunger inducing graphs serving up all kinds of information. It highlighted overall spending (≅ $55.8 billion), the …

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Cricket Buchler is a Master Trainer. READ MORE How do I handle participants who do not appear to be engaged in class? It’s so easy to get triggered by participant behavior in class, believing the way she’s acting is proof that she’s not taking the class seriously or that he doesn’t mind …

So it doesn’t happen all that often, but when it does it usually takes me by surprise. It’s every facilitator’s fear—the inappropriate comment. They come in lots of shapes and sizes, ranging from overly personal to highly offensive.

My sons hate practice—piano, soccer, math—you name it. If it’s the least bit related to practice, they hate it on principle. They even started hating other words that sound like or rhyme with practice. For example, last year we hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru. In preparation for the four-day trek, we decided to do a number of practice hikes. Now, my boys enjoy hiking—until I inserted the word “practice” in front of it. “We know how to hike. Why do we need to practice something we already know?!?!??” After many years, I’ve now come to expect this from teenage boys.

Healthy class participation can be a function of the students, the facilitator, or sometimes both! Since we can’t control the students (no matter how badly we’d love to), the solution starts with you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR   David Maxfield is coauthor of two bestselling books, Change Anything and Influencer. READ MORE This question was first asked on our LinkedIn Training Community. To Join visit us on LinkedIn. How can I measure the ROI of a VitalSmarts training? The challenge with any kind of skills training is that people …

ABOUT THE EXPERT Steve Willis is a Master Trainer and Vice President of Professional Services at VitalSmarts. READ MORE One of my year-end activities is tallying up the total number of training days I delivered (one way to ensure my fingers are ready for any math challenge that comes my way). It gives me a …