The step in ORBiT where the rubber hits the road is Demonstration (also known as Show Me!). At this point in the process, the trainee will have the opportunity to do the skill you have been showcasing up to this point. Without this step, it is impossible to know if a person has understood what you have been working on. This is also the step to make sure they can do the skill in real life. This is where you solidify the knowledge and get the trainee to master the skill you are looking to achieve. 

There are quite a few things to remember about the Demonstration step and several areas where things can go wrong. The most important part of this step is keeping the simulation exactly the same as what you have been practicing. You will be the same customer you asked the trainee to be, asking the same questions, and with the same behavior. This is to keep the trainee comfortable and not throw them off unnecessarily. One of the mistakes people make during Demonstration is that they get too caught up in the simulation as the customer to pay attention to the behavior of the trainee. You need to remember that at the end of this simulation, you will be providing feedback to the trainee. I like to think of this step as similar to the movie Inception because you will be playing the part of a customer while directing the scene you have created (meaning you need to end it appropriately), and you are still the coach who will be providing feedback at the end. So try your best not to get lost in the simulation. 

Once the Demonstration is over you will be providing feedback to the trainee. If you have seen the ORBiT infographic then you know that we don’t say something like “tell them the things you liked and the constructive criticism”. Instead, we say “state the positives and identify the opportunities to improve”. We want to stay away from giving people feedback that is inherently “bad”. It’s important to remember that feedback is just what you see. So when you see something as the trainer that you want the trainee to improve on, you should give them feedback on the behavior that you saw. You don’t want to say something like “It didn’t seem like you cared”, instead say something like “You asked close-ended questions that I could not answer”. The first piece of feedback does not indicate where or how to improve it just states a feeling. The second, clearly lays out what the trainee should do, ie ask open-ended questions that a customer can answer. 

Stay tuned next week for the final step of the ORBiT process!