This presentation offers strategies to engage and interest EH&S training attendees. Strategies include: perspective, forcing your audience to think, using props, and attitude. Check out some more of these proven strategies here.

1. Making RCRA
Training Exciting:
Strategies to Engage and Interest Attendees at a
Mandatory and Potentially Dull Topic Session

2. Meet Your Presenter
Doug Graham, CHMM
Sr. EH&S Consultant &
External Training Manager
dgraham@triumvirate.com
Over 20 years training emergency responders

3. Objective
Learn four strategies to engage
and interest EH&S training
attendees.

4. Exciting?
OK, “EXCITING” is a strong word
and it may be unrealistic to think RCRA,
or any other mandatory EH&S training,
can be truly exciting in the traditional
sense of the word.
Nobody will be walking away thinking
your training was better than the beach
party they attended over the weekend,
and if they do, you likely didn’t do
your job… or you somehow
introduced alcohol.

5. Start By Avoiding
What’s Not Exciting?
The following training strategies are definitely not
exciting:
• Wasting people’s (and employer’s) valuable time
by playing games or other activities unrelated to
the topic.
• Using humor in a presentation inappropriately.
• Treating adults like children (e.g., “if we give them
candy, everything will be OK”)
• Being an unprepared instructor.
• Boring the audience!!!!!

6. Actual Slide Content:
The generator is also required to attempt to make arrangements
with local authorities (police dept., fire dept., local hospital(s), and
contracted spill response provider) to prepare for likely emergency
response scenarios involving a release of hazardous waste or
hazardous materials.
Speaker’s comment:
“The generator is also required to attempt to make arrangements
with local authorities (police dept., fire dept., local hospital(s), and
contracted spill response provider) to prepare for likely emergency
response scenarios involving a release of hazardous waste or
hazardous materials.”
Example:

7. Four Strategies
1. Include Perspective
2. Force Your Audience to Think and Answer Questions
3. Use Props / Hands-On
4. Have a Great Attitude

8. 1. Include
Perspective

9. Perspective
1. Why was the law passed that lead to the regulations?
2. What was the historical debate surrounding the passage of the
law?
3. What other laws and regulations are related to the topic at
hand?
4. What are the non-regulatory issues (e.g., long term liability,
sustainability) related to the topic?
5. What are the current enforcement trends and interpretations
surrounding the topic?
6. How does this topic directly affect my job and this facility?
7. What ultimately happens to all this hazardous waste?
Audiences love to learn things related to the topic, for example-

10. Giving perspective to a topic breaths
life into it. It can also answer
questions that many attendees may be
thinking, but not voicing, such as…
• Why am I involved in this training?
• Why does this topic matter?
• What are the real life consequences
of non-compliance?
Perspective

11. Example
Slide content: Warfarin, as an example, in unused form is
considered a hazardous waste listed on both the U- and P-
lists.
Speaker comment: “Why!!!!? Was there a public health
crisis in the 70s where heart patients were indiscriminately
disposing of Coumadin tablets??!! No… it’s rat poison! If you
were EPA putting this list together, wouldn’t you include rat
poison!! Just like nicotine, it’s not scrutiny of the
pharmaceutical / healthcare industry’s wastes that lead to this
listing- it was the chemical’s former use. (nicotine was also a
potent pesticide and in its pure form is 6 times more toxic than
cyanide).”
Example:

12. Did that peak their interest? You could go further.
Mouldy silage from sweet clover caused an outbreak of a fatal
bleeding disease in cattle in the northern U.S. and Canada in
the 1920’s. The anticoagulant compound found in the clover
was later identified in the 1940’s as 3,3’-methylenebis (4-
hydroxyl coumarin) by a Wisconsin-based scientist.
In 1952, the compound was approved as a rodenticide.
In 1954 it was approved for clinical use as a blood thinner
under the drug name Coumadin.
Example:

13. Example
I bet everyone is listening right now.
And now the final factoid:
“The name WARFARIN is derived from a combination of
WARF (Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation) and ARIN
from coumarin- the compound’s chemical family.”
You are now officially a hero for not boring them to
death (like the last RCRA trainer they attended!).
Example:

14. Perspective
Unfortunately for the trainer, all this takes time, research,
experience and hard work.
But, it’s worth it. Adding interesting content between the
slides and bullet points is, at a minimum, the most important
part of keeping an audience interested.
Inexperienced and/or unprepared presenters will tend not
to do this and the audience truly suffers. This is the
number one negative survey comment when an attendee
dos not like a presentation…“They read off the slides”.

15. 2. Force Your
Audience to
Think

16. • Lecture without audience participation
is nearly impossible to maintain for any
meaningful length of time
• More experienced members of the
audience can be engaged by
answering questions that demonstrate
their knowledge base to their peers
• Interesting trivia relative to the topic
can be introduced
• Questions can be used continuously as
a speaking style to prompt talking
points and make transitions
Questions are a great way to
keep the audience engaged.

17. 3. Use Props &
Get Hands-On

18. Props/ Hands-On
Who doesn’t love show
and tell!
An old can of pesticide, a
strange old battery, an
old fire extinguisher filled
with tetrachloroethylene,
nicotine patches. . . .
These are solid gold!!!

19. Slide content:
Mercury-containing lamps can be managed as
universal waste. Metal halide lamps are one
example.
Speaker action: Pass around
the lamp and ask them if they
can see the little droplets of
Mercury in the arc tube.
Example:

20. Vintage Insecticide Ads:
Always a Crowd Pleaser
Leytosan- it may be
mercury-based, but it
spells…
“more money”

21. DIDIT- Ooh, “the ladies
know what’s good!”
And “it really does kill”
Yeh, cause it’s
DDT!!

22. And After All…

23. But wait,
dangerous
chemicals
are not just
for Mom
and Dad!

24. 4. Attitude Can and
Will Make All the
Difference

25. Attitude
The trainer sets the tone
for the session. If they’re
excited about the topic,
the audience will be too.
Even the crustiest
students can have a good
experience if the speaker
brings enthusiasm to the
topic.

26. What made that favorite
teacher from high school
so special? . . .chances
are it’s that they cared.
They cared about their
students and about their
subject.
Because they cared, they
brought passion to the
classroom.

27. Conclusion

28. Final Thoughts
In summary, employers are well advised to carefully consider
who will provide their employee training. A trainer with a
passion for the topic who has the experience and skills
necessary to keep interest and engagement can be a good
investment.
Too often, required training is looked at by
employees as drudgery, or even a “waste
of their valuable time”. This can lead to
sketchy attendance and poor retention of
critical compliance instructions.

29. QUESTIONS?