Blog

By Don Buehler

Recently, I’ve been involved in a lot of ITAR compliance training sessions for employees.  If your company spends time and resources to develop an effective compliance program, but you fail to train your employees in the management of that program, then all of your hard work will go to waste. 

Here are four tips I try to follow whenever I’m leading a training session for employees:

1. Make it relevant.  Remember your audience, and tailor the information to suit their needs.  For example, ask yourself:  “Do our front-line production workers really need to understand how to apply for export licenses?”  The answer is obvious.  (And if it isn’t, then you probably shouldn’t be leading the training at all.)  Teach your employees information which is interesting and relevant to their role.  Tell them what their responsibilities are in the program.   This will keep them engaged and realizing they have a stake in your company’s success.
2. Keep it light and conversational.  The best teachers are those who are talking with their students, not at them.  Even though your audience may not know much about the subject, there are some things you can use to get their attention. (During one ITAR compliance training, I told an attendee that the laptop he’s taking on vacation to Cancun might contain restricted technical data.  That got his attention fast!)  Choose illustrations which are humorous and attention-grabbing, but which also make your point.
3. Don’t get “bogged down.”  You’ll be surprised by the number of detailed questions you’ll get from someone who (thinks) they know a lot about the subject.  If the question is off-topic, then answer it quickly and move on.  Offer to explore it in more detail after the session, if appropriate.
4. Avoid too much “flash.”  Today’s presentation software gives us great opportunities to spice up the slides with animation and graphics.  But don’t overdo it.  Too much animation is boring and distracting.

Follow these few ideas, and your next ITAR compliance training will be interesting and successful.