My Training Triforce

If I ever time travel back to sometime between 1999 and 2002 to tell myself to buy Apple stock, finding my past self will be really easy. I’ll be at school or within six feet of a Nintendo 64 with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time sticking out of the top.

To this day, I remember the songs to summon Epona and warp to the Temple of Time.

Perhaps these pivotal childhood memories are making me see an apt analogy where there isn’t one, but stick with me (through 3,600 words), and I’ll talk a lot about what I think makes for great training experiences.

Triforce Explanation

Since the inception of the Zelda franchise (1986!), the Triforce has been a powerful relic that embodies the traits of Courage, Wisdom, and Power. It looks like this:

If the wielder of the Triforce has those traits in balance, they are imbued with godlike power; if they don’t have that balance, the Triforce will fracture. Many games in the franchise revolve around a hero reuniting the fractured Triforce to save the world. Each part of the Triforce is still powerful in its own right, granting the hero some kind of bonus related to the dominion of that component (e.g., more strength when you have the Triforce of Power, etc). But it is only the united, balanced Triforce that can save the Kingdom of Hyrule.

While the connection to a hero with godlike power might be too over the top when talking about creating training experiences, I could not resist the framing. As I am approaching my fifth year as a corporate technical trainer (after a decade of teaching high school science), I want to share with you my Triforce of Training, the three components that, when wielded in balance, have the power to transform the learning experiences you create.

Asynchronous Course (Triforce of Power)

In the same way the Triforce of Power serves as the foundation of strength, an asynchronous course provides the foundational power that drives effective training. Not only are these courses infinitely scalable, and always available, but the process of creating an asynchronous course is a wonderful way to identify the needs of the training, and as a byproduct, it also produces other essential content, which we’ll talk about later.

While there are tons of style and nuance that I have opinions on when it comes to designing an asynchronous course, as well as standard best practices that should be considered table stakes, I am not going to cover those here in this post. Instead, I’ll share three key elements that I think make the trainings I produce stand out.

Approachable Human Presence

One of the biggest criticisms I hear about asynchronous courses is that they lack humanity. This is often described as an unavoidable compromise of the medium, something that just has to be accepted. As if you can’t build a connection when there is a play/pause button.

While I often feel that lack of connection in these experiences myself, I adamantly disagree that it has to happen.

In every course I create, I am on camera and talking to the learner as if they are sitting across the table from me. I talk to them like people, I relate to their work and experience, I empathize and show them how this stuff I am talking about is going to help them.

These connections are real and impactful. I had the surreal (but awesome) experience of going to an internal, in-person conference at work and having so many people come up to me and strike up a conversation as if we were old friends. They thanked me for helping them learn this new hiring process and told me it felt like I was right there with them the whole time. To which I said thank you, but then had to ask their name and what department they worked in!

However, it’s important to realize that the point of these connections is not the handshake and thank you; it’s the powerful learning experience that makes people remember the content and instructor months later and to do so fondly. That’s not only an educated employee but someone who will be even more engaged the next time they take a course from you, and maybe, even an advocate for your work.

Cohesive Content Structure

In my experience, most training courses are taught with a structure similar to the Wikipedia entry for the iPhone. You have an overview, a history leading up to the present time, and then it ends with a few notes about what’s next. This is a great structure for an encyclopedia entry but not for a course. A course with this structure feels like its goal is to paint a picture that demonstrates to the learner why this needs to happen. This type of course frames the learner as a cog in a machine.

I plan on writing a post about this in the future, but I like to think of a course as a story. This doesn’t mean using a bunch of examples and situations in your course. Instead, I mean using the tools of a good fiction writer to create an inevitable path for your learners to travel, gaining the experience and knowledge you want them to along the way.

Instead of your course being a series of slides that explain why this needs to happen, your course should be a hero’s journey.

I believe that you (the trainer) should be Gandalf. You should come pick up Frodo (your learner) from the Shire, get them started on their journey, show them the ropes, help them develop their skills and confidence, give them friends who will help them on the journey, and send them on their way. Hopefully, avoiding your death and resurrection in the process.

Again, more to share about this in a future post, but if the idea is that your learner should be different (i.e., better at their job) because they took your course, a heroic path is a lot more empowering than an explanation of the machine.

Flexible Chunked Learning

While it took Frodo about a year to get to Mount Doom and back, your learner doesn’t have that kind of time. The typical approach of creating hour-long training marathons ignores the reality of how busy professionals actually work and learn.

Instead, I structure my courses to embrace the natural rhythm of a busy workday. Each lesson is designed to be completed in 5-10 minutes, with clear start and end points that make progress feel tangible and achievable.

Think about how easy it is for a learner to tell themselves that they don’t have an hour right now, but they’ll find time next week to do your training. Then, they repeat this thought process each week until they start getting angry emails about a due date.

Alternatively, they could easily find five or ten minutes to knock out a lesson, and who knows, once they get started, they might find they have another five minutes to do the next one too.

This isn’t just about convenience – it’s about creating an environment where real learning can happen. Short, focused segments allow learners to fully engage with the content without cognitive overload or boredom, which leads to them checking emails while the training plays in the background. The natural breakpoints also give them time to process and apply what they’ve learned.

In each of my courses, I make sure to explain this chunked learning approach in the course description and welcome video. The feedback consistently shows that this format not only fits better into people’s schedules but also helps them retain and apply the material more effectively.

Documentation (Triforce of Wisdom)

Just as the Triforce of Wisdom provides its bearer with knowledge and insight, strong documentation serves as the foundation of knowledge for your learners. When Frodo left the Shire, Gandalf didn’t just send him off with verbal instructions – he had maps, letters, and ancient texts to guide him. Similarly, your hero’s journey needs more than just the course to guide your learners.

Like the different aspects of the Triforce working in harmony, documentation and course development should happen simultaneously, each playing to its strengths. While your course builds connection and context through story and human presence, your documentation provides the detailed maps and reference materials that learners need for their journey. By creating both at the same time, you can thoughtfully distribute information where it works best – using the course to build understanding and motivation, while letting the documentation handle precise procedures and edge cases.

This parallel development isn’t just about better learning outcomes (though it certainly achieves that). It’s also a remarkably efficient workflow for you as a trainer. Instead of creating a course and then later trying to document everything separately, you’re crafting both pieces together, each informing and improving the other.

Living Web-Based Content

I am on an unofficial quest to kill the PDF at my work.

PDFs are perfect for certain things – my paystubs, my son’s report card, my dog’s rabies vaccination. But for documentation? They’re the digital equivalent of carving your instructions in stone: permanent, unchangeable, and increasingly less useful as the world around them changes.

Instead, I advocate for truly web-based documentation (think SharePoint or WordPress, not Canva or Microsoft Word Online). When your documentation lives on the web:

• Learners always have the most current information
• Content adapts to any screen size
• Advanced browser features like text fragments become possible
• Accessibility and translation tools work seamlessly
• Updates reach everyone instantly

The benefits are clear, but what’s even more exciting is how web-based documentation opens up possibilities for our next key element…

Multi-Modal Task Resources

Have you ever been annoyed when somebody sends you a training video when all you needed was a quick reference? Or frustrated when you had to dig through paragraphs of text just to find that one crucial screenshot?

Web-based documentation solves this by letting you provide one link to all versions of your instruction about a topic. Your learners get to choose what works best for them at that moment:

• Scan the text for a quick refresh
• Click through a gallery of annotated screenshots
• Watch a video walkthrough for the full experience

Instead of forcing your images into an 8.5 x 11-inch PDF “page” that will never be printed, you can create a rich, flexible resource that serves your learners however they need to learn.

Contextually Integrated Resources

One of the best features of web-based documentation is the humble hyperlink. When your documentation lives on the web, you can create a network of connected resources that support each other. That procedure you’re documenting probably connects to three other procedures – so link to them! That configuration setting you’re explaining is probably part of a larger system – link to it!

But this isn’t just about throwing in links everywhere. It’s about thoughtfully creating pathways for your learners to explore when they need more context or run into edge cases. When a learner is following your step-by-step guide for one task and thinks, “but what if I need to…” they should find a link right there answering their question before they even finish the thought.

This web of connections turns your documentation from a collection of isolated guides into an integrated knowledge base. Each piece of documentation becomes a gateway to deeper understanding, all while keeping the main task focused and clear.

Live Events (Triforce of Courage)

If you have learners walking into a room or joining a Zoom call, you better hope you are at a Live Event. I purposefully use the term Live Event to describe these learning experiences because these two simple words carry a lot of weight and define the goal of this shared experience.

I can’t count how many webinars or VILTs I have attended where a disembodied voice narrates slides or describes what they are doing on screen. Usually, for an hour at a time. This is easy and safe to do. You just do an unedited performance of something you, ostensibly, know how to do. But this 45-minute monotone monologue of a PowerPoint is the furthest thing from live I can imagine. It’s the learning equivalent of “this meeting could have been an email.”

Similarly, these sessions should be events – something worth noting, something you travel to see, something you don’t want to miss! Just as the Triforce of Courage emboldens heroes to face challenges head-on, a true Live Event requires both trainer and participants to step out of their comfort zones and engage in something memorable.

Exists to Provide Active Participation

If you are going to get people in a room (virtual or not), they should do something there that they can only do there. The mere possibility of participation isn’t enough; participation should be the whole point.

The opposite of a monotone monologue is a learning experience built from the ground up for audience interaction. Not just a Q&A box tacked onto a presentation, but genuine engagement woven throughout the entire event.

This might mean starting with an activity to assess the group’s existing knowledge and shaping your presentation accordingly. Or perhaps sending pre-work so the live session can focus on discussion and application. The specific approach matters less than ensuring real-time interaction isn’t just a nice-to-have feature – it’s the entire reason for gathering people together. Without it, you might as well send an email.

Dynamic Presenter Presence

As with the asynchronous course, I think an engaged human on camera is essential to a successful live event. It’s easy to hide behind the slide and read a script. But that’s not a live event; that’s not something worth coming to see.

Having a presenter on screen who is engaged and excited to be there is a signal to the audience. A signal that this content is worth your time, the person in front of you cares about this and deserves your attention.

The presenter is modeling the behavior and effort that the learners should reciprocate. This makes participation so much easier! No one wants to ask a question to the wizard behind the slide. But a friendly face who is encouraging and responsive makes all the difference. It takes courage to be that visible, engaged presence, but that’s exactly what transforms a presentation into an event.

Professional Production Value

The post-COVID equivalent to a firm handshake and a nice suit is a high-quality camera and microphone for your Zoom calls.

Beyond that, the host of a live event should also have the technical acumen to seamlessly transition from being on camera to sharing their screen and back again. These smooth transitions and other subtle enhancements make the event more efficient and add a level of polish that learners invariably associate with quality experiences.

To achieve that professional production value, you need to look past PowerPoint and start looking at streaming production software like Ecamm Live (my choice) or OBS. This type of software allows you to essentially create a virtual TV studio on your computer. Instead of awkwardly switching between slides, screen shares, and camera views, you’re smoothly transitioning between pre-configured scenes that enhance your message without detracting from it.

The Trainer

At the center of the Triforce lies an equally sized triangle formed by negative space. While this fourth piece has been long theorized by fans of the series, it has never been officially recognized. In my Training Triforce, however, this central space has a clear purpose; it belongs to the Trainer.

Like this central triangle that touches all three pieces of the Triforce, the trainer connects with every element of the training experience. They are supported by the documentation and asynchronous course while supporting the live events. But this isn’t about the trainer being the star of the show; rather, they are the force that helps maintain balance and resilience in this carefully crafted structure.

Demonstrates Authentic Enthusiasm

While we explicitly talked about it as part of the Live Events section, the trainer has to have authentic enthusiasm for the subject matter and the act of training. Too often, the training becomes more about teaching the cog about the machine than about empowering our learners to be the heroes of their story.

While we should build that empowerment into the structure of our courses and documentation, that framing needs to be present in every interaction the trainer has with learners. Your enthusiasm isn’t just about the content; it’s about genuinely believing in each learner’s potential to master these skills and use them to make their work life better.

This authentic enthusiasm becomes the energy that powers the entire Training Triforce. It shapes how you create your async content, how you write your documentation, and how you conduct your live events.

Guides Rather Than Lectures

The trainer needs to strike a delicate balance, being knowledgeable enough to guide but approachable enough to be trusted. Not an unapproachable expert to whom learners can only ask “good” questions, but a helpful co-worker who’s a few steps ahead on the path.

Too often, people conflate knowledge with authority, and authority with arrogance. The result? A trainer who intimidates rather than inspires. The goal isn’t to demonstrate how much you know; it’s to help others learn.

Think of Gandalf, one of the most powerful beings in Middle-earth, yet he chose to guide with kindness and patience rather than overwhelm with his knowledge. That’s the balance every trainer should strive for, even when they possess deep expertise in their subject.

Creates Cohesive Connections

In addition to their enthusiasm and guidance, the trainer must be the one who reveals the interconnections between all three parts of the Training Triforce. Like a skilled guide showing travelers how different paths connect through a forest, the trainer helps learners navigate between course, documentation, and live events.

While learners will eventually discover these connections on their own, they need clear signposts at first: explicitly referencing documentation during your course videos, having relevant links ready to share during live events, and pointing to specific async lessons that support live discussions.

You know these paths intimately because you built them, but you can’t expect your learners to see them automatically. By actively demonstrating how each piece supports the others, you help learners make the most of every resource available to them.

Results

When Link reunites the Triforce, he saves the Kingdom of Hyrule. What do you get when you achieve balance with this Training Triforce? My humble answer is: I will always be tinkering, always seeking that perfect balance, so I’ll let you know if that ever happens.

But my more realistic answer is this:

Cross-Cutting Cohesive Learner Experience

You create a learning experience that doesn’t just feel cohesive; it is a thoughtfully designed world where learners succeed. Every piece supports every other piece, and the learner is always the hero of the story, never just a cog in the machine. From their first encounter with the async course through their participation in live events, learners are supported by documentation that anticipates their needs and a trainer who guides their journey.

Efficient Content Creation Workflows

You create these experiences faster and at a higher quality than ever before. By developing content with all three modalities in mind from the start, you create professional-quality artifacts that can be repurposed across different contexts. Writing a script for your async course naturally feeds into your documentation. Creating diagrams for documentation enhances your live presentations. Everything you create serves multiple purposes while maintaining consistent quality.

Sustainable Training Program

You create a system of training that is not only replicable but builds on itself to get better each time. Each new course or training initiative benefits from and contributes to the foundation you’ve built. The framework gives you a clear path forward while remaining flexible enough to adapt to new topics and challenges.

Conclusion

After five years of tinkering with this framework in a corporate setting (and a decade in education before that), I’ve seen firsthand how powerful these elements can be when working in harmony. But just like Link’s quest never really ends, the pursuit of the perfect Training Triforce is ongoing.

Every course is a chance to refine the balance. To make the async content more engaging, the documentation more connected, and the live events more dynamic. To be a better guide for learners on their journey from confusion to competence.

Because ultimately, that’s what the Training Triforce is about: transforming how we think about training. Not as a collection of disconnected resources or a series of mandatory meetings, but as an intentionally crafted world where every piece supports the learner’s growth from novice to hero.

If you’re creating training experiences, I encourage you to consider how these elements might work together in your context. You might not need to slay Ganon, but you definitely have heroes waiting to begin their journey.