Most corporate training is a mess. The trainer talks for a long stretch, the trainees try to follow along on their own laptops, half of them get lost early, and the session ends with "let me know if you have questions," which is corporate for "please don't have questions." There is a better way, and according to workitdaily.com, it was borrowed from the British Army.
The method is called EDIP, which stands for Explain, Demonstrate, Imitate, and Practice. The author, a former IT trainer, used it with a wide range of groups, from contact centre supervisors working through an interpreter to remote teams, and reports that it has worked every time. The reason it works is that it controls the trainee's attention at each step, which is the part most corporate training skips.
Explain: no hands on keyboards
The first step is to explain what the software does, what it produces, and at a high level how it works. The rule is "hands off keyboards and mice." The whole point is to focus the trainees' attention on the trainer, not on their own screens.
This is where most corporate training fails. The trainer starts explaining, and the trainees start clicking, and within minutes the room is a crowd each on a different screen. The trainer's words are no longer landing. The fix is physical: close the laptops, or have the trainees do this on a call before any screen-sharing begins.
The goal of the explain step is to give the trainees three things: what they are about to learn, why it matters to them, and how they will know the system is working.
Demonstrate: still no hands
The second step is to demonstrate the workflow on the trainer's screen, step by step. The rule is the same: keyboards and mice stay down. The trainees watch, and the trainer goes through the workflow slowly enough that the slowest person in the room can keep up.
Depending on the complexity, the demonstration may need to be repeated. That is fine. The point is to let the trainees build a mental map of the workflow before they try to do it themselves. Handouts or quick-reference guides, distributed before the demo, are useful here, because they remove the temptation to take notes.
Imitate: now the hands go on
The third step is imitation. The trainer goes through the workflow again, step by step, and this time the trainees do each step on their own machine at the same time. The trainer moves at the pace of the slowest trainee, not the fastest.
This is the step that catches most misunderstandings early. If a trainee makes a mistake at step three, the trainer catches it at step three, not at step seven. The pace is slower than feels natural, and that is the point. Skipping ahead is how confusion compounds.
Practice: the messy part
The final step is practice. The trainees go through the workflow three or four times on their own, at their own pace, while the trainer circulates and checks screens. In a remote setting, the trainer asks the trainees to narrate what they see on their screens, which exposes mistakes without needing to share screens.
The practice step is supposed to feel chaotic. That is fine. As long as the trainees are completing the task, the training is working. If the group is mixed-ability, build each small team around one of the stronger trainees, and let them carry the slower ones. The trainer's load drops, and the slower trainees get help from a peer, which is often less intimidating.
A worked example: onboarding a new hire on internal software
Say you are onboarding a new hire on a piece of internal software they have never used. The default approach is a long talk-through where the new hire nods politely and figures it out later. The EDIP version:
- Explain: what does this software do, what does it produce, and how will we know it's working. Hands off the keyboard.
- Demonstrate: walk through the most common workflows. Handouts in front of the new hire so they can follow without taking notes.
- Imitate: the new hire does each workflow step while you watch. You correct mistakes in real time.
- Practice: the new hire runs the workflows on their own with realistic inputs, while you watch their screen.
The new hire walks away able to actually use the software, instead of nodding politely and figuring it out later.
What to watch next
Bottom line: EDIP works because it controls the trainee's attention at each step, instead of assuming attention is a given. If your training is broken, the fix is usually not better slides. It's stricter control over when the trainees are watching and when they're doing.
Watch the practice step. If it's chaotic but productive, the training is working. If it's orderly but no one is finishing, the explain and demonstrate steps need to be repeated more slowly. The shape of the mess tells you which step to fix.
Key takeaways
- The four steps are Explain, Demonstrate, Imitate, and Practice, with hands off the keyboard for the first two.
- The imitate step is the most important, because it catches mistakes while the trainer can still correct them.
- The practice step should look chaotic. If it doesn't, the trainees probably aren't actually doing the work.
Frequently asked questions
What does EDIP stand for?
Explain, Demonstrate, Imitate, and Practice, a four-step training method originally used by the British Army for weapons training.
How should time be split across the four steps?
The reference does not give specific percentages, but a sensible split is heavier on imitate and practice than on explain and demonstrate, because the hands-on steps are where the real learning happens.
Can EDIP work for remote training?
Yes. The author reports using it for fully remote sessions, with the practice step run by having trainees narrate their screens or share them on demand.
What if my trainees have different skill levels?
Build small practice groups around your stronger trainees. They carry the slower ones, the trainer's load drops, and the slower trainees get help from a peer rather than a boss.
Is this useful for non-software training?
Yes. The structure works for any skill training, from sales calls to clinical procedures, because the underlying logic (control attention, then move to imitation, then to practice) is the same.