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Making Training Effective & Fun...Really!
New Jersey Tech News - May 2008
 Organizations use training to build skills and cause behavior change in individuals. Without change there can be no impact. To be most effective, training and education should be connected to the organization’s strategic goals. According to the Harvard Business Review (March 2007), “Companies that fail to invest in employees jeopardize their own success and even survival.”
Unfortunately, for even those companies that do make the investment, much of the training is reactive, not proactive, and is developed and delivered in a vacuum without answering certain questions. Is training the appropriate solution? What competencies are important for success in the job? How will we ensure the training is applicable to the audience? How will we design and deliver the training to ensure it “sticks?”
To provide training that builds skills, increases knowledge, or changes behavior, you need to offer employees training that follow five key steps: assessment, awareness, skill building, application, and implementation.
Assessment
Effective training begins with the end in mind. An effective program clearly answers what should be achieved. Answering this important question takes time -- time most trainers and organizations say they don’t have. Not making the time to assess current and future skills and the gaps that exist is a liability on the road to training with impact.
There are many ways to assess and collect data. A “SWOT” analysis that clearly identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats can reveal a number of potential goals. The process begins to build organizational awareness as to the affect training can have on the financial bottom line. A training audit provides a systematic assessment of the organization’s current training programs and their effectiveness. When compared with the organization’s priorities and strategies, the identified gaps become the goals of new programs.
Time needs to be allotted for analyzing which behaviors support the goals identified. Data can be collected in a number of ways, such as through web-based and paper surveys/questionnaires, focus groups, or interviews of exemplary employees. No matter what method is used, the data needs to describe the specific behaviors for success. It’s not enough to say that listening, communication, decision making, problem solving, or leadership are needed. Ask questions to ensure understanding. Brainstorm possible solutions to make sure everyone understands the concepts. Have everyone think about future opportunities.
This step of the process identifies the specific behaviors that are needed for success. Competencies are similar across organizations, but behaviors are specific to organizations, units, and staff. Training has impact when programs are developed to practice the behaviors needed for that organization’s success.
From a training participant perspective, assessment provides information on skill levels and the perceptions of colleagues, managers, and others. The initial assessment can be done by pre-program 360-degree surveys, manager feedback, or by activities in the class itself. If an employee is being assessed on specific competencies and skills, presumably they are important to job success.
Awareness
When done correctly, there are a variety of activities - done organization wide or on an individual basis -- that create a level of awareness to help focus future actions and set goals. For an individual such assessment builds an understanding of strengths from which to build and areas on which to focus during the training. This is particularly important to capture participant interest and attention in training. Individuals who see no need for improvement or change are far less likely to be engaged or committed to the learning process.
Skill Building
This is the step that many training professionals are taught and focus on. Entire careers of trainers, facilitators, and instructional designers are spent trying to create programs that develop and build skills. Unfortunately, many programs do not feature experiential methods to practice and develop skills. Rather they tend to focus primarily on cognitive skills. These are programs replete with quizzes, worksheets, videos, and small group discussions. Even though these methods are all typical adult education methods, they do not ensure that training sticks or has impact, since only the cognitive side of participants is engaged.
To ensure training truly sticks and has a high, lasting impact, programs need to have a mix of the traditional methods described above and experiential activities to generate both hands-on and heads-on learning. These methods include simulations, business-based board games, ropescourse activities, video-taped role plays, and improvisational activities.
If the goal of training is behavior change -- learning must take place. The only way to ensure that training has an impact is to have participants experience the content by living it. The experiential activities already mentioned provide the forum for participants to address the content through multiple modalities. A simple example is learning a standard operating procedure or SOP. Reading the SOP can provide awareness but to have real impact, the training needs to focus on activities where participants actually experience when and how to use the SOP, how to deal with exceptions, etc.
Application
This phase is crucial in ensuring that training sticks and has impact. Simulations and other experiential exercises can mimic reality and provide practice. The next step in training is to help participants think through how they will use and apply their learning when they return to their jobs. Often both planning and follow-up steps on the part of the facilitator or organization increase the likelihood that learning will be implemented.
Implementation
Depending on the competencies addressed, implementation back on the job can be a smooth or challenging transition. To some extent this is a function not only of the effectiveness of the training but of the organization itself. To what extent does it have and use a strategic plan for training? How closely related are the training and development programs to other organizational processes? For example, if some individuals attend training – but return to work and find their bosses either do not have their same level of knowledge or don’t support the approaches they just learned – the training will neither stick nor have impact. When people are “sent” to project management training but the organization has no consistent method or approach for managing its projects, will that training have impact? It is highly unlikely – with individuals from different backgrounds and levels of experience – that learning from the program will be applied and implemented consistently.
The impact of training has implications for all organizations. The solution isn’t difficult. Start by assessing organizationally what is needed, determine the specific competencies and behaviors desired, develop training interventions that include simulations and other experiential activities to provide a forum for practice, and end with reinforcement and support on the job.
Elizabeth Treher is the CEO and founder of The Learning Key, Inc. Dave Piltz is a managing partner of the firm. Visit www.thelearningkey.com.
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