Rowery

xkekg34fa

Why Successful Training Failed
On Day 1 of class, I asked participants to briefly review andsummarize what they had learned from this prior training, and ofthose skills learned, which were they using, on-the-job, As anaid to developing participant responses, I briefly summarizedthe content of previous training, together with an abbreviatedreview of the skill points covered [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] in all the previous lessons.I then verbally polled their responses. Typical answers were, "I learned a lot of useful things;" " I learned how to treatpeople better;" "Training helped me understand how to get alongwith others better," etc. Not one of the twenty-one peoplepresent could name one skill learned much [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] less presently used asa result of training.
This is an example of training dollars that were [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] apparentlypoorly spent; after all, if you cannot point to specificperformance improvements as a result of training, why botherdoing it at all? In [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] this case, at least, it wasnt enough thatpeople thoroughly enjoyed themselves and that training wasentertaining and upbeat.
She explained that her front-line leadership needed to learnbasic leadership skills, and wanted training to address these. Iasked her what had been the companys prior experiences withformal training, and she explained that, in 2000, she hadcontracted a trainer to deliver a series of supervisorydevelopment workshops, and that these were successful; that is,they were highly evaluated by workshop participants, andeveryone thoroughly enjoyed them. Training was considered asuccess!
I inquired, "If these workshops were successful, why was sheinterested in contracting for more of the same training?" Elenareplied that, because the company failed to reinforce training,and that follow-up training was needed to reinforce the 2000training intervention.
What to Do?
Elizabeth M., Human Resources Director for a mid-sized furnituremanufacturer, earnestly shared with me her hopes for developinga skilled cadre of supervisory personnel who would effectivelylead their work groups by positive example and, thereby,maximize the contributions to company profitability. [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] She wantedthe front-line Supervisors to be able, through training, todevelop, motivate, and inspire their subordinates to be moreeffective and productive contributors to Company growth andprofitability.
1. It is axiomatic that successful training must be [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] tied toexpectations for specific improvements in group or individualbehaviors: competent training can demonstrate [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] measurableresults. 2. Specific improvements must be tied to identifiedneeds; therefore, [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] do a needs assessment before you even enteringthe classroom. If the company doesnt want to invest the time andmoney in an assessment effort, walk away. Needs assessment iscritical to any classroom training effort. 3. The needsassessment [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] process should identify the specific improvementsthat are needed improvements that are measurable and specific.This may seem an elementary point, but it is often missed, orundervalued. 4. Educate [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] the internal person who is "driving" thetraining effort as to [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] why needs assessments are necessary, whatcan be expected from them, how they can inform and guide asuccessful training effort, why performance criteria arenecessary, etc. Get the internal person and other keystakeholders in [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] the organization - involved and committed to theentire training process. 5. Hold [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] trainees accountable forlearning. This can be done in a number of ways, includingpre-and post testing of training content, simple verbal quizzesduring class, using a paper-and-pencil [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] evaluation exercise aspart of class, etc. Some resources for evaluation activitiesinclude: Games Teams Play (McGraw-Hill), More Team Games forTrainers (McGraw-Hill), "101 Ways to Make Training Active "(Jossey-Bass), and "101 Good [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] Ideas: How to Improve Just AboutAny Process (ASQ Quality Press). 6. Develop mechanisms, withtrainees that they can use to continually evaluate their ownlearning and application of newly-acquired skills.