Change in the Training World – Part Three

In Part One of this Blog series I talked about the need for changes in training – changes that will make it more effective in our businesses. Then in Part Two I showed that the kinds of changes we need are pretty well known, they’re just not done very often. Why is that?
The Excuses
Sometimes, we simply don’t know what to do for a specific situation. Or, we may know what we could do but there’s not an acceptable return on the required investment. Sometimes, the reason is fear, which manifests itself in three ways.

• We’ve never done that before or We don’t do it that way around here. Of course you don’t! That’s why it’s called “change.” If you think something could improve, these excuses don’t apply. Someone once said, “A measure of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result.”
• How much risk is there for me if I champion this change? “I’m not paid enough to be a hero” is a fairly common thought. A quick story. I once did some organizational structure consulting for a company that knew one of two managers’ jobs was unnecessary. My unpleasant job: figure out which one and make a recommendation to senior management. I put both managers on my team and we worked on the issue together. For awhile, both fought for their respective jobs, until one day, one of them admitted that overwhelming evidence suggested that his job was the one to be eliminated. And he made the recommendation to an astonished senior management group. The risk? The affected manager was reassigned and a few years later the trust he had built with senior management resulted in a significant promotion.
• The effect of the change is unknown or People won’t adopt it. These are real concerns, but they’re not a reason to avoid change. Unlike Lewis and Clark, you can develop strategies and plans to ensure the positive effect you’re looking for.

The Solution
Today more than ever training professionals need to look for new ideas to reduce cost and improve training effectiveness (which I define as transference of the skill to the job). There’s a lot written about managing change, but I’ve found 7 simple steps work pretty well.

• Remind yourself frequently that “courage” isn’t the lack of fear. It’s the ability to do the right thing despite the fear.
• For significant change, minimize risk by doing a trial implementation in a smaller group.
• Talk about any fears people may have of the change and its impact on them.
• Get everyone involved with the change. Senior management can’t be exempt.
• Provide training and/or other support specifically related to the change.
• Accept feedback about flaws in the plan and correct them.
• Celebrate success!

Change in the Training World – Part Two

The Solutions
Last time I talked about the idea that major change generates a lot of discomfort and used a comment about the Lewis and Clark expedition to show that’s normal. I also described two reasons change is necessary in the training world. First, skills retention is thought to be pretty low. Second, the current economy requires that we get more from fewer resources. I then asked: “Why is change not happening as much as it should?” Some of you may be asking, “What could be changed? How could training be made more effective?”

• Have managers ask three key questions of any employee returning from a training experience. “What did you learn today? How could you apply that learning to your job? How can I help you do that?”
• Have the company actually monitor, encourage, and reward new behaviors.
• Give people some time to think. Arrange job responsibilities so that people are not constantly looking after immediate job crises.
• Constantly communicate the goals of the business and the ways that training will help meet them. If training doesn’t help meet them, reconsider what you’re training.
• Provide training on topics that can be used right away. Busy adult learners consider a skill relevant only if it can be applied immediately. There are logistics problems with this idea, so blended learning and training support tools (like WorkNetSkills.com) are very useful – they provide the skill when it is needed.

These things work. Yet you probably haven’t seen too many in use.
In Part Three I’ll discuss the pressures against change and what we can do about them.

Change in the Training World – Part One

The Truth About Change
I recently read an article titled “Bill Gates After Microsoft.” In it was a fascinating statement about “change” in the context of doing things that have never been done before. I must paraphrase, but essentially it was “When you decide to try the untried you must accept the fact that you’ll not always know where you’re going – that you may have no idea what the exact outcome of your efforts may be. You will often be very uncomfortable. But that’s normal. Big changes that make big advances are usually like that. After all, even Lewis and Clark were lost most of the time.”
The last sentence spoke volumes to me. My first thought was that we live in very different times. But then I realized the fundamental idea is the same: making a major change is often not easy because we can feel lost and alone. If Lewis and Clark had not accepted that premise, we’d have never heard of them. They’d have stayed home.
Change in Training
Change is the obvious remedy when something isn’t working or could work better. Change is also an obvious remedy when some external influence (our national economy, for example) makes it either more difficult to do something or makes it imperative that we do things more efficiently and effectively.
How does that relate to training?
Training retention is thought by many training professionals to be 20% at best and 2% at worst. I don’t know what the correct number is, but I know what you know – it could be a lot better than it is. So changing something is an obvious course of action.
Budgets in many companies are tightening considerably in our present economy. Cuts in training are favorites of executives. So we have to do the same (or more) with fewer resources. We have to demonstrate higher training efficiencies and effectiveness. Again, changing something is obvious.
Next time: Why is it not happening as much as it should?