I get asked a lot about the Training and Development I do for companies. I speak on the subject often, and truth is I have a passion for it. But I see so many people spending time and effort in training and – the truth is – it is not always successful.
So what might be helpful is to lay out the basics from some of my Training Talks in a series of shorter posts, and the first thing we can discuss is a definition of "training."
For me, it’s fairly simple: If it’s training, then something should be done differently. As in – I now know something I did not, and I know how to put it into action. If you are taking the time to pull everybody together to review things, then the return on that investment should be improvement.
If it is not training – then you are actually just in a meeting.
So where to start? When in doubt, turn to Stephen Covey, author of the best-selling book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: “Begin with the end in mind.”
Whenever I am asked to facilitate or hold training, one of the first questions I ask is:
“How will you judge if this training was successful?”
That's it. It's a simple question, yet so often it goes unasked. This single question will help distill in all minds what we are trying to achieve.
Training can impact many things and I believe it should be measurable. For starters, many KPI’s can be created or measured to determine the efficacy of the time spent. But time itself is a precious resource in both business and life, so there should absolutely be an ROI. This, in turn, leads to what the structure of the class should look like.
But why is it that although many classes have all the “correct” information, they still wind up failing to bring about the desired change?
More on that in the next post...