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Activate your staff with practical skills

By Anthony Greenfield, Head of Learning, Boxwood Group

Businesses which invest seriously in training should expect value for money, particularly in a climate where cost is a constant focus.

Ideally, they should seek a return on investment in two ways: firstly by sourcing training that people find both memorable and applicable to their jobs; secondly by challenging people to do things differently and triggering a step change in performance.

The common denominator on each side of this equation is 'results'.

For training to be worthwhile to both recipients and corporate sponsors alike, it must make a radical difference, preferably to the bottom line, but also - at the very least - to an individual's behaviour, self esteem, effectiveness and zest at work.

Any company wishing to improve business performance should be prepared to shop around for the right approach. Often programmes promise much but deliver little in the way of challenging the status quo. It's easy to be lured by the rhetoric of academia, glossy brochures, current buzzwords and quick fixes. It's more difficult to source training that builds individual and team self-belief and equips people to achieve beneficial change. So what sort of learning equals good business?

Training that stimulates participants should not necessarily be too gentle or polite. Nor is it designed for rest and recuperation. Motivational training should be intense, stretching and challenging for those who partake. Delegates might even find themselves in situations that put them 'on the spot'.

Given the task, for example, of using limited data, within a tight deadline, to construct a new supply chain strategy and present it convincingly to a 'real' director - perhaps even a change-phobic - will not be an experience that's forgotten overnight. Supportively and constructively assessed, it provides the framework for real action.

It also means learning practical skills that make an immediate difference at work, ideally after a thorough road test in the training environment. You want your people to bring new tools and techniques to the office next Monday and be confident and able enough to apply them. If they need to manage significant change within your organisation, help them to 'live through' a change in the classroom. If it is honed leadership skills they need, get them to work with others in a setting where feedback and further coaching can be applied. If cost reduction is an issue, get them to unpick your cost structures and gain commitment from others to new and better ways of working.

All businesses should endeavour to track their training investment to the bottom line. It's a thorny issue, but one that good training outfits should welcome as a pre-requisite to charting their success. It's not always a clear case of seeing straight cash benefits - although that's often the case - but of selecting courses that deliver tangible improvement at work. Be clear in your mind what results you expect - then create a system to measure and monitor them effectively.

It's also vital to buy training that can bridge the gap between theory and practice. By requiring action from both trainer and trainee, learning should be as dynamic and complex as the real workplace. To help staff tackle the unexpected, trainers should be able to 'do' as well as teach. They need a proven track record in business, preferably ongoing. The key is for training to be centred on the needs of the learner, not the course materials, and to enable people to translate that learning into action.

Ultimately, training must invigorate and stimulate. It should provide learning that mirrors life in your organisation by delivering coaching and role-play that equips staff to cope with the most complex challenge in business - its unpredictability.

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© 2005 Boxwood Group. Reproduced with permission. Any opinions or views contained in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Training Reference.

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