Team Insight

How-to get the most from your investment in your key people. By Kate Zabriskie DON'T TRAIN IN VAIN E ach year, team dealers and their ven- dors waste thousands of dollars on training that doesn't deliver what the people who arranged for it thought it would. Consequently, many of those remorseful dealers determine that either training has no value to their employees, the training facilitators don't know what they're doing, the program designers are out of touch with reality, or all three. If only the root causes of training failures were as simple as those. Even with willing learners, great content and strong facilitation, you can still encounter a host of problems that will keep you from realizing strong returns on your training investment. If your training isn't delivering what you think it should, you may be suffering from one of the major problems that plague organizations big and small. Training Isn't Part of a Learning Ecosystem Just because people participate in a training session or workshop, it doesn't mean they will change their behavior back on the job. In fact, even if while in class they demonstrate an ability and willingness to do whatever is being taught, all may be lost once participants exit the classroom. Why does this happen? Good workshops usually fail to deliver because they are treated as a training solution instead of a component of one. In other words, a workshop isn't the answer in itself; rather, it should be part of a larger apparatus or ecosystem. Creating a strong learning ecosystem is an ongoing and oen complex endeavor. It takes time to build a holistic structure that supports continuous development. at said, start small. For example, ask yourself: • Prior to training, do managers explain to people why they will attend a course and how they are expected to use what's learned aer the session? • Will someone with authority (other than the facilitator) launch the session by ex- plaining how the workshop ties into the bigger picture? • Are there check-in opportunities aer training to ensure that participants are im- plementing new behaviors? If you answer "no" to any of those basics, do what you need to do to shi those an- swers to "yes." Putting Incentives In Place Next, think about the incentives you can put in place to encourage behavior change and the barriers you need to remove to en- courage success, and the corrective action you will take if what's happening in the classroom isn't replicated on the job. Once you start thinking holistically and view courses and workshops as a component of learning versus learning in its entirety, you will have taken the first step in getting the most out of your training dollars. ere is a problem if continuous learning isn't part of the culture and if training isn't treated as a priority. You have great content, you have a skilled facilitator in place — and half the people scheduled to attend the course don't attend because training isn't a priority. When training occupies a position of "nice to have" and not "need to have," getting the most from it becomes problematic. is most oen happens when people are survival mode instead of on a growth trajectory. In other words, they are scrambling to get through the work instead of thinking mindfully about the work they're completing and how they're completing it. In practical terms, if people are always putting out fires and don't regularly ask "what have we learned" and "how can we improve," why should they care about learn- ing new skills? Start the improvement conversation at multiple levels and at different times. Frequently ask, "what have we learned," "what do we need to do better next time," "what do we wish we'd known earlier," and other such questions aer projects, meet- ings, presentations and so forth. In the rare instances when something goes perfectly, remember there are still questions to ask: "How can we replicate what we just did," "why did that work well," "is there any reason this approach won't work again in the future," and so on. To get larger returns from training, use questioning to drive improvement. e an- swers will help people connect the dots and understand why training is a priority and not just something they do because Outlook tells them to show up in a classroom. Take action now. When thoughtful goals and development plans are put in place throughout an organization, people are conditioned to ask the right questions and drive toward improvement and a strong learning ecosystem supports learning, it is almost impossible not to realize a stronger return on your training dollars. n About the Author: Kate Zabriskie is the president of Business Training Works, a Maryland-based talent development firm. For more: www.businesstrainingworks.com teaminsightmag.com Janua ry/February 2023 ~ Team Insight • 31 2023 BUSINESS ADVICE

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