21 Questions to ask before Designing Any Training Program - part 2
This is part 2 of an easy way to conduct a needs analysis.
Performance problems can be caused by a myriad of things; perhaps your organization has undergone a downsizing, or perhaps a department is understaffed or their equipment is unreliable. Unfortunately many managers and organizations assume that poor performance is directly linked to a lack of skill or knowledge which can be solved by training. In my 20 plus years of consulting experience, I’ve found that what is initially presented as a training problem is often something else entirely.
Before embarking on any training program it is imperative that a needs analysis is conducted in order to pinpoint the exact cause of poor performance and to ascertain if the poor performance can be solved by applying training. Unfortunately, most organizations skip the needs analysis, assuming that they already know the cause.
The following 21 questions will help you to pinpoint the true cause of a performance problem and also help with the design process by ascertaining what training truly needs to be created. Ask these questions of the individual in the organization who is requesting that you design and develop a training program to address an assumed training issue.
8. What organizational factors might be playing a role?
When organizations are in flux, a sense of ennui trickles down to every individual's performance. If the organization has been talking about an acquisition or merger, it can cause people to change their work habits. If a downsizing has occurred and more work needs to be accomplished with less people, it’s logical that poor performance will follow. Perhaps the department has had three different managers in the last 18 months, and every manager has a different perspective on how the work should be done. Eventually people start to second-guess their abilities and perform at a minimal level in order to “play it safe.”
9. What training already exists?
Often you'll find that a “training problem” is a frequent issue within the organization, and one that has been addressed in the past. Determining what training already exists is helpful in two ways: 1) it helps you to determine what training people have had in the past and alerts you to look for reasons why that training did not “stick,” and 2) it should minimize your need to reinvent the wheel because it's probable that you can repurpose the existing training content.
10. Have you researched the market for off-the-shelf training solutions?
Before determining that a custom training solution is necessary, ask the requester of the training if they have spent any time looking for generic, off-the-shelf, training solutions that may fit the bill. Why reinvent the wheel? Very often topics such as customer service, financial acumen, software, and soft skills training are already in existence and can become a low-cost, highly effective training solution. It’s also possible to find a product that “almost fits” and to request that the vendor modify it or repurpose it for your organization’s needs. Either way you will save time and money over trying to custom-create something yourself.
11. What training has the audience had in the past?
Similar to question number nine, this question helps you to ascertain what knowledge or skill your expected training audience has already acquired. It's not necessary that this training has occurred through your organization. For example, perhaps some workers have had college-related experiences that make them more capable than others. Or perhaps a few workers have come to be employed at your organization from one of your vendors or competitors. Very often you'll find a range of tenure within our organization; the “older” workers will have had training that was delivered a few years ago while the “newer” workers are at a loss. Again, if you discover that they have had no training, you may indeed have a training problem on your hands. But, if training has been delivered to the audience, and they still are not doing the job as expected, other factors are impacting worker performance and it is your job to discover what those factors are.
12. Does the audience think they need training?
This is a great question because whether or not your audience needs training is only half the equation - the other half is whether the audience is ready and willing to accept training. One manufacturing organization, which was trying to cross-train its workforce, had a problem with trainees simply not showing up to the training classes! No matter what they did to entice or cajole the workforce, the workers simply would not leave their stations to go to the training because they did not feel it was of benefit to them.
13. What if we don't train them? What’s the worst that will happen?
Sometimes an intervention is more expensive than the problem being experienced. A retail organization which had a 112% turnover at the hourly level, was contemplating providing management training with the expectation that better managers would equate to happier staffers and therefore increase tenure. With just a bit of research it was determined that training really would not be worthwhile for two reasons: 1) in the retail industry, 112% turnover is not that bad and 2) the company really had a hiring issue - choosing to employ teenagers without a strong work ethic and being in an urban location without a nearby bus route, which often impacted their employees’ ability to arrive at work.
14. How will this training tie to business goals?
If there is no business outcome expected from the training, it will be hard to enlist the support of the organization and it’s possible that your project will be canceled if it seems to be a “nice to know topic.” Your time and effort are valuable commodities, so you will want to ensure that there is a true business goal such as increased sales, decreased accidents, reduction in personnel, or the like, that it is associated with the training.
21 Questions to ask before Designing Any Training Program - part 1
This is part 1 of a 3-part series on a quick and easy way to conduct a needs assessment.
Performance problems can be caused by a myriad of things; perhaps your organization has undergone a downsizing, or perhaps a department is understaffed or their equipment is unreliable. Unfortunately many managers and organizations assume that poor performance is directly linked to a lack of skill or knowledge which can be solved by training. In my 20 plus years of consulting experience, I’ve found that what is initially presented as a training problem is often something else entirely.
Before embarking on any training program it is imperative that a needs analysis is conducted in order to pinpoint the exact cause of poor performance and to ascertain if the poor performance can be solved by applying training. Unfortunately, most organizations skip the needs analysis, assuming that they already know the cause.
The following 21 questions will help you to pinpoint the true cause of a performance problem and also help with the design process by ascertaining what training truly needs to be created. Ask these questions of the individual in the organization who is requesting that you design and develop a training program to address an assumed training issue.
1. What is the problem you are experiencing?
Often you'll hear a request along the lines of, “My sales team needs training on teamwork." Well that’s putting the cart before the horse, isn't it? Ask the requestor to give you a big picture view of the factors they see as contributing to the poor performance. Do not accept their definition of the performance problem (in this case, lack of team work) until you hear more about the work environment, the intended audience, their job related duties, etc.
2. What are the symptoms that led you to believe this was a problem?
Notice the key word “symptoms." Very often what presents itself to be a performance problem is truly a symptom of a deeper or related organizational problem. For instance, a large publishing company believed it needed customer service training because it came in dead-last, in the customer service category, in a survey published by its industry magazine. When more investigation was done, it was determined that the organization was suffering from an inadequate technology system that led to the symptom of poor customer service.
3. Tell me about the audience - age, tenure, education, etc.
Having an understanding of who the potential audience is often provides clues to their on-the-job performance capabilities. Perhaps the staff are all newly hired within the last year, and lack an historical perspective of how their job is done. Perhaps the staff is near retirement age and is starting to “coast” in their job. I often work with organizations that find lack of performance is caused by the fact that the staff utilizes English as a second language and a simple translation of work procedures would solve the performance problem, rather than more training conducted in their non--native language.
4. Tell me about their typical workday / overall job responsibilities.
Much like the question above, this question can help you to spot process breakdowns that can appear to be performance breakdowns. For example, a manufacturing firm intended to conduct cross-training because its machinery broke down so often that many of its personnel simply had nothing to do until their machine was fixed. It was discovered that the machinists were not doing preventative maintenance, as was expected. Once a stricter protocol was put in place regarding preventative maintenance, the need for cross-training was moot.
5. Tell me about their work environment.
The work environment can have a large impact on performance ability. Perhaps tools aren't where they are supposed to be kept. Perhaps processes that are interrelated are hundreds of yards apart. Perhaps the work environment is so noisy that communication frequently breaks down. Until you understand the environment in which your potential trainees work, you will not understand what factors may be contributing to their lack of performance.
6. Why do you think this is a training need?
Remember, the person requesting you to design and deliver training has their own perspective on the situation. When this question was posed to a retail executive his response was that a particular department's reports were consistently wrong and therefore they must not know how to use the reporting software. The executive made a huge leap from the evidence of erroneous reports to employee’s lack of skill or knowledge. The intended trainees will also have their own perspective and it's a good idea to ask them, at some point, if they feel a need for training based on the evidence at hand. When further investigation was done with the intended trainee group, from the above mentioned retail organization, it was discovered that the employees lacked basic math skills but knew how to use the software quite well.
7. Have they ever been able to do __________ in the past?
Fill in the assumed lack of knowledge or skill for the blank line in the question. If the answer to this question is no, then you may in fact have a training need. But, if the answer to the question is yes, then there's typically something else at play. If the workers could do the task at some point in the past, but now they cannot, you need to investigate what it is in their environment that has changed.
An inspiring quote
Knowledge doesn't have a price tag, but it can produce tremendous returns.
Where did "core competencies" come from?
In 1990, a pair of management experts named CK Prahalad and Gary Hamel coined the phrase “core competencies.”
Computer Training at its Best
Check this short video out http://www.google.com/support/toolbar/bin/answer.py?answer=181336
Think about evaluation BEFORE the training -
At its annual conference in February, Training Magazine announced its 125 Top Training Organizations (see the list here: http://tinyurl.com/443rvbz ). As a regular feature, the magazine then asks its winners to share their success strategies.
First Horizon National (a banking institution) has an incredible process for identifying and justifying learning needs that align with the organization’s business goals. Their process involves learning managers and business executives working together during a yearly Training Summit. The process is very well thought out and you can read more about it here: http://tinyurl.com/3qfckmx
What we like about their decision making process is the thought that goes in to how the success of a training offering will be evaluated. We highly recommend reading the whole article, it is very thought provoking, but here is some information on their evaluation standards that you can use immediately:
How will we prove the learning is successful?-
What behaviors do we intend to see changed?-
What business metrics can we track to prove the training was successful?-
Retention/ turnover- New employee referrals / recruitment / internal promotions / diversity- Quality improvement- Production / output- Loss prevention / risk management - Building relationships / customer loyalty / market share- Innovation- Revenue / sales- Safety / health- Product development-Employee engagement / satisfaction
How are these business metrics currently tracked?
How can we prove improvement?
Is there a certain percentage improvement we expect?
Every organization can seek improvement in the areas listed above. This list is a great conversation piece the next time you are asked to provide training to a business unit. Because the next logical question is (and First Horizon National uses this as an evaluation measure as well): What are the consequences of not doing the training at all?
Maybe Your Training Failed - Because Your Process Failed
One of the things that The Training Doctor specializes in is something one of our clients dubbed: Training Triage. Another client once said, “You fix sick training.”
Yes, very often we find ourselves re-designing training that is already in-place, but isn’t working so well. Because we specialize in adult, workplace oriented learning, we can analyze the training process without getting caught up in the topic. But this isn’t an article about us – it’s a cautionary tale about the fact that having correct content or a knowledgeable presenter isn’t enough to ensure that your workers will learn anything; the correct content, supplied through an appropriate learning process, will help them to grasp your concepts and transfer their learning to on the job.
Here are a few examples from our work in the past year:
A software product being taught to field technicians –- The training was 4 days of “how to” but the final “exam” was paper and pencil- The participant guide was 70 pages single-spaced, typed- There was no leader guide yet 4 different facilitators were teaching the topic (only one facilitator consistently enabled her students to pass the final exam)
A project management course that had been shelved for four years because “nobody is actually able to do project management after they take the training;” yet it contained ALL the“right” stuff - Turns out that participants were missing a crucial component: How to manage a team of people who don’t actually report to you.
A 2-week “residency” sales training program for which participants had to prepare on their own. The client reported that participants were not as prepared as they expected them to be once they got to the face-to-face portion of the training -Some of the training process issues identified:
No curriculum plan so participants had an idea of what they should do and when and why – they simply got a list of to-do’s
No idea how long any of the to-do’s would take to accomplish
No contact with the training department prior to attending the face-to-face week – you were absolutely left on your own to train yourself for the first 8 weeks
Vague instructions like “review the rules associated with XYZ”
No correlation between what one was learning and how it applied on the job
By reviewing these mini “case studies” you can see the vast variety of process issues that can affect an otherwise great training program. Take a step back from your own content and consider: do our participants have everything they need to be successful? Have we thought about what support they need or what questions they might have before they encounter them, so that they are fully prepared to be successful?
Training is like scotch –
Training is like scotch – there is no bad training, only varying degrees of good.
The "value" of a college education
Here is is a book that proves that not only are college graduates not prepared for workplace duties, but they aren’t any smarter for having gone to college, either. The extensive research of authors Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa in their work: Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses,” draws on survey responses, transcript data, and the state-of-the-art Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA). The CLA is a standardized test administered to students in their first semester and then again at the end of their second year.
According to their analysis of more than 2,300 undergraduates, over four years, at twenty-four institutions, 45 percent of these students demonstrate no significant improvement in a range of skills—including critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing—during their first two years of college. The authors' findings are consistent, per the New York Times (1/17/2010), with the National Survey of Student Engagement's previous review of thousands of students at almost six hundred colleges.
What’s sad for us in the workplace, the folks who are going to “inherit” the college grads, is this: While they may graduate college (although only 57% of college students actually graduate), they're failing to develop higher-order cognitive skills, which is EXACTLY what we need in today’s knowledge-based economy. Any suggestions?
5 Keys to Facilitating in the Virtual Classroom
We all know good facilitation skills: ask don't tell; encourage discussion among participants-not just between you and the participants; play devil's advocate to challenge people's thinking, etc., but when we move from the classroom to the virtual classroom we seem to revert immediately to lecture and presentation mode. If you think straightforward lecture is a snoozer in the classroom, it’s ten times worse in the virtual classroom when the only thing participants have to keep them engaged is the sound of your voice.
In order to deliver online classes that are engaging, here are five keys to better facilitation in the virtual classroom.
1. Facilitate, facilitate, facilitate!
A common complaint of new online facilitators is that the participants aren't paying attention and are frequently multitasking. That is only true if you are not facilitating. If you are facilitating your participants would be too involved with the learning process to have the time or the inclination to multitask. According to Wikipedia, a facilitator is someone who helps a group of people understand their common objectives and assists them to plan to achieve them. Another definition, also from Wikipedia, states that a facilitator is a person who makes it easier for other people to accomplish their objectives by offering advice and assistance. A common theme here is that the facilitator is not the focus of the learning event; the facilitator brings the learning about through the training participants. The best virtual classroom learning experiences put the dialogue and the learning process firmly in the hands of the participants. If you're bringing people together online in order to simply make a presentation - don't. Record the presentation and let your participants view it on-demand. Bring people together online for the interactive and collaborative outcomes that can be achieved when we bring people together.
2. Use people's names
I once heard a new television actor comment on his profession by saying that one of the hardest things for him to get used to was how often one referred to the other characters in the first person. For instance, Well Bob I think what Juan says is something that we should consider. Especially in light of what Lucy has now brought to the table. He also stated that in a simple dialogue you might call Bob by his name, three or four times, while speaking to him. You may find this phenomenon to be similar in the virtual classroom. Since you've lost the ability to use body language or make eye contact, the only way to engage people in conversation is to call on them specifically. Rather than asking Who would like to comment on the case study? You'll need to change your language to ask, I’d like to hear what you think of the case study - Alison? You'll also find that you call on people randomly, usually based on whether you’ve heard from them recently or not, much more so than you would in the classroom. In the classroom we almost always have an eager volunteer; in the virtual classroom participants need to expect to be called on randomly (“volunteered” if you will).
3. Be directive
Your language in the virtual classroom needs to be much more directive. It's impossible to ask an open-ended question and not confuse your participants. For instance, Who would like to comment on the case study, needs to be rephrased as, Who would like to comment on the case study? Raise your hand. In the classroom an open-ended question invites volunteers, in the virtual classroom an open-ended question invites confusion. Participants will think to themselves, Should I raise my hand? Should I just speak up? How does she want me to respond? While your participants are thinking through all these options you are listening to dead air and wondering if they've understood the question, if no one has an answer, or if they just don't want to participate.
As a general rule of thumb, all open ended questions need to be rephrased as closed ended questions in order to keep the dialogue flowing and your class moving along.
4. All instructions must be written
The least preferred way for Americans to take in information is in an auditory manner and yet the virtual classroom forces 90% of our communication to be solely auditory. This heightens the possibility of participants getting confused - especially when you are asking them to complete some type of activity. In order to assist your participants, all instructions for activities should be written - preferably both on the screen and in a handout or workbook that you have provided for them. If you've not provided a written guide to correspond to your online class then, at the very minimum, activity instructions need to be on the screen and participants need to be allowed enough time to copy them so that they can refer back to them while completing the activity.
5. Keep the energy up
Synchronous Learning Expert, Jennifer Hofmann, says that teaching online is like teaching after lunch all the time. In the classroom there is a natural flow of energy from the co-mingling of your participants. But in an online class most of the participants are isolated and it is up to you, the facilitator, to keep the energy up. You don't want to be super caffeinated - that's the wrong kind of energy - but you do want to put on your “presenter’s” voice and mannerisms. If possible, stand up and move the way you would if you were standing in front of the class. Using your natural body language and mannerisms keeps your energy up and translates quite successfully through the telephone lines. In general, the skills you have as a classroom trainer translate well to the online classroom. Don’t approach online training like a telephone conversation or radio broadcast; your participants are still out there and are desperately hoping to be engaged in your class – it’s up to you to lead the way to their success.
Minimal materials equal maximum interaction
In the online learning environments, keeping your participants focused on the content and interacting with one another is paramount. We often get asked, how many slides should be an online session? Ideally, no more than 12 to 15. The maximum number would be necessary if you also needed to teach participants how to use the tools in the online environment. When you have less slides, the design is naturally forced to require participants to work together-either through discussion, putting comments in chat, going to break out rooms, etc.
Recently, we came across a design that used only three slides for a 60 minute course! The design was incredible. In one activity the participants were asked to whiteboard a number of responses that related back to the pre-work they were required to do. This activity came very early in the learning process and was useful in setting the stage for the rest of the class because:
1 – The onus was put on the learners right off the bat - there was an expectation that they would participate in building the content
2-If the information had been presented in the classroom, by the facilitator, the topic was so dry it would have been a boring lecture
3 –The facilitator had the ability to gauge whether or not people did their pre-work at all. Peer pressure was involved
4 –The activity is very engaging because after completing the activity on one's own, there is a natural inclination to "look around" and see what others contributed.
The design went on to use chat activities and breakout activities well, as well.
It does take some effort to create a design that pulls the content from the participants rather than simply pushing information at them - but that is the kind of effort that is required for a successful online learning offering.
What is the "right" number of participants in an online session?
Recently, while speaking at an industry conference on how to design good synchronous learning, a question from the audience was posed: What is the "right" number of participants in an online session?
The answer is: it depends.
First, you must consider: what exactly you are trying to accomplish with your online experience?
Are you simply presenting information/knowledge? If so, you could have 50 or more participants in your online session. If you don't expect any interaction and you don't expect people to leave the session with any actionable skills, then the number of participants is almost irrelevant.
I would argue, however, what is the purpose of having an online session at all, in this case? Why not just create an asynchronous offering and send it to the participants-if all they are going to do is watch and listen?
The alternative, then, is to expect that your online learners will be active participants in the learning process. This greatly restricts the number of people you can "handle" in one session. If you want interaction-both verbal and collaborative among the participants-it's very difficult to manage more than 14 participants in a live, online session. Think about a classroom-based training session. When you have 20 or 25 participants in that setting, do you really have a personal connection with each individual? No. Typically there are five or more participants who can remain inactive throughout the learning process because you simply cannot juggle interacting with that many people.
Now, consider that in the online environment you cannot see them or make personal connections with them. It's even easier for someone to stay in the background in the online session. So if you're really expecting people to be interactive and engaged with the learning process, with you the facilitator, and with their fellow participants, 14 is absolutely the maximum number of people you should put in an online learning environment.
Personally, when I'm teaching alone (that is to say, I do not have a technical producer or a co-facilitator in the online environment) my maximum number is eight. More than that and I simply cannot ensure that every participant is an active learner throughout the session.
Comments?
Whose behavior are we modifying, exactly?
For professionals who are concerned with changing behavior, we found this tabletop sign on the deck at Pebble Beach amusing. The amusing part is not what the sign says (although that IS amusing) but really the fact that the sign is intended to train US, the humans. It gives a "mission" a "purpose" and a "rationale" and really makes us want to buy-in to helping the restaurant achieve its goals!
Carpenters, Welders and Plumbers - oh my!
The U.S. is not investing as much money and time in technical skills development as other nations, according to a recent book Closing America's Job Gap (W Business Books, January 2011). Shortages of skilled workers -- electricians, carpenters, plumbers and welders -- are acute in many of the world's biggest economies, including the United States and Canada, where employers ranked skilled trades as their No. 1 or No. 2 hiring challenge, according to the Manpower (MAN) 2010 Talent Shortage Survey.
Training will save the American economy!
According to a recent report by University of California (San Diego) faculty, training and re-training the American workforce will save America’s economy. Ok, they didn’t exactly say that – but it was close!
According to one of the authors of the report, Henry DeVries, “Federal support for training initiatives, and incentives for companies to offer them, is crucial. Unless we fully commit to retraining our country then our businesses do not have much of a future," he says. "People have to understand that this is not their grandfather's high school- or college-based economy. There is a growing disconnect between the types of jobs that employers need to fill and the number of Americans with the right education and training. The only thing constant is change. The economy is going to keep changing, and people are going to need to keep adapting."
He cites the welding industry as one example. Due to recent advancements in technology, which many older welders are not apprised of, there are currently 100,000 welding jobs going unfilled in America. One surprising finding of their study and report, is that the jobs that have gone away the last few years are NOT coming back.
The problem, as DeVries sees it, is that "there is a job gap, in that people who are thrown out of industries like construction and retail and finance, don't have the skills for where jobs are being created through innovation – such as green jobs or IT jobs. There are plenty of jobs available in America, there just aren't the properly skilled employees to fill them, he says.
Are you stuck in a rut?
Do you ever feel, as a trainer, you are doing things by rote? You understand and implement ADDIE in your sleep. You can make PowerPoint sing. You rattle off the 5 levels of training evaluation and know who actually created level 5….
Every once in awhile, it’s nice to think outside the box. When we are doing our day to day work it’s hard to take the time to think “Iis there a better way?” or “What’s next?” That’s why we like these “think-tank” blogs (think tank is our label) – because they make us say “Now THAT’s a new way to look at or think about training!” and they get our creative juices going again… check them out…
Big Dog Little Dog http://bdld.blogspot.com/
Currently there is a diagram of the “continua of learning” – pretty impressive
Will at Work http://www.willatworklearning.com/
Combines practice with theory and research and is presented in a really engaging way – in other words, you’ll “get” it
Bozarthzone http://bozarthzone.blogspot.com/
Jane Bozarth is the most acerbic wit you will ever find, combined with a solid understanding of what training can and cannot do.
The "value" of education?
We just came upon this in a blog called Education Watch International:
There were two brothers from a famous family. One did very well at school while the other was a duffer. Which one went on the be acclaimed as the "Greatest Briton"? It was the duffer: Winston Churchill.
Another true modern parable: I have twin stepdaughters who are both attractive and exceptionally good-natured young women. I adore both of them. One got a university degree and the other was an abject failure at high school. One now works as a routine government clerk and is rather struggling financially. The other is extraordinarily highly paid and has an impressive property portfolio. Guess which one went to university? It was the former.
Quite sobering in our opinion.
Couple of fun / insightful links
Too bad we didn't find this until after the new year. Here's a fabulously inspired look at how 'engagement' and 'interactivity' in e-Learning does not equate to learning in any way...http://www.learnnuggets.com/nuggethead/NH_christmasCard.html
If you are thinking about how to use Twitter in an educational way, check out this list of articles which address the idea in various ways: http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/socialmedia/twitterrl.html
The Benefits of Assigning Asynchronous Work
Here is an interesting opinion piece, published in e-Learning Magazine, by Dr. Michelle Everson, regarding what she sees as the rewards of teaching online. In reality, what she is espousing is the use of a blended teaching process to get to better learning outcomes than one can given one delivery modality.
It’s a 3 minute read – we highly recommend it.