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The Trainer's Tool Kit

AMACOM Books

Chapter One

"The main producers of wealth have become information and knowledge." -Peter Drucker Speaker and Author of Post-Capitalist Society

The purpose of an organization is to meet the increasing needs of its stakeholders-customers, management, and staff. To do so, an organization needs to maximize the use of all its resources. Without question, people are an organization's most underutilized asset. Better management practices are vital. Providing people with the tools to perform better is equally important.

* High-performing organizations today need to be able to:

Identify and grow the pool of talent interested in, and available for, new opportunities

Encourage employees to learn new skills that will equip them to better handle new challenges

Create roles for managers to facilitate individual career development

Create succession strategies that focus on retention of organizational memory

* High-performing individuals want opportunities to:

Understand the real business of the organization and its impact on their careers

Learn from coaches, role models, and mentors Create realistic career maps and personalize customized development

Learn and apply skills that are portable and useful

Learn in a manner customized for them

* These factors promote the need for:

Making learning

* Accessible

* Spontaneous

* Affordable

* Ongoing

Creating multiple knowledge networks

Supporting and rewarding coaches, role models, and mentors who are at the forefront of people development

Linking individual skill building to organizational needs and opportunities

Identifying opportunities for staff to have skill-building opportunities as part of new assignments

Setting standards for pre- and post-training responsibilities for managers and trainers

The role of training is increasingly a shared responsibility among managers, employees, and trainers to identify and ensure the development of new skills. Budgeting for training should not be tied to historical formulas. Rather, it should be linked to the size and urgency of opportunities. At the same time, every training dollar spent must be a business investment. The institutionalization of an individual learning plan in many organizations, for each employee, reflects the recognition that training should be customized to reflect an employee's situation, interests, and opportunities.

Organizational leaders are analyzing training's contribution closely, with business-related measures of quality, timeliness, and cost effectiveness.

This translates into:

* Performing realistic skills assessments

* Choosing the appropriate medium

* Outsourcing as required

* Linking training directly to business objectives

* Listening to managers, employees, and external customers to refine the quality and content of training

Today's Trainers

"Those who are successful in the new age are those adept at re-orienting their own and others' activities in untried directions to bring about higher levels of achievement." -Rosabeth Moss Kanter Harvard Business School Professor and Author

Like trainees, training specialists are not a homogenous group. The training force in an organization has grown to include a corps of subject-matter experts, in-house facilitators, retired specialists, and contract providers. Training specialists may have specialized skills in one or more of the many facets of training design and delivery; however, they are also generalists, capable of organizing training in partnership with others to ensure a good match between need and delivery.

* Effective trainers today typically share some common characteristics for success, including:

An appreciation that trainees have various and differed learning styles and preferences

An ability to adapt materials and exercises to a targeted population

Techniques for gauging whether information has been understood and can be easily applied in the workplace

Communication skills that denote respect for a training audience, including listening skills, summarizing, paraphrasing, and effective questioning

A commitment to continuous improvement demonstrated by encouraging specific feedback and researching best practices

A respect for the diversity of today's labor market and diversity within a training audience

* Group facilitation today requires a broad range of skills. An effective facilitator is able to:

Guide participants to arrive at their own conclusions

Draw on the group's expertise, knowledge, and experience

Adjust strategies and approaches to meet the learner's needs

Describe and discuss behavioral models

* Trainers need continuous feedback about:

Influencing diverse audiences

Consulting with business leaders

Gathering and acting on meaningful feedback

Setting personal development goals

* When communicating with others in a learning environment, no trainer can be successful without meeting the following three key principles:

1. Demonstrated commitment to-and enthusiasm for-course content and outcomes

2. The ability to remain neutral on organizational issues

3. Respect for adult learners

A trainer who does not follow these rules cannot be a successful trainer.

Today's Trainees

"When the student is ready, the teacher will emerge." -Unknown

The target training population for any training program or session is no longer a homogenous group, regardless of similarities among the participants' job classification or skills profile. It is becoming increasingly important to consider a training audience as a group of unique individuals who will make their own judgments about training's mission and learning outcomes, and to discover how best to meet individual preferences in group settings.

Today's trainees are influenced by:

* Prior Learning Experiences. Today's learners, especially newer entrants to the labor market, have been educated differently. Many college and university courses rely heavily on online technology, distance learning, and group assignments. Within organizations, classroom learning is often supplemented by online assignments and self-directed activities. We may need to prepare trainees for maximizing their learning in the different training media, including the classroom.

* The Extended Workplace. The workplace has expanded to encompass many forms of off-site and contract workers, including telecommuters. Training outcomes must consider what the trainee's workplace looks like-who the key contacts are, how one communicates with colleagues and customers, and how success is measured. Training programs that assume a traditional workplace are not relevant for all workers. Also, programs that use enhanced delivery technology should identify resources and contacts for post-course follow-up when on-site coaching is not available.

* The Value Proposition. Today's trainees, similar to today's consumers, want to invest time and energy wisely. This means that trainees want effective and relevant training, delivered competently, that justifies the time away from the job. This means paying attention to demonstrating the relationship between skills taught and their application in the workplace for every learning activity and training outcome.

* Personal Development Goals. Employees understand that they are largely responsible for managing their own careers. As trainees, they hope to acquire skills that are both relevant and portable, within their organization or others.

* Diversity. Diversity among trainees encompasses much more than cultural, religious, and ethnic diversity. Trainees differ in other major ways, including:

Expectations about long-term employment

Desire for upward mobility

Expectations about support they will receive from the organization in terms of pre- and post-training support

Expectations about support for development from immediate managers

Learning skills and learning styles

Preferences for training media and tools

The value and applicability of previous training experiences

Confidence about applying new skills and learning

* Time-Tested Learning Principles. While needs and expectations of trainees can change over time, the following adult learning principles have stood the test of time:

They want to learn. They realize that training is a key to their performance and their success. In a world where layoffs are commonplace, people realize that the only things they can take with them to a new job and career are their skills.

They need to be involved and consulted. Letting them know what will be learned, by whom, and when it will be done will increase the buy-in and the commitment to participate enthusiastically.

They want to feel that the content is relevant. They need to feel that the materials have been designed with their special circumstances in mind.

They like to be able to challenge the content and process. Adults need to feel that they can critique ideas frankly.

They enjoy being able to ask questions. The issues that they raise need to be treated seriously and answered within an agreed-upon time.

They like to be treated as equals. No one likes to be talked down to or treated as a child.

They want to be able to practice in a risk-free environment.

They appreciate feedback on how they are doing. Without appropriate validation of their behavior, they may not develop the confidence to repeat the skills that they have learned or correct the skills they performed incorrectly. They listen actively, confirming the ideas that they agree with and challenging those they disagree with.

They need to be challenged. They should be given tasks that will make them think and behave in ways that will require them to stretch.

People learn differently and work at different rates, because of each person's unique experience, background, ability, and learning styles.

They may need to unlearn old ideas and habits before they can learn something new.

Trainees need to build on their own experiences and knowledge.

They are interested in seeking practical solutions to their problems.

People remember concepts they:

* Learned most recently

* Heard about more than once

* Were able to practice

* Could implement right away

* Understand are important to know and use

* Are encouraged or rewarded for using by their manger or other important people in the organization

Training Trends-Then and Now

"Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten." -B. F. Skinner Psychologist and Author of New Scientist

Training delivery, content, and objectives are influenced by the same dynamics that shape organizational priorities including:

* Employee demographics, including turnover and pending retirements

* Employee learning styles (shaped by education, prior learning experiences, and the new skills they will need)

* Customer demographics, preferences, and expectations

* The competitive landscape (for example, time to market, speed to market, or industry standards)

* Training media options

* Judicious use of training dollars

* Mix of off-site and contract workers

Thus, measures of success for training and learning strategies are evolving, and yesterday's recipe for success may not be valid for today's deliverables.

Continues...

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Excerpted from The Trainer's Tool Kit by Cy Charney Kathy Conway Copyright © 2005 by Cy Charney and Kathy Conway. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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