Michael Belfry

In a perfect world, training would be delivered precisely when participants needed it.  Course content would be relevant and engaging – and everyone would return to the office eager to implement all they had learned.

The real world requires more planning.

Here are 3 steps you can take to make training significantly more effective:

1. Clearly define the problem you need to solve
   Involve the people who will benefit most from the training.  Determine the source of their biggest frustrations and ask what would help them streamline their processes.  Allow adequate time for discussion and don’t evaluate potential solutions until you achieve consensus within the group.
2. Create a prioritized list of training objectives
   Based on your analysis of the challenges facing your team, create a prioritized list of training objectives.  Describe the anticipated workflow once training has been delivered and confirm with the group that you have addressed all of their requirements.  Once again, allow adequate time for discussion and incorporate any feedback from participants into your analysis.
3. Identify the best solution and plan to implement new skills
   immediately
   With your team’s learning objectives in mind, consider the complexity of topics to be covered, the location of employees to trained, and the impact of a successful rollout.  Select the best training solution based on your stated criteria and put a system in place where your people can use their new skills right away.

This approach is effective because it produces measurable results.  You involve the people who will be impacted most by the training during the goal-setting phase, you achieve commitment / buy-in by soliciting their input and approval at key points in the process, and everyone understands that the application of new skills is mandatory.

Does your company use a process to determine how training resources should be allocated?  Answer in the comments section below.