One of my colleagues Rahul Agarwal made this comment during the annual soul searching Erehwon off-site we had a few weeks ago. I thought he had very beautifully captured the consistent concern that many of our buyers (HR, L&D, OD experts) and participants have about training programs - the concern that the 'stickability quotient' (SQ) of most training programs is dismally low. Where am I coming from? It's evident, most participants give glorious feedback at the end of the workshop and weeks later, almost everyone is wondering, where did all the learning evaporate?
So lets get to basics - what is training? One dictionary defines training as - "To teach a particular skill or type of behaviour through practice and instruction over a period of time". If this is so, does putting participants through a 1 day or 2 day exposure really get them trained? And is there a way out? Here are my tips:
1) Application - a successful training program translates to application or usage of the tools. Consistent application of the tools in turn translates to skills. So if you want to increase the probability of application, choose the participant profile well. Very often, senior leaders think that if they put the middle / junior management tiers through training programs, it will work. Wrong!!! If you want new tools to be used at the workplace, almost everyone that interacts in the workplace must have a common understanding of the tools and how to use them. In the absence of this, the program will be a 'welcome break' experience and nothing more. Worse, many participants will enthusiastically attempt applying the tools and the very seniors who wanted them to think & act afresh will often unknowingly block them as they're simply not on the same page. Think about this - almost every industry has its own vocabulary (e.g. in the web space - HTTP, HTTPS, EARL, ERT WG, etc) that is used extensively in the operational space. To an outsider, this might seem Greek and Latin but to the insiders - it cuts through and gets everyone to be on the same page. Tip: Having a common vocabulary with which to engage in meetings and discussions can take the day to day operational engagements to a completely different level. And this is what cements & internalizes the learning and provides a return on the training investment. Getting teams or groups that work together to have a shared learning experience that they can leverage back in their workplace could ensure application.
2) Reinforcement - who's thinking about that? Many participants forget that all they're getting is a live learning environment where they have the opportunity to learn by interacting with the trainer and fellow participants. While this can be a great trigger and starting point there's more that needs to be done. Tip: I often tell my participants to try Drip Irrigation. Now what's that? Wikipedia defines drip irrigation as an irrigation method which minimizes the use of water and fertilizer by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, either onto the soil surface or directly onto the root zone, through a network of valves, pipes, tubing, and emitters. In short optimize resources for maximum impact. So what's the connect? Participants have real issues and real concerns and are seldom able to "make" time for anything other than fire-fighting when they're back from the training programs. The Internet has opened up zillions of drip irrigation methods and one that I strongly recommend is Twitter. Twitter gives me my daily dose of drip irrigation on various issues that interest me. An ex-colleague and dear friend Gurprriet Siingh has put together a Twitter Beginner's Guide that I found immensely useful. Here it is for you. And hey, if you want to start following me on Twitter, click here!
Thinking again about what Rahul said about great sex but no babies. Reflect - if you want to make a baby, would you bank on a single exposure? ;-)
Its not true that trg evaporates once the participant leaves the room. It depends on the type of training the skill it intend to pass. eg: If you take a Java Programming trg, the participant learns the skill and applies it in projects. The issue that you have brought up is more to do with general mgt skills trg..here unless there is a process and a governance frame work, it seldom gets implemented. A better option would be to have a coach who decides what skills are missing in an executive and then put the concerned executive thru a specialised program and follows it through. Still another view is..many companies provide trg program as a motivation tool than really expecting the person to put it to use.
ReplyDeleteSo its a question of "What Trg program" , its relevance/application in day to day function which decides whether it leads to a baby or not!
Thanx for the comment Jayan. I was referring to FireStarter series of training programs (on creativity & innovation & more). :)
ReplyDeleteOn a lighter note.. Sujit, you seem to have forgotten the Hindi movies.. where less than an exposure produces a baby. I always wonder how the timing is so perfect.
ReplyDeleteOn a more serious note.. I don'' think training is taken seriously at least in India. Training to most is a "brownie point" exercise.. filing in the tally sheet at the end of the month.
People will learn f they feel a need to learn and even if there is the motivation, there are always fires to fight once they get back to work.. Flood irrigation does not work, but it is easy to do.. whereas drip irrigation like you pointed out literarily requires proper 'plumbing' to work.. Systems and processes need to be in place for it to happen. How many are willing to install the plumbing which is required to get the best return on investment..
And incidentally most companies firewall networking sites including the "twitters" and yahoos of the world.
There are times when something comes at you again and again from different directions!
ReplyDeleteI have had discussions on the topic "Learning v/s Training" in the last 2 weeks with so many different people, it's quite providential!
We're discussion that all learning does not happen via training workshops.
In fact once you become an adult your learning style changes, it moves away from instructed learning to self driven, learning.
Case in point - how did you learn how to use Twitter? Blogging? you googled, you experimented, you sought some advice/knowledge from people who know and now you're near adept!
More and more we're realizing that aside from Skill building, training is losing the battle in the workplace. Retention of learning is limited, application even less so, ESPECIALLY with the soft stuff like creativity and innovation, because the variables are so many. I may not be able to apply nothing you teach me in the workshop, because of an environment that doesn't support it. OR because I am so caught up in my 10 hours of work, that within a week, the workshop is a distant memory.
HENCE, what we need to do is provide ENABLERS to learning. Simple examples are:
1. A Library
2. Access to internet
3. Access to peer groups
4. Sponsorship to seminars and conferences
5. Internal networking and knowledge sharing processes/events
I am personally beginning to lean towards more learning enablers and lesser training inputs.
Here's a link to a phenomenal article on this subject - http://www.adobe.com/resources/elearning/pdfs/informal_learning.pdf
Oh and Thanks for the connect to my Twitter article on my blog. I think my blogpost on Social Media and organizational effectiveness also reinforces a lot of what you're saying here.
ReplyDeleteThanx much Joy. Interesting read. We've been talking internally of "productizing" our offerings on the e-platform. Wont happen so quickly but will happen for sure. Cheers
ReplyDeletedear sujit,
ReplyDeleteGreat sex & no baby !!! Interesting. Few questions but, Do we always have great sex only to have baby, or putting it the other way, is great sex a prerequisite for a baby ??
I am confused ....
Coming back to the subject, i would categorise people ( employees ) into three categories. 1) When they get married, they not only want sex, but they know their responiblity to elders and society, and will try for a baby and get on. They can be perhaps called karma yogis. In the working envioranment, they will always take up their job seriously, and all the training they attend , will be tried out at their work place, till they get the results 2) the second set of people will only have great sex, and will not bother about babies. I am imagining that, if their ( his ) father in law had left a will saying that, all his huge property will go to him , only if he produces a baby from his daughter, this guy will try and produce a baby. In the work envioronment, there has to be a carrot, to get the best from them 3) the third set of people are neighther karmayogis nor bothered about carrot. Thease people when they attend training ( enjoy the sex, especially when they dont have to pay for it?? the company pays , right )and do nothing after it.
Thease three categories of employees are available in all the companies and they can be termed as engaged employees( karma yogi), not engaged ( when a reward is shown, they will produce babies ) and totally dis engaged employees ( great sex , that too free !! ).
It is the culture of the company which will decide the percentage split, in thease categories. What is culture ?? while there cannot be a definite descriptive answer to this question, as i see it, the culture is what the employees understand, from the spoken words of bosses, and the impression the bosses leave behind them. For a culture to be positive, it is important that certain positive traits ( 100% and noless ) are displayed by the senior leadership, in their every day life 1) integrity 2) empathy 3) honesty 4) beliving in people 5) promoting team work 5) clarity in communication 6) unbias in any decision making 7)respecting people 8) encouraging failure 9) tranparency 10 ) governance The behavior of leaders as seen by employee in all these traits defines the culture of the company.
An organisation with positive culture will have more of engaged employees and less of actively disengaged employees. More the actively engaged employees, the benifits from the training can be reaped in full.
Am i making sense !!!
Cheers
L.R. Natarajan
Hi Sujit,
ReplyDeleteWhen I made that comment, it was because I see more than a passing resemblance b/w this biological instinct and learning.
I believe that a serious learner - who wants to create impact and who in LRN's langauge is a "karma-yogi" - cannot help but get 'impregnated' by the seed a Firestarter program puts into him.
Once impregnated however, the next 9 months are the gestation period and actually quite critical. Grear care must be exercised.
1st trimester - just as a expectant mother gets used to hormonal changes, the newly impregnated firestarter must consciously experience and adjust to changed ways of thinking and behaviour. Practice newly learnt tools.
2nd trimester - this is the time for the mother to bulk up and give maximum growth to the embryo. Firestarter ought to pick up a orbit-shift challenge in his area of influence, and give it all the loving care and attention. Includes enrolling of team members and stakeholders.
3rd trimester - time for the baby to get into position and do "dry runs" on the birth passage. Similarly, Firestarter ought to rapidly prototype propositions he has found on his challenge.
During these 9 months, there ought be continuous focus on nutrition (meaning firestarter must feed on a diet of inspiration, passion and learning) and avoiding bad stuff like alcohol and smoking (meaning bad stuff like naysayers, detractors, negative thinkers, dilutive forces).
If one focuses only on sex, then one's accomplishments will die with him. If one also focuses on babies, one ensures his legacy lives on and propagates.
Cheers
Rahul Agarwal
Thanx much LRN and Rahul. Loved the analogies :)
ReplyDeletehi Sujit,
ReplyDeletethe baby transfer is what makes up for the situation 'Free Sex and no babies'.
Hi Sujit,
ReplyDeleteGuess the key is reinforcement. As one of the commenters pointed out with ref. to the Java training if the student is able to immediately apply and see the benefit it will get internalised. And that is the key to the training going beyond being just a break in the routine of work. Maybe the way would be to train a few key people who would then keep doing the "drip", guiding people in the process of implementing all the tools that you trained them on.
Catchy heading, though!!
Hi Sujit,
ReplyDeletePerception!!!
No amount of operational effectiveness (Logic) is going to defeat a bad strategy (perception).
A good car driven badly is what we see normally; and then we see that CAR is BAD message;