During the years that I negotiated training contracts for two Fortune 100 companies, I sometimes questioned the impact of the training and the expenditures.  Experience teaching college classes for the last year and a half makes me question the money spent on training even more.

Most organizations purchase training because they want to change employee behavior.  In most cases though, organizations are unable or unwilling to commit to the sort of training programs that are most likely to result in behavioral changes. 

In this article, we will talk about what I have learned from teaching and some of the steps that I believe organizations must make if they are going to change their employees’ behavior and maximize the return on their investments.  The five key elements that appear critical are:

1. Obtaining employee buy-in
2. Developing clear and realistic goals for training
3. Defining specific steps that employees need to take
4. Practicing the steps that are required over time with reinforcement
5. Helping employees think about how they can improve on the approaches taught

So, let’s talk a little about each of these elements and how training might be used to achieve the desired result.

Buy In

At the end of the day, employees are likely to follow an approach only if and to the extent that they believe it will be successful.  Success requires many things, including alignment of the employer’s goals and those of the employees.

Throwing training at the issue may accomplish a lot in the short term, but much of the impact is likely to be the result of the Hawthorne Effect.  The Hawthorne Effect can result in changes over the short term.  In fact, almost anything can lead to changes over the short term. 

Think about the impact of conditioning though.  The first time a person tries to run a marathon, the person is likely to struggle and, potentially even quit.  What happens if the person tries again?  Over time, the person typically is able to go longer distances and, eventually, the person may finish the race. 

Applying that same idea in the context of training, one has the Hawthorne Effect, as well as some impact from the training.  (The relative composition of Hawthorne Effect and impact of the training may vary.)  As more training is provided, the Hawthorne Effect decreases because people are conditioned to expect the training.  As a result, the training has to be better in order for the impact to be realized.  Either that, or organizations take progressively more dramatic or traumatic action to change employee behavior.  (Think about the superstars, race cars, prizes, letters that officers provide in connection with training, and the message that one must complete the training if one wishes to retain his or her job and one sees the sorts of dramatic and traumatic approaches that organizations take.)

Training Goals

What can training do?  This question is asked in many ways at many organizations.  At the end of the day, training can help employees that wish to develop their skills do so.  It can also act as a bandage for processes that are broken.  It can teach employees bad processes, mask systemic problems, and encourage complacency.

The important thing is to set training goals that are realistic, relevant to the organization’s success, and consistent with the behavior that employees should be demonstrating.  Training goals really should be set at the highest level of the organization, or at least blessed at that level.  Too often though, they are set at the lowest level of an organization or training is seen as a low spend area and unworthy of senior leadership’s attention.  And, in many cases, senior leadership may not be the source of the strategic vision that is requires for an organization’s success.

Specific Steps

A lot of technical training teaches employees to take specific steps in particular cases.  When one moves into the leadership and management training (the so-called “softskills”) it is often viewed differently. 

Over the last year and a half, I have seen hundreds of people read books and learn nothing.  Then, we talk about the issue in class and identify actionable steps that they can actually take.  By practicing those steps in class, people become comfortable with the ideas and see ways of improving on the approaches as well.   

Practice

Essentially, training is intended to help people develop new habits.  In order to do so, repetition is important.  Also, it is important to allow time to develop and integrate the new habit in one’s daily routine.  A two or three day class (or a week long class, for that matter) is unlikely to lead to the formation of new habits.  There just is insufficient time to create sustainable change.  Think about what is required to make sustainable change and I am sure that you can see what I mean.

Thinking

When people read a book, they often merely read the book.  A better approach is to read a section and ask, what the section means for them and how they can improve the approach.  In classes where this is discussed, students learn more because the book gains new relevance.  Last spring, one of my business law students said that I was helping him learn to think and that no one had ever made him think before.  Sadly, that often seems to be the case. 

People are often encouraged to accept things, rather than to challenge ideas.  Accepting ideas is reinforced when questions are perceived as being unwelcome and blind acceptance is expected.  Still, people need to feel safe and to trust others in order to feel safe in thinking about ideas.  When they feel attacked, they tend to shut down instead.

More Effective Training

So what does this mean? 

Well, it seems to me that one thing all this means is that the meeting format used by traditional college classes - regular meetings scheduled over time - is more likely to lead to sustainable changes in behavior.

A second thing that it seems to mean is that the classes need to be more tactical and teach real world skills, allowing sufficient time for people to practice the skills between training sessions or classes.

In addition, it suggests to me that the traditional 2 or 3 day training class is inefficient and ineffective.

What are your thoughts about traditional training?  Is it meeting the needs of your business?

Filed by Coleen Davis at 10:43 pm under Business Acumen, New Ideas, Solving Problems, Training