Successful Training Interventions

Someone recently asked me to comb through my nearly 30 years of experience and come up with the actions that lead to successful training interventions. I thought it was a great question, so I’d like to offer my answer here in the form of seven key points:

1. Obtain High-Level Support: In the hundred or so projects with which I’ve been involved over the years, this factor stands out above all else—the top of the house, no lower than the VP level, has to actively support the initiative. Without such a “sponsor,” no matter how good a course you develop, it will not succeed in achieving its objectives. There are two reasons for this. First, the people at the higher levels are more linked into the company goals and strategy and will be able to guide the training intervention toward supporting that strategy. The second reason for high-level support is that without it, the people who have to implement the training will not see the importance of getting behind it, therefore leaving it to die on the vine.
   
2. Work with the Right People: The people on the design/development/implementation team have to be committed to the training goal and objectives, rather than merely fostering their own opinions or careers. You might find this odd, but as a consultant, I’ve been in several situations where I realized that the only reason the clients hired a consultant was so that they could have someone to blame when the training failed. I’ve since learned how to weed out most of those clients in advance by paying attention to the “warning bells” in my head.
   
3. Make Sure the Systems Support the Training: The biggest mistake that training professionals make is rolling out a course or curriculum that is not supported by the company’s internal systems. This seems obvious, but in our zeal to introduce state-of-the-art approaches, we often neglect to update the very systems supporting those approaches. For example, if you tell a salesperson that he or she has to enter an order using a particular program but that program does not work properly on his or her laptop, you have a problem. And this doesn’t just refer to computer systems…it could also relate to filing systems, ordering processes, staff meetings, reporting structures, or even the physical plant. I had a client where the training sessions often went into the evening, but the air conditioning shut off promptly at 5:00 PM. That was a clear-cut case of the systems not supporting the training.
   
4. Train the Managers First: Does this sound familiar? The participants attend your course and are enthused about putting what they’ve learned into action, until they return to the office where their manager says something like, “That’s all well and good, but it’s not the way we do things here.” The fact is that the best way to overcome this problem is by getting key managers—those who tend to shape opinion—involved from the beginning, even if possible in the design and development of the workshop. Then, train the rest of the managers before you roll it out to their employees. Doing so will go a long way toward ensuring the success of the training effort.
   
5. Design the Training for the Participants, Not for Yourself: I was recently contracted to design and develop a sales course, and the client company assigned me to work with an in-house training professional, whom I will refer to as Dan. Throughout the design process, Dan kept saying stuff like, “You know, I saw an article online about _________. I think we should include that reading in the course because if I were a participant, I’d like to know about that.” After about 20 of these recommended additions to the course, I finally explained to Dan that he was not a participant and that the type of people who go into sales are often very different from someone who becomes a trainer—trainers like to read and analyze books and long cases whereas salespeople prefer fast-paced, competitive activities. Unfortunately, he took offense to the comment and the relationship never recovered, but the fact remains that you always have to consider your audience and build the course to their needs, learning styles, biorhythms, etc.
   
6. Make the Training Part of a Larger Effort: One of the companies with which I work is Learning Paths International, whose concept it is that training is only a part of an overall learning path that will bring an employee to proficiency. That learning path may include everything from how-to guides to job shadowing to structured meetings, and training plays its part when appropriate. Whatever approach you use to bring employees up to speed and keep them there, it should include more than attending an occasional workshop and storing the workbook on a shelf. It needs to include pre- and post-workshop activities that reinforce the training and help the participants put it into context.
   
7. Consider that the Problem May Not Require a Training Solution: As a training consultant, I find this point to be the hardest because it often means I am walking away from work. However, if training is not the right answer, it will assuredly fail. Only after you’ve fixed everything else—management, systems, work process, compensation, recognition, etc.—are you ready to implement a training solution. Otherwise, you are simply wasting time and money on an effort doomed to failure.