Stretching the Training Dollar
While in the Middle East this week, Dr. Palan and I had the opportunity to talk with a CEO of a major airline. We talked about a variety of issues, including the recent crash landing of the jet into the Hudson River. The flight deck voice recorder caught the pilot’s last words prior to hitting the water, “Prepare for Impact.” By now we all know what he meant – “Hang on. We are going to hit the water and it might be rough.” We also know that all of the passengers survived, and the crew are being hailed as heroes. A deeper meaning for many of the words, “prepare for impact” is now being realized. They have all been given the gift of extended life when it looked as if they would perish. In each of their lives, they now have the opportunity to create impact to all they come in contact with for the rest of their lives. The words “prepare for impact” also apply to us learning professionals. Read on.
As we continued our conversation, we discovered the many ways his company was creatively controlling spending while maintaining superior customer service. Not surprisingly we discussed training. While he does believe in strongly in training, he was keenly interested ideas that would enhance training while cutting training costs. During this conversation and others, I find myself talking more and more about such issues as leveraging training dollars, streamlining delivery, executing strategic objectives. Of course the Kirkpatrick Four Levels Of Evaluation comes up quite often, it is now only part of the formula for training and business success.
Senior business leaders the world over are desperately looking for ways to make their businesses and organizations profitable again, or at least to stop the financial bleeding caused by the economic crisis. I have conducted more than a few workshops in the past two months, and even the questions from the participants have changed. Instead of, “What is the best way to write a Level 1 survey?”, they are asking, “How can I convince our business stakeholders of the value we bring to them?”
This is a good change amidst a difficult time. I believe there are three major skill sets to employ, and one bad habit that must end in order to achieve the title of this article. The skill sets are as follows:
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Begin with determining “what will success look like?” Business managers often ask for training without knowing what they expect it to deliver to the business. As training professionals and performance consultants, we need to work with them on this any time a major initiative is required to bring about the solution to a business problem, need, or opportunity. While this will not come easy, it will serve to determine which programs and other initiatives are truly mission critical, therefore allowing good decisions to be made about the deployment of resources. All training programs are not created equal. It will also allow you to focus your specific training design and delivery, reinforcement, and four level evaluation to maximize the effectiveness of truly important programs. Keep in mind that unless you determine and/or negotiate what ‘success will look like’ in measurable/observable terms, you will not be able to focus, and thereby not maximize training impact. |
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Determine and leverage drivers of training success After training events have been delivered, don’t expect desired outcomes to naturally follow. Much should and has to be done after training events in order to get participants to actually apply what they learned. There are many right ways to do this and many wrong ones. I remember the first job I ever had. I was 17 years old and working at M&M Sporting Goods in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I was excited yet nervous about working in a store full of stuff that I loved. Unfortunately, the owner, Maurie Marasco, was had not read my father’s suggestions about how to conduct effective Level 3 evaluation (learning applied to the job). The big store was two stories, and the second story consisted mainly of Maurie’s office, which had numerous one way mirrors overlooking the store on the first floor. Maurie’s method of “observation, feedback, and coaching (i.e., Level 3) was to covertly sit behind his one way mirrors, watch for employees to make mistakes with customers, and then scream at them (us) over a loud speaker. I remember my third day as I was looking at some fishing lures instead of helping a nearby customer; I heard his booming Italian voice, “Kirkpatrick!! There is a customer standing near you. Go help him and quit looking at those %#@+^ fishing lures!!” That is not the way to encourage employees to transfer what they have learned into proper on-the-job behaviors. My point here is that it is critical to identify key processes and behaviors, such as coaching, which will be necessary to occur on a consistent basis after training if you expect your stakeholders’ outcomes to occur. |
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Develop a Compelling Chain of Evidence Here is where the four levels of evaluation come in strong. Ultimately, you will want to be able to go to your stakeholders and be able to demonstrate the value that training and reinforcement has brought to the bottom line. I believe that the best and most cost effective way to do that is to gather the right kind of data and information – evidence – along the way for each of the four levels, put it in a nice package, and present it in a powerful way to your stakeholders once the results have been realized. |
Oh, what do you need to quit doing? Quit thinking and behaving as if your job as learning professional ends with learning. I noticed that the recent T+D magazine was entitled, “Learning in 2020”. I sort of wish that had asked me about the title – I would have suggested either “Performance 2020” or “Business Impact 2020”, as that more accurately reflects what we must do to stretch our training dollars.
SMR USA's Public Sessions, 2009
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