It seems every 12-18 months, a new term will come along. Sometimes it's something new that we ought to do. Sometimes it's something new that we ought to be. In past years we've heard things like customer service is key. It was shoved over to make room for quality. Then the two were somewhat combined into total quality management. And let's not forget reengineering or just-in-time training.
Then we have terms like trainer, internal consultant and performance coach. So the question is who am I? And what should I be? I think the answer is more in the purpose than in the title. Whatever you call me, I believe my purpose is to help the organization get results. I may help the organization get those results through the design and delivery of training that closes performance gaps or provides new skills. I may help the organization through identifying systems or procedures that are inhibiting results and training isn't even an issue. I may provide coaching to someone who is having trouble communicating to a manager, or who is having a problem resolving a conflict. All of those things help achieve results even though not all of them would be called training.
So let's start thinking about what we can do to achieve results, rather than what we (or our departments) should be called. If you want to help your organization(and the people within it) achieve results, pay attention to these things:
- Understand your organization's vision, mission, and strategic plan. Better yet, help develop them.
- Be careful to do a thorough needs-assessment before recommending a plan of action. This should include:
- Assessing one level up and one level down from any targeted group, as well as the group itself.
- Using non-repetitive redundant measures to make sure the needs you are surfacing are real needs, not simply perceived needs.
- Look for true performance gaps between high performers and low performers.
- Make sure you finish all data gathering before you move to analyzing the data and reaching conclusions.
- Remember that training is only one of seven possible solutions to closing performance gaps. Others include an organizational policy change, a change in recruitment requirements and one-on-one coaching for either the employee or the supervisor
- Make sure managers are included in the needs assessment and sign off on course content as it's developed. In other words, make sure they feel ownership of the training as it's developed.
- Plan for action planning during the training delivery.
- Insure post-session meetings between attendees and managers to gain commitment for implementation of the action plan on the job.
- Follow-up with both attendees and managers to obtain level three evaluation data (was it used on the job) and anecdotal evidence as to benefits to the organization (reduced errors, absenteeism, improved customer satisfaction, etc.) which is level four evaluation (did it make a difference to the organization).
The use of all of these will help insure that you help your organization achieve results, rather than simply provide them with training activities. Remember, the descriptive pronoun you use for your job today may not be the same one you use tomorrow—if you’re doing your job well.
This article was re-uploaded from our internal archive.
