| How to Embed Training | |
|
|
Often the beginning of the year is a time for reflection – well it has been for us. Being in the consulting and training business, many of our clients close down for a couple of weeks and so we take this time to do some strategic planning and regroup for the busy year ahead. Part of our planning has included evaluating what differentiates us in the marketplace, particularly in the areas of sales and leadership training. We identified a couple of areas of differentiation but one that inspired me to write, is our ability to “embed” the effects of our training.
As an ex-Operational Manager as well as having served time as an HR Strategist, I am well aware of the commonplace experience of hiring external consultants to train staff. Often the staff had a fabulous time, rated the facilitators highly, and were impressed with what they learnt, but after a couple of months there was still no real change to the way they were operating. Why?
The answer is simple. They didn’t change their behaviours. They didn’t put into practice what they had learnt and make the new way of operating their daily habit. Also, often their managers weren't involved in the training so couldn't actively participate in ensuring that the skills were applied or adjust to the new behaviours.
We worked out pretty early on in our business that our unique sales training program was no good on its own, no matter how sensational we believed it to be. We had to have a leadership program that taught the sales managers how to coach their staff on the skills they learnt. The next step of evolution was to then to train the sales managers on how to motivate their staff to perform in order to meet performance targets. It is not just about skills, it is also about having the will.
The next iteration integrated the development of a high performance and accountability culture, and it just keeps going. Now days, our work with clients starts with a high level review of the current organisational strategy and how it is promoted. We provide an opportunity to explore how our clients will inspire team members to commit to the overall business strategy and to produce results significantly above base level expectations.
Sustaining a high performing team requires effective leadership, which also includes effective skills coaching. Without skills coaching, new behavioural work habits are less likely to be integrated long term. As revealed by our work with varying organisations, skills’ coaching adds significantly to skill acquisition and flow-on performance.
The strategy and leadership skills that we provide together with the relationship we build with our clients means that they are able to change their behaviour and have extreme clarity on what is required for their business to excel. We develop individuals on both a personal and professional level. The majority of programs we now deliver are focussed on strategy and leadership.
It is such a rewarding space to work in and we enjoy watching our clients businesses and their people within them go from strength to strength. Pleae make sure that the next training organisation you hire has an effective embedding process or approach and that you are willing to change what you do to make it a success. |
