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10. March 2008 by kevinmhuff.
If trainers are change agents for organizations, they must first focus on change in training teams and individually. Training organizations must continually articulate their vision for the actual training function. This vision should include informational and communications infrastructure, proposed and predicted changes, and continuous focus on just-in-time, just-enough (JITJE) learning.
Trainers, which will be in ever-growing demand in the future, need to begin now balancing (not juggling!) their priorities. If you have a God first, family second, and work third priority list, or if you have a work first, everything else second priority list, or any other personal priority list, getting those priorities in order and balanced NOW is your actual priority. Otherwise we might feel like frogs being boiled about a decade from now when we’re in high, high demand.
The 21st century trainer will be one of the most exciting roles and I for one can not wait to see what happens in our industry in the next few years and decades.
Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
10. March 2008 by kevinmhuff.
YES! The trainer is positioned to drive competitive advantage for their company/organization by providing targeted, QUICK, and compelling training. According to Peter Senge, the only sustainable source of competitive advantage is an organization’s ability to learn faster than their competition. If it is learning that is needed — training has the answer!
There are several factors that impact an organization’s rate of change, like: changing technology, knowledge explosion, rapid product obsolescence, the changing nature of the workforce, quality of work life, and business process redesign. Unfortunately, the other side of the equation holds those forces that resist change: threats to power and influence, fear of the unknown, sunken costs, economic forces, resource limitations, and organizational structure.
When change is necessary, we must work to first unfreeze this balance between driving forces and resisting forces, then quickly make the move (change!), and then reset the scales so equilibrium is again attained, but now we’ve moved further along toward our goal. It is at this stage when new skills are assimilated into the way work is done.
Trainers also act as a business partner when they work WITH clients to improve workplace performance, instead of just working FOR them. As a partner, trainers can bring so much more to the table — knowledge of workplace demographics and culture and, of course, all their actual knowledge about training.
Trainers are the true change agent of the current age!
Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
4. March 2008 by kevinmhuff.
From a pure “glamour” perspective, training administration doesn’t receive a lot of props … but administrative support of training delivery is crucial to training success!! I have a strong team of training administrators that work behind the scenes helping my training initiatives by making them easy to access, providing registration procedures, printing both instructor and participant guides, securing training facilities (locations, rooms), and even preparing equipment that’s needed.
In addition to the support offered prior to a training event, training administrators also help manage the budgets and when training events are over, they begin focusing on their support for the evaluation of training.
Training administrators often follow a checklist to manage the level of details necessary for success.
Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
4. March 2008 by kevinmhuff.
When new training is needed, a training proposal describes the work to be done — it is a call to action. The sole purpose of a traiing proposal is to persuade decision makers of the need for training, the need for action, and thus the expected response to a training proposal is the “go ahead.”
Training proposals explain:
Most training proposals should include an Executive Summary plus a combination of components deemed necessary to persuade the decision makers; components such as the challenge for which the training will be developed, the learning objectives (important!), a development and delivery schedule, and a cost-benefit analysis.
A training proposal document must be concise, clear, and compelling.
Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »
4. March 2008 by kevinmhuff.
One of my favorite topics in the training industry is technology and how we incorporate newer technology into our existing training methods or use it to create alternate training methods. The term often used to describe alternate training methods is mediated instruction which would include self-paced learning, like reading and responding to this blog! Mediated instruction also includes complementary training methods — those that complement live instruction which we discussed in the previous blog and podcast. A key benefit to mediated instruction is that it let’s learners take charge of their learning. Referring back to our podcast covering adult learning, the connection can easily be made showing that mediated learning fits well with how adults learn.
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
22. February 2008 by kevinmhuff.
A trainer’s love for training comes from opportunities to deliver live instruction. I think, partly as a result of that, we’ve come up with as many means to deliver live instruction as possible … and more will be adopted as soon as they are viable. This blog and accompanying podcast are meant to be used as training tools, the use of a SecondLife or similar is now beneficial in certain training environments, and it’s clear in our digital age that new methods will be created faster than ever before.
All live instruction techniques — whether for large groups or small groups in a classroom setting, distance-learning groups spread all over the nation and world, or for coaching — require careful and thoughtful approaches to ensure the highest level of learning occurs.
Here’s to live instruction and all the benefits gained through its use!
Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
16. November 2007 by kevinmhuff.
It’s time to design a training program if the needs assessment has been completed. Not until then.
Once the needs assessment is complete the output from the assessment is used to create learning objective.
Learning objectives define what we wish to accomplish, the content to be trained, and the ultimate outcomes of training. Listen in to the podcast as we cover Training Program Design in more detail.
Posted in Training Design, Training | 16 Comments »
13. November 2007 by kevinmhuff.
When it comes right down to it, developing training materials is one of the most critical steps in a training program/project. We’ve all experienced mediocre training, but how many of us have had the privilege of experiencing incredible, memorable, nothing like it training? What scares me is many may not even know this exists. Why not be the trainer others talk about by bringing this type of dynamic experience to your courses?
How does one do this? It’s a combination of personality, delivery…and early in the process it is about developing great materials and that starts with an understanding of Learning Theory.
Are you well-versed on Teaching Styles, Learning Styles (think Kolb), Design approaches (Behavioral, Cognitive), Bloom’s Taxonomy, Learning Objectives? These are elements of Learning Theory and are necessary to understand and integrate with your training material. The podcast covers each of these in more depth.
Posted in Training Design, Training | 12 Comments »
3. November 2007 by kevinmhuff.
When assessing the need of your training audience, you must do your research. And you must conduct that research using as many research techniques as possible. I will admit, in my own personal experience as a trainer, I have seen the results when the research is lacking or worse, non-existent.
I once was asked to provide system training on a system I knew very well, but the request was immediate with very short notice. An assumption was made by the requester that the system was the same for every user, but that was not the case at all. The training I provided ended up missing the mark completely. If I had been provided the time to survey the audience and conduct at least one interview I would have been able to adapt my training content and delivery to the needs of my audience.
As a trainer I find surveys and interviews, when combined, to be excellent research techniques. Once a survey has been created, it can be administered to a very large audience, especially if you distribute them online. The results can supply you with a large amount of useful data that can be referenced and applied very quickly during the training development process. I will also take survey responses, pull a sample of them, then conduct an interview of those same participants so I can get more insight into their survey response.
Speaking of interviews, those are my favorite and where I have the most fun. I feel this research technique provides the best interaction and often better results as a result (no pun intended).
Research requires thought, from choosing the correct research method to gathering and analyzing the data, but it’s very important you take the time to do it right!
Posted in Training Design, Training | 15 Comments »
31. October 2007 by kevinmhuff.
Evaluating training is the only means to validate the existence of a training program. Without evaluation, the training team, the organization being trained, and the corporation are all being cheated. Evaluation is the lifeblood of training, measuring the effectiveness of training, the application of new skills, the improvement in performance, and then using those measurements to further improve training programs!
There are several evaluation criteria domains, made popular by Kirkpatrick with his four levels. The first is Reaction, the second is Learning, the third is Job Behavior, and finally the fourth is Organizational Results. A quick online search will yield hundreds of results about training evaluation and the various levels … some will even list Kirkpatrick’s four levels differently. Suffice it to say, a training team MUST evaluate as many categories as possible. O’Conner and Bronner, authors of “Training for Organizations, 2nd ed.” also propose a fifth category, that of the training process.
We evaluate training in those categories by proctoring end-of-class surveys (Smile Sheets) and exams, conducting interviews and surveying management, and by reviewing organizational results like sales reports (handy when training salespeople…)
It can be said that NOT evaluating training might be costing the corporation more than it costs to take the necessary time to properly evaluate.
Next topic: Research Techniques
Posted in Training Evaluation, Training | 15 Comments »