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.

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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!

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