How to Deliver Training

Martin Orridge

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351930161
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

'The aim of this book is to provide both managers wishing to run 'in team' exercises and those entering the training profession with a practical guide to delivering successful developmental events', says Martin Orridge in the Preface. He writes as an experienced trainer and consultant, producing a very human guide to the realities of running a training event. In a brief introductory section he explains the need for training and the benefits it can bring. Part 1 of the main text shows how to design a successful training session and Part 2 deals in detail with preparation and delivery. At the end is a collection of model documents and forms that can be used at various stages of the training cycle. The text includes tips, tools, checklists, examples and exercises throughout, together with real-life anecdotal 'cameos' to help make the points memorable. Martin Orridge's style is at all times practical and friendly. How to Deliver Training will be welcomed not only by professional trainers, but by all managers and team leaders concerned with staff development.

PART 1

DESIGNING A SUCCESSFUL TRAINING EVENT

Drawn by Simon Jarvis

Tell me and Til forget. Show me and I may not remember. Involve me and Til understand.

Native American Proverb

There are many elements in the design of a successful training event. The first step is to identify your needs. Armed with this identification and some knowledge of how people learn you should be able to design an event which, by using appropriate training, meets the organization’s needs. A good design, however, is not enough to ensure successful training. You also need to consider the skill, knowledge and experience of the trainer(s) who will run the event and the roles and responsibilities of the trainee and their manager. The attitudes and actions of trainee and their manager are critical to a successful outcome, because attendance at a training event is unlikely to fulfil all the development needs. The training course is only one element. What happens before and after the event are just as, if not more, important.

The four chapters in Part I examine the above elements in more detail. By following these approaches you can put into place the running of a successful training event even before the first delegate arrives.

1 IDENTIFYING PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT NEEDS

Life is a succession of lessons, which must he lived to be understood.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whilst the prime focus of this book is training course design and delivery it is worth taking a small step backwards to see how training fits into the people development process. The reasons are twofold. Firstly you can better understand a system by viewing it from the outside and, secondly, a brief exploration of some alternative methods of people development will help to set the whole process in context.

There are two approaches to people development, the corporate approach and the individual one. In an ideal world these would partner each other exactly with all individual development being a subset of the corporate plan. At best, attempts are made to link the two. At worst, individual training is requested and delivered with scant regard for business requirements, which is often the case where training is seen as a person’s right.

An organization’s training needs can arise in many ways.

● They may be driven by the organization’s change of strategic direction and form an important part of the change initiative. Whether the organization is a leader or follower in its chosen market will determine whether training forms a part of the strategic planning process or merely reacts to sudden environmental changes.

● Individual, team or company performance may be poor when standards or goals are not achieved.

● Mistakes may be made which affect organizational performance or even health or safety issues.

● Customer complaints, possibly resulting from any of the above, may provide useful pointers for additional training.

● Annual appraisals and performance reviews often identify training/ development needs.

● Individuals might ask for help if they feel they are not performing satisfactorily, if their job content changes or if they have taken on additional responsibilities.

Any of the above together with changes in legislation and/or procedures may result in a training needs review.

Finally, when conducting a review, always check what business added value will be achieved by undertaking the training. Resources, time and money are too valuable to waste and there may be better non-training solutions, for example job redesign, to the problem. When examining the problem remember the saying, ‘Give a child a hammer and everything’s a nail.’ Don’t make training a hammer.

Conducting a strategic review

Q. HOW DO YOU EAT AN ELEPHANT?

A. ONE SLICE AT A TIME.

The training challenge faced by most organizations today is how to integrate business and people development. Business development is typically described in terms of the products, services, processes and the technology employed to achieve identified business objectives. The objectives have in turn been derived from the business strategy. In addition to developing people to support the implementation of the business strategy, it is also necessary to develop simultaneously the systems they use to achieve best practice within the industry. If this challenge is not accepted, and ‘business as usual’ remains the order of the day, the consequences will range across the financial spectrum from wasted training budgets to total business failure. At first sight this may appear an immense task, yet planning training and development is essentially no different from planning any other business operation with similar problems in terms of timing, resourcing and financial constraints. When faced with this sort of problem, consider the question and answer at the beginning of this section and think of ways to carve up the ‘training elephant’. For example, strategic or business development elements can be considered separately from the operational and best practice elements. Alternatively, the ‘elephant’ can be divided into business units or geography. This approach makes the challenge more manageable and enables different processes to be selected for the collection of training needs data. The chosen route will depend on available resources and prevailing politics.

Strategic training initiatives

The alignment of training to the business development strategy is but one piece of the business strategy jigsaw. Training is a subset of the human resources element of the total business strategy. The business strategy will also include other constituent elements, for example, information systems, logistics, product and services, R&D, etc.

Within the training part of the human resources strategy it is HR management’s responsibility to:

● formulate and publish policy and plans for training

● set up the systems for identifying training needs and for ensuring their effective delivery

● provide the resources, manpower and materials.

In some years the formulation of strategic training initiatives might represent a very small aspect of total human resources work load, yet in times of great change it can become very significant.

The challenge faced by many organizations is how to develop a corporate approach which is flexible enough to respond to unexpected change whilst maintaining a strategy that integrates business and people development. To survive long term, businesses must consider the following development areas:

● developing products and services, their processes and technology, to meet corporate business objectives

● developing people and systems to increase their capabilities to support the implementation of the corporate strategy

● developing all of the above to achieve best practice, both inter and intra industry.

Consequently programmes need to be developed that take account of:

● all the organization’s employees

● the full career span of all employees

● the full range of business and management processes

● all products and services including the current range and prioritized future developments.

An integrated business and people development plan combines all of these elements and is developed from both the business strategy and objectives together with information on best practices.

This integrated approach will in turn drive the people development strategy.

Figure 1.1 An integrated business and people development plan

The HR objective is just one set of objectives driven by the corporate strategy. Other examples are IT objectives, product and services objectives, real estate objectives. Whilst a cascade (see Figure 1.1) demonstrates the logical flow there are also many linkages and dependencies between the various sets, particularly with the people development objectives. It is a key role of senior management to maintain a balanced approach. For example, a general may have been sent twice as many pistols as he needs but no ammunition. His effectiveness has been seriously curtailed. In the same way a busines...