Click here to view the embedded video.

So, maybe you don’t have these issues…exactly…..but training classes can have diversity challenges.

Here are some tips:

• Use illustrations that can apply to everyone.  Avoid focusing on just one type of illustration:  kids, sports, spouse, single parent.  You get the message.
• Vary your language to include references to both genders equally.
• Make sure to make eye contact and ask questions to everyone.  Notice your own biases, even towards outgoing people vs. quiet people, better dressed people vs. poorly dressed people, those with titles vs. no or lower title.
• Notice the graphics or photos – do they honor diversity?  Do you ever include illustrations of heavier people or those with disabilities?

What do you need to work on in your training classes to better honor diversity?

Video courtesy of  http://www.notebookbabies.com/ See more Notebook Babies videos on http://www.youtube.com

©  Linda M. Farley  www.LMFarley.com LMF@onr.com

Follow Me on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/LindaFarley

Let’s say that you are training a class of service representatives or agents in a call center. You have two choices:

• Lecture through the process, possibly using flow charts, graphs and acronyms.

-OR-

• Guide the learners to understanding by asking questions about an illustration depicting the process.

Think about the questions you might ask about this illustration:

• How will you know you are receiving a call?

• What system sends the call to you?

• How should you answer when you receive a call?

• If the customer needs to get widgets for their business, who handles it?

• Who/what is listening to the calls?

• What is used to order widgets?

If you want  individuals to learn the information by themselves, rather than having a group discussion, create a quiz that each learner completes while referring to the illustration for answers.

Asking questions, rather than lecturing, is faster and results in a higher level of learning.

Can you “let go” of lecturing and let learners learn?

© Linda M. Farley     http://LMFarley.com LMF@onr.com

Follow Me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/LindaFarley

The world of training has changed significantly since I attended my first corporate training session (I won’t say how many years ago!).  I remember sitting there while the instructor droned on and on.  Note-taking was discouraged.  Visual aids were non-existent.  Training was serious business, as demonstrated when the instructor’s hand suddenly slammed down on the table when we didn’t understand a concept. Now our classrooms are filled with color, music and props.  We move, we laugh, we play games.  In the midst of it all, learning takes place and skills are refined, far better than in training sessions of the past. However, it is easy for those who don’t have an understanding of how adults learn to think that only serious, lecture-filled training classes are effective.  Have you ever had someone walk by your room and say (or think), “All that training department does is play.”  Does your training have the reputation for being all “fluff”?  This can occur when we are not considered as full partners within our organizations.  The result is that training staff and budgets are reduced because training is not perceived as valuable. Training departments can position themselves as essential links to organizational performance by being proactive in several areas. Here are some ideas:

• Review the same results reports that the “front line” operation receives.  Be alert to specific performance issues that may be training related.  Proactively present viable training solutions.
• Attend operations meetings.  Keep your department “in the know” about operational issues.
• Ensure that the training department is included when decisions are made.  Help prevent your organization from “throwing training” at a problem by offering needs analysis and assessments.
• Educate your organization about training and why certain techniques are used.  This education can help staff dispel thoughts that training is all play.
• Establish a training department budget.  Make sure that all expenditures are necessary and justifiable. Adopt the same attitude about budgets as the operations staff in your  organization has.

These five simple steps can help your training department be recognized as an essential link to performance and a respected partner in your organization.  Along with all the fun, training is serious business.

(c) 2010 Linda M. Farley

Photo courtesy of  3M Young Scientists Challenge @NASA Goddard via Flickr

You are enthralled in the presentation.  The speaker is giving you so much information that you desperately need. It was definitely worth getting up early to attend this event.

Then he blows his nose right into the mike.

The magic is broken.

As trainers and speakers we can often get so comfortable in front of an audience that we make distracting mistakes.

We are professionals who know better.  Often we need a reminder, so here it is:

• Avoid standing in front of the projector.
• Repeat the questions you are asked so that everyone can hear them.
• Don’t read the slides.
• Get out from behind the podium and be energetic.
• Know your presentation and don’t overly use notes.
• Don’t belch, sniff, pass gas or clean your ears.
• Don’t blow your nose when you are wearing a lapel mike - and turn it off before going to the bathroom.

Just a reminder.

©  Linda M. Farley  www.LMFarley.com LMF@onr.com

Follow Me on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/LindaFarley

Photo courtesy of Help Me at  http://flickr.com/creativecommons

Sweeping, moping and cleaning up mess

Never-ending trash cans to empty

The drudgery of a menial job

The long hours flowing into oblivion

Before his mind flowed also into oblivion

He quit

***

Sweeping, moping and cleaning up mess

Never-ending trash cans to empty

Must get the operating room clean

Ready for the next patient

Hustle, be thorough

She is in the life-saving business

***

Why the difference in perspective?   What does it have to do with training?   Does your training teach the task or the mission?

Try implementing these tips next time you train:

• Start with explaining the impact of what you are training.

Compare these statements:

“In this training, we will learn how to run an after school program.”

“Everything we will learn in this training helps you to do one thing:  make a life changing impact on kids by supporting them to get an education.”

• Illustrate at every opportunity in the training how the specific learning relates to the mission.

Compare these statements:

“Immediately after the kids arrive they get a snack and then you direct them to do their homework.”

“Because we know that not doing homework can sabotage their grades and lead to discouragement around education, the kids get a snack when they arrive and then we have immediately begin complete homework.”

• Wrap-up every training program with a motivating illustration of how the individual’s efforts will contribute to the success of the mission.

Training people how to achieve the mission, rather than do the task, gives them a valuable reason to perform.  It relieves the drudgery of repetitive and seemingly menial tasks.  It communicates to individuals that they make a difference.

What will you change in your training approach today?

©  Linda M. Farley  www.LMFarley.com LMF@onr.com

Follow Me on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/LindaFarley

Tragedies touch me deeply.  Yet, in processing them, come perspectives that I never expected.  I respectfully submit to you the following article.  May we learn much from the mistakes that led up to the sacrifice of so many.

How often have you seen the following sequence of events in your organization: a low performing employee continues on, year after year, with his/her lack of performance being ignored, moved from position to position – maybe even getting a promotion?

Maybe supervisors and managers have been trained on performance development–however, are they actually putting this training into practice?

• Are they competently giving performance feedback?
• Are they following up on performance progress?
• Are they appropriately implementing consequences?

What is the process for addressing performance issues in your organization?  What is the impact when this process is not trained, implemented and monitored in your organization?   At the least it can adversely affect organizational performance.  It may implode your company.

It could even be tragic.

Consider the Pentagon findings regarding the November slayings in Fort Hood, Texas, as reported by the Chicago Tribune:

“…shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan repeatedly earned favorable performance ratings in spite of mounting concerns about his views and behavior.”

“Among other issues, investigators have examined how it was that Hasan received repeated positive performance reviews that allowed his career to advance despite concerns about inappropriate behavior….”

“… the findings are expected to explore why concerns about Hasan’s performance at Walter Reed Army Medical Center were not passed on to his supervisors at his next assignment, at Texas’ Fort Hood.”

“Hasan’s performance at Walter Reed, as described by officials and those who knew him, should have raised red flags and prevented his promotion and transfer…. For instance, Hasan’s superiors faulted his light caseload and said he shirked professional responsibilities.”

“The investigation is also supposed to point to ways to overhaul the military performance evaluation system.”

The LA Times reports:

“In the Army, few performance reviews contain negative comments. However, at senior levels and in competitive fields, an evaluation that is less than effusive in its praise can derail an officer’s promotion. In less competitive fields and at junior levels, the Army has promoted the vast majority of its officers. And because of a shortage of mental health personnel, few such experts are blocked from promotion.”

“The culture that encourages mainly positive reviews has undercut the usefulness of the system for evaluating officers’ strengths and weaknesses, according to some military officials who requested anonymity when discussing the case.”

Consider how our employees often progress through performance development, compared to the progression of this Army officer.

Of course, this is not a mere story about performance.  It is about an individual who was motivated to far greater destruction than we can comprehend.  However, it does raise the question that if appropriate development and consequences had been implemented, would the “red flags” have been noticed?  Would this person have had the easy access to our loved ones to carry out such an atrocity?

As business professionals, we are responsible to develop people, to get people in the right positions and, also, to get them out of positions which would be detrimental to the organization or to others.  We are responsible for creating an effective development process, training the process and holding people accountable to implement the process…even when implementing appropriate consequences is tough.

Could something as simple as implementation of a true performance development process have prevented this tragedy?

Do you need to look at how your organization’s performance development process is being implemented?  What “red flags” are you missing?

Complete news stories at

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-tc-nw-fort-hood-0111-0112jan12,0,4710456.story

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/12/nation/la-na-fort-hood12-2010jan12

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/01/11/fort-hood-shooting.html

©  Linda M. Farley  www.LMFarley.com LMF@onr.com

Follow Me on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/LindaFarley

©  Linda M. Farley  www.LMFarley.com LMF@onr.com

Follow Me on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/LindaFarley

Oh, so you think the gift giving season is over?  For corporations it has just begun.

January marks the start of renewed focus on results, productivity and efficiency.  It also begins the yearly cycle of training.

Companies give training and expect employees to give back through improved revenue and decreased expenses.  But are we getting the best return on investment?  Could we do better in this Corporate Giving Cycle?  Yes! The key is to create and facilitate training that is broad based and lasting.

Broad based training is learning which applies to a variety of situations.  Does your training incorporate a wide variety of situations and scenarios in which participants can apply learning?

• Communication skills training and customer service training can be combined to apply to communication with co-workers as well and customers, to internal and external customer service.  Think about it-the skills really are the same.
• Leadership skills can incorporate communication skills, which apply to…you guessed it.
• Process skills can incorporate customer service skills.
• Ethics can be woven into communication and customer service courses.

Create lasting training by incorporating past learning into current courses.  Learning lasts longer if it is used frequently, so incorporate rarely used but essential learning from past courses into current ones.

• Include a little used process in a scenario teaching a new one.
• Design complex practices that incorporate both previous and new learning.
• Develop learning that targets new information and emphasizes weak areas of performance:
• Practice a new process with a time limit that will improve low productivity results.
• Role play a scenario that includes completing a form that is currently a quality issue.

Apply the concept of broad based and lasting training in a way that participants can use some of the techniques in their outside-of-work life.

• Provide examples of how to use conflict management skills with friends or family.
• Practice negotiating skills with the participant as a customer as well as a service provider.
• Link the process focus of quality and productivity to situations outside of work that affect participants.

When people understand that training can make their life better, not just their work better, they have a better buy-in into the training.

Providing broad based and lasting training results in a better return on investment.  More importantly, when a company invests in people, rather than their employees, it is corporate giving at its best.  Everyone benefits.

©  Linda M. Farley  2010 www.LMFarley.com

Follow Me on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/LindaFarley

Email:  LMF@onr.com

Christmas 2009.  At 86 Mom didn’t need another sweater or knick-knack or box of candy.

She wanted something much more substantial and asked for a specific gift from each of her great-grandchildren.  She let it be known, through the parents and grandparents and to as many of these nine kids as she could corner.  It was to be delivered by Christmas, each delivering it in their own way, in their own time.  But no later than Christmas Day.

Mom had thought about the gift she was requesting throughout the fall.  She had planned it well.  She knew it was something of importance that she would treasure the rest of her life.  She also had another motive.

She told them at Thanksgiving, allowing plenty of time for each to work on the project.  Four weeks was long enough for them to create the little gift she so wanted.  They could easily be ready to deliver on time, if they just focused a little time on it.

Some delivered the gift before Christmas, typical of kids who can’t wait.  Others excitedly delivered it on Christmas, waiting nervously for her approval on that special day.

And as she received each gift, she placed it in the depths of her heart, the experience, the delivery and the knowledge that the gift she had requested would last a lifetime.  Not only her lifetime, but theirs also.  Because, you see, she asked them to give her something that was really meant for them.  Her motive was to give them a principle that would help them through the tough years ahead, of growing and becoming an adult.  She wanted to give them help in facing the challenges of life and coming out strong on the other side.

The gift she asked of them was to memorize and recite to her a Bible verse, John 14:6:  “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  In asking for this gift, she gave back to them:  knowledge, inspiration and a sharing of her faith that will linger long in their hearts and minds far after she is gone.

Thank you, Mom, for being the example, for inspiring me to be more than I have been, to teach more important concepts and to create learning that lasts a lifetime.

©  Linda M. Farley  2010 www.LMFarley.com

Follow Me on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/LindaFarley

Email:  LMF@onr.com

 If you are in training, you CARE. 

•  Have you ever felt that your training department and operations were on different pages, opposite sides, even in a battle? 
• Do you feel that your training department is more vulnerable to downsizing than other departments? 
• In your nightly dreams, is Nirvana a place where leaders value the training efforts in which you have put so much brain power?

Enter……Dr. Donald Kirkpatrick, founder of the Four Level Training Evaluation Model.

 I was recently privileged to hear Dr. Donald Kirkpatrick speak at an ASTD (American Society for Training & Development) conference. He is 80 years old and his work is as relevant today as it was when it was first published in 1959.  (Don’t stop reading just because it’s old – Einstein’s work is still relevant.)

 One of the concepts that Kirkpatrick talks about is identifying a “chain of evidence” that provides compelling proof of the value of training to the organization.  He encourages us to supply a preponderance of proof, rather than proving the value beyond a shadow of doubt. 

 This is an important differentiation for trainers and training leaders who have beat their heads against the wall to prove empirically that their training was specifically what impacted results in a positive way.

Why might empirical proof be difficult?  Trainers know that the temperature of the room, the attitude of the individual’s supervisor and personal distractions can affect a participant’s evaluation of training.   Additionally, individuals may score high on what they learned in training, then be discouraged to employ the skills or procedures on the job.  Conversely, outside influences, such as a thriving market or a new product introduction may have impacted results in a positive way independent of training.

 Rather than focus on irrefutable proof, build a chain of evidence, compelling proof that the training has value by evaluating training in as many of the levels as it makes sense. 

 The levels that Kirkpatrick developed are summarized below in reverse order.  Why in reverse order?  Because so often training professionals do not think beyond Level 1 or 2.  Our companies are called upon to bring in results in very competitive world.  Trainers need to partner with the organization to achieve those results as actively as any operations person.  This focus positions the training department as a value added to the operation.

 Level 4 – Results

Results measures the impact of the training on the organization or company.  The evaluation views sustained results, usually from 30, 60, 90 days after the intended audience has completed training.  It often measures even beyond this timeframe.  Level 4 evaluation may include a % increase in performance results, a cost/benefit analysis and/or an ROI (return on investment).

• In “Implementing the Four Levels,” Kirkpatrick states that this is the most important because it is the most important to our stakeholders. 
• Kirkpatrick recommends that you “start with the end in mind.” In the design phase of training, trainers must agree with stakeholders on the goal the training will achieve and design metrics to measure that goal along with training design. From Kirkpatrick’s viewpoint, this level measures “Return on Expectations.”
• Consider using a control group and experimental groups to measure results before and after training.

 Level 3 – Behavior

This level of evaluation is done after the participant returns to work. Its goal is to determine if he/she is using the information delivered in training and to what level it is being used.  (e.g. If the individual attained a satisfactory score on the end of course test and then does not apply the skill on the job, it may indicate a lack of willingness, coaching or a difference  in the direction the person is receiving on the job.  These are all good bytes of information to determine how to make the course most effective.)

• Engage the operational supervisors and managers in evaluating behavior on job.  Make sure to get buy-in for the process during the design phase of the training.
• Either employ evaluation tools already in use in the operations or create tools that supervisors and managers can use routinely to develop people.  The tools then become part of the operation, rather than another task to be done for the training department.  (e.g. In a call center operation, trainers can use the observation checklist that is used by the QA (Quality Assurance) department.  Trainers for a trucking company can use a checklist developed by the truck manufacturer to ensure quality repair is demonstrated on job.)
• Often the same tool used to evaluate learning can be used to evaluate behavior on job.  (e.g. If training uses a simulation that times how long it takes to complete a transaction, the Level 3 evaluation may be the report from the Automatic Call Distributor that averages the time for each agent’s cumulative transactions.

 Level 2 – Learning

Evaluation of learning is performed at the end of the training session.  Some of the methods which can be used are tests, graded simulations or observations rated using a checklist.

• Ensure that the evaluation gages the level of learning as described by the objectives of the training. (e.g. knowledge, comprehension, application, etc.) Use Bloom’s Taxonomy to develop objectives to the appropriate level of learning.
• Design the evaluation so that it can be easily scored and tabulated.
• Avoid making tests too easy.  Challenging multiple choice tests can be created by using scenario based questions and scenario answers that have complex details to consider before answering.

 Level 1 – Reaction

Reaction gages how participants feel about or view the training.  It is the quintessential “smile sheet” that can be as valuable or destructive as you make it.

• Provide the evaluation at the end of training class as possible.  Online evaluations sent by email after class will not be completed by as many people and will not capture the immediate reaction of individuals as well as end of class evals.
• Ask only the questions that will provide valuable information that actually will be used.
• Avoid using the evaluations as the only or the major assessment of instructor performance.  (Oh, yes, instructors have been known to throw out less than perfect evaluations in order to ensure a superior rating and a substantial annual raise.)

 Use these levels – all of them – to get your training department and operations on the same page, the same side, to jointly win the battle.  You will feel less vulnerable to downsizing and you might even achieve Nirvana!

 What do you think?

 ©  Linda M. Farley  www.LMFarley.com  LMF@onr.com 

Follow Me on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/LindaFarley