Focus on Performance
- 1. FOCUS ON PERFORMANCE - NOT LEARNING “My main role as a CEO was developing talent. The team that fields the best talent wins. That’s in baseball, football, life and business. Business is a game. If you don’t suit up the best team, you don’t have a prayer. In the end, it ‘s what it’s all about.” Jack Welch World Business Forum October, 2010 Executive Summary The intent of learning is to improve the performance of managers and line employees. So why do we focus on learning techniques, instructional design, learning systems and technologies? To improve an employee’s performance, our focus must be changed to four elements: o Management expectations o Preparation for learning o Learning Outcomes o Post learning enhancements INTRODUCTION Learning conversations seem to focus on the “course”, the instructional value of the content, the form that the assessment will follow, SCORM guidelines, the learning management system, etc. Important topics but probably not the points that a corporation wants to know about from an investment decision view. Investment always assumes that there will be a positive return and that improved performance will result from the learning investment. There are different “buckets” that learning falls into: Harassment, Ethics, Safety, Compliance and similar courses are “check the box” training. Every employee needs to go through these courses to conform to corporation policies or regulatory standards and once completed, the learner or their manager can “check the box” as completed. Little or no expectations on performance improvement are assumed. Onboarding, Communications, Team Building, Diversity, Performance Management, etc. are part of the core curriculum in most organizations and expectations begin to appear but not necessarily measured e.g., has turnover been reduced as a result of the onboarding investment.
- 2. Specialized training similar to sales, product knowledge, process control, IT skills and software application start to have both expectations and measurements being applied in some cases, e.g., sales achievement pre and post training. Leadership, Business Acumen, Global Management, Complexity Management, Financial Management and other training that contains the word “management” should have the greatest level of expectation and measurement applied but that is not always the case for a consistent, enterprise measurement. Lastly, we come to the training that has the greatest form of applied expectation and the highest measured results – the factory floor or operations employees. The production line output, the workers’ timing per task, the number of calls per hour, “Help Desk” tickets entered, etc. receive the greatest scrutiny from management yet these people usually receive the least amount of formal training. This training is primarily on the job experience or the least expensive investment possible. CHANGING THE DYNAMICS OF LEARNING If corporations want to see an improvement in their learning investment, the simplest change to make is to broaden the focus of attention onto three components: what happens before the training occurs; the training intervention itself; and, the actions taken after the training has been completed. Most of our attention is focused on the training intervention – the course. ASTD (The American Society for Training and Development) completed a recent study in which they surveyed learners on the value proposition of their learning experience. The results were quite surprising.
- 3. ASTD study- “What part of the learning experience provided the highest value to you”? 23% - pre-training effort 30% - the training itself 57% - post training effort Approximately 23% of the learners stated that what occurred prior to the training had the greatest value for them; 30% of the respondents said the training itself had the highest value and the most significant response, 57%, stated that the post- training experience provided the greatest value. The one component, the training event or course, where all of the focus appears to be, scored less than 30%. PRE-TRAINING PREPARATION One of the easiest ways to improve the performance of an employee following training is to establish “expectations” before the training occurs. This normally follows 5 actions: 1. The manager talks with the employee prior to training and explains what will be expected from the employee and what the organization will do to support the training event. (measurements are established) 2. The manager and the employee determines what training is most appropriate for the specific circumstance, e.g., improve a skill, overcome a deficit, learn a new application, etc. (what will be measured is determined) 3. The employee discusses the intrinsic value of the training, attends the training and fully participates in the training. (acceptance of the learner’s responsibility is established) 4. After the training, the employee and the manager regroup to discuss what was learned, how it helped the employee, what are the outcomes of the training and how the training will be immediately applied to the job (measurements are started)
- 4. 5. The manager must provide immediate opportunity for the learner to apply the new skills, then provide feedback to the learner and finally measure the results of the training with the employee. (measurements against the expectations are discussed) Other pre-training actions that should occur include: provide all of the necessary information and resources to the learner in an easy and effective manner; make the access to the training easy whether in the classroom or online (registration, email notices and updates, Help Desk for trouble shooting, etc.). PUTTING SOME MAGIC IN TRAINING The middle component for improved performance is the actual training itself. Training that fully engages the learner and lends itself to the highest levels of performance follow the STING recipe. S – Ensure that the training design maximizes the use of the learner’s senses. T – Don’t be afraid to have the training touch the learner emotionally. I – Provide reasons for the learner’s intrinsic values to learn. N – Insist that the training design increase the number of neuron pathways in the learner’s brain through interactions, critical thinking, decision making, recall and job related application. G – Demonstrate the value of the employee to the company by investing in great courses not just good courses. The last item, the “G” of STING relates to the issue of learning investment. How much investment will a company provide to various training initiatives? For many, the answer is as little as possible. As a result, training reflects the attitude that it is a required cost of doing business rather than an investment in performance.
- 5. Illustration from “Learning and the Brain” Conference, June, 2010, Washington, D.C. The above illustration mirrors the level of investment in training and the resulting level of retention of the content. Low investment courses that depend upon a lecture or reading environment, whether in the classroom or in a web seminar, provides 10% or less learner retention rates of the training. Low performance on the job tracks with the design approach of the training that is dictated by the low investment in the training. A higher investment in training allows for improved designs that include case scenarios, discussion and decision making, demonstration, and teaching others what you yourself have learned. These better designed training courses provide for upwards of 90% retention rates of the content when back on the job, thereby increasing performance. WHAT NEXT: AFTER THE TRAINING What surprised many people in the ASTD study previously mentioned was the high rate of value (57%) that the survey respondents placed upon the follow-up to the training. This aspect of the training is often overlooked by many corporate training departments.
- 6. For further information on this topic and other relevant learning topics, please contact the author, Dave Goodman at: SoftAssist, Inc. 700 American Avenue Suite 205 King of Prussia, PA 19406 www.softassist.com 610.265.8484 Ext. 14