Just In Time Training Has Run Out of Time

Many organizations today are facing a skills shortage. They simply cannot find people with the appropriate skills to run their businesses. As a result, they are forced to hire those that they can and then apply skills-training to make them a worthwhile hire for the organization.

This process can be thought of as a just-in-time skills training program in which the training isn't applied until it is needed (although in 2015 / 2016, skills training is in constant demand).The future-cast for this lack of prepared workers is that in another 10-15 years, the crisis will be a lack of prepared leaders.

In order to prevent businesses (all of society, really!) from bouncing from crisis to crisis like a ball in a pin-ball machine, it's time to address the root cause. It's not that younger generations have suddenly lost entry-level skills - it's a result of never having learned those skills to begin with. You cannot be expected to perform something you never learned to do.

What training professionals can do today to mitigate the current skills deficiency, as well as to thwart the void of leadership in 2025 and beyond, is to rethink the idea of just-in-time training. Rather than applying skills-only-training at the time of need, develop a broader approach to preparing all individuals in the organization by teaching thinking skills.

Is it possible the mortgage meltdown could have been avoided if thoughtful people had contemplated "what could go wrong with giving people 100% financing?" in addition to knowing how to fill out a mortgage application? We think so.

Is it possible that the automobile manufacturers would not have needed a bail out if some thought had been given to the "downside" of leases (massive churning of new cars) rather than simply teaching selling skills? We think so.

It's relatively easy to overlay thinking skills on top of job-specific training. For instance, when teaching how to prepare financial reports, a discussion can be had around the topics of ethics and erroneous reporting (intentional or not), and the ramifications to the organization of inaccurate financial reports (underestimating income, miscalculating forecast, personnel balancing). When teaching business writing, there might be a research project associated with the implications of having a paper-trail or the importance of choosing words that are unambiguous.

It is important to teach not only "how to," but "what if." Asking learners to think deeper and wider about the skills they are learning will help them to contribute more to the organization now and in the future.

Reading for Fun - and Comprehension

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Do you prefer reading from a printed page or a digital screen? Do you comprehend more when reading from paper than from a screen (or vice versa)? Does your age play a role in your preference? What about your attitude? These are all questions which have been studied in the last 20 years or so - in other words - in the "digital age." While definitive results elude us, here are some of the more common findings:

• People approach computers and tablets with a state of mind less conducive to learning than they approach reading from paper

• E-readers prevent people from navigating long texts in an intuitive and satisfying way

• People report that when they are trying to locate a particular piece of information, they can recall where it appears in a text - not so with digital displays of the same content

• These navigation difficulties subtly inhibit reading comprehension

• Reading digitally leads to more difficulty in comprehension because it is more physically and mentally taxing

• When reading from a screen, people spend more time browsing, scanning and hunting for key words

• When people really like an e-book they go out and buy the paper version! According to research by Microsoft, people see e-books as something to use, but not own

Makes you re-think the delivery modality of your training materials, no? Learn more about the research in this area by reading this Scientific American article (on line, of course).

What is the Business Goal for this Training?

It is surprising how much training exists that doesn't have a real connection to the goals of the business. Perhaps these are legacy courses left over from a time when there was a need and organizations are still offering them. But these days you want to ensure that any training that you are asked to develop anew has a clear business goal.

In discussions with the business process owner who is requesting the training, be sure that they can articulate what the expected business outcomes are for the training. Not only does this assure you that they have truly thought through the need for the training that they are requesting, but it also establishes an ROI point for you (which is something else that is seldom targeted in training design).

If a sales manager requests training in negotiations or cross-selling - you can be relatively sure that there is a business outcome expected from that training. If a sales manager instead asks for team building or training on a particular software - dig a little deeper to find out what they believe that training would accomplish for the business / their business unit.

If an operations manager for a manufacturing facility asks for a course in quality control or machine calibration - there is probably a link to the output of that department. If, however s/he asks for forklift safety you may want to investigate how that will positively benefit the department and its deliverables to the organization.

Not only will asking "How does this training link to the business goals of the company / department?" save you time and money by not developing courses that have no real relevance for the business, but you'll be seen as a thoughtful contributor to the business overall rather than an order-taker of training requests.

Train People BEFORE You Hire Them

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Latin America and the Caribbean will need about 1.2 million software developers within the next decade, according to growth projections, and yet "official educational institutions" only graduate 1000 coders a year. What to do?

How about starting a training division to train people you'll need in the future? A start-up in Lima Peru did just that. Called Laboratoria, the company began training coders because it could not find qualified personnel for its growing web design business. Last year 1,200 people applied; the company trained and graduated 150. This year they hope to graduate 300 .The training is 9-5 daily, over 5 months. Training is free and 60% of graduates landed entry level jobs upon graduation. (Although Laboriatoria was created from one company's need, graduates are not obligated to go to work for the parent company; what they ARE obligated to do is give back 10% of their earnings for the first three years following graduation, to help continue to fund the free training for others.)

Similarly, Code Camp was started in Charleston, SC because of the growing "Silicon Harbor" of technology companies in the area. Two such company owners grew frustrated with not being able to find the right talent and decided to "grow their own." Classes are now offered Saturdays and in the evenings so working professionals can get the training they need to change or further their careers. There is even a 4-session Kids Camp for kids aged 10 - 14 years - why not get them in the pipeline early?

The next time your Talent or HR department is lamenting the lack of qualified candidates - consider growing your own!

Visuals Enhance Learning

"Pictures are understood on many levels. The most literal level is what the picture depicts. When you see a line drawing of an airplane, you recognize the shape and features of the object and identify it as an airplane.

“On another level, the context of the picture provides meaning. The same picture of an airplane on a freeway sign means that an upcoming exit will take you to the airport. This is a different context than a photograph of an airplane you may see in an airline advertisement, which suggests that is is persuasive rather than an informational purpose.

“Understanding the meaning of the picture depends on the context of where the picture exists. Another level of meaning is based on the style of the graphic. This is expressed in many ways, such as through symbols, spatial layout, and accepted conventions. For example, certain attributes of an illustration indicate when a drawing is an architectural blueprint and when it is a scientific illustration.

“There are also metaphoric meanings in some graphic. Metaphors convey meaning beyond a simple depiction and provide another layer of meaning."

Excerpted from Connie Malamed's Visual Design Solutions - a fantastic text for understanding the power of using visuals in learning.

Teaching Thinking Through Self Assessments and Inventories

Thinking

We all learned Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and the fact that the pinnacle is self actualization - but what does that actually mean?

Self actualization: the realization or fulfillment of one's talents and potentialities...

Unfortunately most people don't reach the pinnacle of self actualization because they have not been taught a way to achieve it. Using self assessments such as Gregorc, Myers-Briggs or Glenn Parker's Teams and Team Players, can greatly assist individuals in thinking introspectively.

Myers-Briggs helps you realize that not everyone sees the world the same as you or reacts to things in the same way as you do. It helps one to contemplate whether there are alternate forms of response to certain situations. It also helps in understanding that a response which is different from yours is not in any way incorrect.

The Gregorc inventory helps an individual understand their working style preference which can assist in playing to one's strengths as well as helping an individual understand reasons why they might be getting stuck. For instance, an individual who is concrete-sequential may be an excellent worker but may appear as though they cannot manage multiple priorities due to their need for completion of activities in sequence.

Sparking an individual's ability to think introspectively, to appreciate their strengths and weaknesses - as well as others, enables individuals to think in a more broad manner about their actions and those that they work with in order to achieve the best workplace outcomes. Understanding and appreciating that we are not working at odds but rather have complimentary skills is a huge breakthrough in thinking for many individuals.

Is Your Organization Playing a Role in Employee's Poor Performance?

Stressed Out And In Pain

Very often, poor performers are the "victims" of organizational factors which they are forced to cope with in some way. At first glance it appears that employee performance is poor, but in reality, they are doing their best to be successful.

Organizational factors can present themselves in many ways, such as new management or revolving door management which results in frequently changing expectations; an impending layoff or merger which can spur individuals to take their eye off their current responsibilities in order to look toward their future employment; or a completed merger which contributes to folk's not knowing their role anymore.

Other organizational stressors can be found in global organizations which have to "translate" communications, operating procedures, and goals across time zones and functions. Even centralized or decentralized training can impact successful performance on the job.

Example: A charitable organization created its own CRM in-house and transitioned away from the commercial product they had previous used (which provided training and support). After going-live with their home-grown system, the programmers stayed in the call center area for one week to provide training and answer questions. At the end of that one week the programmers - who had all been contractors - were let go. In six month's time no one was using the software correctly, records were incomplete and erroneous, and both donors and managers were irate.

When the organization sought training help, the request came in the form of "they need training. They need to know how to use the software the way it is intended to be used and not the way they are using it now," (through trail and error, work-arounds, and best guesses).

Despite the organizational factors working against them, the workers did a fantastic job of completing their jobs with a limited amount of knowledge, training and skill. This was a company that did not understand the importance of documentation, training or support.

Before fulfilling a training request, step back and consider what organizational factors might be playing a role. Very often the workers are doing the best that they can given the circumstances under which they have to perform.

When Millenials Take Over: An Interview with Maddie Grant

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What compelled you to write this book?

My co-author Jamie Notter and I have been writing and speaking for many years about how social media has been changing how we lead and manage our organizations, not just how we communicate and market to customers - which led to our 2011 book, Humanize: How People-Centric Organizations Succeed in a Social World.

In that book, we spelled out how this was happening - social media pushing organizations to become more decentralized, more authentic, more trustworthy, more collaborative, more generative... And four years later, in 2015, we started to see how the advent of the Millennial generation entering the workforce was going to be a HUGE catalyst for these changes. The oldest Millennials are in their early 30s and are starting to fill management roles - and when that happens, they will not wait around to change organizations in ways that make more sense to them, having grown up in a digital world.

So our new book, When Millennials Take Over, helps companies understand this huge generation--which will be the dominant generation in the workforce for decades to come--and the impact it will have. We specifically explain this disruption in ways that are positive and forward thinking, to combat the current misguided discourse of complaining and negativity around the Millennial generation. 

If you could distill your message down to just one - what would it be?

All generations need to understand each other better and work together to bring our traditional organizations into today's reality, in order to be more successful in the future. 

How can business use this book to assist them in the work that they do?

The book is designed for executives at all levels to better understand Millennials and how to attract, retain and learn from them. The four main chapters are divided into four big themes - Digital, Clear, Fluid and Fast, explains why Millennials care about these capacities, and shows examples of how to build these capacities for your company.

Many of the specific examples in the book lead directly to HR processes and structures - recruitment, onboarding, performance management, and of course anything related to culture are things that can hugely impact the success of an organization and we believe HR has a much bigger and more strategic role to play than we are seeing currently. There are huge opportunities here and the book points to many ways to start. 

Do you have a personal motto that you live by?

Our motto is "proceed until apprehended", coined by Florence Nightingale. The secret about our book is that it was EASY to find many examples of companies doing amazing things - because there are actually many companies experimenting with different ways of working, which are NOT "how we've always done it." We are asked by hundreds of people at middle or lower levels of organizations how they might get started changing things, and we always say just try experiments and show small successes. Nobody can argue with data that shows that small experiments are working.

The more of us that try new things, the more data we can show that proves that positive change is needed--and working.

Maddie Grant, Founding Partner, WorkXOmgrant@workxo.comwww.workxo.com @maddiegrant

The Disconnect Between Training and Thinking

In the last few decades (since the 1990's) the timbre of training has taken a distinct turn away from thinking skills (such as Why? and What if?) and toward how-to skills. This has been precipitated by the rampant growth of e-Learning, which is essentially self study, and therefore doesn't encourage people to ask questions or be introspective about what they are learning.

E-Learning also has required instructional designers to parse content down to the very basic blocks of what and how. For instance: An e-Learning class on feedback skills might present a comparison of poorly worded feedback and well-worded feedback; a list of instances when you might want to give feedback; and the protocol for corrective action for the company if the feedback is of that nature. (More on this in a moment.)

Another phenomenon which has affected thinking skills is the contraction of time that is allowed for training. We recall a client years ago who requested management development training for a large group of managers scattered across Canada. The original request was for a series of four-hour classes and about nine months and two project managers later, the time allotted for training had been whittled down to 90 minutes. The final project manager asked, "Can you really teach management skills in 90 minutes?" To which we replied "Nope!" And the project was cancelled.

When faced with a limited amount of time for a training class there is no other option but to choose only the most essential, on-the-job, skills to transmit to the audience. Thinking skills, by comparison, require time and discussion and collaboration with others.

To continue our earlier feedback example: In order to teach the thinking skills needed to give appropriate feedback, learners might read profiles of a typical employee and then decide what type of feedback should be given, how it should be phrased, and then practice giving the feedback with another learner (role play).The "manager" who had just practiced would then be given an opportunity to reflect on (and vocalize) their choices:

• How did you choose what to address?

• What did you consider when determining how to phrase the feedback?

• What were your expectations for response from the "employee?"

• What have you learned from this experience?

• Who, of your direct reports, could benefit from feedback at this time?

• Write a synopsis (similar to the profile you just used, which tells the story of the situation) and then plan the feedback conversation.

True behavioral change is rooted in changing one's thinking: So give your learners the time and opportunity to think.

Could they do *it* in the past?

Here are two questions that should be asked during a needs assessments to help ensure that you are not designing and developing training unnecessarily, and also to ensure that the training you ARE creating is appropriate for the "gap" that needs to be augmented.

Question #1: Have the learners been able to do ____ in the past?

Question #2: Have the learners had training on ____ in the past?

Let's look at why each of these questions is important to ask. 

Have they been able to do ________ in the past?

Typically, if an individual or group has been able to successfully complete a task in the past, and suddenly are not able to, it is not because they forgot how to do it. It's more likely that conditions within the work environment have changed. Look at factors such as:

• Have new metrics been put in to place? (causing people to do their work in a less thorough manner?)

• Has a new process been added which conflicts with the standard operating procedure?

• Are people incentivized to do the job differently / poorly?

For instance: In a call center environment, CSRs can be incentivized to solve a consumer's problem on the first call or they can be incentivized to complete as many calls per hours as possible. Typically, those are two competing end goals. So, if you have workers who have been able to do a process or task in the past, and suddenly they are not - the last thing you should assume is that the fault lies with the workers. 

Have they had training on this topic in the past?

If the answer to this is "yes," then the next question is: Why didn't that training stick? Or... did the company forget they had a training program already in place?

Any new skill will fritter away if it is not used. Often people go through training but then get back on the job and have to catch up on a backlog of work. In order to catch up quickly, they will resort to their "old way" of doing things. This aligns with the bullet points above - are trainees incentivized to "keep up the pace," or to do things in the "new and improved" way? If the latter, they will need time to practice and become proficient.

In other instances the newly trained individual simply isn't given the opportunity to put in to practice what they have learned. Example: One of our clients put learners through a 12-week, job-specific training program but then assigned them to a starter-job for 6 months before they were allowed to do the job they were just trained to do. It was "efficient" for the company to give people the 12-weeks of training right after they were newly hired, rather than take them off the job later on. But the newly trained individuals weren't allowed to actually put their skills in to practice until they had "paid their dues" by being on the job for 6 months or more.

It's tempting to jump right in and solve the problem - but first step back and ask "why does this problem exist?"

*Credit to Bob Mager for the basis of these questions.

Teaching Thinking Through Journaling

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Journaling is an incredibly useful technique for teaching thinking skills. It is underused in business (except for nursing) perhaps because it is often associated with emotions - which we rarely deal with in the business world. (We like to stick to facts and rules and processes.)

Journaling is a helpful thinking tool for a number of reasons:

• It causes us to reflect on what has happened, (which, again, is not something we often take time to do) and reflection often leads to introspection and insight.

• It increases vocabulary skill by forcing us to put our thoughts in to cogent words.

• It allows us to analyze a situation more objectively by writing it down, leaving it be, and then revisiting it a few days or weeks later.

• It contributes to emotional intelligence (through introspection and objectivity).

• It can allow us, as trainers, to gain insight into someone's critical thinking

If you'd like to add journaling to your curriculum, here are some questions to have your learners answer. Giving them questions helps to overcome the angst of "what do I write?" The more they become able to answer these questions, the more they will be able to expand their responses and break free of the questions.

• What happened?

• Why did this happen?

• How did _______ affect the situation? (people, policy, activity, etc.)

• How did I react to the situation?

• Was my reaction based on any assumptions?

• What new insight or knowledge have I gained?

• How will my new insight / knowledge affect my future work?

• Is this insight / knowledge / future work context specific - or are their broader implications?

Dare to Compare

Training Magazine and Wilson Learning Worldwide recently completed a survey of 544 learning practitioners, surveying how well the respondents felt the L+D department was achieving its objectives, what modes of training delivery they felt were worthwhile, and whether they were considered a strategic partner of the business or not. The summary categorized L+D organizations as "Strategic," "Emerging," or "Lagging".

Here are some of the interesting results:

Strategic L+D departments are more likely to:

• Speak about L+D as an investment rather than a cost

• Have executives involved in program launches

• Mention learning in the company's annual report

• Take an active role in reviewing L+D initiatives

On-the-job training and formal classroom training were the top 2 preferred delivery methods across all three spectrums. The least effective delivery methods were learning libraries, mobile learning, social media, MOOCs and self-paced printed manuals.

The summary of the article suggests ways that L+D departments can become more strategic. See the article here.

It is definitely worth the read - especially if you'd like your organization to become more strategic.

Interview with Author: Kassy LaBorie

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Kassy Laborie, Director, Virtual Training Services, Dale Carnegie

What motivated you to write this book? 

I have over 15 years of experience converting activities into the live online environment. I get new ideas all the time, every time I deliver an event. I didn't want to lose them or keep repeating them without the specific knowledge of how I'd done them before. I wanted to document the activities in order to archive them, grow them, and of course, share them with others!

If you could distill your message down to just one - what would it be? 

So you want to engage your online attendees? Get them to interact. To ACT. DO. THINK. Engagement is not elusive if you simply permit people to be active participants to

their 

event rather than passive "attendees" to 

yours

How can trainers use this book to assist them in the work that they do? 

Do you want to make your next online event memorable, exciting and effective? Interact and Engage! is a practical resource, full of over 50  off the shelf recipes for activities you can use right away to engage your participants like never before!

Do you have a personal motto that you live by? 

Practice learning. Practice failing. Practice succeeding! Keep practicing.

Multiple Choice Tests and the Downfall of American Education

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Here is an excerpt from a rather lengthy blog post by Alex Terego. He makes a compelling point about how an educational testing process has had the ripple effect of reducing thinking skills.

In the 1960s schools found a way to grade tests more cheaply by using what we would now consider a rather dumb electronic device. It was an optical character recognition reader. As long as the student used a #2 pencil to fill in ovals the OCR reader could collect and grade the results of a test; a task traditionally performed by the teacher, at much greater cost.

There was just one issue: the OCR could only work if tests were administered in multiple choice formats. This is because an answer to a factual question has a true/false or right/wrong -objective- answer that is universally true. So, the only way to test for retention of factual information was to create tests beginning with "which of the following multiple choices is the true one?". So, the more the curriculum was based on facts the easier it was for the OCR machine to replace the teacher, and take the drudgery of test-taking and grading out of their hands and save money.

If a question or problem needed a student to use facts as just one aspect of developing a subjective opinion, to which there is no universally accepted right or wrong answer, the OCR machine had no value. So, for the past half century, in the name of efficiency and cost-savings we have been preparing students for a personal and employee life where they will be faced with issues that are overwhelmingly about subjective opinions by teaching them how to memorize facts. We opted to teach fact-memorization, and to grade our entire instructional structure based on its results.

You can read his whole post here.

Learn about the trainee's typical day

Before you design any training program, ask the requestor to tell you about the audience's typical day and overall job responsibilities. Ideally, you would like to observe the future-trainees in their day-to-day routine so that you can get the "big picture" of the work that they do and the environment in which they do it. If that is not possible, then ask for a thorough description of the future-trainee's typical work day and job responsibilities.

Very often, with this information, you can spot work-process breakdowns that are contributing to the symptoms which precipitated the request for training. Also, you are able to redirect the training or include elements which would not have been addressed had you not had the big picture of work responsibilities.

For example: A manufacturing organization was seeking to cross-train shop-floor workers in order to offset the downtime associated with machine breakdown. Because the organization had only one maintenance person, when a machine would break down, it could take a few hours for the technician to turn his attention to that machine. The intent of the request for cross-training was to be better able to utilize the machine operators during their idle time, while they were waiting for their primary machine to be repaired.

Gaining a better understanding of their overall job responsibilities, however, highlighted the fact that most machine operators refused to complete preventative maintenance and did not follow the start-up protocol which included oiling and gauge adjustments, etc., and simply switched their equipment on.

A more strict enforcement of start-up procedures, or having the maintenance technician come in an hour earlier each day to start the machines properly, was the primary solution to the machine breakdown dilemma. Without this understanding of the worker's typical day the company may have spent tens of thousands of dollars cross training their workers in order to compensate for the down-time created by the machine breakdowns.

The ultimate solution was to minimize the downtime by following company protocol, NOT providing training.