Transfer This – Before You Purchase Training that makes No Difference

Would you transfer funds from your account into an asset that does not enable you to measure its contribution to your business? That is effectively what you are doing when you send an employee on a training course without giving any thought to what you expect from your investment following the event.

In the training and development industry there are players  who will take advantage of customers who are not educated in the identification of need and the transfer and application of training back into the work. These purchasers of training are easy prey for many training providers because they effectively ignore the responsibility upon themselves and the trainer for  addressing the real  issues impacting  business and individual performance.

The consequence is that the trainer designs something generic that is inappropriate  and fails to consider the learners needs and the organisations development requirements. The learner becomes confused and cannot make the connection between what is being delivered and its relevance to the job role. People only develop competence only after they recognise the relevance of their own incompetence in the skill concerned.

Whoever purchased the training slowly reinforces the reputation shared by managers in the business that training and development is making little difference to business or personal performance.

Many customers assume that a training and development intervention will automatically lead to a change in employee/team behaviour or performance, and therefore take no responsibility  to take initiative to ensure that happens. You might as well make a fire and throw your training budget onto it as commission a training event that makes no measurable difference.

So, why focus on transfer?

1. To ensure a return on your investment which can be measured in terms of business benefit
   
2. To encourage and empower learners to apply the learning
3. To ensure accountability for implementation

Who can contribute To encouraging learning transfer?

Three groups of people influence the transfer of learning process at three distinct timescales:

Before Training Management Interventions

The Manager plays a vital role in clarifying expectations with  an employee by agreeing outcomes prior to the training.  Without the perception by the trainee of the need for new behaviours, there is no motivation to change and, therefore, no readiness to learn. An Epic Failure! Managers who reinforce the new or changed performance expectations prior to a training event enable participants who are ready to learn when the training program is offered and who are able to articulate their learning needs during the event.

Before Training – Involve The Trainer

There are many benefits to involving the trainer prior to the training event. Research clearly demonstrates pre-exposure to learning through an intervention designed to reach out to learners prior to the training can significantly accelerate the likelihood of learning.

Trainee readiness can be developed via a number of methods designed to generate curiosity and interest in advance of the training session. Techniques include attractively packaged pre-course materials distributed before the start of the program including  descriptions of how the program fits into the mission of the organization, how and why the training impacts their role. Examples of prerequisites prior to training include: pre course competitions, quizzes or simple self-assessment exercises that allow trainees to score themselves and identify areas for potential development

These activities help to introduce key concepts which  generate interest and enthusiasm, and connect the content to the employee’s expected  future contribution to the organisation; this ensures the training has meaning for the employee. Involving the trainer at this stage almost certainly contributes to ensuring the design of the training  is practical, targeted at developing the competencies required by the business and relevant to individual development needs.

During the Training

Goal setting is a powerful motivational tool. Trainees can build goal setting into their learning strategy by committing themselves to sit down for a few moments at the end of the session to answer the questions what will I do with what I have learned,  how can my manager support me? What can I do more of, less of, what do I need to do differently, and what performance improvements/goals can I identify that would tell me I was doing things better?

Transfer of learning occurs when learning in one context with one set of materials impacts on performance in another context or with other related material

Following the Training

Managers, team leaders and supervisors can make a valuable contribution to ensuring learning transfer following the training event by providing on the job reinforcement and opportunity to support and encourage trainees to apply training. Simple steps include removing interference in the immediate environment, to ensure that employees are able to practice their skills without encountering obstacles (real or imagined) in their way. One to one discussions help to identify opportunity to apply and further develop new skills.

I frequently work for providers of public training programmes, whose sales personnel make little attempt to understand their client’s business and what drives business strategy, consequently with little information to inform the design of training, the output is a generic programme which fails to meet the specific needs of the attendees and only a very experienced training consultant can address the spontaneous needs of a diverse group of learners on the spur of the moment and in situ.

Generic “off the shelf” training which has not been designed to address a specific purpose impacting people in an organisation or develop specific competencies may increase an individual’s knowledge, but may not influence them or motivate them to apply the knowledge therefore making no difference!

Understanding real world issues such as the context and culture in which the new skills will be transferred before designing a development solution is the most important preparation a trainer can do. An organisation spending considerable money on training should ensure that the trainer is aware of the issues the training must address and the potential to apply the new skills and knowledge.

Find the best fit

It is essential to research the most appropriate methods to develop the skills that are critical to improving your situation; we can acquire learning in a variety of ways job-shadowing, coaching and mentoring, these methods are often under-used because organisations do not recognise their value to the learning transfer process. . Sadly, those clients who ask for specifics about  how training and learning will impact on their organisations performance and how they might support this process are rare.perhaps their staff would benefit from our consultancy skills for training and development professionals programme to ensure that the training they commission is aligned to the needs of the organisation

If you want to ensure return on your investment as a result of your training activity take a look at some of our sample outlines and our clients comments on Http://www.spectrain.co.uk

Training Tips – Are doodlers distracted?

I am a doodler! There….I said it!

I can’t help but doodle, it’s not that I am bored, I am listening to you my doodling is helping me to pay attention, and if you look at my doodles you may notice some association that is linked to what you are saying.

 Misunderstood!

I am aware that teachers and trainers misinterpret my doodling as failing to pay attention. I have scars ingrained on my memory where you have verbally humiliated me in the classroom and I know you wonder how I dodged the board dusters your threw at me….perhaps you fail to realise that when I doodle I am present and I am focused.

Of course you never once looked at my doodles and simply wrote me off as having the attention span of a flea, you failed to engage with me and I am determined to avoid that mistake with my students.

 Behaviour that is Focused on Learning

Identifying behaviour that is focused on learning is a key skill for trainers, I guarantee that every student in your classroom has a smart phone, and devices like the iPad are becoming common. Consequently these devices have changed our learner’s mental reflexes and habits, the way they learn and absorb information.  These devices allow for increased sharing of information, and this can be a benefit to instructors if only you set ground rules for their use and you recognise that what is going on “outside” can be deceiving a learner who is focusing on their iPad may not have eye contact with you but please don’t misinterpret that as failing to pay attention.

Research has shown that doodling actually helps learning!! Individuals may not look like they are paying attention but science says otherwise. In research published in Applied Cognitive Psychology test subjects who doodled while listening to recorded messages had a 29% better recall than those who didn’t.

Various articles on associative memory state that doodling can boost retention up to 50% for immediate recall. In other articles there is information that doodling actually helps the learner attend to discussions by enhancing recall invigorating multiple neural pathways. (A message to all those teachers who wrote me off – SEE I TOLD YOU! You were scientifically wrong.) Time Magazine quotes a study that defines the benefits of doodling very simply. It prevents daydreaming. Daydreaming tends to trigger the brain to recruit other networks that shift your attention to other things so you cannot focus on the tasks at hand. Doodling does just the opposite; it keeps the motor running so the brain can focus

Encouraging Doodling

I was recently reminded of how we can easily misinterpret our student’s intentions when during a recent training course, Mohammed arrived with his IPad…Mohammed had just finished a nightshift. The environment would have challenged most trainers, and learners, on day one nine learners arrived who had been “Sent” on an advanced presentation skills course a topic not remotely linked to their job roles, the temperature averaging at 50 degrees and the usual comings and goings of people arriving late or finding themselves in the wrong classroom. Mohammed could have been forgiven if he had gone into a coma under the circumstances, never mind a daydream! But he did neither; during the parts of the course where I was talking, he quietly doodled.

I could see him out of the corner of my eye, completing tasks when required and then back to the doodle, imagine if I had misinterpreted this behaviour as failing to pay attention……I would have never have seen THIS amazing doodle!

Paying attention in the classroom no longer means sitting up straight – eyes focused on your work or on the trainer, and if you are a trainer who is upset by doodling i suggest you get over it! Rather than a distraction, doodling can assist in triggering many major routes for us to store information into long-term memory because doodling enables a connection between the conscious and unconscious and that is where we learn.

 Doodle by Mohammed Sadeq Booalyan

Learning from Dire Ear and the Mad Hatter

Here at Spectrain we receive requests for a variety of customised materials, related to training, development. We also produce presentations for corporate events, and individuals who are pitching for sales. Recently we were recommended to an individual who had reached the final stage of a recruitment process for the role of learning and development manager. He was required to deliver an interactive presentation, the brief:

What can we learn from the story of Alice in Wonderland that is applicable to Learning & Development

Very much like Alice I went off on a journey of research and discovery and learnt some interesting lessons to fulfil the requirements of the brief and produce the presentation.

Alice & the Mad Hatter

Learning & Constructing Meaning

“Grown-ups tell us to find out what we did wrong, and never do it again”

If, during our training courses learners simply remembered and acted upon what they were told, they would not make mistakes, they would either remember or not but would they understand? To develop understanding trainers encourage learners to experiment, explore and make mistakes and during this process learners form their own meaning, interpretation linked to what they already know. They construct or make meaning and because it is constructed by them it is likely to be owned and retained. It is their way of making sense of the material!

However the process of making meaning can go horribly wrong and it is the trainer’s job to detect misconceptions and errors in learning and correct these. Clearly this did not happen for the learners who wrote the following in exam papers:

• Diarrhoea is ear ache “dire ear”.
• History calls them Roamans because they never stayed in one place for very long
• Name a food suitable for pickling: a branston
• Large animals are found in the sea because there is no-where else to put them
• Beethoven expired in 1827, and died later

Finding out and correcting what went wrong is a valuable part of the learning process!

Nothing Succeeds Like Failure:

Mad Hatter: We only go around in circles in Wonderland, but we always end up where we started. Would you mind explaining yourself? Why should you want to become better at something and then never do it again?

There are many trainers that produce mad hatters, they fail to incorporate training and learning strategies that require students to apply, use, or process information and therefore create meaning.  Use questions that require learners to construct their own meaning of the content including:

•  Analysis: questions: ‘why’
• Synthesis questions: ‘how’ what if….
• Evaluation questions: judgement

Simply presenting information is not enough, checking understanding activity is essential to prevent learners going round in circles and ending up where they started.

Mad Hatter: Why should you want to become better at something and then never do it again?

Good trainers aim to develop specific competencies and through practice, application and feedback during the training we generate the confidence to go and apply those skills or use that knowledge back at work, where, if learning transfer isn’t encouraged then the learning disappears into a black hole, along with the budget that funded the learning.

You’re quite right, Mr. Hatter – Why should you want to become better at something and then never do it again?

Because then we would all be as mad as a hatter

Interested in training that delivers specific competencies? Visit our site at Http://www.spectrain.co.uk or call us, we are designing new materials constantly and will probably have just what you need!

Nationalization Succession Strategies

Nationalization  policies are an attempt by governments to increase utilization of nationals and reduce reliance on expatriate labour. Whether, Yemenization, Qatarization, or Kuwaitization, all have one thing in common – a quota-based approach to increasing the number of nationals in employment  while reducing the reliance on foreign labour.

Expatriate Exodus

Economic growth in the Arab region over the past decade has exposed a deficiency in the supply of qualified national labour and inadequate approaches to human resource development which necessitates a heavy reliance on the recruitment of expatriates.

The rising unemployment rates amongst nationals and the need to increase the human capital contribution of the national workforce encouraged many Arab governments to embark on labour nationalization policies

Nationals benefitted from job security and large scale layoffs of nationals was never envisaged. In fact organisations juggled with tough nationalization targets and high attrition rates among nationals and therefore retention of nationals was a greater concern.

After years of incredible growth, few could have foreseen the financial crisis that was to hit the Gulf region in 2009. With the business community accustomed to making plans for expansion, the suddenness of the downturn took many by surprise. As oil prices collapsed banks stopped lending, companies across the region found themselves amending business plans and replace growth programs with cost-cutting initiatives and this meant downsizing.

While reluctant to replace expatriate workers with nationals, organisations were forced to comply with the nationalization policies of the region which prevented them from terminating the employment of nationals, except for gross misconduct.

Organisations had little choice but to cut expatriate expertise and with Arab ministries in dogged pursuit of nationalization quotas it became increasingly difficult to obtain visas secure expatriate expertise.

Competency Based Approach to Succession and  Nationalization

The requirement for key competencies shifts during the cycle of a project. The construction phase offers peak employment opportunities for national employees when this phase is completed the organisation demands a competent technically trained workforce to ensure sustainability of the operation.   

Succession planning requires identification of the competencies needed to run the business. As an expatriate expert I am well aware of my responsibility to transfer skills and knowledge that develop host country nationals, and acutely aware of the demographic trends, skill shortages and educational deficiencies that drive nationalization policies, however, this requirement has never been formally communicated to me.

A planned approach to workforce development structures the expectations of all involved, the development of a competent workforce requires both formal structured on the job training and the ability to identify the opportunity to maximize the transfer of that learning during informal interactions as opportunity presents on a daily basis. It is critical that contractors are aware of their responsibility to develop the specific competencies of their national colleagues whether the duration of their employment is limited to the construction phase or expected to contribute to the future of the operation, in both situations that individual is developing transferrable skills. The quota approach to nationalization has encouraged an either/or situation of quota versus quality and often forces the private sector into hiring and developing unsuitable individuals just to meet a target. The provision of a measurable succession and development plan indicating the competency requirements of each role and the provision for developing that competence is essential to ensuring the success of nationalization initiatives.

Read about competency framework development here: http://www.spectrain.co.uk/Managing-Performance

Our Knowledge Pipeline is Leaking!

Knowledge loss is a problem which involves the complete employment lifecycle. From recruitment to retention through to retirement. As employees in organizations progress they acquire knowledge that is customized to the operation, structure and culture of that organisation, they also acquire insights and understanding of unique characteristics about the company that is gathered over time and learning from that knowledge is difficult to replicate or replace when employees transfer or retire from their positions.

Companies may be unaware of the impact of lost knowledge until the damage is done

During the last quarter of 2009 I was building a competency framework for an organisation in the oil and gas sector, they were situated in a fairly remote location. The organisation was experiencing a rigorous commissioning process and therefore a demand for engineers with a variety of skill sets.  Attracting and retaining talent was presenting difficulties for various reasons, and then the recession coupled with the rising cost of air travel resulted in a decision to reduce numbers, chaos reigned as project managers were informed of the decision and the schedulers worked out new rotations, it became apparent that  those who were departing possessed a store of valuable knowledge.

Coincidently, the issue of knowledge transfer was one of the competency areas that the organisation had identified as essential to its responsibilities to develop others as part of its nationalisation programme.  I had been asked to include a competency set dedicated to this area and had already incorporated it into the performance appraisal  and recruitment documentation as a core competency. At the time I had raised concerns about the lack of methods for ensuring knowledge transfer – all in good time was the answer.

Knowledge Sharing Strategies – Now Might be A Good Time!

By default we had reached that time where it was imperative to focus upon strategies for ensuring essential knowledge was captured but before we could formulate a long term strategy we needed to plan immediate action since the first batch of employees due to leave the company at the end of their rotations in approximately 6 weeks our focus was upon capturing their knowledge and that involved:

• Defining “Knowledge” and separating that from “information” – All knowledge is based on information but all information does constitute knowledge. Information without context is raw data, and we were keep to avoid creating a data dump
• Identifying those individuals who had no buddies, backups, or replacements
• Identifying the at risk knowledge amongst all individuals who were departing the company
• Separating explicit knowledge from tacit knowledge
• Deciding what knowledge could be documented
• Identifying potential knowledge that could only be transferred through face to face interactions.

I’m Not Sharing !

As Francis Bacon said, ‘Knowledge is Power’ so it came as no surprise when some of those contractors who were departing used their knowledge as leverage to try to buy more time and extend their contracts.  An additional problem was presented when identifying knowledge and experience amongst those in specialist roles who often could not describe their deep tacit knowledge. Furthermore we often failed to understand the significance or value of the knowledge that was shared. Many failed to realise how useful particular knowledge may be to others.

Time was an issue, and the increasing pressure of productivity, and deadlines on those who were leaving meant they were in demand and not easily accessible the more knowledgeable you are, the more people waiting to make use of that expertise.

Knowledge is an intangible asset & needs to be managed in order to maximise its value

We are hopelessly unsophisticated in our approaches to knowledge management for some the definition of Knowledge management is limited to the belief that they are managing knowledge if they get the right information to the right desktop at the right time and they spend a fortune on acquiring the systems to do that. We assume naïvely that everybody will share knowledge willingly once they understand what the corporate plot is. We forget that individuals have their own agendas and unique aspirations and they will also use knowledge to drive themselves towards success.

Knowledge management mitigates the risks associated with attrition.

When an employee walks out the door for the last time, they take the majority of their knowledge and all of their experience with them. Attrition is a major cause of “brain drain” within organisations

 This is specifically true for companies that …

• Take employees to the door as soon as they announce their resignation
• Allow employees complete their ” notice” without specific plans to record or share what they know
•  Offer early retirement to workers who have reached a specific plateau
•  Terminate employees quickly due to poor performance, or restructuring.

 If you don’t ask your employees to record what they know, when they leave only a small percentage if any of their knowledge will stay behind. Attempting to capture an individual’s knowledge as they work through a period of notice is a fatally flawed strategy because the incentive to share is decreased; and the departing employee is busy throughout their final days.

In the oil and gas industry where contractors are hired because of their specific knowledge and expertise consulting/contractor agreements should clearly define responsibility and methods for sharing knowledge. Consulting agreements that leave little or no time for knowledge transfer leave companies in a bind when the assignment ends.

Perhaps you need to address the leak in your knowledge pipeline!

if you enjoyed this post you may also appreciate our post about Nationalization Strategies: http://spectrain.wordpress.com/2011/03/05/nationalization-succession-strategies/

Further reading here at  Hypergogue :http://hypergogue.net/2010/11/08/crooked-spires/