Hey Trainers! Stop Contradicting Yourselves! Part 1

October 12, 2011 — by Ed Francis

After years of being a training professional, advocating for training professionals, and working with them as a consultant, there were two recent situations that caused me to finally snap (for those who know me, this is no easy feat). Let me give you some background first…

I often peruse the message boards on training-related websites, and I’ve noticed an obvious theme that we’re all probably familiar with: Trainers and educators want to be acknowledged as valuable to an organization. This isn’t a profound revelation; after all, who doesn’t want to be considered valuable? In general, trainers and educators are passionate about their work and the difference they make to employees’ and students’ lives.

While caring is essential, it is not what makes trainers and educators valuable…what makes us valuable are the results we create for our company or educational institution. Again, this isn’t a profound statement, but how often do trainers’ actions run counter to their organization’s value proposition? The answer is…all the time! Too often, we create training we KNOW won’t add business value, that WON’T be used by our audience, and serves only to FULFILL a request made of us. We shoot ourselves in the foot every time we don’t challenge the BUSINESS value of a training program or when we ignore desired outcomes in favor of learning objectives, and then we turn to the message boards and complain that we don’t have a seat at the strategy table.

I have more, but I should probably calm down first…check back next week for what caused me to snap. But in the meantime, feel free to tell me if you agree or disagree!

Comments

shenna johnson says:

October 12, 2011 11:25 pm

AMEN! Nothing frustrates me more than the people who deliver blindly on a request. Or even worse…complete as requested knowing full well that it’s not the RIGHT way to deliver a solution that directly addresses the business objective OR the business problem (not necessarily the same, and we often have to push hard to get to the root problem). Granted, there’s always a justifiable reason…timeline too short, SMEs not providing content/feedback, too far outside of the box/stakeholder comfort zone…we’ve all been there. And I understand full well the danger of going out of scope and blahblahblah. At the end of the day though, checking a training request off the list as a completed deliverable does not equate to being valuable, relevant, or impacting business value.

I often find myself in the awkward position of challenging a stakeholder request or the proposed solution (even when I’m the one that proposed it)…and it is HARD to find that balance of satisfying our stakeholders and making sure the solution actually has business relevance and empowers our learners. And when I question myself on “should I really challenge the team to think harder, get to what I know fundamentally will be more effective…or should I let this one go and pick a different battle…we have enough constraints to begin with…?”

Should I let learners sit through 6 hours of e-learning in an instructor-led session simply because it covers the content and there’s no easy way to practice in the system? It’s all there. Probably missing out on some major benefits of face-to-face training…but…it’s what they asked for…it would work…

It usually boils down to a simpler question. Do I go with what is easy and in front of me? Or do I challenge it and figure out the right way?

Forget easy. Do it right. Or wtf is the point?!

(clearly, “forget easy” is not the phrase i use…nor is it as impactful as i would like…but it makes the point.)
Wozniak says:

October 18, 2011 11:49 am

Yes, indeed.

It’s difficult to get clients to see the information from the perspective of: (1) what’s necessary to know immediately and (2) what information do learners simply need to know HOW to find later?

Often times, it seems to me we’re invited into the process at a point that an approach has already been decided upon (perhaps based on what they used to do, budget, etc.) and it’s too late to switch tracks.
Nettie Nitzberg says:

October 19, 2011 6:21 am

Ed – really good points. As trainers/training experts we really need to use our expertise and direct our clients as to what is right for them and their business, not just doing training for the “sake” of training. A band aid approach never helps the organization and in the end, nor the participants. Like Shenna said – “Do I go with what is easy and in front of me? Or do I challenge it and figure out the right way? ” Do I go with what is easy and in front of me? Or do I challenge it and figure out the right way?” – the right way is the WAY TO GO!

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