Comments on: When training is not the solution and chips are cakes.

By: Dave Ferguson

Dave Ferguson — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:29:19 +0000

The dark side of this situation is that many managers — and not only the ones one level above where the alleged problem occurs — want training as ritual. Hopping onto your metaphor, their mental model is, “Someone must be hungry. Give ‘em some Pringles.”

Learning is much messier than training. Most managers aren’t eager for mess. Alistair’s approach — working collaboratively with business units to help them make the best use of their resources (including time) — is an essential part of changing that mindset.

Depending on the relationship, you can try cooperative candor. “Look, we can create a one-day session on ‘good customer service.’ What do you see as the difference in what people do afterward?”

When the reply starts with, “Well, they understand…,” you know how to follow up. Not with training jargon about behavioral objectives, but something like “What do they do differently? What do they say? How do they act?”

Which could lead to exploring whether the people do know how to act — or whether the group as a whole does. Maybe there’s an opportunity to find out how the workers see good customer service, even get front-line ideas of what good service looks like, even pull in comments from actual (or, alas, former) customers…

Messy, but if you can adopt the viewpoint of the stakeholders, it’s a lot easier to convince them you want to work on real problems that matter to them.

By: Janet Clarey

Janet Clarey — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:03:21 +0000

Abso-freakin-lutely Deb. Rather than ‘deer in the headlights’ I always thought ‘the look’ was “who the heck do you think you are?” Think ‘I AM TRAINING GODDESS!’ and you’re sure to ask all those questions with a smile.

By: Deb Buckingham

Deb Buckingham — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:54:28 +0000

You’re so right Janet. I frequently get the generic, “We need training” request when actually it’s not training that is needed at all. I usually get the old “deer in the headlights” look when I ask the questions you mention, but I find that by asking questions, it really does help get at the “need”. In the end it saves time and money and I believe employees appreciate not being sent through training they don’t need.

By: Janet Clarey

Janet Clarey — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:41:19 +0000

Karen! I miss you! Thanks for the comment.

It’s tough (and exhausting) to ask the questions up front. And, I think people aren’t used to it and sometimes get defensive. It’s really about retraining a “training” culture to become a “learning” culture; elevating yourself to a collaborative problem-solver vs. an order-taker. I think that’s how we’ll get repeat business in training.

By: Karen

Karen — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:27:41 +0000

Janet, Thanks for the reminder. It’s easy to slip back into being order takers rather than asking the right questions up front.
(love and miss your sense of humor!)

By: Karyn Romeis

Karyn Romeis — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:01:37 +0000

In the UK, Pringles were recently categorised as 'crisps', but not 'potato crisps' because they contain less than 45% potato. So they are exempt from VAT. Weird! Karyn Romeiss last blog post..What do you want them to DO?

By: Janet Clarey

Janet Clarey — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:22:56 +0000

Thanks for your comments Alistair. Having a process in place is a great plan to address this ongoing problem. It’s hard to ask the tough questions – especially when the culture does not traditionally view training as a service (vs. provider).

This is for you…

By: Alistair Robertson

Alistair Robertson — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:19:40 +0000

Oh…and I like Pringles.

By: Alistair Robertson

Alistair Robertson — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:18:39 +0000

Hey Janet,

Nice! That’s exactly the battle that we’re fighting here.
Our Corporate Training group doesn’t own the content – we give expert advice to various groups.
What we’ve done is give BUs and content developers a process with an Assessment Phase and Analysis Phase. This allows us to divert ‘training’ to non-training solutions (process change, individual performance, effective tools and support, etc.) before the BUs put in too much work. In the Assessment we get them to ask the hard questions. In the long run, it saves time and resources and allows us to concentrate on making the existing or new training more effective.