Too often fleeting, flavor-of-the-month initiatives are supported by training that is never incorporated into the job. Does your training consist of transient transactions or is it part of a transformational transition? New skills and initiatives disappear when people don’t have time to incorporate, make use of, or benefit from one initiative before the next begins.
Training tends to be provided in one of two ways:
- As part of an initiative
- As a standard offering from Organizational Development
If the training is a standard offering, then the opportunity to learn is perhaps sufficient value. Participants are exposed to new ideas and methods, and it is up to them to decide if, when, and how to use their new knowledge. But if the training is being offered to support an initiative—a change in the way the organization does business—the knowledge acquired in the workshop must be applied in order for the organization to realize the full value of the initiative.
Transformation begins with clear thinking and an understanding of both the desired behavior change and the desired results the changed behavior should produce. In our many years providing transformational training to organizations around the world, Kepner-Tregoe (KT) has identified five key elements that indicate an organization’s readiness for change.
1. Leadership Alignment
Before undertaking any transformation, a performance gap must be quantified to establish the need for change. A critical mass of key decision-makers and thought leaders must understand the need for the new training and articulate that understanding with both words and actions. They must make learning the new skills a priority; provide people the time to attend training without distractions; identify opportunities to apply the training back on the job; and accept that initially applying the new training may take longer than the old ways. They must be able to recognize and describe the value of using the new skills. Without leadership alignment, people may not receive sufficient support to actually apply the learning back on the job and may be less motivated to dedicate the time required to adopt new methods.
2. Goals and Metrics
If your measures for successful training are limited to the number of participants who attend and their initial reaction to the workshop, Kirkpatrick Level 1, then you are measuring a transaction. Some organizations supplement this assessment with a Level 2 assessment, how much was learned, but we are still measuring a transaction. Transformation begins when learners begin to change their behavior on the job and produces value when there is a change in results. To encourage people to change, we need to show them the value. There should be metrics, based on the performance gap, to measure the use of the new skills. At a minimum, managers need to positively acknowledge the use of the new skills. Ideally, they should jointly develop goals and action plans for using the new skills to close the performance gap and then align these at all levels of the organization. Unless people see a reward, they may be reluctant to either take the time and effort to learn the new skills or the time and effort to change their approach back on the job.
3. Business Process Alignment
People need to understand the context for using new skills. Generally, all of the new skills are not applied all of the time. To support use of new skills, leadership needs to establish and support a standard approach for applying the new skills back on the job. This includes creating and providing tools, templates, and systems. People need easily recognizable criteria for when and to what degree they should employ the new skills. Without aligning processes, people may learn the theory of the new skills, but still struggle to actually apply them on the job.
4. Sustainability
Transformation takes time, and the use of the new skills must be sustained. This begins with a well-structured workshop that provides participants a safe setting to practice applying the new ideas to work-related issues. This must be coached to ensure initial success, and the participants should continue to receive ongoing training, follow-on coaching, and mentoring that supports them in their efforts when they return to the workplace. In addition, their managers need to establish and communicate clear expectations about the use of the new skills tied to the metrics discussed above. Then they need to provide clear, specific, and timely feedback about both success and the need for improvement in the use of the new skills. If not supported, people initially may try to apply the new skills on the job, but ultimately abandon their efforts in the face of difficulties.
5. Culture Alignment
Finally, the organization’s culture must support the transformation. Culture is “the way things are done here.” It is the set of, mostly unspoken, rules that people must follow to “fit in.” If your organization’s culture doesn’t openly embrace new ideas, people will be discouraged from applying the learning. If your organization prefers speed over quality, and quick wins rather than long-term gains, people will not be given the time they need to climb the learning curve. Fortunately, culture can be changed if a critical mass of people, as we discussed in leadership alignment, consistently support the transformation and the application of new ideas.
Organizational transformation is not easy, and it generally requires people to exercise new behaviors, some of which must be learned. Workshops provide participants with an opportunity to learn, practice, and apply new methods for getting their work done. Organizations receive the benefit of workshops when people apply the methods and transform the way work is done. People are more likely to apply the new ideas when the organization is aligned behind the transformation.
John Ager is a consultant with Kepner-Tregoe (KT) with more than 20 years of experience. Ager specializes in analyzing organizational processes and subsequent change management, project management, facilitating issue resolution, and transferring critical thinking skills in both service and manufacturing organizations. Kepner-Tregoe is a 50-year-old management consulting and training company.
