In the years that I’ve been training, I’ve noticed a few things:
First, those who internalize the training remark how their skills have been enhanced. But those who do not experience a slight change in how they view themselves don’t get as much out of the course. They focus exclusively on the techniques that seek to modify others’ behavior without owning their contributions to the situation.
Second, one downfall to training teams instead of the entire organization is that once newly minted practitioners of a particular skill goes back to their workplace, they encounter all sorts of structural barriers that aren’t addressed in the training. They can’t fully express and use the skills they learned, and so over time, the skills become less sharp and sometimes are entirely forgotten.
To address these common issues and maximize the impact of training, I developed a three-level skills strategy to help people and businesses better incorporate what they’ve learned.
- The first level of development is personal and internal. No one will see the work you do to challenge your frames or perceptions. No one will see the exercises you do daily to evaluate your self-talk. But many of your peers and friends will see the result of this work: Over time, you will gain more self-confidence and you will demonstrate different capacities.
- The second level of development is the dynamic between individuals. This can be those in conflict, for example, or in a specific relationship such as leader-follower. This second-tier relationship has to do with the quality of the particular interaction. Communication, negotiation, conflict resolution, and leadership training all contribute to people’s skill sets and will help them improve the quality of a series of relationships.
- The third level of training is the one that most often gets neglected; it has to do with the entire organization. Once individuals are more aware of their internal dialogue and internal environment, they are in a better position to have healthy and productive interactions with another (second tier). That changed dynamic affects the people involved, but it doesn’t necessarily have the force to amplify throughout the entire organization. For that, the organization needs to intentionally create processes and mechanisms that allow people to transform relationships and structures within the organization.
When training is designed with these three tiers in mind, you have an impact on the three critical dynamics in an organization: the individual, the quality of relationships that individual has within the business, and the mechanisms within the organization. When they work together, the effects are spectacular.
Renée Gendron, MA, is the principal at Vitae Dynamics Inc. She is an engaging speaker (S), creative mediator (M), published researcher (R) and dynamic trainer (T). She applies her SMRT services in support of professionals and organizations seeking to maximize their impact. Gendron welcomes feedback and can be reached at @vitaedynamics, renee@vitaedynamics, on her Website: www.vitaedynamics.com, and on Facebook and Google+ .
