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Why Virtually None of Your Training Will Ever Be Applied Back on the Job

evaluation learning and development level 3 evaluation roi training and development Feb 16, 2016

 

Failing to overcome 4 barriers dooms training resulting in a massive waste of time and money.

Training professionals you have a grand opportunity before you. Your level of importance is skyrocketing. The opportunity to make colossal contributions of value to your organization is here. It is your time to shine. All you have to do is overcome 4 barriers, 3 of which are in your direct control. If you’re up for the challenge, audit your existing training approach and take action to overcome these 4 barriers that are killing the value of your training.

Barrier #1: Training is Not Relevant to the Job

The content of all training should be directly linked to the skills and behaviors required for success of the training audience. Too many training programs are bloated with irrelevant and misaligned topics because the training is not based on a needs assessment or gap analysis. When that happens, the training often addresses symptoms and not root causes of problems. Stop the madness. Take the time to define what success looks like to ensure every ounce of content can easily be defended because it is directly linked to trainees doing things that help increase revenue and / or decrease cost.

Barrier #2: Training is Not Relevant to the Challenges the Organization Faces

If your course content is the same as it was 1 year ago, chances are high your content is not helping your organization win. It is helping your organization become comfortably irrelevant. Today’s global business environment has been described as VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous). Organizations are forced to continuously adapt and refine their strategy. What makes you think your training doesn’t need to continuously adapt to remain aligned? Look at what you’re doing and ask yourself does what you train adequately equip the trainees to deal with the challenges they’ll face back on the job? If the answer is no, then you must change. Or change will be forced upon you.

Barrier #3: Training is Delivered in a Boring and Uninspired Manner

As the President and Founder of a global management consulting and training firm, based on my experience working in 24 countries, I’ve seen my fair share of good training and bad training over the past 8 years. I wondered if experienced trainers would exhibit the same poor delivery skills. As a Master Trainer and facilitator of the Association for Talent Development (formerly known as ASTD) Master Trainer designation course, I found that many experienced trainers are the worst offenders. So I tracked what I was seeing and documented the results in my blog article 15 Things Trainers Do to Deliver Training that Absolutely Sucks. I highly recommend you avoid committing any of these mistakes and take immediate action to correct any you may be presently making.

Barrier #4: Lack of Immediate Manager Support After Training is Complete

It’s no surprise that in a tough economy, managers placed little priority on anything other than delivering results. As the economy improved and voluntary attrition increased, it actually places more pressure on managers to keep the talent they have. With some predictions that turnover will increase 25% in 2015, managers are much more open to supporting training if it helps them retain talent and replace talent as quickly as possible. Effective training professionals know to go where the pain is. Start having conversations to alleviate pain and you’ll increase the level of post-training support and pre-training buy-in needed to deliver maximum value. 

When training professionals ensure their training is relevant, addresses the current business challenges, is delivered in an engaging manner, and has the support of the immediate managers of the trainees, they will stop the hemorrhaging of time and money and become a hugely valuable member of the organization’s success team.

For more information on overcoming the barriers to the transfer of training, visit my website blog at 
ICTS Blog Articles on Training and Development.

About the Author

Sardek Love is a designated ATD Master Trainer, a certified John Maxwell Speaker, Trainer, and Coach, and a highly sought-after international Keynote speaker. As the President and Founder of Infinity Consulting and Training Solutions he helps organizations, teams, and individuals achieve peak performance by delivering transformational results that last.

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