Training for results activity based VS processed based curriculum

Training for results activity based VS processed based curriculum
Kris Magnuson
Manager Education Services
Stoner Associates
1910 South Boulevard, Suite 200
Charlotte, NC 28203
704-714-3040

Abstract
Today’s workplace is a rapidly changing environment with many training situations evolving around new and changing work processes. These changes require experienced employees to learn new approaches to their daily work and in many cases master totally new skills, specifically new technologies. The traditional model of technology instruction is usually concerned only with content; in contrast, developing a curriculum that focuses on learning that leads to business results will help an organization achieve its goals.

This paper focuses on providing a straightforward approach to creating end-user GIS training programs that link training to business needs and results. Even after selecting the right person to develop and deliver the training, success is not guaranteed. This paper will discuss methods for avoiding potential pitfalls with respect to developing and delivering a comprehensive training program. This paper will also address why adults learn and how to develop a training program that will identity the trainee’s WIIFM (What is in it for Me?). These issues will then be clearly linked to curriculum design and business results.

Introduction
In the 21 st century, the three C’s of corporate concern have a greater impact than ever before. Competition, composition and change are the trends that are shaping the world today and beyond. Today there is a shrinking pool of skilled workers such that a company’s competitive edge depends on a very skilled workforce. Rapid changes in the corporate world, such as mergers, downsizing, reorganizations, and changing technologies have resulted in unique skill requirements and more complex jobs with fewer qualified people to fill them. Downsizing casualties find themselves displaced and forced to learn new skills in order to meet employment demands. Today, companies are also under greater pressure to increase productivity and profitability through well-trained employees. Because of these changes, organizations now have to reconsider the way training is viewed. Corporations need to focus on developing training that is driven by business needs and processes that help the organization achieve its goals and provide people the knowledge needed to improve performance.

Today’s flat organizations and lean departments create new challenges for training. Companies are concerned about doing more with less and as a result processes and procedures are being re-addressed. As processes and procedures change, organizations need to develop and implement education programs that directly relate the training to the new business processes. Using this approach can help achieve organizational goals, provide people the skills and knowledge needed to improve their performance, accept the change, and create a supportive environment to reinforce work skills and processes.

Activity Training Vs Training for Business Results
There are two basic types of training, training for activity, and training for business results.

Training for activity can be characterized as a generic training program that focuses on a specific technology or activity but does not transfer the knowledge and skill to the job. Many organizations develop their technology training using this approach. This includes developing a users guide for a specific application that teaches employees how to use the functions but does not relate this information to the specific job at hand. This is the difference between a Users Guide and a Training Manual.

In training for activity, the training process usually begins with some symptom or special need. For example, a new application is rolling out in an organization or a manager may request specific training such as time management for his/her employees. Usually, with activity training there is no training needs assessment to determine what is really required and how it should be developed. Many times, the individual requesting the training wants it next week whether or not there is a training issue or a corporate problem (such as compensation or morale). There is also a lack of identifying management’s role in the training process. In other words, management needs to hold people accountable for the newly acquired skill and provide coaching when needed. When someone is sent to training, it is assumed that the acquired knowledge and skill will be transferred to their job. When that doesn’t happen, the training program is blamed. In reality, no one person or group of people has accepted accountability for ensuring the skills taught is transferred to the job. Training dollars are too scarce to be frittered away on programs or courses that do not pay off.

Business result training, on the other hand, focuses on achieving specific business goals, and is based on individual needs and processes. It helps an organization achieve its goals, provide people the skills and knowledge needed to improve performance, and has management accepting the responsibility for a supportive work environment that encourages skill transfer.

The following illustrations demonstrate activity and business results training.

Developing Business Results Training
The first step in developing a business results training program is to develop a needs assessment methodology. A needs assessment methodology is a two-fold process. First, a training program is assessed by an organization in the same manner as any other business case and secondly a performance effectiveness assessment addresses the skills and knowledge required for people to perform successfully.

Identifying the Business Need
Identifying the business need for training is an essential step in preparing a business case. Business training needs are either business opportunities (proactive) or business problems (reactive). Business opportunities contend with something that is future focused and about to happen, (for example, a new application is rolling out in an organization, or newly hired employees will need training). In contrast, business problems, usually struggle with a performance issue that has caught management’s attention. In this case, training may not be the answer. When employees do not perform the way you think they should, you tend to assume that is it because they don’t know how to. This is not necessarily the case. Employee performance may be affected by outdated business practices, policies and standards or the lack of mental or physical capability. Whereas, identifying business opportunities is usually straightforward, determining the training need for a business problem is not as easy. Business problems require identifying the cause of the problem and finding a solution. Training that is strategically linked to business needs means that the training developed will be more project, process or solution driven and less curriculum -based.

Assessing the Training Value
Once the need has been identified, the value of the training must be evaluated. The value of training and the outcomes derived from any training effort should be expressed before any new training program is implemented. The “value” should be calculated in the following ways.

Identify how the training helps the organization achieve its goals and objectives.
Calculate cost per participants for a training program like any other budgetary expense. (When calculating the cost, the expense for people to attend training classes on company time or at other locations must be taken into account.)

Too many times, calculating the true cost of a training program is overlooked by an organization. How many times do you include an arbitrary number in your implementation budget for training because you have not made a value assessment of your training? Or maybe you do not allocate any training dollars into your budget because you determined training would be conducted in-house. Whether you choose to develop and deliver training in-house or out source the development and delivery, the cost needs to be calculated.

Normally, organizations tend to think that developing and delivering training in-house is free because the people are already on-staff. If you assess your training as a business case, you will see that it is not free. For example, two or three engineers are reassigned to develop and/or deliver training. What happens to the engineering business unit? There are three fewer people in the engineering unit for up to three or four months. As a result, customer needs may not be met and the company’s revenue may be reduced. After training has been completed, where does the support come from? Are other employees being reassigned to provide support? How will this affect the business units? What are the anticipated outcomes of the training and support? All of these areas must be addressed along with the business need that is driving the training. Developing your training around a business case and understanding its value is the first step in creating a needs assessment methodology that produces business results.

Developing Process Oriented Training that Produces Business Results
The traditional model of technology training has been mainly concerned with content (activity training); in contrast, a curriculum that focuses on process learning will lead to business results that assists an organization in achieving its goals. It also provides workers with the skills and knowledge that can be easily transferred to the job. However, a curriculum that is processed based cannot stand-alone, management must take an active role in providing a supportive workplace that encourages the new skill transfer.

The formula below demonstrates a fundamental concept when you are developing training for business results.

Learning Experience x Work Environment = Business Results
Business results occur when skills taught in a training program are applied to the job, yielding improved performance. For this to occur you need a well designed and skillfully developed and delivered training program that allows participants to learn how newly acquired knowledge and skills relates to the job. As a result, the “learning experience” side of the equation equals 100%. Learning by itself will not produce business results. A work environment that reinforces the knowledge and skills taught in the program and holds people accountable for using those skills is critical to the overall process. If one of these is missing in the equation, business results are not met. Recalling basic arithmetic, 100 multiplied by 0 equals 0 in terms of on-the-job results. A superior training program acting alone without the work environment supporting the skills taught will suffer and produce limited results from the training effort. This dilemma is the common failing of a training program. The concentration is placed on the learning side of the equation with little effort ensuring the work environment supports new skills.

Relate this equation to a hypothetical case study involving an administrative staff in an Accounting organization. The manager wants his administrative assistants to learn Excel to create invoices and spreadsheets for the Accounting organization. The curriculum truly demonstrates activity training. All of the Excel functions are covered in the instruction (i.e. sum, cut, paste, etc.), but the training does not provide the specific processes, knowledge and skills needed to translate this new information to the job. Hands-on exercises are limited to using the software, so when training was completed, trainees’ know how to use the functions of the software but do not know how to operate it. Trainees return to their jobs and with no idea “how to” create the invoices or spreadsheets. In this hypothetical case study, results from the training effort are minimal, largely because the training program did not provide specific application skills that related to the actual job requirement. On the other hand, management was eager to support, coach and hold people accountable for using the knowledge and skills. Now relate this scenario back to the equation, 0 for Learning Experience and 100% for Work Environment, which still equals 0 in terms of business results.

Combining a learning experience that relates to job responsibilities and processes with a work environment that supports the skills taught and holds people accountable to use the skills produces business results at 100%.

Developing Process Based Training
Once your training needs assessment is complete and has proven the benefits are worth the investment; and with management’s commitment to creating a supportive work environment, your next step is to develop a training program that transfers the skills and knowledge immediately to the job. This is known as process-based training.

As organizations implement new technologies (or re-engineer), processes and procedures usually change. Part of an organizations’ change management strategy, includes modeling the new processes to reflect the changes to the organization. The newly modeled business processes can become the bases for your process-based results-oriented training curriculum.

Modeling business processes can also identify other technologies that are tied to a specific technology being trained. This exercise links the relationship between technologies thus providing the opportunity to deliver training on a variety of systems during one training session. For example, if access to a Work Order tracking system is required to create a design in the GIS application, the Work Order tracking system is included in the curriculum design.

Once business processes are modeled, it is important for curriculum developers to understand the business process and how it influences the skills and knowledge that needs to be taught. The best way to understand the new processes is to conduct a series of interviews and meetings with process team members and key personnel to gain the knowledge necessary to develop a comprehensive training strategy. By reviewing business processes and interviewing process owners, technology ‘touch points’ can easily be identified to determine other technologies that need to be trained during the same training session. Touch points are interactions with specific information systems through out the process model.

The following illustration demonstrates an abridged version of a GIS Work Order Design process. GIS touch points are identified in gray.

GIS touch points in this sample business process model are expanded to outline the methods and procedures at the user level. The following example shows an abridged version of an expanded GIS touch point for Create the Work Order Request.

After each process has been modeled, a performance effectiveness assessment is conducted. This entails a careful review of each expanded process to determine the required knowledge or skills necessary to complete the listed procedures. This assessment becomes the backbone for the training manual and exercises developed. For example, the first steps state to start the GIS session and Engineering Design Application. Starting a GIS session and Design Applications are the first areas covered in the training curriculum. Each modeled process is assessed in the same manner to determine the skills and knowledge that need to be included in the curriculum.

Guidelines to Adult Learning
After you complete the performance effectiveness assessment, guidelines to training adults need to be applied in order to design a curriculum that transfers this knowledge to day-to-day job responsibilities.

As a group, adult learners vary greatly in areas of education, background, experience, and motivation for achievement. Curriculum Developers and trainers must allow for these differences while planning, developing and delivering training. Listed below are guidelines that need to be addressed when designing an adult training curriculum.

Adult learners are motivated to learn when they have a need to do so. Learners want to know how the training will help them. Before undertaking any instruction, learners need to understand why they must learn the skill or knowledge. This is referred to as WIIIFM- What is in it for me?
Adults learn from repeated activity. Practice and continued use increases learning and retention more than any standard approach, (such as lectures). Participants respond better when the material is presented through a variety of teaching methods and understood on different sensory levels.
Adults build on prior experience; therefore training material needs to be designed around what they already know and their experience. It is very helpful when learners are able to make connections between new knowledge and background information that they may already have acquired. It is a hindrance if the new knowledge has no relation to what they currently know. In such situations, learners may choose to dismiss or reject the new knowledge.
Adults learn well in environments that are more informal than the traditional classroom.
Studies have shown that 80% of adults tend to prefer straightforward “how to” instructions and do not want to be bothered with theoretical training.
Adults need to be free to direct themselves. Therefore trainers need to participate in dialogue rather then just disseminating information. Telling is not teaching or training.
Adults are more prone to take mistakes personally. Many adults view training situations as a proving ground for professional reputations.
The best learning takes place when learning activities and tasks are sufficiently challenging but not so excessively complex as to overwhelm the learners.
Psychomotor skills such as computer abilities tend to deteriorate with age. Between the ages of 20 and 50 learning abilities remain relatively stable but sometimes declines thereafter.
Adults learn best at their own pace. If an adult is forced to learn faster or slower than his/her normal speed the transfer of knowledge is not successful. Older learners tend to concentrate more on accuracy than speed.
Learners at any age accomplish more when they receive regular feedback on their progress.

Below is a short poem that reiterates Adult Learning Theory from The Instant Trainer, C. Leslie Charles and Chris Charke – Epstein.

What Makes a Good Trainer
The hard truth is that no matter how impressive your presentation content or support materials may be people respond to the delivery intangibles. This includes the instructor’s attitude, creditability, and presentation skills, in other words, the overall delivery. Half of the learning experience is the trainer. The best-developed curriculum will not be effective unless it is presented in a manner that attendees will learn. The following is a listing of abilities you should look for when selecting a trainer.

Analyze course materials and learner information. Trainers must be able to collect and analyze appropriate information about course materials and learners; identify and make any necessary adaptations to course materials, agenda, activity sequences and logistics. In other words, “think on their feet.
Establish and maintain instructor credibility. Trainers must be able to establish and maintain credibility through personal conduct, while demonstrating content expertise, and professionalism.
Demonstrate effective communication skills: Trainers must be able to use language and non-verbal skills to communicate effectively with learners to meet the needs of different groups of learners within the classroom.
Demonstrate effective presentation skills. Trainers must be able to use voice, gestures, movement, posture and props to support and enhance the course content. Learning can also be enhanced through humor.
Demonstrate effective questioning skills and techniques. Trainers must be able to use questioning skills to encourage and enhance learning and participation. This includes identifying content points that are perplexing to learners and creating a supportive environment in which learners feel comfortable asking and answering questions.
Respond appropriately to learners’ needs for clarification or feedback. Trainers must be able to identify and meet the learners’ need for feedback and clarification. This includes being resourceful when an answer is not readily available.
Use media effectively. Trainers must be able to prepare and use a variety of instructional media safely and correctly to enhance the learning experience.
Evaluate learner performance. Trainers must be able to assess the extent to which the learners achieved the end-of-course objectives.
Evaluate delivery. Trainers must be able to assess the courseware (as modified), the instructional environment, and the instructor’s actions that either promote or hamper learners’ success in achieving course objects.

Using a technical expert may not be your best choice for a trainer. Interview your training candidates to ensure that you are choosing a person that is going to enhance, not hinder, your training efforts. Remember, the success of months or years of effort creating a new application depends on how effective the instructional designer\trainer can introduce the new system and training.

Strategies for Avoiding Pitfalls
Even after selecting the right person to design the curriculum and the right person to deliver the training, success is not guaranteed. However, there are a few practical strategies that can help an organization to avoid potential pitfalls when it come to curriculum development and training.

Develop a formal training plan. Good training requires an organized instructional guide that outlines the business processes, objectives and procedures manual. Without a formalized plan, important details can be overlooked and consistency and uniformity will suffer.
Clearly communicate expectations. Management needs to take a positive role in explaining the expectations to trainees and trainers. Citing specific examples of what is expected at the end of training and what support will be provided to assist in the learning process. This approach can prevent using training as an excuse not to do other work assignments.
An attitude of support and reward. Recognition of the importance of training needs to communicated throughout the organization. Management needs to allocate not only the time but also the money for training programs, including resources and materials as well as rewards and recognition for trainees and trainers.

For trainees who succeed, individual recognition teamed with incentive programs can be very effective but should be tied to organization goals and individual’s performance and must be of value to the employee.
Training follow-up. Hold regular meeting to discuss what works, what doesn’t and how things can be improved. Focus your attention not to the subject being trained but on how the training is being conducted. A discussion on additional support that may be required is critical.

To ensure that business needs are met and the skills and knowledge being taught can be transferred to the job, assessments such as those mentioned throughout this paper, must take place on the front end of training. Training assessments determine the specific skills and knowledge that mold the training curriculum and delivery, as well as how the organization will support the newly acquired skills and knowledge.

Summary
As training costs and market demands increase, a greater emphasis must be placed on matching the instruction to trainees’ actual work requirements and processes. Developing a process based education methodology will ensure that business needs are met and the skills and knowledge being taught will be transferred to the job.