Training Considerations

Although a one- or two- day course is useful, it is 300% more effective when participants are given a chance to rehearse, practice, and review the new habits. After all, we've all taken as many years as we are old to develop the behaviour patterns we currently have. To change those old habits it takes a minimum of 28 days of continuous practice.

Many training courses are 1-day intensive blocks, with little or no follow-up. Participants go back to work enthusiastic to try new techniques, are met with a backlog of work, and often the good intentions quickly fly out the window. If you want permanent change you'll be delighted with the results from giving people a chance to review, question, practice and be supported by an internal team coach, their trainer, or both (ideally), and then come back for further review and learning.

You'll also get far better returns on your training dollar.

And there's another important and little-known fact. The speed of uptake of a message varies greatly from person to person. In learning, each of us has a 'conscious convincer' which needs to have kicked in, before we can retain the message.

This is nothing to do with our intelligence. Instead it is all to do with the number of times we need to hear, see, or experience something before the neurological pathways in our sub-conscious connect to the message. This is why some people seem very quick to pick up new ideas - their conscious convincer only needs one or two explanations to grasp a concept, whereas other equally intelligent folk need to be exposed to the information four or five times, and often need it expressed in different ways.

So, if your people only get one exposure to new training, and no follow-up is built in, you will waste a very large proportion of your training budget.

How often should the training be, you may well ask? Our experience shows that it doesn't really matter how long or short the gap, as long as the participants know before they start that there will be a follow-up.

We have observed over many years that if the extended follow-up programme is not set up at the beginning, it happens only rarely.

Why is it better if the participants know there will be a follow-up? I think it's just good old human nature. When you were a kid, if you knew your mum or dad were going to check your handiwork, did you usually do a better job, try that little bit harder? And if you know your tutor will be back in a few weeks to see how you're going with the new knowledge you said you needed, do you think you'd like to have something intelligent to contribute? I know it sure works with me!

We've run:

• 4-hour programmes for six consecutive weeks
• 4-hour sessions for 2 months with fortnightly gaps
• And even a 1-day programme followed by a ½ day review session several months later, with the team managers running informal coaching sessions in between, based on a special coaching module we created for them.

Your timing and work commitments need to be the deciding factor. Also, how fast do you want the change?

There are a number of reasons why you'll want to run a short session or programme. They may include the following:

1. It may be your annual conference. A quick short burst of information or motivation from a keynote speaker or breakout session of up to 2 hours fits the agenda. Often you'll incorporate further follow-up at a later date. A top-level speaker has spent many years learning the skill of inspiring people in a short time to make changes in their lives. A trainer, on the other hand, has great abilities at working with people over an extended period of time, drawing them out, facilitating their learning and involving everyone. Sometimes you'll get both skills in the same person, but don't assume so. For conference work you are safer to use Accredited Professional Speakers, but still do your reference checks as well. (Click here to learn more about accreditation for professional speakers)
2. You've only got your team together for a short time. They may be geographically spread around the country, or several countries. You know the value of synergy and bringing them together regularly, but there's too much on the agenda to be able to run a long programme on any one training topic.
3. Perhaps your organisation is so busy that to find time for training is a challenge.
4. And sometimes there are budgetary constraints.

If you've at least made a start the ones who are serious about their own personal and business development will often seek more information in their own time. I know I've certainly done that myself. So of course, something is always better than nothing.

However, our point about spaced repetition still stands. You'll get the best impact from a short programme if you can incorporate some form of on-going education. If you can't, for some reason, bring the people back in front of the speaker or facilitator in the near future, an excellent alternative is to give them books, tapes or on-line support and training on the topic for their own ongoing education. (Click here to check out our range of products)

We've put a lot of thought into this. There are some great benefits in taking someone out of the workplace. They are:

• New and fresh ideas on the training topic from different workplaces and people
• Networking and the synergy that often brings
• The company's productivity is usually not too seriously impacted, for only a few people are away. Especially in smaller businesses, or customer-driven ones, you simply can't manage if too many people are out of the workplace at one time.
• It seems like there is a lower expenditure at the time. However, before you make your decision, read the next section.

Check our live events schedule to see when our next public course is being held.

This is where you really get top-class results and the most cost-effective training.

• Everyone is hearing the message at the same time

  One of our clients is a large legal firm. We'd started with the partners, and then some weeks later their senior secretaries had a 1-day session. A year later they brought us back again, and asked that the secretaries and partners all be in the same room together, so they could work on their issues together.

  Variations on this story have been experienced by client after client. It's all about speed of communication, and making sure the message isn't diluted through being heard at different times and in a different group.

• By listening to others and sharing solutions, sticky problems can often be solved very quickly

  If senior people are working with the group, they often uncover inefficiencies they were unaware of. The Financial Controller in one rapidly expanding and very successful international company was shocked to realise, as he listened to a junior member of staff asking for help on a routine reporting task, that they were even still doing that task.

  Suddenly, instead of focusing on how to improve the process, the question was asked, "Why are we collecting this data? Where does it go? Who uses the information? It may have been useful when we were a small company, but does this process still need to be done in the same way? Even if we continue part of the process, what short-cuts can we take?"

  Within 5 minutes, a whole new way of looking at the problem was created, and the company saved significant time and money. If we hadn't all been in the same room, they'd possibly still be doubling up!

• You'll get a range of opinions and input from the participants, which adds to the richness of the intellectual capital and knowledge management of the group.

• As people talk, they start to understand some of the issues and requirements of other departments. This alone can generate huge ongoing savings of both time and money. It's very common to hear someone say, 'Oh, is that why you need...'

• A different level of networking and fellowship often evolves. Especially in a big organisation, it is not uncommon to meet a colleague for the first time in a training room.

• To get the very best results, include the manager or team leader. When they hear the same message they can follow up the learning in practical day-by-day reinforcement, either in team meetings, in one-on-one sessions, or as agenda items in regular staff meetings. It's not that the manager necessarily needs to know the information, but they do need to know their people's issues and concerns, plus be involved with the solutions that will have arisen from the training programme.

There is plenty of information about the value of self-paced learning, which can be provided by everything from very expensive, beautifully produced interactive multi-media, right through to relatively static on-line information or even emailed text courses that a student has, for a specific period, enrolled on.

The general wisdom in the training arena is that there's a place for all styles of information, and online learning is not for everyone. The value from self-managed online learning is very dependant on the self-motivation of the student, their geographical proximity to training resources, their ease in dealing with computers, their personal learning style (if they need the stimulation of others around them they'll struggle with solo learning), and whether the topic is one that can be learned in isolation.

If you'd like to know more about our on-line time management courses click here. At this stage we fit at the low budget end of delivery methods (although the information is top class!), and the product is priced accordingly.

We typically find that participants at speeches and short sessions get great value from access to further information - the material is there on a 24x7 basis, available at their convenience for revision and more knowledge.

Most clients like to have take-home information.

Just some of the possibilities:

• A mix of our books and cds
• A recording of the speech they've just heard so they can review it in their cars
• Enrol your team on the on-line coaching programme
• A commissioned article by Robyn in the company magazine
• And of course a follow-up training programme at a later date, run by one of our facilitators.

© Getting a Grip - Time Management