Photo by RDECOM

You joined a management training. The trainer was lively. The class was engaging. Everyone was excited. But back in the office, you were still performing as before. The newly learned skills were not put into practice.

What the training left was a think binder of handouts, plus some good memory. (Well, if there were some special activities or events in the class, the training will be more memorable.)

A SME (small and medium size enterprise) owner often said, “management training has no value!”

If this statement is from an ordinary SME owner, it has no weight to me. But this owner was a veteran human resources executive in listed companies and large enterprises, and himself was once a trainer. His statement reflects his years of painful experience.

A couple of days ago I had lunch with the general manager of a well-known company, and we talked about management training.

His company spends a sizable sum on training and development – management training, skills training, and personal development programs. However, his conclusion on the effectiveness of management training was: “I don’t expect any long term impact from these training programs. All I can expect is some short term stimulation to motivate the staff for a while.”

These comments are sad news and serious reminders to us in the training profession. Many management training programs are indeed not very useful.

What they are not satisfied with management training can be summarized as:

1. The training may have good responses from participants. But when the participants return to their work context, nothing happens, or changes are very short term.
2. There are behavior changes, but the attitudes are the same. Many training programs are designed to cope with planned changes in systems or policies. People will inevitably adapt their behaviors to the changes. However, if attitudes and beliefs are not aligned with the values of the changes, the changes will not stick and may only be nominal.
3. Of course, the worst case is that the immediate responses from the participants are poor, and no changes or alignment are observed.

So, does management training really have values to an organization?

I believe yes. Management training has its value. To make it work, in additional to contents, design plays a very important role.

On a macro level, the training designer needs to ensure alignment between the training and the business direction and needs. Can you connect the training with the business needs? Do you need a baseline assessment before the training session so that you can compare the training results? And which assessment approach is the most appropriate?

On the micro level, you have to carefully design how the training should be delivered. Some trainers can deliver a training session in a lively, interesting and charismatic fashion. Some may even be considered “star” trainers. However, in addition to hosting like a stand-up comedian, can he/she engineer the messages to invoke attitude change and belief alignment? Other than logical presentation and analysis, can he/she influence the participants emotionally?

This may be beyond what “normal” trainers do. A lot of trainers maintain logical and systematic presentation, and insert activities to stir up the learning atmosphere. But when we need to change attitudes and beliefs, tricks and skills from some high impact personal development training will be helpful.

Successful management training needs to address both the logical and the emotional minds. It is not just the knowledge transfer of the subject matter from the trainers work to the participants’ memory, but also the adjustment in attitude towards using those concepts and techniques, with the motivation to taking action.

Trainers, let’s make management training highly valuable to our clients!

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photo by abbybatchelder

A friend’s company is currently facing a challenge.

The core business of the company is the repair and maintenance service of the lines of equipment it carries. Because of the maintenance people’s errors and inattention to work orders, complaints are flying in. The management team is seeking a quick solution.

To many companies with similar types of work (e.g. telecoms, utilities, engineering companies), the maintenance people do their work according to the items listed on the job sheets. Usually, standard, basic checking items are not listed because of their “routine-ness”.

The challenge that my friend’s company is that the maintenance people have not attended to those basic checking, which lead to serious equipment breakdowns and customer complaints, and thus loss of business.

To a small company without much resources, what should be done to rectify/improve the situation?

The management team gather together and brainstorm.

“Issue them a standard operating procedure which list out all items and steps, so that they will be clear on what need to be done.” said A.

“People usually don’t refer to procedures. I think we should hold a staff meeting and restate the importance of following the standard steps, plus giving them some training on what to do.” said B.

“Find those who committed errors or failed to follow the procedures. Punish them and warn all others about the consequences of not delivering the standard service.” C argued.

…

After a long time of heated discussion, they decided to hold a staff meeting the remind their people what to do.

Workable?

Yes, workable, but not sustainable.

Actually … this kind of situations has happened a few times in the past. With the same remedy, what effect can you expect?

So, is there a simple way out.

Surely yes.

One of the ways: require the maintenance people to report their work to the customer. In other words, covertly ask the customer to become the quality checker or supervisor. If you recall your last experience in a auto-shop, the people there usually use a checklist to report the items they have completed for you. Other than the repair work you requested, they may also check you braking discs, lubricant level, etc., which leaves a “caring” impression to you.

This is great. But how to ask the customer to do it?

You don’t need to. You can just change the job-sheet for your people. All you need to do is to check the job-sheet to a checklist format. You people will need to “check” each item when they report completion of work to the customer Because of the checklist format, they need to briefly tell the customer each item that they have done before signing off. It leaves a more professional image, and the checklist also serves to remind your people of what need to be done.

The method forces the maintenance people to check the way they work, in a minor way. In my experience, they type of change will invoke practically no resistance. The company only needs to brief its people on this change in job-sheet to “facilitate statistics compilation.”

The change requires only minor change in the job-sheet printout, which means only minimal additional resources but can yield highly visible and favorable changes. Why wait?

Remarks: This method may not work for some operations. If your business is highly technical and complex which is beyond the comprehension of the customer, the checklist may become either too complicated or need lengthy explanation to the customer. In such cases, you may want to seek other methods.

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