Closing down

It's been a long time coming but I've decided to close this blog down, so as from now I won't be updating it and, eventually, it'll disappear. I'm going to continue blogging every week and, if you're interested, you can find my blog here - please do continue to follow and post comments. It's always great to hear from you.

Training myths (pt three)

Last week, we looked at our second myth of training, the idea that the effectiveness of training is all down to the performance of the trainer. So myth-buster number two is: I’m good but I ain’t that good (nobody is) - training is a partnership. It’s a partnership between the trainer and the company who wants the training done. And you’d better believe it’s a partnership of equals - don’t think you can fob it all off on the trainer to solve your problems. If you’re commissioning training, you have some work to do and you’d better be prepared to do it - otherwise the training isn’t going to work.

The temptation often is for clients to identify a problem and then hand it over to the trainer to solve. Essentially, to “fix” the people on the workshop. But a moment’s thought will make anyone realise that human beings don’t learn that way. Training cannot be isolated events, divorced from the “real world” of the delegates’ jobs. It makes me smile sadly when delegates talk about training and use a phrase like “it’s better than working” because it’s another symptom of this mindset. If training is isolated from the day job it means that the delegates can safely ignore anything and everything that they’re taught or shown.

Bringing training into the day job requires time and thought and, most importantly, it requires input from the client. Only the client, the person identifying the training need and commissioning the work to meet that need can support the trainer. If you’re serious about growing crops, you don’t just chuck seeds anywhere, you ensure you have the right seeds, you carefully prepare the ground beforehand and then you nurture the crops while it grows. Training people is the same.

In their excellent book “Training on Trial,” Jim and Wendy Kirkpatrick talk about the need for clients and trainers to identify the drivers and necessities of success for a training programme. Drivers are the processes and systems that “reinforce, monitor, encourage or reward” the delegates for applying what they have learned, while the necessities are the “items, events, conditions or communications that help to head off problems before they can reduce the impact” of the training. Crudely put, the necessities are the things that have to be in place before the training while the drivers take over afterwards.

Training doesn’t happen in a bubble - it is (or it should be) deeply connected with the role that delegates play in their organisation. Isolating training leads to wasting everyone’s time, money and effort. Regardless of how good the trainer is, everything he or she says can be overridden by the culture of the organisation to which the delegate returns - those commissioning training forget that at their peril and I’ll say more about that next week.

Training myths (pt two)

Last week, I introduced the first of our training myths so this week, let’s introduce our first myth-buster: no one needs training. That’s probably an unusual statement for a training provider to make, so let me explain what I mean by that. What people need is not training but better outcomes - training is not an end in itself, it’s merely the route to get to that end. There should be a reason for training: within a business context, the purpose of learning is not knowledge but action. You might want more or less of something; you may want something to improve; you may want it done quicker, cheaper, at higher quality - whatever it is, there is a reason for the training.

Now, if that’s the mindset, that’s going to drive a whole different set of behaviours. For the person commissioning the training, it means they’re going to have to do some thinking about what they actually need; for the trainer it means they’re going to have to think about how they meet that need, rather than which box of tricks they can sell the client. Either way, it extends the training out of the training room - which is a very significant point and leads on to myth number two: the success of any training is down to the trainer.

This is probably the most common and most pernicious myth of all. You can tell that many companies - and trainers - have this mindset because for most workshops the only evaluation that’s ever done is at Kirkpatrick Level One, otherwise known as the happy sheet that delegates at the end of the workshop. All anyone is interested in is how the day went and whether the trainer did a good job, in the eyes of the delegates.

Now, I have nothing against being evaluated. I believe I’m a good performer in the room and plenty of people have agreed with me. But, as we’re all friends here, let’s be honest: the happy sheets measure the wrong things when it comes to workshop success, can easily be manipulated and are therefore pretty much worthless. There; I said it.

What do the sheets ask? Whether you enjoyed the day or not and whether you think that trainer did a good job. Fundamentally, did you have a good time and did you like the trainer. I’m not being cynical but if I give you lots of chocolate, tell you lots of jokes, give you an easy time and finish the workshop early, I’m pretty much guaranteed a good score. Does that mean I did a good job? Far from it and, while we’re on the subject, what does a “good job” actually mean in this context? When do the sheets get completed? Usually the last thing on the day - they’re often the only thing standing between the delegates and the door, so they get rushed; tick a box, circle a number and get out of there. Write down considered and thoughtful feedback in the space provided? I don’t think so!

But the happy sheets are only one aspect of this mindset. You can see the other aspect a few weeks or months after the workshop. Let’s say you commissioned a time-management workshop. It was delivered, the delegates enjoyed it, according to the happy sheets, but you cant help but notice that nothing’s really changed. So what do you think? The training can’t have been up to much after all, so best get another trainer in to do a proper job this time - after all, clearly whatever that last trainer did didn’t work; he probably just told jokes and fed them chocolate...

Training myths (pt one)

I sometimes wonder why people read this blog. Don’t get me wrong - I’m very flattered that people do and I hope they find it of some use but there are, as you might have noticed, very few comments ever posted so I’m not exactly clear on what people get from it, so I have to guess at their motives. If you’re reading this blog I think it’s likely that you have at least some interest in the subject of development. Perhaps you’re interested in your own development or perhaps you’re responsible for the development of others. Whichever it may be, over the next few weeks I want to think about the idea of work-place training and development and to expose a few of the myths that have grown up around it - myths that are harming the ability of trainers to get their work done and that are resulting in businesses commissioning training that doesn’t work and which just wastes their money.

The first myth is a common one amongst businesses and that is that training is an end in and of itself. We know from previous articles that the way we see the world, drives what we do which, in turn, determines the results that we get, so let’s think about that mindset for a moment or two. If you have the mindset that training is an end in itself, what are you likely to do - how are you likely to behave? Well, for both trainers and those commissioning the training, you’re likely to believe that your job ends much sooner than it actually does. If you’re the commissioner of the training, you’ll think your job is done when you’ve signed up the trainer and told him or her what you want them to do. If you’re the trainer it means you’ll think your job is done when the last delegate leaves the room.

This is often how businesses and trainers work. I had an experience recently where I tried to question a company about the training they wanted. I was trying to understand why they felt they wanted the training, so that I could directly address the needs they had. Perhaps it was my fault but it did not go well. They had already decided which workshop they wanted and the conversation effectively ended with them asking whether I wanted their money or not. To be frank with you, I didn’t; clients like that are very often difficult to deal with and this sort of thinking inevitably ends with the trainer being blamed when the training is unsuccessful. I try, whenever I can, to avoid that kind of situation but times are hard so I smiled and took the job. That was wrong of me but needs must when the devil drives, as Shakespeare put it. However, that kind of behaviour reinforces the myth that training is an end in itself.

Next week, we’ll take a look at our first myth-buster and the second myth of training. In the meantime, if you have any comments, please do let me know.

Resolve

I was going to begin a three part rant about training myths this week - just to kick the new year off in style - but a trip to the gym on Monday sidetracked me, so you’ll have to wait until next week for that. I normally go to the gym (assuming I’m not working) three or four times a week and - as always happens in these circumstances - I’ve become quite comfortable with my routine and with seeing the same old faces. So, after a couple of weeks off for the festive season, I returned to the gym on Monday at the usual time with a spring in my step and was confronted with a surprisingly full car-park. Inside, the gym was full, and it was full of people whose faces I didn’t recognise. For a moment, I wondered what was going on and then it struck me. These new people, wandering in a slightly lost fashion around the gym, clutching their brand new workout cards, looking for the next piece of equipment on their list, were busily executing on their New Year’s Resolutions.

Now, I’m not trying to be cynical about people who decide to make changes in their lives. I’m not one of those people who thinks that it’s impossible for people to change or that changes are always destined to fail. But it is the case that the odds are most of these new gym-bunnies will fall by the wayside and stop going to the gym in fairly short order. Market research indicates that only just over 25% of gym members actually go to the gym and some statistics I’ve seen show that 90% of new members will stop going in the first 90 days. Change4Life UK assert that most New Year’s Resolutions last for barely longer than a week.

It’s all very sad and you have to wonder why this happens. The answer that’s often given is a lack of motivation and there are plenty of resources out there to help keep motivation up. There are lots of little techniques, from visualisation to positive reinforcement that can help with motivation. However, while motivation is a part of achieving any goal, I’m afraid that it’s not the most important part.

When someone says that they’re not motivated to do something, what they’re really saying that that they don’t feel like doing it. Well, that may be the case, but the fact is that the only way to achieve a goal is to work at it - constantly, not just at the times when we feel like doing it. Life sometimes - often - expects us to do things that we don’t feel like doing: the difference between people who succeed and those who don’t is often that those who succeed didn’t use “not feeling like it” as an excuse not to do what need to be done.

So, if you’re working on a New Year’s Resolution, may I make a suggestion? Motivation is important and I’m very happy to do what you can to maintain it; but focus more on your discipline. It’s not a fashionable word and maybe for some it has some negative connotations but I promise you that cultivating discipline will have a far greater impact on your ability to execute on your goals than motivation. Make the commitment and stick to it. Good luck.

Nobody does it better

We talked last week about managers who don’t listen to the people in their teams (I do hope you were paying attention) and this week we look at the second of the two biggest mistakes that managers make. It’s almost an offshoot of not listening - micromanaging: telling people how to do things and then hounding them until it’s done.

It’s understandable that a lot of managers make this mistake. I’ve written before about how managers often find themselves in charge of a team not because they are good at managing but because they are good at something else. Someone displays an aptitude in their job, they’re marked out for progression and management, often, is the only way of progressing. So a very good engineer, say, finds herself in charge of a team of engineers because that’s the only way she can climb the corporate ladder.

But good engineers - or anything else - don’t necessarily make good managers and, lacking confidence in their new role, managers often fall back onto what they know. They start telling other people how to do their jobs or criticizing the job team members are doing because it’s not done in the way the manager would have done it.

If you suspect this might be you, relax; it happens a lot. But remember, each time you do it you’re making it harder for your team members to engage with their work and you’re making your - and their - life harder. There’s a difference between advising someone who legitimately wants or needs your help and nitpicking, so the next time you delegate work, focus on the desired result and not the method. Explain what you want, not how you want it done. If there are particular rules that they must follow, if there are particular consequences to the outcome, make sure you explain those too, but keep your focus on the outcome.

You’ll need to trust the people to whom you’re delegating. You have to extend that trust - thoughtfully, sensibly - and it will, in time, be returned. It takes two to delegate work; for that piece of work to be done well, you need the other person to accept it, not just take it on because you tell them to. Telling someone how they’re supposed to do a particular task is the quickest way of stopping people from accepting it and as Stephen Covey says “you cannot hold someone responsible for their results if you supervise their methods.”

That’s it for the inspiredblog for this year - we’re off to find a cosy nook in which to celebrate the festive season with a pile of books and some mulled wine. We’ll be back in 2011 to do it all again - in the meantime, have yourself a merry little Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.

Can you hear me?

Do you have a brother or a sister? When you were growing up, did they ever pretend not to hear you? What did you do? If you’re like most other people, your response probably went along these lines. Firstly, you repeated yourself: louder, perhaps with some attention-grabbing techniques like shouting into their ear or poking them. When that didn’t work, you probably appealed to your mum or dad. When that failed to get a response, probably you hit them.

Time after time, I’ve asked groups the same question and time after time, I’ve got the same answer. And the interesting thing is, we follow the same pattern as adults. When we feel ignored, we repeat ourselves, we try to gain attention; if that doesn’t work, we appeal – to managers, to unions, to regulators, to the media – and if that doesn’t work, we’re left with violence. Perhaps not physical violence but some other way of registering our dissatisfaction, like this wonderful news report.

Not being listened to really gets to us, which is why it’s such a surprise to me that managers I speak to say that not listening to the people in their teams is their number one mistake – the one they make the most often.

It’s understandable that it happens. Managers have so much to do, so many different demands on their time, that setting aside some time to just listen to people, to pay attention to them, can feel like a waste. There are so many emails to reply to, so many other things to do, that the temptation is to multi-task, to pretend to listen whilst doing other things. The problem is, we know when someone isn’t really listening. We can tell when they’re just going through the motions and not really paying attention and so, just as we did when we were kids, we repeat ourselves. Which, of course, is an even greater temptation for the manager not to listen – after all, they’ve already heard that, haven’t they?

It may feel like it takes a long time but listening – really listening, not just to what’s being said but also to how it’s being said, and noticing the things that aren’t being said, too – is much quicker in the long run. It can be the key to unlocking all kinds of prizes: to helping people feel engaged and valued at work, to new ideas or proposals, to really understanding people’s talents and skills.

It takes effort and discipline to listen but the reward is worth it. Try it, the next time someone talks to you. Stop what you’re doing and focus on them. Ask yourself how it feels to be them; what is it that they’re trying to tell you? Why are they telling you? What do they look like, what do they sound like? What aren’t they saying? Do you really understand what they’re saying and what it means to them? If not, ask questions until you do.

It doesn’t matter what technique you use – techniques can be studied and mastered easily, with practice. What really matters is your intent: do you really want to listen to them. Do you really believe they have something valid and useful to say? Until you can answer yes to those questions, you’ll keep making that same mistake of not listening and we’ll keep repeating ourselves – or worse!