How Can We Make Training More Impactful for Diverse Teams? Seeking Your Experiences

Seeking Advice on Impactful Training Methods

Could you please help by sharing your experience in making training more impactful and result-oriented? We are a mid-sized company with a heterogeneous group from various fields like pharma, engineering, science, and commerce, with various levels such as graduates, postgraduates, PhD holders, etc. Conventional training programs are not showing any significant impact, and hence we want to shift to role play. Please share your experience on people's acceptance and responses to role play. I don't want it to be viewed as satire. What we see and feel, we remember more, which is why I am opting for this method.

Addressing Leadership Behavior Issues

The problem we are addressing is about behavior in leadership roles that cause lower productivity, low morale, and high attrition in a team. We are focusing on including team leaders and managers who have a team of 4 to 30 people. I don't want this initiative to backfire.

Seeking Suggestions for Training Program Improvement

Should I proceed with this idea, or could you suggest any other ways to make the training program result-oriented and impactful?

Suggestions for Enhancing Training Programs

1. Ascertain the lagging indicators and the concern areas.

2. Prioritize them with feedback from all stakeholders—360 degrees.

3. Conduct root cause analysis for prioritized concern areas by considering scenarios.

4. Associate them with the level (group of employees—shop floor, executives, managers, leaders, etc.).

5. Break it down into the attributes/factors responsible.

6. Group them into Functional (technical) and Behavioral categories.

7. Further classify them into Knowledge/Skill/Attitude (mindset/belief issues, etc.).

8. Group similar or aligning attributes/parameters together.

9. Convert them into learning elements/learning modules.

10. Decide upon the most appropriate methodologies considering the profile of the group and the contents for whom this training has been identified.

11. Design the course/module in detail, considering principles of andragogy (adult learning principles):
a) Sell the program by highlighting "What is there in it for me."
b) Make them decision-makers in designing the module.
c) Make the program interactive.
d) Include elements of recognition in each module.
e) Measure the learning.
f) Measure effectiveness.
g) Link this with the performance management system.
h) Hold the superior responsible for the learning of their teams.

Regards, Shailesh Parikh

[Phone Number Removed For Privacy-Reasons]
Vadodara

On paper, role plays are an extremely effective way of imparting learning. However, there are a few challenges as follows:

- Selecting the right incident/event/script for the role play that will effectively address the concerns you want to highlight.
- Ensuring the participants enact their roles seriously and effectively, without getting carried away or overwhelmed by their parts.
- Debriefing after the role play can be challenging due to potential misinterpretations and misunderstandings.

My suggestion is to incorporate role plays and case studies into conventional training to enhance the impact of the training.

Regards,
B. Jacob

Dear Aakansha, good to note that you wish to bring change through employee training. Not just that, but you would like to measure impact also. Not many HRs are keen to measure the effectiveness of the training. For them, preparation of further execution of the training calendar itself is a goal!

Comments on Company Structure

We are a mid-sized company with a heterogeneous group from various fields like pharma, engineering, science, commerce, and various levels like graduates, postgraduates, and PhD holders.

Comments: - Conduct the training program separately for each division. No need to club divisions together as such. Secondly, what kind of technical programs have you conducted?

Shift to Role Play

Conventional training programs are not showing any bigger impact, and hence we want to shift to role play.

Comments: - What kind of “conventional training programs” did you conduct? Secondly, “role play” is just a tool of training and not a type of training as such.

Please share your experience on people's acceptance and responses to role play. I don't want it to be viewed as satire. What we see and feel, we remember more, that's why I am opting for this method.

Comments: - Success of the role play depends on its execution. If you hire a seasoned trainer, then the problem of participants viewing it as “satire” will never arise.

Addressing Leadership Behavior

The problem we are going to address is about behavior in leadership roles that cause lesser productivity, low morale, and high attrition in a team.

Comments: - These are the problems of your organization’s culture. Just because of the employee training, especially by conducting role plays, it cannot be eradicated.

We are focusing on including team leaders and managers who have a team of 4 to 30 people. I don't want this initiative to backfire.

Comments: - No comments

Final Comments

While conducting employee training, remember the seven habits of Stephen Covey. One of the habits is “begin with the end in mind.” So, what could be the end in mind? It could be as below:

a) Can this training program reduce any operational expenditure? If yes, then by what %?
b) Can this training program reduce any other cost?
c) Can this training program increase or decrease any ratio?
d) Can this training program reduce turnaround time of some process?
e) Can this training program reduce consumption of resources?

Be clear of the end result and then only conduct the training program. Otherwise, do not conduct that training at all.

If improving productivity is a challenge, then have you measured the following:
f) Cost of Quality
g) Cost of Poor Quality
h) Productivity yield
i) Quality Productivity Ratio (QPR)

If you have not measured the above, then no amount of training is going to help you. First measure the above and things will start falling into place. For further discussion, feel free to contact me.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar