How does your team invest its training time, and what does that training look like?
In my role as the Director of HIOBS’s Outward Bound Professional programming, these are the questions I ask clients regularly as we work to identify their needs and how HIOBS can best support them. So, let’s dig into some of the important things to consider when it comes to professional development and organizational training—and uncover how unfamiliar challenges help level the playing field and shine a light on untapped strengths.
Organizations devote a great deal of training time to the development of knowledge: product updates, systems & processes, and competitive information, for instance. And yet, the possession or recall of knowledge is the simplest of cognitive functions…far less valuable or differentiating than the ability to evaluate, analyze, create, or communicate.
Who participates in training events?
Often, training is organized by functional domain: sales people with sales people, engineers with engineers, logistics with logistics….Except in very small organizations, rarely do the end-to-end participants in a complex (but essential) process see the whites of one another’s eyes. The natural result is an “Us vs. Them” culture characterized by, “I did MY part…” rationalizations.
And what does training look (and feel) like?
And what does training look (and feel) like?
Sadly, corporate training frequently assumes the shape of the container in which it’s delivered: fluorescent-lit, present
A confession: In days gone by, I occasionally presented to groups of New Hires, assembled in auditorium seating for multi-day onboarding programs. As did all the other the presenters, I’d march in at my appointed time, provide a voiceover for prepared slides, then march out without so much as a handshake with any participant. Mission accomplished?
I should have known better: One spring I was fortunate to join a group of peers for a program intended to expose us to leadership opportunities within our company. A similar process ensued: an executive we didn’t know would enter the room, congratulate us for being invited, describe his or her career path, compliment the company, and then leave to make room for the next executive in line. No conversations. No interactions. A great opportunity lost.
It doesn’t have to be that way: Take that New Hire class, for instance, and imagine turning the traditional format on its head: make the students the teachers. Divide the class into small groups and assign each group a product, a service, or a process which they will need to research and present to the whole class the next day…with the subject matter experts in the audience. Provide them with an org chart, nothing more, and limit their time in order to create urgency. Require a case study. Reward a client testimonial. Make them exhibit the same behaviors their jobs will require in order to earn their knowledge: resilience, entrepreneurism, resourcefulness, problem-solving, collaboration, presentation skills…TEAM!
Is “knowledge” your hiring criteria, anyhow?
Create experiences, not lectures. Include varied roles, voices, and perspectives in the process. Mirror the interdependence of real-life, even if it’s metaphorical rather than precise. If colleagues work cross-functionally, then train cross-functionally. Get away from day-to-day distractions. Make it okay for participants to focus and engage. Foster authentic interactions across hierarchical and functional boundaries. Develop people, not employees.
I’m blessed (don’t tell my boss!) to see people — colleagues and clients, alike — at their best all year long: facing unfamiliar challenges, moving outside their comfort zones, offering a hand or a word of encouragement, and treating one another with dignity and, above all, compassion.