Trends in training delivery - in the training room - some personal views
Iain Thomson FCIPD
Want, need and supply
An informal poll of fellow trainers in July 2005 revealed dominant wants from clients such as much more short (half- to one-day) or modular sessions, often demanded at short notice, with a focus on some pressing needs (not always clearly specified, and generally not always well established with any participants it subsequently appears). Most trainers see that clients need to plan training more carefully, to establish better measures for intended training effect (this is particularly an issue in management and interpersonal skills training), to brief and de-brief participants more thoroughly, and to understand that training is not the solution to all their problems.
Worryingly, many trainers report cases where middle managers on a course have stated that their own manager did not find time to brief them before attending (and are unlikely to debrief them, unless pushed by the participant on return), whilst others have managers who are not even aware of their attendance on the course(!). Access to hard-pressed line management to analyse thoroughly the real issues to be addressed by training often proves difficult – for some participants, for those HR teams seeking to do their best about briefing the trainer about specific needs and wants, and for the few trainers who try to contact managers directly in order to design appropriate programmes.
From a supply point of view, many large (often public sector) and some small (relatively under-resourced) organisations still rely heavily on standard, ‘one size fits all’ courses from menus put out by major training groups (ie those commoditising training). This reinforces unhelpful collusion on three fronts: organisations want easily identifiable training packages (‘Three of your standard presentation skills courses, quickly, please’), participants want an uncomplicated attendance record (‘Right, I can now tick the PDP/appraisal need box and get back to real work’), and training salespeople can breath a sigh of relief (‘Another £x in the bag towards my sales target this month’).
Anecdote, however, suggests that, because time not cost is the prime consideration for some buyers of training, more thorough and therefore more expensive ‘thoughtful practitioner’ trainers are becoming more welcome – provided that they do not push clients too hard to consider any fundamental systemic and/or political issues underlying apparent training needs and/or to consider longer training events.
‘Thoughtful practitioners’ are those relatively scarce trainers who have real-life experience, who can share wisdom, who are flexible, who can respond rapidly to participants’ needs on a course, who have the confidence to apply ‘accelerated learning’ techniques, and who are not afraid of challenge or emotion (particularly in soft skills training). These trainers often find themselves providing one-to-one help for participants outside the planned sessions (eg how to deal with a difficult boss, dealing with poor performance in the team, personal and career issues etc). ‘Thoughtful practitioners’ include those technical trainers who can enliven structured topics such as IT and finance, and adapt their style and planned approach to meet the needs of trainees.
On the other hand, there are many ‘treadmill’ trainers who can steadily churn out essential, basic-skill training courses. Their events tend to be well planned, but narrow, and, sometimes – under time pressure and in the absence of focused objectives – ‘treadmill’ trainers may try to cram in too much at the expense of some deeper learning points.
‘Thoughtful practitioner’ training trends
Within technical training – be it MBA-type or operating skills – the sequence of training is generally still along the lines of Input-Application-Discussion. ‘Thoughtful practitioners’ in management and interpersonal skills sessions, however, are generally finding that a Discovery-Reflection-Input cycle is more powerful. Thus, in technical training facts and concepts precede practice to test understanding and skills (eg on a standard case study about a balance sheet, or on a lathe or other machinery process), whilst in management training practice precedes consideration of possible frameworks to explain an experience (eg on an exercise designed to bring out planning or conflict issues – to explore meaning and how any insights can be applied to everyday work). Notably, Discovery-Reflection-Input proves popular even where there is a preponderance of Reflector-Theorist learning styles (common in the public and financial sectors).
In some cases, ‘thoughtful practitioners’ are able to harness opportunities to encourage Argyris’ double-loop learning (ie personal learning leading that encourages change in organisational systems and processes). Thus, for example, in sessions about communication (the most commonly-cited organisational problem), participants can learn from training experience how improved horizontal communication at work can be achieved - by extending the concept of networking during a course to temporary job swaps between teams on return to work that lead to new processes or cost savings. Alternatively, to satisfy a desire for improved vertical communication, Senge’s systemic thinking can be applied to the all-important ‘feedback-about-results-leads-to-better-performance’ sequence - so that participants are first more inclined to celebrate work achievements with their own staff, then to report more successes upwards and thus to encourage more information on overall organisational results and strategies to be divulged by their boss.
Generally, greater realism is being sought by all involved in classroom training. Case studies are more often based on careful research within the organisation before the training – in some cases trainers encourage the generation of case studies by the participants themselves, as part of the greater levels of involvement accompanying modern training. A shift to less fixed and briefer role play scenarios (eg ‘You have a member of staff whose performance is beginning to dip … how do you approach them?’) is popular, as is on-the-spot ‘rehearsal’ of what a participant is going to do/say on return to work (eg with a distant but demanding boss) when such issues arise in the training room. Also, oral feedback from fellow participants about behaviour and the practice of interactive skills is preferred to being videoed. Practicality, activity and innovative training techniques are clearly enjoyed by nearly all participants.
Overall, ‘thoughtful practitioners’ are increasingly coming out of Adult-to-Adult, and andragogical rather than pedagogical, mindsets. This means less lecturing and ‘talk and chalk’ (less PowerPoint and theory in today’s language), more participant-led discussion, less ‘being the expert’ by trainers, more variety in the shape of exercises and activities, and more readiness to help participants to see what something means to them and how they relate to others (including their organisation). This shift in attitude might not be observable in the outlines of a course or in a cold read of any handouts or case studies, but it is clear in the manner in which good trainers interact with participants.
Four specific trends mentioned by fellow trainers polled in July 2005 are around attention spans, basic management skills, e-learning and coaching.
Attention spans seem to be coming down further – more participants want answers swiftly and easily (ever greater use of easy-to-absorb PowerPoint presentation is expected, and participants seem less ready draw lessons or to formulate the fundamental questions or to take notes for themselves – suggestions here include encouraging rotation of note-taker responsibility amongst participants, better learning log links to PDPs, and the use of the sorts of ‘Segment Review’ employed by the Institute of Leadership & Management and other accreditation bodies). Frequently, participants want to be excused to take a mobile call, send an important e-mail or attend a meeting called by senior management. Participants often want no more than 40 minutes per discrete session within a course, and again rush off to use break times to call the office rather than to reflect.
‘Thoughtful practitioners’ – in all sorts of training - often have to address some management basics, which might be expected in fully-qualified staff. These include planning, time management, self-confidence on a whole range of fronts, the ability to assemble and present information succinctly, to give and receive feedback, to understand the key drivers of the business, to see the general economic picture and so on. E-learning is frequently provided as a panacea for some of these basic issues, but it is often buried in overloaded intranets and therefore underutilised. E-learning is entering classroom training more in the shape of greater use of PCs/laptops to work on case studies and some cognitive exercises.
Coaching – particularly on residential courses – is on the increase, but, often, the issues or problems explored are wider or more personal than the designed course coverage. It is often surprising how many participants are willing to be very open about serious work and sensitive personal issues. Many of these issues are around the relationship with their boss – and a few ‘thoughtful practitioners’ are now beginning to persuade organisations that the best way to deal with such issues is to have tripartite coaching sessions (ie coachee, boss and coach together for some sessions) rather than just coaching or more training for the coachee alone.
What more is needed?
Firstly, the relationships between trainers and learners/participants, and how they fit best to different types of training, would benefit from serious exploration. Secondly, all involved need to stop seeing training courses and programmes as discrete ‘projects’ to be ticked off as soon as they have been ‘completed’. Finally, more attention to business/bottom-line outcomes is essential if classroom training is to retain its credibility amongst alternative options (which often look more attractive).
It would be helpful to learn just how much more effective is facilitated adult learning (relatively close trainer-participant relationship) compared to traditional training (relatively distant trainer-participant relationship). The former is preferable for behavioural/attitudinal change, but can be time expensive; the latter may be more effective for information/knowledge transfer, but less lasting. Manual skills acquisition may be more dependent on how the manager/foreman treats learners/apprentices.
It is not helpful to see training courses and programmes as isolated in time and space, away from the requirements, management and politics of particular organisations. Benefits for all would stem from better TNA, learning strategy selection, pre-course briefing and preparation, and post-course follow up (particularly by participants’ managers – one suggestion here is to invite them to attend end-of-course presentations). ‘Thoughtful practitioners’ also need to beware of the growth of a purchasing mentality in many companies, and to be on their guard to avoid falling into the trap of merely providing commoditised courses.
It is clear that, particularly in soft skills training, greater links to the business or bottom line measures are required. Interestingly, some public sector organisations now openly recognise the need to shift from ‘what the individual wants from the organisation’ to ‘what the business wants of the individual’. Worryingly, however, in some evaluations of management training in the financial sector the junior to middle managers being trained have been far more able to specify concrete benefits than their senior managers. Evaluation efforts are, of course, often better directed at reinforcing learning and post-course performance (action-oriented evaluation) rather than merely proving the value of the training (conclusion-oriented evaluation).
All in all, more efforts are needed to see training as an input or activity, the essential output from which is learning, motivation, self-belief and changed mindsets, and with the desired outcome from those being raised performance. Trainers who can make this happen clearly qualify as ‘thoughtful practitioners’.
Iain Thomson
FCIPD
25 August 2005
REFERENCES
ARGYRIS, C. (1994) Good communication that blocks learning. Harvard Business Review. Vol 7, No.4, July/August pp77-85.
BELBIN, R.M. (1969) The discovery method: an international experiment in retraining. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
KNOWLES, M.S. (1984) The adult learner: a neglected species. 3rd ed. Houston, TX: Gulf.
SENGE, P.M. (1992) The fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. London: Century Business.