11 MIN READ

Maximizing the Impact of Formal Training

Get the Biggest Benefit From Your Team's Desire to Learn

Play your part in making your team's learning effective.

Charlie recently hired Karin onto his team. She is relatively inexperienced, but she has potential and a good attitude. However, despite sessions of role-playing, one-on-one coaching, and shadowing co-workers, she's not achieved her goals. Now, the HR department has asked her to attend a formal training course to address her performance issues.

Charlie is skeptical of this "intrusion" as it's a busy time of year and resources are stretched. He also worries about formal training's effectiveness: he's seen plenty of people attend expensive courses with no benefit to the team when they get back.

Karin is desperate to stay in her new boss's good books and knows his views on this type of training – she'll either have to say no or put in extra hours to make up for the time away from the office. So, she backs out of attending the course. Consequently, she continues to miss her performance targets, and the situation deteriorates.

If you find yourself in a situation like this as a manager, how can you ensure there's a more positive outcome for everybody involved? In this article, we'll explore some of the strategies that you can use to ensure that you, your team, and your organization benefit from formal training.

Training as Part of a Learning Culture

It's important to foster a team culture that encourages people to engage with learning and get some real benefit from it.

This is particularly relevant for formal training, which is often an organized and structured event delivered in a classroom or workshop, or online. It can be the best way for team members to learn a "hard skill" (something measurable, such as using software) or to develop a certain level of competence or knowledge in a subject. But, it can also be expensive and take people away from their work.

For it to be fully effective, learners need to be supported and encouraged throughout the entire process. And this is where you, the manager, come in.

Tip:

For help and advice on building a helpful learning culture in your organization, see our article, Encouraging Learning in the Workplace. And for information on delivering learning that blends classroom and on-the-job approaches, see our article, 70:20:10.