Corporate Training - No one hit wonder
 It In the music industry a one-hit-wonder is an artist who is generally known for just one music hit think about Right Said Fred ‘I’m too sexy (1996) and Nena ’99 Luft Balloons (1984) OR Dee-Lite’s “Groove is in the Heart’ (1990) .
“....How many times have you attended a corporate training program, it was great at the time but is not sustained and there is no legacy? A one-hit wonder corporate training program.”
Whist these artists create songs which are catchy, incredibly popular at the time and stick with us for a short time they ultimately fade into music obscurity and we are left wondering ‘what happened to that band/ singer?’ Yet other artists create catalogues of songs which are sustained over time and leave a long legacy.
How many times have you attended a corporate training
program, it was great at the time but is not sustained and there is no
legacy? A one-hit wonder corporate
training program! It has well been
established over the decades that corporate training offers little benefits to
its participants and the organisation unless the learning’s are incorporated
into the organisation and the legacy of change is sustained.
Over the past 18 years we have heard these chess nuts many
times:
We sent our people to a one day corporate
training program and nothing changed!
Can you please do a team building day and fix
our culture?
The former would a require magic wand and the later has two
chances - buckleys and none (unless the objective above were different).
Australian organisations spend over 8 billion in training. We are guessing a lot of it is wasted. We are always up front with our clients “a
one hit wonder will not see sustained performance improvement" we are yet to be challanged on this point.
Recently we immersed ourselves in two industry events. A common theme we heard was “do a TNA”
(Training Needs Analysis). The idea of a
TNA is to understand the nature and level of investment required to deliver
learning and development of their employees. We have rarely seen this done effectively as usually this is done as
skills gap analysis (Sam said he heard this in the 1980s).
Over the past 18 years one of the most common mistakes in
corporate training and for corporate trainers in general is their lack of
understanding of the context in which the people/team and the organisation
operate. They often assess skills
against national competencies which has little regard for context and often a
bar so low that the corporate training adds little value to organisations
strategic goals.
Context involves a clear understanding of:
- Competitors, suppliers and the
forces in which these operate
- Strategy – vision, mission,
goals, values and KPIs
- Broader external environment –
Politcal, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal
Only then can an analysis for development needs occur at a
variety of levels: individual, departmental, and corporate each needs to be
examined.
From here the most appropriate and effective corporate
training program/s for the individuals or groups can be sort and the best format for delivery and
integration into the business can be discussed with and specialist training providers.
Yes we have a vested interest in who you select as your corporate training
provider but when we have clients who are committed to organisation results
then we challenge you to find a better partner who understands best practice
across many contexts. We have no better
examples than most of the clients we are consulting with right now! Thank you.
If all of this passion has got you going then go listen to
Video Killed the Radio Star, always makes us smile! Haha. |
