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I work with a number of organisations looking to develop their staff through training programmes and am constantly amazed by the things that I hear especially when I ask what they are doing differently.

‘I am not doing anything differently because people will think I have been on a training course'.

‘I am too busy to do anything differently now'.

The sadness of these statements is quite revealing when thought through.  In the first instance we must ask ourselves what the purpose of any training is - surely it is to change behaviour. You may reply that it is to change results, however I would respond with ‘how do you change results without changing behaviour?' Most people will behave in a way that maximises their knowledge of how to behave to get a result. In other words, they maximise their existing resources when executing an action.  Therefore, the only way we can increase performance in a sustainable way is to increase their skills and knowledge (since providing them with a new system still requires training).

So how do we overcome this?

There are several stages to this.

1.      Define what we are trying to achieve, which results we are trying to affect and by how much. This is often the most difficult aspect as people find it challenging to identify the numbers they want to change - of course, we can help you with that.

2.      Identify the desired behaviours (not the mind-set) that will create the change in the results, in detail.

3.      Drill down to identify the skills and knowledge that are required to drive the desired behaviour.

4.      Identify the factors that will engage with the target audience, for instance they may not be receptive to a whole day of training.

We can then start to understand the cause and effect, as well as the methodology that will produce the required outcomes.  We can set measures against each of these stages as below:

4.      Set targets against learner satisfaction/engagement and take-up. We also need to set up a measurement system to check this is happening - most people will recognise the ‘happy sheet' and this is what the majority of evaluations do.

3.      Define an assessment methodology to measure the knowledge (and understanding gained). This is normally carried out through the use of role-plays/tests/case studies. This demonstrates that the learners have the ‘know-how'.

2.      Embed the new behaviours into the performance management and development systems. The new behaviours should be explicitly linked into the training and clearly stated at the outset of training, for instance: ‘We are providing this training to enable a 3% reduction in absenteeism'. This then needs to be measured and most importantly - people should be held accountable for non-performance. This is the hardest part, as it requires a clear understanding from management as to why the training is in place and it is crucial to their success as well as the learners.

1.      Measure the numbers at top level and track them over a period of change, feeding this information into the development programme to ensure relevance and impact in the workplace.

Simple!  That is to say, harder to do!  To be successful you need to form a partnership with trainers, line managers and learners, as only then will you see results.