The Thoughts And Ideas Of The Efficiency Coach » training efficiency

Have you thought about using games consoles to train your staff?

Heather Townsend — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 06:56:13 +0000

The Royal Navy is to distribute 230 play station PSPs among its weapons engineers as part of an initiative to improve training efficiency. Training videos, featuring slides and voiceovers, will be pre-loaded onto the machines, enabling sailors to refresh their memories of important maths and physics principles without having to read a book or go back to the classroom.

What the navy have realised is that people learn in different ways. Not everyone learns (or wants to) from reading a book. In the same way, not everyone learns from observing others, or just getting stuck in. Honey and Mumford suggest that there are four main learning styles – activists (‘do it’), reflectors (‘think about it’), theorists (‘make sense of it’) and pragmatists (‘try it’). However, for a person to learn effectively they must complete all the four stages of the learning cycle:

Plan-Do-Review-Conclude

More often than not, I find that professional service firms favour one learning style over another. For example, training is either ‘learn on the job’ or attend a training course. I find that many accountancy firms always send their staff away to seminars and classroom-based training for technical training and updates – but expect their staff to pick up new behaviours and interpersonal skills with minimal direction or support, while learning on the job.

Is there a better way, you may be asking? Almost definitely. The Navy has worked out a better way for their weapons engineers on ships. They use computer based training mixed with an element of fun. The Navy PSPs can still play normal games on them, as the Navy has worked out that their sailors are more likely to use the PSPs if they can play games on them. In addition, the PSPs take up less space than books and files and are very hard-wearing and sturdy.

Coaching is an excellent method of learning, particularly for developing new behaviours and interpersonal skills. It is the only type of learning method which appeals to all four of Honey and Mumford’s four learning styles. No wonder, it normally yields a return on the investment of 7-14 times. It is interesting to note that classroom based learning is one of the most inefficient ways to learn. Researchers have discovered that 70% of learning actually happens on the job.

How efficient is the training you provide for your staff?

Why a whole day of one-to-one training is a waste of your money

Heather Townsend — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:55:32 +0000

I’ve just been giving some feedback to someone on a forum about a PR package that they are offering which includes 2 days of one-on-one training.

What’s so wrong about this you may ask? As a trainer and coach I’ve spent the last ten years helping people learn new skills, different behaviours or different responses to situations. With this specialist skill set, I know that this package has never been sold, and will never be implemented successfully. So, how do I know that?

One-on-one training or coaching is very intense for both the trainer and trainee. An individual can only learn at this level of intensity for a couple of hours at most. After about one to two hours, when coaching, I notice that my client starts to quieten down, pause and become very reflective… It is at this point that I realise they are full up, and their brain is now saturated and needs to time to digest and reflect. This is the point that I bring the coaching session to a close.

You may be wondering what is different between a day of one-on-one training and a group workshop? With a group workshop, as a trainer, you have the benefit of varying the dynamics – individual work, small group work, large group work etc. This is why, with good workshop design, you can run a whole day course. When working with just one person, you can either coach, ‘teach’ or set them individual work. My mother is a maths teacher with over 40 years experience. The longest one-on-one tutoring session that she will book is 2 hours. Any longer and the time is wasted, as the brain needs time for a break to digest.

If the one-on-one training day is being padded out with individual exercises, then why pay for one-on-one time when you are doing individual exercises? Surely, this day could be better designed in chunks of 1:2:1 coaching/mentoring interspersed with ‘home work’ (i.e. the individual exercises) between coaching sessions? This way, any skill learning or behavioural change will be fully supported and sustained.

Rant over…

Who will you trust (part 2)

Heather Townsend — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:03:13 +0000

I recently posted a blog (Who will you trust) about factors which should influence your decision to hire a specific coach. Similar to the coaching profession, anyone can decide to call themselves a trainer or leadership expert. An external trainer will set you back anything from £300 to £2500 a day. You may ask, what’s the difference between a trainer which charges £300 and £2500; actually not a lot. It’s all about how much you value their worth and how good they are at identifying the value of their proposed solution to you.

So, how do you go about finding a identifying a reputable external training consultant to work with your business?

1. Price is not a guarantee of success or experience

Unlike some of the regulated professions such as financial services, accountancy or the law, anyone can call themselves a training consultant or trainer, and charge what people are willing to pay. Before you sign up with a training consultancy do ask for (and check) references from previous clients. If the person does not have any attributed case studies, testimonials, or feedback on their website be wary…

2. Check out their history and experience

There is a level of skill to designing a learning programme – and when I talk about a learning programme I am not just talking about classroom training. Just because someone has had significant line management experience, or achieved a leadership position with an organisation doesn’t mean to say they can design or run a training programme. Facilitating a workshop is a skill, which not everyone can do well. Be wary of someone without specialist learning and development experience who is calling themselves a trainer (or more commonly leadership/management expert!)

3. Coaching – the ‘new’ training?

Since coaching emerged as a separate discipline in its own right, I’ve noticed a worrying trend. Coaching seems to be the new training. When you look closely, actually the provider is offering training not coaching. When people talk about team coaching, they are very often referring to facilitation. Expect every training organisation to offer you executive coaching. Do check out their coaching qualifications and membership of a coaching federation. If the organisations don’t fulfil the criteria that I outlined in part 1 of this blog, then walk away.

4. The myth of the silver bullet

We’ve all done it – seen a training course as a silver bullet which will magically ‘cure’ someone of a deep-seated development area. Sending someone on classroom based training is the least effective way for someone to learn. If you think it about it, rarely does someone get 8 hours of learning from an 8 hour course. However, skilled the programme leader, there will always be parts of a training course which you don’t need.

Sadly what is often a common occurrence; line managers abdicate their responsibilities, and send a direct report on a training course to fix their behavioural problems. Unless you are supporting the direct report’s learning before and after the programme, the reality is that any changes made after the course are very unlikely to be sustained. When I talk about supporting learning, what I am meaning is the following:

Agree before the programme personal (and specific) learning objectives for the direct report which directly relate to the strategic and operational needs of the business
Meet with your direct report after the event and agree how you will support them to implement their post event action plan.

Over 80% of people after attending a training course will either, not do anything different after the course or try a few things, find it difficult and give up.

A good training consultant will spend as much time talking with you about how you will intend to support learning back in the workplace, as to the actual training need and potential solution.

5. Enjoy the smoothie

A good training consultant will advocate a blended learning solution. What this means is a solution which involves a variety of learning events, tailored to the learners needs, which take place over a length of time. For example, it could include classroom training, self-study, field work, coaching, e-learning etc

6. Savile row? or off-the-peg?

If you are being asked to spend more than £1500 a day per trainer, then you should expect a fully bespoked learning programme. This means you should see evidence of a full training needs analysis, which informs the final design and pay for design time. You should also expect to have a pilot programme to test out your proposed solutions.

7. Check out the small print

Do ask what is and isn’t included in the quoted price for you. For example, many training consultants will quote a figure excluding expenses. Venue costs, travel, VAT, accommodation, materials, subsistence may actually add up to a significant cost. A good training consultant will be able to give you a clear steer on what these expenses will add up to.

8. Return on Investment

A good training consultant will work with you to identify your proposed return on investment for your training budget.

9. Tools of the trade

By this I mean valid PI insurance, and likely to be VAT registered. After all you would expect your accountant to have PI insurance and charge you VAT. So, why not your training consultant?

Right, that’s my rant fully over. If you would like some advice on how to get more out of your business’s training budget, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. + 44 (0) 1234 48 0123 or heather@theefficiencycoach.co.uk

Building in support for learning

Heather Townsend — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:44:23 +0000

I spent last week camping with the family on the Isle of Wight. During the week, I spent a lot of time looking at all the different designs of tent, wondering which tent would suit the needs of my young family.

Now some people would say a tent is a tent. However, there is a vast amount of difference in the quality, strength and stability of a ‘budget’ 8-man tent and a top of the range 8-man tent. However, I found the easy way to tell a budget tent from a ‘top-of-the-range’ tent was the quality, positioning and number of guy ropes on the tent – or ‘lines of support’.

You probably didn’t realise it, but there is a good analogy between guy ropes and training. Many a time I’ve been discussing an individual’s development needs with a partner or director – and it becomes apparent that they want a quick fix for their direct report’s behavioural problems. There is a myth that a 1 day course, in isolation, can be a quick fix for behavioural problems. This is akin to buying a cheap tent, with its limited lines of support, and wondering why it fails to stand up in strong winds.

In my experience, there are no quick fixes for people needing to learn new behavioural traits. It takes a lot of support – and support at important points – particularly when people are under pressure. Similar to the ‘top of the range’ tent’s myriad of guy ropes, people when learning a new behavioural trait need support from people around them – peers, team mates, family, friends, line manager etc. This support may take the form of feedback, encouragement or patience! In fact it takes 50+ repetitions before a new behaviour becomes a ‘habit’.

So how can you build lines of support for your people’s development?

1. Firstly, agree learning objectives with your direct report BEFORE they attend or complete the learning activity

2. Discuss with your direct report after the learning event, how it apples to their learning objectives and what support they need from you to carry out their post development action plan

3. Choose a blended learning approach – i.e. a training programme that uses a mixture of different learning experiences, spread over a period of time. This multiples the lines of support and the focus needed to make the behavioural change.

4. Consider offering coaching to your direct report. A good coach, such as one from The Efficiency Coach, will help increase your direct report’s ability and motivation to make the change, by enabling personal insight and commitment, and offering valuable support and encouragement along the way.

If you would like help with your personal development, why not give us at The Efficiency Coach, a call on 01234 48 0123?

How to achieve more with your continuing professional development

Heather Townsend — Sat, 09 May 2009 17:29:40 +0000

I was in my local library today. (For those of you in the UK, libraries are a great resource to help you achieve more for your time and effort). As I walked in I noticed there were balloons up – and it was ‘adult learning week’.

This got me thinking, how can you achieve more with your personal professional development. Because, let’s be honest, the annual Continuing Professional Development returns to the institutes can be a right pain in the back side.

The CIPD has recently cottoned onto what effective Continuing Professional Development is (and isn’t). It’s any activity or thinking that you do that progresses your learning. Yes, really that simple. However, I fear that some of the professional institutes, such as the law society, are not quite as far advanced in their thinking, as they still require you to attend or complete formal learning events. Although the good news is that you can count coaching hours towards your CPD requirements for the law society.

Here are some of my top tips for achieving more with your professional development, regardless of how much your training budget has been cut in the last 12 months:

1. Do you or your company need to pay for the training, coaching, qualifications - there may be funding available

2. Find and work with a mentor

3. Sign up for free seminars (both in person and virtual events)

4. Use every piece of work that you do as a learning opportunity. At the end of the piece of work, ask yourself, ‘what have I learnt’ and ‘how can I apply my learning in the future’

5. Write down objectives for your personal development – you are more likely to achieve them

6. Join and borrow books from your local library

7. Build in time in your normal working week to plan, record and reflect on your learnings during the week

8. Use the services of a professional coach, such as a coach from ‘The Efficiency Coach’

9. Keep a note pad handy to jot down ideas, thoughts, learnings from useful, day-to-day experiences – for example, negotiating with a local tradesperson

10. Ask to shadow or bag carry for a more senior colleague

11. Subscribe to professional internet forums and participate in on-line discussion groups

If you have been inspired by reading this blog, or want to talk further how to achieve more with your personal development – why not drop us a line on heather@theefficiencycoach.co.uk, look at my website on www.theefficiencycoach.co.uk, or call me on 01234 48 0123. We would love to hear from you.