A New Year's Resolution For Training
By Michael McGinnis

There is something in common that we share across all training departments, whether it be with Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, not-for-profits, educational institutions, small business, consulting firms, or vendors, and that is that our customers are people. Whether it relates to providing them with new skills required to perform their job, knowledge to understand things better, supervisor or management skills to meet their daily goals, or leadership development to chart new paths and influence others towards this vision, we are all dealing with people. It is therefore paramount in my view that before we jump back into our training roles in this New Year that we reflect on how we plan on helping humanity this year, one student at a time.

The following is a list of ideas for your consideration as you make your personal career and department goals for 2006.

1. Always be a student first, teacher second
I was fortunate to have spent a lot of time volunteering in many capacities (children’s oncology camp, emergency medical technician, hospice care provider, and countless activities abroad), where I experienced the most profound learnings. Armed with all types of knowledge and skills, along with a great desire to help others, I quickly realized that as I left each experience, I learned more than I taught. These humbling times of reflection taught me a very powerful lesson about being an effective teacher, a lesson so old that it was often forgotten, which was to seek first to understand than to be understood.

As I ventured back into the fast pace and ever changing nature of business today, I realized that there were all sorts of people, with all types of needs, whether they were in the corporate offices, rows of cubicles, on the production floor, in sales offices, working at home, etc. After years of attempting to convince these employees of what training requirements they should take, I realized that I was going about this the wrong way. I was seeking to be understood. Once I switched my stance to learning about these employees was I able to help them. The irony I often found was that they ultimately realized they needed what I had to offer, but only accepted it after they told me first what they wanted.

2. We are all in this together
So many industries and organizations are experiencing high level change. There are ever demanding goals to increase efficiencies while reducing costs. The opportunity for outsourcing goes way beyond just manufacturing today as the other areas of the world are catching up on all fronts. The concept of security has all but vanished for most employees. And for most of our employees behind each of them stand a family with significant financial obligations, along with their own dreams and desires, dependent on a steady income to meet these needs.

The very nature of all this change and uncertainty in our future brings with it a need for training and HR departments to understand the fears and concerns of their employees, and make some effort to help them in these areas. The failure to understand and respond to these needs is not only a reason for lower productivity levels; it is in my view -- immoral. Although we cannot guarantee them their jobs or levels of income, we can at least be a group that listens to their concerns as senior management places their focus on new ways to increase profits to hopefully keep us employed for the next 12 months.

The continued realization I share with employees at all levels of the organization is that we are truly all in this together. We are dependent on the hourly employees to do their jobs effectively, supervisors to manage their people effectively, managers to plan effectively and leaders to lead their organization’s employees effectively. Without them (people), there is no need for our job.

3. One student at a time
But how can I help them all, there are 3,000 employees? It was during the time that I was volunteering in Africa that I confronted the most profound level of feeling overwhelmed. While offering medical assistance in refugee and other depressed areas, I looked out at the scope of help needed and felt totally useless. On one occasion I was ready to pack my bags and get the heck out of there, when a dear friend stopped me and listened to my reasons for giving up. Then she shared a story that I will never forget.

She told me the story about a person walking down a beach after a storm and saw thousands of starfish washed up on the beach. They shook their head in the sheer numbers of starfish that would soon die. As they continued down the beach they saw a young child, and as they grew nearer they noticed that the child was picking up starfish and throwing them back into the sea. They walked up to the child and asked, “There are so many washed up on the beach, you will never get to them all in time.” The child looked up at them and responded, “no, but I will help this one,” as they threw another starfish into the sea, and then asked of the person, “Would you care to help me?”

Even though we all share; tight deadlines, unrealistic objectives, attempting to teach leadership to individuals who could care less about their employees, calculating ROI, don’t forget to remind yourself and your team to take that time to help out that one person who at that moment is in need, to add a brief personal touch to a student taking an on-line learning initiative, or rolling up your sleeves and helping out a production line that is short staffed. Remember, taking the extra time with a person can often result in that they will become another “believer” who will then become another “instructor” within the rank and file.

4. Think out of the box
It often appears overwhelming and near impossible to provide the quantity and quality of training needed in our organizations today. New equipment and processes are demanding new skills and knowledge with minimal learning curves. Many training departments are facing increased workload with fewer financial and people resources. DON’T GIVE UP.

If there is one area of training that I hoped to have influenced others in the training profession on, it is realizing that you can accomplish much more than you ever thought was possible without spending very much money. This has become the theme of my presentations at training conferences, customer visits, benchmark sessions, and my website, www.trainingonashoestring.com. In my last two positions in training management, I was faced with major training initiatives and severely cut training budgets. Our story was similar to that of any great feat when confronted with limited resources; being creative, taking some risk, and using what you already have.

I recommend viewing the movie, Apollo 13, where their mission nearly ended in tragedy. I recall the scene after Houston understood the “gravity” (couldn’t avoid using) of the situation, when a bunch of engineers pulled out all of the equipment and supplies that were on the rocket, and someone said something like, “this is what they have to work with, now your job is to come up with a solution using this.” In my case, we were able to use a lot of creativity with free and inexpensive tools to create amazingly successful on-line initiatives with great results.

5. Get in touch with your management team
The recent articles relating to why management hates HR or training have created quite a stir, as well they should have. It is my view that many training departments are out of touch and are setting themselves up for failure. The nature of business has changed dramatically requiring new and creative training solutions.

When working with groups to identify their customer, whether this is for the development of a mission statement, value stream map exercise, or basic teambuilding, I ask each group to identify their “primary” customer out of their list of customers. When I performed this for HR and training personnel, the number one response was the employee. I then challenged them with the definition of a primary customer, which is the customer who ultimately determines whether you are successful and will determine whether you stay in business. Often requiring a lot of prodding, I finally get a begrudgingly response which is senior management.

For many of us, it is working with people that has drawn us into this profession and we would like to believe that it is the employee that is our primary customer. However, the truth is that it is senior management who will make the call and should make the call. Therefore it is mission critical that we learn the language of senior management and understand their needs as paramount. We must gain their respect and have credibility to be effective. Be sure to find ways of getting your seat at the table. Remember, seek first to understand them as well, and then you can earn the right to be understood.

Happy New Year and thanks to all of you who have shared your ideas which has helped me to become more effective and successful!

Reprinted from LTI, Learning & Training Innovations Magazine