Training in many companies is broken.
Before I make enemies amongst you, yes there are many highly-dedicated people in training roles, diligent efforts to collect data about audience groups and business results, and aggressive project plans underway to keep the training coming and coming fast because, "'Our people need to be better at _____." However, despite all this near-Herculean effort the resulting training is all too often lackluster. To quote an interviewee I spoke to today (a tenured professional at a major investment firm), "Most training I go to is 10% useful. The remaining 90% is useless junk."
With all of the effort put behind the design and implementation of training,
how can so much of it be useless junk?
Let's look at (just a few of) the unfortunate realities:
Most training is focused exclusively on the ineffective, insensitive communication of what the audience needs to do differently from what they are today.
Imagine yourself getting dressed for your high school reunion. At the reunion will be some dear friends and also others with whom you did not have the best time during your high school years. As you consider what you will wear to the reunion one thing is clear to you: "I want to look good. I want to impress them."
When you arrive at the reunion, the first person who speaks to you says, "Hello. My name is _____. The way you're dressed right now is all wrong. Let me tell you what research says impressive reunion goers wear." Some of you would wither and skulk away. Others would throw your drink in that bastard's face. Regardless of your reaction, the insensitive comment would not feel good to you. You may decide to discard the opinion as useless junk. You may, if you had been thinking you were in need of a makeover, do something about it. However, would you do that, or would you write off both the comment and the messenger?
When trainees (our metaphorical reunion goers) come into most training sessions, a stranger (the facilitator) at the front of the room 'tells them' the WIIFM of the training (You will learn to 'be more impressive' as a result of this training.) The course design then bombards the trainee with research-based skills, tools, and models all focused on one singular goal: You need a makeover! I know that isn't your intent, but are you leaving your learners with a bad taste in their mouths? Are they in turn writing off both you and your message?
Training done well is a form of group therapy. It is about an inspiring connection between and amongst people. Now, that may make some of you bristle. However, it is a reality when you consider the natural resistance of the human brain to change. Done well, training helps the brains of learners to admit the need for change, want to change, understand what is involved in the change, and be motivated to do the work needed to...change.
Perhaps my voice alone is too thin. Perhaps you are curious, inspired, or even unsettled by my thoughts so far. If so, take a look at Rita Pierson's TED Talk: Every Kid Needs A Champion. As you do mentally replace the words 'child', 'kid', and 'student' with employee or person. Then please come back for the next unfortunate training reality.
Perhaps my voice alone is too thin. Perhaps you are curious, inspired, or even unsettled by my thoughts so far. If so, take a look at Rita Pierson's TED Talk: Every Kid Needs A Champion. As you do mentally replace the words 'child', 'kid', and 'student' with employee or person. Then please come back for the next unfortunate training reality.
The focus of training is off, rendering learning as non-user-friendly. The presentation of content and slides overrules what should be our focus: Learners learning.
Back in 1989, I was working in the training department of a regional bank in the Boston area. There we used Mac computers to develop our training materials. I had never worked on a computer, but my Mac was so intuitive. There were file folders just like in the bank's file cabinets. There was a trash can just like the one next to my desk. It was relatable, human, and friendly. Aldus PageMaker was our desktop publishing software and it offered a true WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface. That intuitive software enabled us to be truly creative and design some beautifully formatted materials for our training...back in 1989.
My next career move took me to the training function of an insurance company. On my first day I was introduced to my cube and my...PC. This PC was DOS-based and gifted us with the glowing blue screen of Word Perfect. There was no WYSIWYG in Word Perfect. It required us to enter code in order to define fonts, paragraph returns, and margins. It was ghastly. When Windows finally came into the picture everyone was excited. Finally, we would be back to what we knew with Mac. That hope was dashed day one. The interface was not based upon human interaction. It was not intuitive. To add to this PCs crashed. Band aided add-ons were needed. Conflicts internally and with external peripherals were common. However, the work needed to carry on and the PC was our foundational tool to create our training.
Today, to understand this dichotomy more, I searched the web (on my Mac) to look back at the first versions of the Mac and Windows platforms. This video showed me the problem. Mac was built using a familiar, tested and intuitive metaphor of file folders. It looked like a desk top. Windows looked like a desk, too, but that of a disorganized computer programmer without a social life.
The bottom line: The focus of Mac was and is on the user. The early focus of Windows was on the technology. Yet, companies like the insurance company where I worked had invested millions in the Windows platform. There was no choice but to deal with the flawed interface. They had to use add-ons, downloads, and IT to deal with the ongoing conflicts and dreaded blue screen crashes.
When I see most training designs and accompanying materials today I am harkened back to my bumpy transition from Mac to PC/Windows. Just this week, I was given a course designed by another to lead for the first time. The two-day program, focused on helping learners be more consultative with clients, had...143 slides. On most slides were bullets...just bullets. Given that most people do not carry bullets with them into the classroom (as Security frowns upon that), we are immediately working from a non-learner focused and non-intuitive foundation. Yet, it continues. Why? Training departments have invested millions in rolling out training that looks this way. How could they change? Stakeholders want content and slides and bullets. Just like Windows programmers, they are fixated on what everyday users (the learners) do not intuitively want or understand.
In a recent class I designed for myself to lead, the one-day course had 12 slides. The client said, "Ken, 12 slides for an entire day? I've never seen so few before for a one-day class. Will that be enough?" I asked him if he trusted me and he said yes. After the course, he was astounded at what he had seen and said, "That was amazing! You got them thinking and talking and learning in a way I've never seen before." He was right. The foundation of the design was on the learner and not on the slides. Since then, I have designed five other courses for this client and my stakeholder has become a proponent of fewer slides/more engagement as a foundation of the training.
Facilitators are trapped in a system that expects them to be nothing more than talking heads.
One of my favorite films is 'Broadcast News'. If you're familiar with this movie you might already be making the link between it and the current state of facilitation. Regardless of whether you have seen the movie or not, please take a look at the trailer through the lens of training and facilitation in your organization. When you're finished, come back to me. I'll wait patiently here for you.
What in the trailer seemed all too familiar to you? The telegenic newscaster (William Hurt) is simply a face. He is expected to deliver the messages of others, yet has no understanding of what he is actually saying. The frenzied work (and immensely more intelligent talent) behind the scenes was kept off-camera to the viewers. Albert Brooks, despite his knowledge, humor, and passion is deemed inappropriate in the looks department to deliver the news he knows so well.
In most companies where I work, the facilitators are asked to dial-down their passion and intelligence. In a recent session on expert facilitation skills I led, the participants said words that made me boil. "Ken, we are told to stick to the agenda. We have to cover our content in the allotted time or we get 'dinged'. If the audience starts to talk, it throws us off and we get in trouble for that." My instinct was that this was a perception versus a reality. However, after some digging on my part I saw that they were speaking the truth about their organization's expectations of them. Just say the words. Don't think. Don't get the audience to think. Read the news and stick to the script you're given.
Many of these facilitators are in actuality more like Albert Brooks than William Hurt in 'Broadcast News'. They are smart, passionate people who want to make a difference. However, their organizations are making them don metaphorical blonde 'William Hurt' wigs and corseting them in tight-fitting blazers when they are 'on camera' at the front of the training room. There is no room for true learning to happen. The design won't allow it. The slides don't allow it. The leaders frown upon it. The learners suffer for it.
Changing all of this is my goal. I will continue working in whatever small way I can to provoke the transformation of training into learning. However, I can't do it alone. My challenge to you is to consider the above provocations when you look at training in your company. Whatever your role...facilitator, designer, client, learner, leader...ask yourself if learning is truly happening as a result of the diligent training efforts in which your company invests time, money, and resources. If yes, congratulations! You are one of the few. If no, do something about it. It's time to clean out the junk that is piling up year after year in your training rooms. Eventually, when the junk fills up those rooms there will be no place left for learning at all.
Finally, look back at the picture above in this post. See the rainbow in the distance. That is where we need to head. There is a metaphorical pot of gold there, my friends. It is off in the distance, but that pot of gold is full of money...the business results you wish you were getting from your training. Start the journey today and the just rewards will follow.