Three key ways of thinking about training, learning and development
Three key ways of thinking about training, learning and development
Training needs to be business-driven
As trainers, we need to understand the business, and our role in it. We need to understand the organisation’s goals and the results it wants – and be confident and clear about what needs fixing.
How will what we do affect performance, productivity and results? It’s all about trainer output and impact, not numbers of hours or bums on seats.
The trainer role has changed – from content creator and sage on the stage, our role now includes discovering and curating the free content that’s out there online, organising, editing and making it available to those who need it.
And we need to be able to measure business outcomes, to test, analyse and prove what they learn, your impact – and your value to the business.
Time to start thinking of yourself as a specialist consultant, a business partner, rather than a business asset.
Training needs to be science-led
Metrics matter. Finance, sales and costs, customer and employee ratings – data about the business is being collected and stored.
And business is increasingly looking to that evidence to inform its decisions.
So we need to know where the data is, go and get it and discuss it with the experts, working collaboratively across the organisation as it makes those decisions about its training needs.
We need to learn about neuroscience, too – it’s the basics of learning. Understanding how our brains work is key. There’s readable lay-person stuff out there, and getting to know it makes you better at talking, persuading and delivering training, in ways that work.
Training needs to be learner-centred
Delivered as the user wants it, how they prefer to receive it, there in the medium they want and need it – podcast, video, key point summary, webinar, Skype coaching session, learn on the move, on the train, in the cafe, the sitting room – the learning edges have blurred. It’s not just about sitting in a classroom, now.
We need to understand and use the value of social learning. Bring in the social element, both face to face and digital.
And instead of ‘there’s a course on this in October, do you want it?’ be ready and quick to respond with what they need when they need it.
The world’s changing.
Trainees are changing.
Trainers and training need to change, too.
My Train the Trainer workshops and programmes develop effective teams