What do you think is the biggest problem in corporate training? Of course, there’s no one answer and the biggest problem in one organization might not be a problem in another.
But overall I think that given a commitment to training and competent people in the training department, the biggest problem is implementation.
In other words, trainees don’t implement the training they’ve received.
“The American Society for Training and Development says that by the time you go back to your job, you’ve lost 90% of what you’ve learned in training.” I found this in the Wall Street Journal article, “So Much Training, So Little to Show for It.”
The job of the training department is to effect change in the trainees and this doesn’t happen nearly often enough. When trainees don’t implement the training the desired ROI isn’t achieved.
But what if the course never ended?
Suppose a training course had a life after the course? Suppose aspects of it continued — forever?
Here are some possibilities for a never-ending course flow:
It starts with a live training course.
When it ends, the content is put in the Learning Management System (LMS) or somewhere on the company’s Intranet. This could include a video recording (webcam and/or slides) as well as a PDF version for quick scanning through the text.
The LMS includes an online discussion group where attendees can ask — and answer — questions and discuss the content and how they are implementing it, after the live class is over.
The trainer, the Subject Matter Expert (SME), continues to participate by answering questions and providing helpful suggestions.
If the course is a one-time event, after questions peter out, everything can be put in a permanent Knowledge Base. Otherwise, it can just stay forever in the LMS.
The trainer gives the trainees’ managers access to this online version of the course so managers can point their attendees to the content, and so managers know what was taught and can support it.
The SME incorporates the trainees’ comments & questions the next time he or she teaches the course.
I know that some pieces of this concept happen, but I think that it is rarely fully implemented.
About the Author:
Ellen Finkelstein is a PowerPoint MVP who can train you or the presenters in your organization to create high-impact, engaging, professional presentations for training, sales, business, or education. For more information visit www.ellenfinkelstein.com
