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Issue 5 · Monday, 2 February 2009
A personal message from Joan
I hope all is well with you, that your new year is beginning as you had hoped and any resolutions you made are beginning to bear fruit.
I recently read that January 24th is, according to research, the most depressing day of the year. I did find it a little depressing to read that, January 24th being my birthday, but hey it seems we’re now past the worse day of the year and that’s got to be good!
You might remember from my last newsletter that we’ve some big plans here at Ladder for the coming year.
Our first task has been to rewrite the text on the website. The idea is to more accurately describe what we do (yeah I know, it might have been a good idea to do that in the first place—but that’s a very long story) in a way that’s more easily accessible (ditto).
So, please take a look at www.ladderconsulting.com and, if you have some time, I’d love to hear what you think.
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8 steps to ensure training leads to improved performance
I’m often asked by clients how to ensure that the learning from training courses results in improved performance in the workplace.
As an example, a client has recently asked me to develop a ‘Leadership Skills’ training programme and to outline a plan for ensuring that the learning from the programme would lead to the delegates improving their leadership behaviours.
This is a summary of the plan I have designed for them:
The Plan
Step 1: Define what ‘Leadership Skills’ means at Agency A.
Step 2: Develop performance standards that describe what leadership skills look like in practice.
Step 3: Assess the delegates' current skills and competency against the performance standards.
Step 4: Prioritise and define as learning objectives the outcomes from the assessment.
Step 5: Design and deliver the training. Introduce the leadership skills performance standards as part of the training. Deliver the training in three sessions with the delegates implementing the skills learnt in each session as workplace projects.
Step 6: Provide coaching to delegates as they implement the skills in the workplace projects.
Step 7: Deliver a review workshop that includes:
- The identification of any ongoing learning needs and how these will be met.
- Communicating how the performance standards will be integrated into the performance review system.
Step 8: Ongoing coaching of the delegates by their line manager and management of performance against the leadership performance standards.
Summary
The key is in anchoring the training and learning to performance standards which are then integrated into the performance review system. This means the application of the learning from the training into the workplace is a ‘must do’ rather than, as is sometimes the case, an optional activity. Supporting the delegates in their practice of the skills is, of course, vital.
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Joan Henshaw publishes her monthly Ladder newsletter for business owners and managers. If you want ideas on how to improve your practical people management practices, get your free tips now at www.ladderconsulting.com.
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