Three ways to maximize the benefits of the training for your change initiative

So, your whole team or even entire organization completed training on the upcoming changes, and yet the lessons didn’t stick.

 

Sound familiar? Sometimes even when an organization provides training as part of a deliberate change management effort, lasting changes don’t result.

 

What gives?

 

I’ve found there are three key challenges that can render training ineffective, and fortunately, there are solutions to address them.

 

Challenge 1: Sometimes training focuses on general change management processes and allows discussion on important topics, such as transition management, but does not include any discussion of the specific outcomes desired from the change. Other times, the training is specifically targeted at teaching skills and behaviours related to the new change without offering any insights on the human dynamics of undergoing the change experience. Training can be rendered ineffective if it is either too generic or too specific.

 

Solution: Ideally, the training offered is specifically designed for the change being introduced. This includes a clear articulation of the change outcomes, new expected behaviours, and clarity of the revised processes and routines at work. It should also include insights on the change experience and should provide employees with the strategies they need to transition through the change in the healthiest way possible. When training focuses on skills development, co-creation of new routines and processes, and provides knowledge and skills to effectively transition through the change, you get the best ROI on your investment in offering training.

 

Challenge 2: When we invest in training, we assume that the sharing of knowledge will lead to desired changes, but a one-time training event rarely leads to skill development. People need time to make sense of the changes both for the organization and regarding their impact on their specific roles. Whether employees adopt new change behaviours often depends on the autonomy they are given in shaping the change process.

Solution: The most effective training extends over a period of time, providing employees with a combination of concrete skill development and time to practice and develop these skills before continuing to learn more. Instead of cramming all the training into a single comprehensive event, recognize that there is greater value in a phase-in approach. Identify a chronological series of activities, events, and experiences that take employees from day one to proficiency. Take advantage of methods that accelerate learning paths and reduce the time it takes for employees to become proficient (see Learning Paths by Jim Williams and Steve Rosenbaum). An effectively designed training experience can result in even more positive outcomes when it is delivered in collaboration with business leads, and when it provides both resources and the continuous support of active feedback to help employees adopt new behaviours.

 

Challenge 3: We assume that if we change an individual’s behaviour, we can make change work.  But how one behaves is determined by may factors. Kurt Lewin, the social psychologist, considered a pioneer of change management, explains that an individual’s behaviour is a function both of the person and of her environment. Training usually only focuses on half the equation and often leaves the environment out, and that can make change management less effective.

 

Solution: Effective change management designs change right into the environment. In addition to working with the individual’s desire to change, it means including considerations such as assessing the talent of employees in terms of their fit with organizational goals, assessing the impact of the change on work processes, evaluating the resources needed to implement new change, revising reward systems to reinforce desired behaviours, and strategically aligning the organizational structure of roles and responsibilities. Ideally, the supporting environmental changes get designed before training is offered to employees; then the employees can be informed about the environmental changes to support their new expected behaviours and can be offered opportunities to practice their new routines and work processes.

 

If you want to get the highest value from your investment in providing training to your employee team, review your change plans to include these three recommendations, and I think you’ll find change will stick.