Training, beware of false good ideas

Training employees is an excellent practice. The goal can be to train on a new tool, to develop managers’ skills or to impact the company’s retention rate. However, it is important to choose your training carefully. Therefore, when it comes to training, you must beware of false good ideas.

Making contact

Last week I was contacted via Linked in by a person who wanted to set up training for his teams. Excellent idea you may say. At least that’s what I thought when I received the contact. At Iceberg Management, we systematically offer a first meeting totally free of charge and without obligation in order to discuss with the client. This exchange allows us to identify more precisely the client’s expectations, which then allows us to make a customized service offer. It was during this call that I realized that the training project, as thought by this person, was a bad idea.

The learning objectives of a training

As the client and I progressed in the conversation, I realized a critical pitfall. The client had little time and wanted to talk about many things. She wanted her employees to improve their communication, feedback, and time and priority management. At the same time, she wanted her teams to develop their management skills, learn to make decisions as a team and delegate more easily. Six major training themes in total. The challenge was that each of these topics deserved at least a specific dedicated content and a training course of its own.

Developing a training content

At Iceberg Management, we frequently develop content specifically for our clients in order to perfectly meet their needs and issues. We do not approach our feedback training in the same way when we intervene in a law firm or in a school board. However, even though we customize and adapt to the daily realities of our clients, we design our training content with a real learning logic. We combine different methods in order to meet the andragogical criteria that adults learn in different ways.

So we can’t condense six training topics into half a day, or even a full day. And if we did, the learning retained by participants would unfortunately be minimal.

Meeting training needs

The client and I discussed the topic at length and agreed to go in stages. Communication was a key issue for her. As a result, we designed training content dedicated to this topic in which we were able to incorporate the practice of feedback. Having this foundation in place will allow us to develop future interventions with the teams. In a second phase, we will address team decision-making and delegation, both of which require harmonious and effective communication beforehand.

Meeting our clients’ expectations

Exploratory meetings are essential exchanges in order to build a solid relationship between the client and the consultant. Take advantage of this opportunity and make an appointment with us now so that we can discuss your training projects. We will be happy to answer your questions and explain our process.

We look forward to meeting you.

By Ophélie Terrien, MSc, PCC

Editor of the HR Espace Conseils blog – Iceberg Management