Monthly Archives: November 2010

Writing Training Evaluation Report

We pilot test training, don’t we? Isn’t an evaluation study or a needs analysis just as important to our success? Get your research team, your department’s two biggest nitpickers and the coordinator from your client department together and do a dress rehearsal.

You can download excellent powerpoint slides on HR management, business strategy and personal development HERE.

Only during a dry run will you find out that your findings aren’t as crystal clear as you thought or that “MBO” or “TA” or “Behavior Mod” are taboo words in the client organization while “goal setting,” “interpersonal communication” and “performance management” are not. You’ll also get a test of the sell-power of your presentation from the client rep. Continue reading →

Training on Communication and Presentation Skills

Most results presentations follow the rule of tradition: We do what we’ve seen others do and hope it works. If our organization traditionally writes 200-page reports, we write 200-page reports. If most presentations are verbal, to small groups, we follow this organizational family formula as well. In reality, a two-day presentation and a 200-page report may be too little for some groups and studies; a two-hour presentation and a 20-page report too much for other circumstances.

You can download excellent powerpoint slides on HR management, business strategy and personal development HERE.

The trick is to tailor. If your report is to be made to six people, find out as much as you can about the communication and organizational needs of those six people. What issues are sensitive to them? What vested interests do they have that relate to your study? What are their communication styles? What outcomes do they expect, and what unexpected results might be rejected out of hand? Continue reading →

Presenting Training Evaluation Results

Know thy audience. When you develop training, you do your best to make it audience sensitive. The same treatment should be afforded the planning of an evaluation or research results presentation. Some of the obvious audience questions to ask and answer are:

• Is the audience all decision makers?
• How do they like results communicated?
• What sorts of presentations have they given “10s” to in the past?
• How do they respond to displays of numbers? Tables? Graphs? Charts? Continue reading →

Developing Training Task Force – Training for Trainers

A training task force (TTF) consists of one or more employees who follow an organized plan for drafting training material, usually of a technical nature, that is obviously beyond the capability of in-house program developers. The desired training material is usually ex¬pected to meet a tight target date, be accurate and have credibility.

If managed according to the guidelines set forth in this article, a training task force can accomplish all these objectives. In return, TTF team members receive invaluable exposure to top-level management, thus facilitating their career development. Allstate’s training department frequently uses training task forces be-cause of its large, decentralized structure and because of its high quality standards. Continue reading →

Behavior Modeling and Practicing the New Skills

In a behavior modeling program, each learner must have an opportunity to practice the new skill. In most cases, it is possible to provide practice opportunities. In certain situations, however, it might not be cost-beneficial to do so. Imagine, for example, that someone advocated that all airline passengers boarding transoceanic flights practice using flotation equipment in water before flying.

The purpose would be to ensure that everyone could float with the flotation device when fully clothed. Those who couldn’t do this would be provided with feedback and coaching on how to use the flotation equipment. Continue reading →

Behavior Modeling and Skills Deficiency

Although we might assume that we can readily identify the behaviors to be learned in all skill deficiency situations, many times one set of behaviors is not enough because the skill must be used in a number of significantly different types of situations.

You can download excellent powerpoint slides on HR management, business strategy and personal development HERE.

For example, in attempting to train salespeople to build rapport with clients or potential clients, we may find that one set of behaviors is not sufficient because there are many different types of potential clients. Po¬tential clients may, for example, be categorized as: a) reluctant, b) openly hostile, c) needing help in solving a problem, d) friendly, but uncertain of specific needs; each of these requires a different set of behaviors. Continue reading →