Research on training's effectiveness highlights the crucial importance of three types of engagement – psychological, organisational, and practical.
Psychological engagement
Participants are psychologically engaged if they want the training programme and believe they will gain from it. In others words, if they have good reasons for really contributing to, and getting the most from training.
The key question to ask of any training is “Why are participants involved?” Hopefully participants are not there merely because they have been invited, or it's expected of them, or they guess it might help, or to get a qualification.
Building psychological engagement means two things...
● Selling - demonstrating the programme will provide effective solutions to participants' real-life problems and opportunities, and...
● Contracting - testing participants' commitment by agreeing their responsibilities, e.g. that they will attend, will use what they learn, will get/provide feedback, etc.
Sure, selling and contracting take time, and might reduce participant numbers. However, poor selling and contracting inevitably wastes resources, and diminishes training's effectiveness.
Things to try...
● Promote training with bold, attractive promises, and convincing evidence that it works. Don't be modest. (If you can't do that, maybe you should consider alternatives to training.)
● Ask individuals about their big goals and ambitions, and have honest conversations about the programme's relevance and use.
● Test participants’ engagement by giving them pertinent pre-work in advance, e.g. require them to get feedback, or implement a personal development plan.
Organisational engagement
Obstacles, disincentives, scarce opportunities, disinterested managers and colleagues, and big workloads all deter post-programme practise and application. So, we ought to ask “Do participants have the opportunities, time, resources and support to use what training provides?”
Some organisations have asked that question, and made significant changes to how they train. Other organisations have asked the question, and simply decided training is the wrong solution.
Things to try...
● Get executives’ involved with training's design, launch and implementation. Just tiny executive involvements make a big difference, especially if executives repeatedly ask about the programme.
● Make training part of an existing process to which people are already committed. For example, position 360 Feedback as part of appraisal, or leadership training part of a business change.
● Support participants after the programme, e.g. with refreshers, coaching, action learning.
Practical engagement
We've all suffered programmes that turned out to be irrelevant. And, endured programmes laden with theory, presentations and discussions. So, a key question is "Does the programme provide practical solutions to participants' real-life problems and opportunities?"
If not, try...
● Early on, ask participants to set themselves clear business benefits from training, such as reduced costs, quality improvements, and increased throughput. (If they can't decide tangible benefits, should they attend?)
● Alternative learning methods that address participants' problems and opportunities directly, (e.g. action learning, coaching) rather than workshops.
● Challenging and stretching participants' existing knowledge rather than give them extra models, processes and direction. Get them questioning and experiementing.
Please let me know if you have training that is a bit disappointing. And, if you have questions or comments, it would be great to hear from you.
Peter
