Training is not optional!

Training is not optional. It’s not something we do just when we have the time or the “spare” cash to do it. It is a critically important business function, just as important as sales and marketing, manufacturing, service provision, maintenance, or anything else that we do to provide a service or product to the marketplace.

Training is something that must be done to ensure that we can survive, let alone thrive, in a volatile marketplace. In times of downturn, such as the one we are all experiencing now, the temptation is to cut back on non-essentials. Sure, trim back a little, but trim back too far and you will inevitably find yourself in trouble. Too little resources put into sales and marketing will see sales and even customers fall off. Too little spent on maintenance will see the plant fail and customers let down. All too often cutting costs to save money, without thinking about what those cost really are, will leave your business in an even more vulnerable position. If what seem to be ‘costs’ are actually important investments, then cuts can have disastrous downstream consequences.

Sure we need to be careful what we spend and where we spend it, but isn’t that always the case? The interesting thing is that what we can safely trim back on in a downturn, without adversely affecting the business, are the things that could, and should, have been trimmed back, in the good times. In other words, they’re a form of waste that the business should have been trying to reduce anyway (see some of our blogs on lean production).

Training is like preventative maintenance for our people. The right training for the right people at the right time will ensure that these valuable resources (perhaps our most valuable resources) are kept finely tuned. Effective training ensures they’re able to respond to the demands that every business faces and that they are ready and capable of responding to the inevitable upswing in demand when it arrives. And it will.

The right training for the right people at the right time is all about using training strategically to equip and position your business for both the present and the future. Training is about much more than skills. As a strategic tool, it can be just as much about changing attitudes as developing skills, business processes and other systems within a business.

What I’m suggesting is that rather than treating training as it has been treated historically—that is, something that is done to individuals, and that happens to them in a classroom; try thinking of it as something that happens to your organisation, something that happens in the workplace, even while doing the work. That’s right, it’s a strategic change management tool, one that can be integrated into the workplace and even the work itself.

If you had problems with rework, errors or something else before the downturn, and the problems were hurting you then, they must be hurting now. Manage the downturn, and your response to the upturn, by taking a strategic approach to training.

Did you know that there is government funding available to support strategic training initiatives? So even if you don’t have the money to make the improvements you want, support from the government could make the impossible, possible.

Talk about workplace learning :)

How has the downturn affected your business? How can a strategic, integrated approach to training improve your business and position it to take full advantage of the economic recovery? How can training in your organisation become an investment rather than an expense? We look forward to hearing from you.

Peter Hancock
http://www.wli.com.au/


Related Articles:

• Why focus on workplace learning?
• Curing a sick workplace: Coffee and cake, or onions?
• What is Lean Manufacturing?

Why focus on workplace learning?

Most people don’t think about workplaces as learning places. Traditionally schools, universities, colleges and, even kindergartens, are thought of as learning places—but not factories, building sites, warehouses, offices, salons, workshops, or butchers’ shops! Many of us have the idea that learning is what we do first—then we go to work, out into the ‘real world’, and we think we won’t have to bother with learning any more!

However this is not the case. The ‘real world’, and the world of work, requires us to learn and to keep learning. With constant changes in markets, customers, clients and products; new technologies, new systems and ways of working; shifting policies and regulations—even with new managers, and staff; learning becomes essential, whether we like it or not. So there is a need for learning at work. There are various ways to meet these learning needs, training is only one of them. And while training (either on, or off-site) may be useful, there are many other possibilities. Some of them are not very well understood, nor used effectively.

There is an enormous amount of important learning happening in workplaces—whether we realise it or not. Much of this learning happens without any formal training or instruction at all. It is important to remember that learning happens without teaching—even when we’re not aware of it. In workplaces there is a great deal of informal learning going on, all of the time. Sometimes, unfortunately, what people are learning turns out to be part of the problem rather than part of the solution! All of this learning needs to be understood, and some of it changed.

We also know from our own school experiences, that it is quite possible for there to be a great deal of teaching (or training) going on—but what people are learning can be an entirely different matter!

That’s why, although we’re a Registered Training Organisation with nationally recognised courses to offer, we focus on workplace learning, change and productive work—not just training. It is important to understand that there are many factors involved in trying to ‘drive’ or facilitate change (or continuous improvement) in a workplace. When training is successful in ‘making a difference’ it is usually because there are multiple factors within the workplace which support and strengthen the learning. For instance:

• People are given the opportunity to apply what they have learned and practise the skills they develop.
• There is support for some ‘risk taking’ (in learning and development) and ‘mistakes’ are recognised—sometimes even celebrated—as opportunities for improvement.
• The culture of the workplace values, recognises and rewards learning.
• Opportunities are available and systems are put in place to ‘capture’ and share learning across the organisation.

Conversely, without these things happening, even excellent training programs may fail to have real impact as ‘things go back to normal’ after the initial enthusiasm of the training session wanes.

You might like to share your stories with us!

• What are people learning in your workplace—and is it all productive learning, which benefits both individuals and the organisation?
• Is learning valued and celebrated in your workplace? How?
• Can you think of examples where teaching or training has taken place, but nothing has changed? Why was that?

Dr Peter Waterhouse
Work Doctor at Workplace Learning Initiatives Pty Ltd.

Related Articles:

• Is your workplace sick?
• Symptoms of a sick workplace
• Why blaming doesn’t work
• Curing a sick workplace: Coffee and cake, or onions?