Perception of Training and Learning

 

Training & Learning

In earlier times, managers used to send their people for a training if they would be sitting idle. It was a perception that training is one way to occupy them with a meaninful activity, or just becasue people should be made to feel engaged. Trainers are just people who may give you some knowledge, called 'gyan' more colloquially. Managers weren't sure of how this 'gyan' would affect their work and businesses to make impacts on profits, but trainings surely motivated people, more so because it was a welcome break to their fixed, mundane schedule.

Not very long ago, in the mid of 1900s when Donald Kirkpatrick developed the Kirkpatrick
model of measuring training effectiveness.
It had four levels of measuring training effectiveness. These were reaction to training, knowledge retention, transfer of learning on the job and impact on the business in terms of training return on investment (ROI). This model went on to become the most accepted and used model across the globe. (https://trainingindustry.com/wiki/measurement-and-analytics/the-kirkpatrick-model/#:~:text=Donald%20Kirkpatrick%20developed%20the%20Kirkpatrick,the%20effectiveness%20of%20training%20programs.)

Today's managers must actually start thinking differently. Training should be a contributor in the long run towards the business and increasing the business, growing it in the desired direction and it must be thought about about how it's going to affect their profits. Training is not to be thought of as just a mandatory activity, or just feel good to engage an employee. While it is true, apart from being mandatory and to engage, which are very very minuscule effects of training, the larger impact on the organisation exists.

Definitely each and every organisation will have its own policies, and will have its own overall strategy. Today's L and D strategy must marry well with the strategy of the organisation.  When it comes to upskilling you must identify what skills are necessary for your people, what you want to develop and then going for those internal or external trainings or courses would come next.
With boom of information available on the internet nowadays, that it is natural to get confused and get overwhelmed with the information available in the market. So as to not let that information overwhelm you, you must be able to identify what suits you and what may not be made for you.

L and D professionals are also making people realise that we must not hire people only who already have the necessary skills for performing, we should instead look at the experience which people carry and the potential which they carry and hire the right person who has the potential to grow and develop the skills because L and D is there to develop these skills.

But, as i said earlier the amount of content streaming on the internet tends to provide us with options which are more than necessary.  To top it all, we have many people today who are calling themselves life coach, career coaches, linkedin learning experts, train the trainers,  management gurus, and what all. These fancy names are dangerous because many of them have actually not got the experience and expertise to handle critical issues which organisations face. Yet because their profiles look so attractive, with the names looking so fancy, organisations invite them and consider their advice as expert advice. While it is not wrong to consider anyone as an expert and take advice from them, it can be harmful if that selection of the expert is a wrong one. Usually these projects which are undertaken in training are sensitive, which will ultimately help the organisation grow in a particular direction.  Getting a wrong advice at that point of time can be extremely costly for the organisation it can do more harm than good. Doing nothing at all can be of more benefit than doing the wrong thing at some critical junctures especially when an organisation is looking for exponential expansion according to me considering an expert should come along with considering their profiles holistically. We should consider looking at their pieces of work, understand situations from them which they have dealt with, take in-depth understanding from them about what are the kinds of training they have taken, how they have affected the organisation positively, check their understanding of what is the organisation doing after the expert has completed the project, has the expert made the organisation capable of managing all by themselves, independently, in what way has the expert's capability and interventions affected the organisation positively in terms of business growth, in terms of growth and profit, in terms of change in behaviour of people and change in the culture of the organisation, or in terms of making people feel that they would like to work here in this organisation in a long-term as they are getting the career growth and career development which they are expecting in this organisation.
Yes, the face of L and D is changing. Today's market is expecting L and D experts to be there in the organisations' strategic decision making, hence positions in the market for L and D experts, specialists are opening up. However at whatever stage of organisation development or L and D one is, an L and D department must always be sure of what, how its offerings are going to positively impact the organisation on a whole, realistic of the extent of the impact.
Lastly, the organisations must be conscious of whom they are asking for advice. The market has people who would be claiming that their training is magic. But the truth is that trainings are interventions which are well planned, well executed, and hence they give good returns in terms of effectiveness.