The Performance Improvement Blog

Learning From Training Evaluation

If you are not doing follow-up evaluation of your training programs, you are not getting the most you can from these performance interventions.  I’ve written about this before but it deserves repeating. Evaluation has many uses. Kirkpatrick uses evaluation to determine learner reactions, increased knowledge, behavior change, and results. Phillips uses evaluation to measure the ROI of training. Brinkerhoff uses evaluation to assess impact of training on the business. I think another just as valid purpose of  evaluation is to ensure learning.

Asking participants questions about their learning makes it more likely that learning will occur. When I read a book, especially fiction, and don’t discuss the book with anyone for several weeks, I forget what I read.  The same phenomenon occurs for most people after attending training events. If they do not think about the material again in a meaningful way within a short period of time, they forget. Follow-up evaluation requires learners to think meaningfully about what they learned.

Simply the process of asking questions of learners has the effect of cementing that knowledge in their brains. Maybe it’s the repetition. Maybe it’s the renewed commitment to the content. Maybe it’s the sense of being held accountable for learning. Whatever the internal process that goes on in learners, the result of asking questions is employees that are more likely to retain new knowledge and apply that learning to their work.

Complacency in the Cockpit?

Two Northwest Airlines pilots may have been asleep at the wheel when their Minneapolis-bound plane overshot its destination by 150 miles before they realized what had happened, turned the plane around, and returned to their destination. One national TV commentator speculated that since many passenger jets today have the technology to essentially fly themselves, this may have been a case of pilots becoming complacent and not fully doing their job of closely monitoring the plane’s performance. In a previous blog post, I labeled this kind of behavior the “complacency syndrome.”

Airplane pilots are not the only employees who risk complacency. Staying with air-travel examples, I have noticed TSA employees being more interested in socializing with their co-workers than paying attention to the repetitive and mind-numbing task of checking people and their luggage day after day. And flight attendants, who have to announce safety instructions at the beginning of every flight, doing this sounding like they couldn’t care less about safety. And luggage handlers who, over time, become careless and lackadaisical in their treatment of passengers’ precious goods, which leads to lost and damaged property. It’s unpleasant and annoying to passengers when flight attendants and luggage handlers suffer from the complacency syndrome; it’s life-threatening when TSA officers and airline pilots have this disease.   

Email: Be Careful What You Say and What You Hear

Email has become ubiquitous in organizations today and with that comes all of the problems of any communication among employees. I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard someone say, “That email made me so mad.” Or, “I don’t like that tone of voice in that message.” Or, “From the sound of that message, she must hate me.” When, in fact, we can rarely determine the emotion, or even the full meaning, in an email message.

It is assumed that everyone knows how to write an effective email; just as it is assumed that everyone knows how to have a civil conversation, how to write a convincing report, or how to make a powerful presentation. Yet that is frequently not the case. Poor email communication is a huge problem for companies.

Creative Communications & Training Inc. estimates that poorly written email can cost a company of 100 employees about $450,000 per year. A study of Business Roundtable members, who are some of the most influential companies in the U.S., was conducted by The National Commission on Writing and concluded that “… remedying deficiencies in writing [including email] may cost American firms as much as $3.1 billion annually.”

Debra Hamilton of Creative Communications & Training has written an excellent report on the problems with email titled, “Top Ten Email Blunders That Cost Companies Money.” The report is worth a look if you want to improve email communication in your organization. She goes into detail on each of these top ten blunders:

1.   Inaccurate or vague subject line

2.   Purpose for writing not stated up front

3.   No specific action step

4.   Incomplete information

5.   Too much information

6.   Harsh or demanding tone

7.   Breaking privacy guidelines and crossing ethical boundaries

8.   Conveying sensitive or confidential information

9.   Errors and inaccuracies

10.  Excessive volume

This list is from the sender’s side, but receivers of messages make blunders, too. See my post from October 2008 for comments about the typical misinterpretations that receivers of emails make about messages. Both senders and receivers need to do a better job of using email. And don’t get me started on text messaging.

Getting More From Your Investment in Coaching

A colleague asked me recently if the 5As Framework could be applied to leadership coaching. I said, “Absolutely!” Coaching is a relationship that is intended to facilitate learning, e.g., how to give feedback to employees, how to run a meeting, how to communicate with your boss, etc. The 5As Framework is a guide to maximizing the benefits of any learning intervention. Ergo, the 5As should be applied to coaching.

For those of you who haven’t read Sean Murray's blog or my previous blogs or viewed our webinars about the framework, here is a short tutorial:

Alignment

Align learning with strategic goals.

Anticipation

Anticipate success.

Alliance

Create a learning alliance between learner and boss.

Application

Apply learning immediately.

Accountability

Hold learner and organization accountable for business results.

As coaches we want our clients to: understand how coaching will help them achieve important business results (alignment); have expectations that they will improve their abilities as managers/leaders (anticipation); talk with their bosses about what they are learning in coaching (alliance);  apply what they learn in coaching immediately to their work situations (application); measure the effects of coaching on achieving business results (accountability). By using the 5As in this way, we increase the impact of coaching on individuals, teams, and the organization as a whole.

For more details and tools you can use to implement the framework, look for our soon-to-be-published ebook, Getting More from Your Investment in Training: The 5As Framework. I will have a link to the ebook on this blog.

Downturn Opportunities for Performance Improvement

The current downturn in the economy and the much-anticipated-but-slow-in-coming upturn, presents companies with a unique opportunity for performance improvement. John Baldoni writes in his blog post titled, Use the Downturn to Your Advantage,  that this is the time for organizations “…to get rid of anything and everything that does not add value to the bottom line”,  look to employees, customers, and vendors for ways to improve operations, and model for all employees how to overcome obstacles during tough times.

All great advice; but I wouldn’t do any of this without data. Collect and analyze data that describes your processes from both a statistical and human point of view. For example, changing the work schedule to more hours over fewer days might look more efficient on paper, but if it takes an emotional toll on workers, it might not be worth altering. Survey employees, customers, and vendors and use that data as the basis for a conversation with them about improving operations. Ask them what measures would indicate effective operations. Use those measures to assess the change and to make decisions about improvement.

This is the time for radical change…as long as it is supported by evidence. Change simply for the sake of change will cause you to lose the trust of employees, customers, and vendors. Change that is indicated by the facts will gain you the respect of these stakeholders, even if they disagree with your conclusions.