Go to the profile of BIZCATALYST360°
BIZCATALYST360°

What? You Plan To Cut Training?

[su_dropcap style=”flat”]A[/su_dropcap]S A MEMBER of the Governmental Procurement Association of Georgia, I was amazed that during the economic turndown, the attendance at our training conferences dropped dramatically. Government agencies were quickly eliminating all training dollars from their budgets and the associated travel expenses that go with off-site training in order to reduce budgets. Of course, the same agencies also instituted personnel reductions thought hiring freezes or reductions in force personnel cuts and then demanded that the remaining employees “work smarter” to get the job done. Now I am not a genius but, if you want your people to utilize the latest innovations and technology to enable them to be more effective at their assignments so that the services to the citizens and/or customers is not adversely affected (the real definition of “work smarter”), shouldn’t you ensure they receive more training to enable them to succeed at reaching this goal and not less training?

So, if you want to create a winning team that can rise to meet the challenges we face every day in our work environments, then you need to ensure your people receive the training they need to effectively function at their assigned duties and even more importantly, you need to train together as a team. So let’s look at what you can do to maximize your training time and efforts so that it pays the biggest return on investment.

[message type=”custom” width=”100%” start_color=”#F0F0F0 “ end_color=”#F0F0F0 “ border=”#BBBBBB” color=”#333333"]

  • Strive to maintain stability. We have all seen the picture of Richard Branson and the remarks that says train your people well enough so that they can leave your organization, treat them well enough that they don’t leave. This simple truth will pay big dividends and strengthen your organization beyond measure.
  • Encourage your team to willingly help one another. Set the example by always being available to answer questions or to help a team member with a difficult assignment. Let your team see that this is an important part of your leadership. Believe me when I tell you that they will emulate this behavior because they will see it as a positive influence to the success of the team.
  • Encourage informal celebrations. Celebrate birthdays with cake and ice cream. Have a pot luck luncheon for a holiday. Celebrate the successful completion of a large project with pizza. These events build strong teams who are successful because the people care for each other and want to see every member of the team succeed. These informal celebrations are the foundation for team building.
  • Never publicly blame an individual for the team’s failure nor praise one individual for the team’s success. Remember that you are a team and each success or failure reflects on the team as a whole. Therefore, the after action meetings that discuss what went well and what needs attention should never be finger pointing sessions. Discuss topics, not people.
  • Provide the best available facilities for unit training and make maximum use of teamwork. Physically demanding occupations such as fire fighters, police special units, emergency management personnel constantly train together to ensure they are ready for any contingency they might face. The old saying, practice makes perfect is true. So, even if you work in an office setting, you should look for innovative ways to conduct drills with your team that are relevant and will help foster a spirit of teamwork among all the members of your team.
  • Ensure the training is meaningful and covers realistic topics. Nothing can cause your team to dread training time more than to have it filled with information that is not relevant to what they do every day. So, since I work in the field of procurement, attending training on building codes would be interesting by would never be something I could utilize to improve my job performance. Schedule training and then ensure it is a value to your team. And do not forget to have your team member conduct most of the training sessions. The research they have to do to prepare for a presentation will cause them to grow.
  • Acquaint each employee with the capabilities and limitations of all other departments so they can build mutual trust and understanding when projects cross departmental lines. If you know which department has a specific responsibility, then when that becomes necessary to a project, your team will automatically reach out and include the necessary department in the discussion and planning. You will guarantee success in this manner.
  • Insist that every employee understands the functions of the other members of the team and how the team functions as part of the organization. Again, understanding the organizational structure and responsibilities will be a benefit when preparing the list of people who need to be part of the initial planning of any large project.
  • Seek opportunities to train with other departments. If you want your team to understand the big picture, then they need to see how all the pieces fit together.[/message][su_spacer]

So, let me end with an example of “tough love” training I experienced as a young Sergeant in the Marine Corps. It was the early days of computers when keypunch cards were used as a data source. Other units on our base were starting to realize that simple things like pay rosters could be updated quickly by simply removing or adding a card and having a new listing run. One day, the Lieutenant I worked for called me to his office. He had a list of units that wanted access to our keypunch machines so they could make full use of this new tool that was available. Since our supply department operated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, we could allow them access to the keypunch machines at any time. So, his only guidance for the scheduling was to take care of supply functions first but to be kind to the disbursing Marines since they paid us.

I sat down and analyzed the list he had provided. It was not long before I had a workable schedule hand written on the back of a keypunch card. I returned to the Lieutenant confident that he would be pleased with my results. When he asked to see the schedule, I handed him the keypunch card. His smiled and said, “Well this is wonderful. So, I can just get a handful of keypunch cards, give them to our administrative clerks to copy your schedule on and hand it out to the Commanding Officers. Why, they will be blown away with my professionalism, won’t they, Sergeant?

The sarcasm let me know I had not impressed him. “Lieutenant, I am not sure what you want?”

“A letter; a professional letter that outlines how we will meet their needs. Got it?” replied the Lieutenant.

So, back at my desk, I thought about how to draft the letter. Then I remembered that when I was sick and had to stay out of school, my mother would write a letter that explained why I should be excused. And so, I sat down and began to type, “To whom it may concern”.

When I handed the letter to the Lieutenant, his reaction was immediate. “To whom it may concern — I like that. So, if I don’t care, I can just take this letter and…” With that, he wadded it up and threw it away. I knew I was in trouble.

“Lieutenant, I mean no disrespect but I am still not sure what you want.” I stammered.

“A proper Naval letter that outlines exactly what we will do,” he said quite firmly.

“Sir, I do not know how to do a Naval letter.”

The Lieutenant smiled, “Well, now, that I can help you with. If you will go across the hall to the Admin office, you can ask them for the Naval Correspondence Manual. This wonderful book will show you exactly what you need to do — so read it cover to cover.”

I swallowed hard and retrieved the manual. I learned about cover letters, enclosures, standard subject identification codes, signing authority — so many wonderful things. I sat down and typed up the letter and the enclosure containing the schedule. I proudly returned to the Lieutenant with new found confidence that he would be pleased. He reviewed the letter, handed it back, and without looking up, said, “You have a word misspelled.”

Sometimes, we never learn. I replied, “Really, which one?”

Finally looking up, he said without a smile, “Look them all up and you will know.”

I know this sounds like a harsh example of training. But from it, I learned that when accepting a task, I should ask enough questions so that I know exactly what will be considered a successful completion of the requirement. I learned that I may have to educate myself on new subjects to ensure the end product meets the needs of the requestor. I learned that the end product will reflect on my professionalism so that I would always want to check and double check to ensure it was correct in every way. And I learned (and this was the point the Lieutenant was trying to make as he told me later on) that I would learn a lot more from the training experience if I was not just told the correct answer but had to actually train myself to find the correct answer.

Be the kind of leader that others want to follow by training your team to be successful.

[su_button url=”http://bizcatalyst360.com/free-execubriefs/" target=”blank” style=”3d” background=”#ff4e07" color=”#ffffff” size=”1" wide=”yes” center=”yes” radius=”5" icon_color=”#2d3fff”]CLICK HERE FOR FRESH INSIGHTS DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX [/su_button]