How do you assess the quality of a retraining program?

I disagree. The very first thing you need to do is evaluate the areas considered deficient and measure that against the primary training program. Very frequently the primary training, or onboarding is where you may find your own deficiencies. Then reevaluate the subjects qualifications and measure those against the median subjects quals. Once that is determined teach *principles* before minutia. If someone doesn’t grasp the *concepts* of what the product should do, they may not be the correct subject to carry out those functions. Then get out of their way. Give them *time* and resources. Including administrators/runners if necessary. Customer service should be a workflow. Gant View software works best. SmartSheets is excellent.

It is most important to be sure subjects know their success is up to them. As an instructor on a fly by wire aircraft simulator for about 5 years, we trained different people with different levels of experience from all over the world, using different methods. We ended up adding a day of training to reinforce foundational skills. The more tech you add the more tech you need to train. Tiger Woods hits 500 balls, works out at the gym and goes for a 5 mile run. That’s his daily routine. Most companies don’t want to spend $ or time on training. The biggest mistake is the “that’s good enough” syndrome. You don’t train until you get it right. You train until you can’t get it wrong. Only then are you ready to make widgets.

Sometimes it becomes necessary to assess the qualifications and experience of the instructors as it's really important for them to know the learning path and potholes that may come on the way. They should have relevant industry experience and a proven track record in teaching or training. They should be engaging and capable of explaining complex concepts clearly and always open to questions (even if the question is stupid).

This is so true. Sometimes too true. When someone joins the team with more experience in real life exercises, it can be a challenge to find common ground. The new perspective may not be exactly what the program calls for, but it’s SUCH valuable information. Fact based direct experience is an invaluable thing to share. After many plane crashes we study the heck out of them. Some are avoidable. But we frequently admit, there but by the grace of God go I. Meaning I may have made the same mistake under the same circumstances. We call this the tombstone theory. Headstones are inscribed with our training adjustments.

In a regulatory environment with federally mandated training items, it’s sometimes hard to have this type of training. But it is a MUST! The engagement of a class is so valuable to the instructor. It’s a great indicator of who is struggling and who is excelling. A really good instructor can bring the people struggling up to the same pace before the end of the training. The instructor also may have feedback that teaches *them* (the instructor) something. And it’s a great place to test out your comedic skills.

I’m SO exhausted of metrics. They’re awesome if you’re tasing lab rats, cloning sheep or giving something else to smoke to our youth. (sarcasm intended) Metrics are great shields for poor managers. If you put metrics before leadership skills. Install a revolving door in your building. I get productivity is important. We need to measure it. But you don’t increase productivity by telling an employee they didn’t make their numbers. You increase it by servant leadership. That’s a hard fact for many managers to grasp. If you’re a manager, *you* work for *your team*. Period. When you do that, your metrics take care of themselves. Give your managers clear objectives to be proactive servant leaders. If they need admins, hire them.

Continuous improvement is a challenge. When you teach high tech, using high tech equipment, you need to maintain properly functioning, available equipment with no down time. But Jeff, things always break. Yes they do. Best to have a backup. This is where performance metrics conflict with COI. Continuous Operational Improvement, is always in conflict with ROI(return on investment). Aside from airlines, how many people oversell a product? If you KNOW that your equipment is unavailable 20% of the time, don't book 100%. You're asking for bad feedback. Do you have more resources available than you book? If not, you have pushed your customers into the corner of a possible bad experience.

I love finding challenges to overcome. They're business riddles to solve that involves creating new operational process through research and education. It really requires one to solicit advisors from outside the organization. Fresh eyes if you will. Often you will find a correlation through collaboration with a company that provides a different product. Any time during your career, if you find yourself stressed, its usually for very few reasons: 1. The time commitment is not what was told to you in the interview. 2. The resources you rely on for training are not provided or frequently unavailable. 3. You are pressured to break yours or the company's value system to do your job. #3 is where most employees start looking elsewhere.