4 Questions In Developing An Outcome Based Learning Workshop

One of the challenge most Learning and Development (L&D) practitioners face is ensuring the workshop addresses the issue their stakeholder face. They spend hours researching on the right content and even speak to the potential learner only to be ignored by the stakeholder that engaged them.

The reality is... the stakeholders are equally if not, more vested in getting the problem resolved.

Based on my experience as a learning consultant, allow me to share 2 attribute a L&D practitioner need and 4 questions that helped me in translating my stakeholder 'problem statement' into an outcome based learning workshop.

Reputation & Empathy - The Desired Attribute

While there are many other attribute that makes a great L&D practitioner, in my experience, this 2 is a 'must have'.

Reputation is "What do people say (or believe) about you in the workplace?" Are you known as the:

• 'nice person', (stage 1)
• 'the person who follows instruction' (stage 2) or
• 'the person who get things done'? (stage 3)

While all the above are good to have, we tend to listen to the person who get things done. If you are at stage 1 or stage 2, stakeholders are less likely to listen to you because you have not proven yourself to be a problem solver. I've seen managers ignoring their engineers, only to listen to the suggestion of the technician because the technician is known as a problem solver.

Empathy is when you take the effort to understand your stakeholder's view point instead of labeling them as 'ego' and 'stubborn' just because they don't listen to you. Understanding them does not mean you need to agree with them, it simply means to gain an insight into their 'inner world' and understand how and why they came to their conclusion. Empathy also means that we don't expect the stakeholder to know about L&D, rather it means we need to take time to understand their jargon instead of them understanding our. I've had situation where mid way through the discussion, the stakeholder would say something like "We need to use Design Thinking to solve this". In the past I would disagree and drill the stakeholder but today I would pause and ask "Sounds interesting. Could you share more on this". Once I understand the essence of what my stakeholder want, I would probably use their terminology to gain alignment and expediency. What help me is "It is not the stakeholder's job to know my terminology and domain expertise, it is my job to know theirs".

A final word on empathy, we are there for our stakeholders, not to show them 'we know our stuff'. This is not the time to be 'right', it is the time to be 'right here for you'.

3) The question..

Often my stakeholder come to me with their problem and some idea of what to do about it. They may have read a book, spoke to some people about it or referenced their past experience. It usually means they have spend some time thinking of how to fix their problem. Question help them to process their thoughts, examine their assumption and be focused on the issue.

Q1) Can you share more about your problem/ challenges?

• This question is for us to understand the problem better by soliciting contributing factors to the problem.
• There will be time stakeholders would jump straight into the 'solutioning process' by telling you the workshop that would fix the problem. Often they do this because they felt they understand the problem well (since it is their problem) and they don't want to waste time. Resist the temptation of jumping into solutioning because despite their good intention, people are biased and they may present their problem from an opinion perspective.
• I find it helpful to explain to them when asking this question that it is important that I understand the problem as much as they do. In doing this I am on the same page as they do. They will feel I am there for them instead of interrogating them or doubting them.
• When asking this question, identify facts, establish timeline of when it started and when it started going wrong, stakeholders involved and the magnitude of the impact the problem has caused.

Q1b) Earlier you felt the [name] workshop would help. How do you see this workshop helping and can you share what aspect of this problem the workshop could solve?

• This question is useful if the stakeholder has some solution in mind. It recognises their effort in wanting to solve the issue as well as help you see from their perspective how the workshop would help. Remember, all of us are logical. It is just that our logic may not be the same as others.
• Training does not solve all problems. This question is to help you help them be aware of what aspect of their problem can be solved by training and what can't. Remember, if all you talk about is training, it gives them the impression that training solves everything.

Q2) What would you need to see your people saying and doing differently back at work for you to conclude "this is a successful training"?

• This is an outcome based question. It helps you to understand their expectation of what really matters; the behaviours they want back at the workplace.
• It is your job to identify skill, knowledge and attitude that needs to be addressed in the workshop. Most stakeholder are not trained to distill it. For example, they may say "I want my people to have better teamwork". This could mean communication skills, problem solving skills, conflict resolution skills or even tools for working in teams. To further distill the skill needed, you need to talk about context. Remember, context is critical because we behave differently in different context.
• The good new is, you do not need to immediately do this in your session with them. You can go back and do the necessary research and meet them later to validate if the skill you identify would achieve their 'better teamwork'.
• In situation where you identified a long list of skills needed, it is important to work with the stakeholder in prioritizing the skills. Why? Everything is important until you prioritize it. This way it helps you focus on the 'must have' and the 'good to have' skills.

Q3) Before we met, has there been anything done in the past to resolve this problem/ challenge?

• This question help you to anticipate how people might react to your training.
• If people have attended a similar training in the past and nothing changed, they might be weary that training would help this time. This might help you come up with a pre-workshop intervention to help people get the right perspective when attending your training or use a different intervention that 'looks' new.
• This question also help you evaluate if you can ride on/ leverage the past initiative or use a different entry point. Here's an example. I've worked with a client where they have been on a continuous improvement training for the last 2 years without any significant result and from the needs understanding survey, we found out people felt 'tired'. So we framed the upcoming training as 'The Design Thinking Champion'. While we used a design thinking approach, we structured the workshop towards a continuous improvement direction. The learners loved it and the stakeholder achieved their outcome. For some of us who are in design thinking, this is often used for 'wicked problem', we used the term because it was the 'in thing' but we were clear on the expected outcome.

Q4) From your experience, what would you think could derail this effort to solve your problem?

• This is a powerful question to get the stakeholder to think of what to be done prior and after the workshop. Most of them time, they don't think of this.
• It would also help them to be supportive of post-workshop activities instead of seeing the workshop as an immediate fix.
• This question may also get your stakeholder to realise other parties may be involved in ensuring this workshop works and get them involved in the creation of this workshop. This increases stakeholder buy-in.

This is what works for me when crafting an outcome based learning workshop. Please feel free to share or add-on any other thoughts that may have worked for you as a L&D practitioner. Learning never stops.