4 Training & Development Best Practices for 2021

For the 10 years, on the 31st of December, I review the past year list down all the things I'm grateful for during the year.

December 2020 marks my 8th complete year as a professional consultant, trainer, and coach. And despite the tumultuous experiences many businesses endured, mine was a record year.

I write this to provide some pointers for those who are thinking about conducting training programs in your organizations for 2021.

#1. Knowledge or Performance?

This is the most essential aspect of any intervention you plan, to upskill your team. A simple question to ask to uncover your needs: "Do I want my team to gain knowledge or improve performance?"

I learned this from my buddy Dr. Prebagaran Jayaraman.

That answer will help you decide if you only conduct a training session or do you follow-through with in-field evaluation and coaching.

It's interesting to note that most people talk about Training & Development but only focus on the training part but overlook the development segment! Of course, the Development in T&D is defined differently, but still, staff are not upskilled but up-knowledged only.

Teams are only provided classroom sessions but performance is not evaluated or developed.

Trainers are merely evaluated for their classroom performance and everyone leaves the venue happy with the outcome which doesn't translate into real-world results.

Frankly, I don't know why anyone would want to only conduct training. That's a sad waste of money... for the company, not for the trainer. ??

For people responsible for organizing training, just picture what ensuring post-training evaluations are part of the package will do strategically for the company, and for your reputation and career.

Just conducting training without performance evaluations is like driving a car without using Waze. You will have no clue what the ideal time to leave is, or where the bottlenecks are, and how to avoid them and arrive on time!

That brings us to...

#2. Post-Training Tools

If your decision is to boost the performance of your team, then it's logical that you need to evaluate their performance post-training.

Do you have the tools to do so?

Make sure the consultant, trainer or coach develops and provides you the tools to evaluate the participants on-the-job. Don't settle for quizzes and surveys to test their knowledge. That doesn't do anything to bolster performance.

The evaluation tools have to be used by the immediate superiors of the participants. Therefore it should contain metrics that will be measured. The best tool will have the metrics and have a behaviorally anchored grading system so that any subjective is removed.

And of course, the tool should be electronic - we're in the 3rd Decade of the 21st Century now! Mobile-based would be ideal as it will allow usage on-the-go.

#3. Post-Training Follow-ups

What fascinates me, is the number of training programs I've come across that have a 2-day or 3-day classroom session and then the trainer packs up and leaves, never to be heard from again until the next year, when she has a new program to peddle.

People never learn something from just one exposure. That's why we all knew that we had to revise our lessons just before exams at school.

So, make sure that the trainer conducts post-training follow-up sessions that make the participants practice skills that are critical. This coupled with the evaluation tools will take your team's performance over the moon.

Trainers who don't conduct such follow-up sessions are practicing one-night stands.

#4. Coaching Training

I spent 22 years in the corporate world and 12 of those years were leading teams. I never realized what I never knew about leading teams until I was exposed to coaching certification.

No one in their right mind would employ a computer programmer who doesn't know how to use a program and continuously upgrades her skills. But it amazes me the number of companies that will appoint people into leadership positions, without any preparation to become a leader and therefore specifically how to coach for peak performance.

So many companies have this strange premonition that you can absorb leadership or coaching skills through books or the internet and become skillful.

Touchline: you have to train your line managers to coach correctly.

If you have any other ideas to add, drop them into the comment box below.

I wish you a very productive and goal smashing 2021.