Reason #3: Non-Training Issues - Why Your Training Project Is Doomed to Fail… and How You Can Make It a Success Instead

Welcome to what I plan to write as a regular column over the next few months. Shockingly, over 70% of all business projects fail. Fortunately for me, I have a lot of material for this column because there are more than enough reasons why a training project can fail, which means that not only are the odds stacked against you, but the challenges are numerous and sometimes not so apparent. The purpose of this column is to identify these issues and challenges and offer concrete solutions to mitigate the risks associated with each.

Feel free to check out prior posts in the series:

• Reason #1: You are trying to solve something that is not a training problem
• Reason #2: No Metrics

Reason #3: Your Training Program only Addresses Training Issues

In many ways, this is a companion piece to the prior installment, where we discussed the importance of metrics. Once we have determined what our metrics are we can then determine if the project was a success or a failure, and to what degree. Even still, it is very easy to have a situation where you reach your goals and yet still fail in the “real world”.

Marketing tackles marketing challenges as does Sales tackle sales challenges. Training is slightly different, and yet not. Sales and marketing are inherently addressing business challenges, while Training, if it is not careful, can deal with an issue that is exclusive to Training and has no direct impact on the organization. In this way, it is possible to create something that is a training success and a business or organizational failure. Consider the following.

You create an employee onboarding program that is well-received. According to surveys, 85% of learners gave it at least a 4 out of 5. Now imagine reporting these findings to the CFO. What would she see? Would she see any tangible improvements? Did we reduce costs? Improve efficiencies? All she would see is that the company spent $50,000 on something that 85% of people liked. From that metric alone, an additional vacation day for each new hire might get a higher rating for less money. That is not to say that the project was a failure. Chances are based on learner acceptance it was not. Only the metrics used were incomplete, hiding the project’s true value and threatening to sink the entire project.

Training metrics are crucial, but they have to refer to more than just training itself. You need to pull back and create both improvement and justification beyond the training department. To do that, you may require input from other departments.

The natural reaction to that statement is to be defensive, to fear a loss of control when other stakeholders are brought in. In most cases, the opposite is true. By bringing in other departments and allowing them to express their challenges you create a symbiotic relationship. You are now championing their challenges without taking actual ownership of them, and it becomes in their best interest to support you. The result is pertinent metrics and broader buy-in.

This presents us with our litmus test. Is your training program justifiable? When ClicKnowledge is scoping out a project, we create justification for the project by using our metrics to establish an ROI within 6-12 months. From a financial perspective, if your $50,000 training solution solves a problem that costs $1000 annually and there is no other reason for the project, then perhaps the solution needs to be scaled down or maybe the problem is something annoying but something you can live with.   

The bottom line is that training needs to target training, but also the bottom line.

If you want to discuss the particulars of your training needs, feel free to reach out to me at [email protected].