1. Know What You Want (And Why You Want It)
- What’s the end goal? Are you trying to up productivity, teach folks how to increase results? Which ones? Start with the big-picture goals to avoid wasted effort. Align all training with your business goals.
- Pick a focus area — whether it’s for everyone, just the leadership team, or anyone whose meeting skills could use a boost.
- My Tip: Make sure training helps with real goals - ask the board what the big hairy, audacious goals are that they really care about, put numbers on them if you can.
2. Pin Down What Skills You Actually Need To Get You There
- Make a list of must-have skills. Think about the essentials for not just surviving but thriving. Be specific: "able to give good coaching based feedback" rather than "manage performance".
- Spy on your competition and clients. Take a look at industry standards to see if you’re missing anything important.
- My Tip: Training should actually be useful, not just “fluff that sounds cool.” [Harvard Business Review]. If you can't define the behaviours you want, your training won't work. If you can, you have half a chance of succeeding.
3. Gather Intel From Your Team
- Send a quick survey to ask people what they think they’re missing. Keep it simple, use a free Google form (other software options are available... but make sure it will allow you to organise the insight/results easily) and ask some team members directly! Generally, more input means better answers. So don’t just ask one person!
- Chat with managers for the lowdown on where skill and knowledge gaps are putting a brake on progress. Ask them to have a look at some bits of work (e.g. proposals, decks - basically any outputs - where could they be even better?)
- Dig into job descriptions and past reviews for clues about what’s needed vs. what’s already in place. Look for themes and try to identify root causes (for example, is it a time management issue or poor resourcing processes causing the bumps?). Look at your client feedback especially.
- My Tip: Drill down into why something is or isn't happening to diagnose the need and translate it into the skills involved to impact results.
4. Turn Data into Action—Prioritise!
- Sort through the data to find the biggest skill gaps (look for trends, not one-offs).
- Prioritise what’s most impactful (and what won’t turn into a monster project). Pick skills that will make your team’s life easier ASAP.
- My Tip: Low-hanging fruit will motivate the team, easy win focus.
6. Outline the Training Plan (Just the Basics!)
- List potential training delivery ideas like online courses, lunch-and-learns, or tapping your team’s own experts. It is motivating to them and great value too!
- Map out a simple plan focusing on top priorities first. It doesn’t have to be perfect — just something you can start with.
- My Tip: Start with what’s free or in-house, saving the budget for when it’s really needed. If a team member aces something that others need to improve, get them to do a session on it. Ask me for a free "how to train" guide to help them out.
7. Run it by those with the budget and those whose success it affects
- Get feedback from key people (like managers and HR), and make any tweaks based on their “Oh, that’s a good idea!” moments.
- Make sure they’re on board before you roll out the plan to avoid surprise reactions later.
- My Tip: Loop in stakeholders early to avoid last-minute curveballs. Show them how everything links to results they want/need. Do your best to quantify expected results.
8. Launch & Keep an Eye on Progress
- Start with a pilot (think: beta test for training) and track a few basic metrics to see if it’s working.
- Keep things adaptable so you can make quick fixes based on how things go.
- My Tip: Make sure what results you measure actually matter & design it before you begin the training delivery to keep you focused and on plan
9. Get Feedback & Rinse, Repeat
- Gather feedback post-training to find out if it actually helped. Not just "did you like it?" but "what will/are you using and what impact do you see/expect?"
- See what the data says (like productivity, satisfaction, or skill levels) and adjust your approach from there.
- Set up a central library so people can watch videos (keep in mind confidentiality in the discussion/ practical elements) the workbooks and materials into the future, signposting them clearly so people know where and how to access them.
- My Tip: Keep adjusting based on what works. That way, you’ll get smarter and more efficient each time. Telling people ahead how you will get feedback (& on what) sets them up to notice improvements and that's motivating.
Let me know if you want support getting it done, we can help. Training does need design but it doesn't need to be overwhelming or expensive.
