As a general rule, when training is offered it is because we believe employees lack the knowledge and skills to achieve the results we need. If we want different, better results, we need people to do things differently. We need people to change their behavior. In this blog series, we identified the four principle elements essential to training program success: structuring training in advance, integrating new skills into work processes providing coaching and setting expectations for using new skills.
When you have evaluated your organization’s readiness to implement training as part of a change management solution and identified opportunities to align the four elements, you may have identified more gaps than you have resources to manage in the short term. If this is the case, you might want to consider using the following criteria to prioritize the improvements: cost of the solution; ease of implementation; time of implementation; fit with organizational strategy; and fit with organizational culture.
We work with our clients to clearly identify the goals they hope to achieve and to use the four principles to ensure program success. We help them to implement more than just training—they follow a four-pronged program to provide training and support the use of new skills in order to achieve specific organizational results. When this is done, they are able to sustain the benefits of training long after the completion of our workshops.
Examples
Telecommunications Firm
A telecommunications and wireless device company saw their time to resolve cases decreased by up to 39% at the same time that growth caused their case load to increase substantially—in some cases by 125%. The cases with vague, incomplete documentation decreased from 75% to 23%. Finally, customer satisfaction scores increased by 23 points.
Pharmaceutical Manufacturer
A pharmaceutical company reduced the average time to close investigations from over 30 days to less than 20, decreased the effort required to review and approve investigations, and significantly increased first-pass approval rates. The Director of Operations noted, “The time it takes me to review and approve an investigation has dropped from two hours to fifteen minutes.” Most importantly, they satisfied the FDA’s auditors that the new approach to investigations was sufficient to ensure product integrity.
Healthcare Services Organization
At a hospital group, the systematic, tactical, and strategic implementation of KT’s rational thinking processes, led by senior management, is credited for saving more than $32 million in the first full year after project implementation. They consider acceptance and use of a common, systematic set of rational thinking processes to be imperative to transformational success.
Computer Chip/Electronics Manufacturer
Using the new approach to troubleshooting, a computer chip/electronics manufacturer in one month closed 21 events with 88% resolved and an estimated savings of over $2,000,000. In addition, they began measuring and reporting results more quickly and senior management recognized employees and teams for achievement of results.
The approach described here can work with any training program. Questions about using this model to structure training programs are welcome.
