A factory would never stay in business if the production line ran all day but only produced a quality product for ten minutes. That would be incredibly wasteful. “Why then”, asks Sharyn Carter, “do we accept the equivalent scenario when it comes to training?”

“I recently talked to a number of staff who had spent a whole day at an Excel training course. When I asked them four days later what they remembered, they all said ‘lots of clicking with the mouse’ and the answers to the two business problems they took in with them. Solving those two problems took ten minutes – the rest of the day was basically wasted. Sadly, this is a typical example of ‘training just in case they need it’ and it happens because companies are not diagnosing their business needs properly,” she says.

Sharyn’s job title is Learning and Development Manager at Gilmours, a food and liquor distributor. Her approach to the Excel course situation would have been very different. “By diagnosing and focusing on the needs of the business and participants, either the two real-life problems could have been addressed far more quickly and effectively, or a larger number of practical problems could have been taken to the course and addressed. Crucially, after the course participants would have a ‘mission’ to apply their new skills back on the job. It is a unique approach based on the concept of ‘mission it’s possible’ and goes far beyond training in any traditional sense,” says Sharyn.

To assist managers with the diagnostic phase, Sharyn has developed a series of questions which probe any situation to discover what is really getting in the way of performance. The questions are geared around expectations, barriers, motivation, performance, feedback, consequences and, of course, the issue of skills. Based on her experiences using the questions, Sharyn says “this involves having some really honest conversations because both managers and employees are contributing to any situation. Multiple solutions are needed to get the performance improvement. The answer is not to blame an employee because it is hardly ever only just a skill or training issue.”

This ‘Just in Time’ training involves short, focused training sessions followed by immediate practical use of the skills. “People are familiar with the ‘Just in Time’ principle in manufacturing - I apply that to learning. By ensuring that everyone uses their new skills straight away, the knowledge is more likely to stick. People like the fact that they can address a real problem at work, focus on one element at a time, practice first in a safe learning environment and then apply it for real back in their workplace,” she says.

The old saying ‘if you don’t use it, you lose it’ is simply true.

“People learn by doing, not just by knowing. Knowledge needs to be applied in context. After the training, we ask people to complete a series of tasks to demonstrate new behaviours using their newly acquired skills. Each task is called a ‘mission it’s possible’,” says Sharyn.

She says that anyone can create their own mission by answering these deceptively simple four questions:

• What will I learn?
• What will I do with that learning?
• What results will I get?
• What results will the business get?

“To ensure alignment between the participant and the manager, both must share their answers to check their expected outcomes are the same. To ensure application back on the job, they need to review the answers at an agreed time after the training to see whether the desired outcomes have been realised. When both a manager and the participant complete the ‘mission its possible’ tool, there is a shared accountability to make the desired performance improvement a reality,” she says.

“When an entire site needs to undergo a behavioural change, we train ‘just in time’ and run that one hour session over and over - as many times as needed - to cover everyone in small groups. This process redefines previously acceptable behaviour as unacceptable now. In order to implement this change, the training solution must include knowledge, skill, feedback and consequences. This involves training all staff to give constructive feedback whenever they see the past behaviours demonstrated. After two weeks, we follow up on the previous training before introducing the next behaviour change, just in time,” Sharyn says.

This is a unique style of training in New Zealand but Sharyn is adamant it makes sense. “Everyone knows that you lose skills quickly if you don’t use them. Our process does not allow passengers because participants all have missions to complete and other team members will give them feedback if the new behaviours are not being demonstrated,” she says.

Normally, trainers deliver lots of content over multiple days with big groups of participants and minimal follow-up. “Just in time training is different. On large sites it is exhausting work doing all the small groups. On these days, the trainers certainly earn their money but the results speak for themselves. When the new behaviours become the norm and team members sustain the performance improvement through feedback, you know you’ve created a cultural shift and that is pure magic!” Sharyn laughs.

“The same approach can also be used for any organisational change that requires behavioural changes. For change to be accepted, it is vital that people are involved in the change process - otherwise change hits them like a tsunami. You are not involving people when you merely explain what is happening and why,” she says.

Sharyn uses the same questions in the diagnostic tool to work with people so they accept the change and identify what is needed to make the change work. Again, she utilises the concepts of ‘just in time’ training to create behaviour change and ‘mission it’s possible’ to ensure application.

Under this approach, Sharyn says, people:

• understand the new expectations clearly as they have already practiced them
• have identified and removed the potential problems making change implementation smooth and surprise-free
• have already received positive feedback so they can see exactly what they can gain from the change.

“Ultimately, we may not be able to stop the tsunamis from coming but using this approach to training helps people move to higher ground really quickly,” Sharyn concludes.

Gilmours – Sharyn Carter

Website:      http://www.gilmours.co.nz
Phone:        021 312 352