Why you don’t train your team and what you can do about it.
I have worked with well over 100 teams, which includes building around 40 high-performance teams, which may not seem like a big number, but genuine high-performance teams that deliver as planned are rare.
From this work, I have learnt that there are common reasons why teams fail and why they do not develop to their full potential. Reasons that are simple in nature and are relatively easy to understand and correct.
Introduction
One in four senior managers reported that training was critical to business outcomes. Still, they and their HR teams continue to pour money into training, year after year, in an effort to trigger organizational change. But what they actually need is a new way of thinking about learning and development.
Organizations spent $359 Billion globally on training in 2021, but was it worth it?
Not when you consider the following:
· 75% of managers are dissatisfied with external team training.
· Only 12% of employees apply new skills learned in training programs.
· Only 25% of respondents to a McKinsey survey believe that training measurably improved performance.
Not only is the majority of training in today’s companies ineffective, but the purpose, timing, and content of the training is flawed.
Use it or Lose it
We’re learning at the wrong time. People learn best when they have to practice something. Applying what’s learned to real-world situations strengthens one’s focus and determination to learn. Training must have immediate relevance to a person’s role; otherwise, learning suffers as a result. We quickly forget what we’ve learned. If new information isn’t applied, we’ll forget about 75% of it after just six days.
Our brains quickly forget what we don’t use. Incorporating new learning into your work is one way to retain knowledge. Another is spaced repetition, it refers to spreading learning out over time (the material should be reviewed in gradually increasing intervals of roughly one day, two days, four days, eight days, and so on). This approach takes advantage of the psychological spacing effect, which demonstrates a strong link between periodic exposure to information and retention. Studies show that by using spaced repetition, we can remember about 80% of what we learn after 60 days, a significant improvement.
Why you don’t train your team
The top two reasons are that you are just too busy to carry out training and you don’t know how. But there are other reasons as well, including that your own (and others) experience has shown that (traditional) training doesn’t work, has little or no relevance, it is not followed up on and is quickly forgotten.
Training can go wrong in all kinds of ways. But the most important failures occur outside the classroom. By focusing on creating a receptive mindset for training before it happens and ensuring a supportive environment afterwards, you can dramatically improve the business impact of a training program.
Adults learn by doing; people learn best when they have to practice something that has immediate relevance to their role. Incorporating new learning into actual work is the most effective way to retain knowledge.
I take two approaches to training; firstly, I use ‘spaced repetition, which allows participants to put the training immediately into practice and allows it to be followed up on. (Training courses that run for just a couple of days or a week have been proven in several studies to be a waste of time.) Secondly, I change your behaviours, not your mindsets. This is because it is easier to 'act your way into new thinking than to 'think your way into new actions.
The DIY Team Training program
I use in my practice (and its now available for you to implement) a training program I call ‘The DIY Team Training program’, specifically designed so that any busy manager can deliver it. It has two sections: 1. Manager Training – three parts that prepare you for building a high-performance team and set you up to be able to manage one. 2. Team Training – eight steps delivered as 1–2-hour workshops spread out over 16 weeks. That’s one workshop a fortnight.
Training Approach
Training starts with the manager examining their management style and leadership behaviours to encourage new behaviours. In doing this, the manager provides a favourable context for applying the learning and managing a new team. It is critical that team members perceive that their boss is strongly interested in having them apply their new behaviours and that they should not continue to spend a significant amount of time on old ways of thinking and acting. Team training starts with identifying the training goals and progresses through a number of workshops which are designed to instil new individual behaviours.
Even when team members do learn what they’re taught, they very often don’t apply it. If this happens, the training will be wasted no matter how good it is. Participants rarely leave any training program entirely prepared to put new behaviours into practice. Old habits die hard, so reinforcing and supporting new kinds of behaviour after they are learned is crucial. To facilitate this, the manager reinforces training messages, and a team member subject owner helps to manage changes post the training.
Measuring the impact of the training seems basic, but most companies simply don’t do it. The solution is to track the impact of the training against the goals the team has set and any hard business metrics.
Your role as Trainer
The training program has been specifically designed so that a manager can deliver it. It is easy to follow and is basically foolproof. It is a proven method that has been successfully used many times. It delivers powerful and long-lasting results. All you need to do is follow Workshop Training Instructions and give out a Workshop handout.
You can get the DIY Team Training program at its introductory price of only $49 which is 50% off – exceptional value.
I priced the training program this way because I want every manager and every team to achieve high-performance, increase their job satisfaction and feel truly valued at work. This is within reach of every manager and team – I know it is, I have proven it many times. Now you can too.
The DIY Team Training program is based on ‘spaced repetition, a method that spreads out training over time. This method guarantees that learners remember 80% of what they have learned after 6 months. (Whereas training based on traditional training courses - learners forgot 80% of what they learned after just 6 days.) The program only requires 1 hour per fortnight of your time spread out over 4 months. The program includes detailed Workshop Handouts and accompanying Training Instructions for the manager to use.
DIY Training Program includes:
Team Structure
Management Style
Team Engagement
Team Evaluation
Team Rules
and much more.