Lessons from Canada Geese, Part 2

If you come from a large organisation don’t under-value the knowledge of an on-site trainer. An on-site trainer sees employees when they’re being stretched and even put under stress. These observations build up into a clear picture of the capabilities of the person. These trainers ought to be involved in any consultation about promotion and restructuring. Why? Because they’ll know who will cope with added responsibilities if roles must be amalgamated.

When you’re training a group of people, especially if you use experiential learning methods, you learn how people react under pressure, whether they’re prepared to step into a leadership role, how they think (laterally or linear), and whether they’re a group player or a prima donna. An HR manager removed from practical training may miss out on learning these attributes of employees.

The on-site trainer can also be instrumental in bringing about culture changes, provided their role is clearly supported and valued by the organisation. The best worksite health and safety policy will not reduce accidents or injuries unless it's entrenched in worksite practice. ‘Big stick’ techniques are often less effective than culture change. Threats lead to clever concealment; culture change leads to a change in belief about self and the relationship with the organisation. Culture change takes time and management commitment. It needs to be led by the trainer with a positive, reward focus.

Imagine if those small groups of Canada geese decided to leave at different times of the year and didn’t bother to practice their vee-formation flying before they left? Not many of them would be around to return the following spring. It’s their commitment to the larger group, their willingness to share leadership, and their constant calls of encouragement that keep them a cohesive group flying through the nights and the rough ocean weather until they reach the next sanctuary on their journey.

When times are tough, as they are for organisations around the globe, culture change is a vital ingredient to ensure you’re a survivor. If you’re a trainer you can make a huge impact on the survival chances of your group.

• Avoid the negativity – train only the employees who see learning as valuable for them


• Focus training on the wider picture – convince employees of their role in creating a lean, efficient and well-functioning team


• Challenge the grey-matter – use unusual training tools to keep people on their toes and thinking – you’re training the whole person


• Spread the message that solutions are right within us – we just have to have the confidence to think outside the box


• Reward employees who show initiative – even if it is only to point them out to management as potential for promotion (but let them know you have done so)


• See other trainers as resources to share new techniques and tools – share your own ideas and borrow others

Survival in today’s climate will be about the organisations that learn to work for the greater good, the ones that look for new leaders from within their ranks and support each other strive for excellence. Divisive cultures will only lead to poor performance and inevitable disaster.

- Heather Sylvawood, Educational Designer, Edutech KM Ltd

Where Does Training Fit Now?

Today I added an RSS feed from a site that some of you may have already come across HRM – the Social Network For Today’s HR professionals.

I like this blog because it focuses so much on the positive. The writer understands that when the chips are down there are two ways for a company to go:
1. Inward looking, concentrating on cost cutting, losses and fear
2.Upward looking, building on the team that remains and the values they can share

The first is a recipe for disaster; the second keeps everyone focused on possibilities and invention. I know the type of business I want to be in.

HR managers on many sites must be facing some tricky situations if they're dealing with redundancies and a shrinking workforce, a shrinking market and little time for keeping that important training going. Actually the need for training becomes even more important in a shrinking workforce, because the employees who are left are often expected to become multi-skilled.

In these times, the businesses that paid attention to upskilling and training will be benefiting from their foresight. They’ll have employees ready to step (even if reluctantly) into the shoes of employees who have left. Other businesses will struggle to quickly upskill staff and may even have difficulty finding the information that was so efficiently catalogued in the minds of the employees who have left. Inevitably employees who leave disgruntled often make sure that vital information is NOT made easily available – “’cos whatcha going do about it?”

Assuming you have staff who are able to pick up the pieces and continue production/trading/creating services at a reduced level, you cannot, even in a recession, forget the importance of training. You may need, however, to review the type of training you’re providing. Fewer employees on the job will mean fewer opportunities to take them off the floor or away from clients in order to attend courses. It may be time to look at alternative training opportunities.

We have designed resources for a number of clients who had to deliver training at a distance. In today’s financial climate the ‘distance’ may only be from your desk to theirs. Self-directed learning can be a cost-effective and easily adapted option as it allows learning to take place in small bursts, at a time to suit the learner.

Bring in the Clowns

How do you handle the scoffers ... the cynics who are on your course but don’t really believe they’ll learn anything new?

I’d really like to know, because I find I use a lot of energy devising ways of avoiding coming up against them.

I was co-presenting with an industry tutor who was learning new methods of presenting material. He'd been doing well until he tossed a whiteboard marker to a participant (the course clown and vocal critic) and asked him to come up to the front to record the group discussion points.

This role had been shared around among a number of participants as a way of grooming them to be more confident as presenters themselves. The clown participant point-blank refused and threw the marker back. An embarrassed silence followed until another trainee stood up and grabbed a marker pen.

From that point on the clown lost his standing in the group. He had gone too far and the mood of the group changed. While the other trainees had been prepared to laugh at his loud asides early in the course, they now shifted their allegiances toward the presenters. It was subtle, but a relief.

I had earlier tried the: “Yes X. That’s a good point and we’ll have to address that later” tactic. After the session I went and discussed his objection and asked him to help redress it by sending in something in writing so we could include it in the next course. He did too!

Some people just need lots of attention, and they resent the focus being on the trainer. What tactics have other trainers found to work well?