No not a tax!..... but very much to do with money.
When you invest in training for you and your team how do you make sure you get real value from the course?
The answer is when you can ensure that what has been learned is put into practice for the benefit of the enterprise and the individual course attendees.
You do this by:
Sponsoring the approaches from the top
Setting the aspirations and objectives of participants before they attend the course
Enabling and encouraging use from day one after the course
Review deployment during performance appraisal
Sponsoring the approaches from the top
The team leader needs to both preach and practice. Participants need to be told that the approaches are going to become business as usual in the enterprise, and that the leader will show commitment to this by using them him/herself.
As an example, in PA Consulting, Pyramid Thinking is deployed globally with nearly 3000 consultants using the discipline in their daily routines. The sponsor is the Chairman of the firm – and he has mandated that all consultants from the Partners to the lowest analyst are not only trained in its use but use it in their daily work.
Setting the aspirations and objectives of participants before they attend the course
Making the value of attending the course clear to participants before they attend, and setting an expectation of deployment on their return provides the ideal incentives to ensure individuals get as much out of the training as they can.
Enabling and encouraging use from day one after the course
As with any skill – practice makes perfect. You need to create the opportunity for deployment of the newly acquired skill from day one after the course. Only then will you get over the initial use hurdle and consolidate the learning. Design the deployment opportunity prior to the course so that the thinking approach can be put to use as soon as delegates have completed the training.
In PA Consulting every proposal and presentation needs to have a Pyramid Thinking schematic detailing the governing thought and key-line. If you take a document to a consulting colleague you will be asked what the governing thought is, and what is the key-line to support it. If you don’t have the answer you are shown the door and asked to come back when you have them. That practice ensures that Pyramid Thinking is business as usual throughout the organisation.
Review deployment during performance appraisal
Do your staff appraisal documents record training received during the period under review? If they do well and good?
Do the documents go on to ask for evidence of deployment of what was learned? If not you should amend them so you make sure you check that you are getting the value form your investment in training.
By adopting the four practices above you will ensure that VAT - Value Assured Training transforms a cost into a true asset for your enterprise.
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