Chief Learning Officer - January 2009 - (Page 47) won’t do what’s required, and your results will remain unchanged. While there are dozens of places to start when trying to motivate and enable new behaviors, here are several principles you should keep in mind if you want to see people behave differently once the training is completed: 1. Never confuse behaviors with outcomes. Many training courses offer the following type of advice: “When first bringing up a problem with someone, establish a good relationship.” This advice sounds good, but upon further reflection, it explains what to achieve, not what to do. Participants are being told to do something that leads to a good relationship. The outcome is clear; the action is unknown. On the other hand, behavioral advice informs action. It is recognizable and replicable. Trainers often offer outcome advice because they haven’t followed the previous steps and don’t know the requisite behaviors. 2. Focus on both motivation and ability. Most training programs spend far too much time convincing people they ought to give up their old ways and far too little time teaching and practicing new ways. For instance, HR professionals often use thorough 360-degree survey techniques to convince people they need to change. Ironically, most participants can be motivated to change with a quick review of ineffective interpersonal techniques and why they don’t work — followed by replacement behaviors. At this point, trainers should quickly move to the hows and whys of the replacement behaviors. The key is to work on ability far more than motivation. 3. Employ deliberate practice to improve ability. Nobody would dream of competing in figure skating without careful coaching. You’d want to be shown what to do, given a chance to do it, be observed by professionals and then given advice on what to change and how to change it. You’d repeat this process over and over again until you got it right. The same sort of deliberate practice should be used with leadership and other interpersonal skills training. The ratio of lecture and discussion to coaching and feedback must tip toward practice and away from theoretical musings if you expect people to master complex interpersonal skills. When you know the exact behaviors required to secure results, when you can demonstrate them clearly on video or through live modeling and when people can see the link between those specific behaviors and key results, then they’ll willingly practice them with feedback. 4. Rely on theoretical paths. You can’t tell people to follow rote steps and expect the steps to work in complex human interaction. So when teaching interpersonal scripts, build a variety of possible responses from the other person into your theory. You have to build these contingencies into your interaction model through pathing. You also have to build in the skills to deal with each contingency. If not, once the conversation starts, it could easily follow a path trainees aren’t prepared to deal with. 5. Identify entry conditions. As you teach specific skills, take the time to identify when and why the skill is called for. Demonstrate the entry condition, talk about the entry condition, warn people that they’ll need to watch for the entry condition and then build these conditions into the practice. For instance, when people aren’t motivated, they say such things as “Who cares?” “What’s the big deal?” or “I have higher priorities.” These types of statements are entry conditions. Once trainees Never create or deliver training without aiming it at a key performance indicator. To find the correct indicator, ask yourself what you really want. recognize the entry conditions, they can apply their newly learned skills to increase motivation. 6. Test for efficacy. Once you’ve trained people on what to do and how and when to do it, the final step is to measure their ability to do what’s required. Provide trainees with interpersonal tests, measure their effectiveness, give them feedback, allow them to make corrections and don’t move on until people have mastered the requisite behaviors. Looking for Results If you’ve done your homework, you can turn your attention to the results you’re measuring. If people can and do enact the behaviors you’ve taught, if the behaviors lead to results and if the results are the ones you truly want, you’ve designed the right training course. You haven’t trained because it’s something you do, because you happen to have a course catalog or because you’ve got a nifty room with cool gadgets. Rather, you’ve trained with the results in mind, and your carefully executed training initiative has helped you improve key areas. CLO Kerry Patterson is a New York Times best-selling co-author and co-founder of VitalSmarts. He can be reached at editor@clomedia.com. Chief Learning Officer • January 2009 • www.clomedia.com 47 http://www.clomedia.com
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