Focus Magazine - Summer 2013 - 22

FEATURESTORY

level and capability of team members
to establish what they are good at and
where the focus of training and
development needs to be. Otherwise,
the training organization will make
assumptions about needs that will not
always match reality. Assessments also
need to be ongoing, as knowledge and
skills can fade over time, and rolespecific requirements may shift.
On-the-job training from peers can
often be more valuable than formalized
training initiatives because the lessons
are coming from the individuals who
live the business situations day to day.
As a result, another best practice for
enabling world-class training is to use
informal learning and collaboration.
This type of less-structured activity
enables the 70 percent of learning that
is experiential/on-the-job. An
infrastructure is needed to allow
informal learning and collaboration to

Assessments also
need to be ongoing,
as knowledge and skills
can fade over time.
take place, whether it is through social
media, intranet message boards or time
set aside in district-level and team
meetings for the sharing of ideas. It
does not matter where interaction and
collaboration happens, as long as the
company creates a culture that
encourages coaching and the sharing of
expertise by rewarding such behavior.
Finally, the path toward developing
a world-class training organization
requires the ability to deliver blended
learning that matches the right
modality to the desired outcome and
optimal effectiveness for the learner. A
blended solution across a learning
continuum is nearly always more
effective than any single event. It may

It does not matter
where interaction
and collaboration
happens, as long as the
company creates a culture.

make sense to design a curriculum that
includes more knowledge-based
interactive eCourses on the front end
to establish core concepts prior to a
more immersive live training event.
After the event, mobile technology can
be introduced to provide additional
reinforcement. It is also then
important to assess, pull through and
coach to ensure the lessons have been
learned and that behavior change
persists.

The Transformation
Timeline
Achieving world-class status
requires commitment to excellence
from all levels of the organization, from
the C-suite to the individual
contributor. It can easily take multiple
years of committed effort to transform
into a world-class organization.
The first year should be dedicated to
setting the vision and objectives for the
organization. This includes
understanding the current state of
affairs and identifying the knowledge
gaps in key areas that need to be
addressed. From there it is possible to
develop a strategy and implementation
plan for the training organization.
During this first year, the training
organization should take the time to
discuss its vision with other
stakeholders and gain buy-in from
management.
Year two is the transformative year.
The training organization can begin
executing on priorities and monitoring
success against pre-defined and specific
metrics. Successes should be shared

throughout the organization, while
plans are modified to overcome
challenges.
In the third year, the training
organization may actually begin to
achieve world-class status. During this
period, it is important to continue to
execute priorities, share successes and
build sustainability into the programs.
The organization should also
benchmark against other identified
industry-leading and world-class
organizations to see how it compares.

Conclusion
While only a few companies can
actually build and sustain a world-class
training organization, there are still
steps that companies can take to drive
effective training, even if they don’t
have the buy-in and investment
required to attain an elusive “worldclass” designation.
By applying a laser focus on
identifying business-critical priorities,
aligning stakeholders and executing on
priorities, a training organization can
deliver tangible wins that help drive the
business and measure and share
metrics that demonstrate value. In
working to overcome challenges, the
training group will establish
organizational excellence and become a
trusted business partner to the broader
company. Finally, by incorporating
company leadership into programs, the
training organization can establish a
culture of leader-led training. While it
may not be “world-class,” it can
certainly be a competitive advantage in
an increasingly competitive industry. I

George Schmidt is managing director, Commercial Center of Excellence, Campbell Alliance. Email George at
gschmidt@campbellalliance.com.

22

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Focus Magazine - Summer 2013

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