Training Industry Magazine - November/December 2016 - 31

CUSTOMERS
MAKE AN
INVESTMENT
AND ARE
INTERESTED IN
MAXIMIZING THAT
INVESTMENT.

Corporate trainers often refer to their
audience as "learners," and, as a single
term, this isn't a metaphor: they are, in fact,
learning (we hope). The problem with this
designation, however, is that it leads us
into a broader school metaphor in which
we see employees as students waiting to
receive instruction from those who can
give it to them. (As a former educator, I
feel compelled to point out that this is not
a terribly effective idea of school, either,
but that's a subject for another article.)
In theory, the courses are presented, and
our main task is to get people in the room
(physical or virtual), with the idea that if
they're there, learning happens.

likely to produce training that actually
gets through and changes behavior.

We see the results of this in compliance
training with mandatory seat times and
LMSs that present completion rates as
quantitative evidence of success. But we
know better. I suspect everyone reading
this article has taken mandatory training
with their eyes glazed over, hearing little
and learning less. We can do better. Our
learners need to see why learning matters
to them, why it will make their lives better.
They need to believe the course will
improve something they value. In short,
they need to be sold.

It's not just that we should see our learners
as customers; we want them to be
customers. We want them to know enough
about the training to understand its value.
To paraphrase the old Cheap Trick song,
we want them to want the training. It will
make them not just engaged but excited.
They will participate more fully, they will
complete it more enthusiastically, and
they will apply it more thoroughly. Let's
get to know our learners so we understand
their values, and let's build training that
connects the company's needs with our
employees' values. Then we will be able to
sell the idea of the training to them, and
they'll want to buy it.

SHIFTING MINDSETS
A change in how we think of our learners
can lead to a change in how we present
our learning and development offerings.
Specifically, we should treat our audience
as customers rather than learners. If we truly
believe we are dealing with consumers,
we will be confronted with (at least) three
differences in how we view our audience:
* Learners are students who have to sit
in class; customers are free agents who
have choices about where to spend
their time and money
* Learners are subordinate to those with
knowledge; customers are equal to
those with a product
* Learners may or may not be interested/
engaged; customers make an
investment and are interested in
maximizing that investment
Simply put, education is not compulsory.
We can require attendance, and we can
require completion, but we must inspire
learning. If we treat our learners as
potential customers who have to be sold
on the value of a product, we are more
T R A I N I N G I N DUSTR Y MA GAZ INE - TRENDS201 7 I WWW.TRAI NINGINDU S T RY . C OM/ MAGAZ I NE

A view of learners as customers will
change both the way we produce (and
market) training and the way our learners
receive it. First, we will produce training
that does more than simply check a
box or fulfill a compliance requirement.
We will build training that respects our
learners' time, piques their interest,
and inspires them to action. And our
learners will strive to improve their job
performance, know where to find new
information, and create momentum for
training throughout the organization.

Let's consider an example. A large
manufacturing company is concerned
with the way its employees treat and use
the brand. Up-front analysis demonstrated
that there was a need for brand training,
but, even more importantly, their
employees didn't understand the effect
each of them could have on the brand.
The company employs more than 50,000
people around the world; many of those
individuals believed there was no impact
a single person could have on the brand.
Building a typical brand training for this
audience would not have been effective;
they already valued the company, and a
course that gave tips on how to present
the brand could have been dismissed by
those who believed such positioning was
only important to people on the sales
and marketing teams. Instead, training
was developed that helped the team
members understand that when they post
parodies of the company logo on their
Facebook pages, it has a real effect on the
future of the company. They were able to
see that through their interactions in the
workplace, at home, and on social media,

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Magazine - November/December 2016