Business Speaker

How to get the biggest bang for your training buck

Investigate and indentify what skills and knowledge are needed. Then confirm that your staff want it. Many people need training but they do not want it. If you know they need training but they think they don't - you lose. They lose too, but that's another story.

When deciding where to start, give highest training priorities to the areas of costliest mistakes - or biggest lost opportunities.

Before your people start the training help them focus on results. Tell them to look for the one thing that will help them make a significant difference. If they know what they are looking for they are more likely to find it. Then add that if they find this one good idea and implement it the training would be a success. It would be a bonus If they are able to implement even more than one new idea. Explain that the success of the training is up to them. They need to learn and do. Then follow-up after the program to learn what their one new thing is. Then ask them how you will know that they are doing that. Then follow-up again to guide or reward them.

Instruct each person to be prepared to report on what they learned and/or to help train others in your company. Remember the best way to learn is to teach. Not everyone is a teacher. But if they think about how they have to teach someone else they will learn better. Even if you sent everyone on training you might hire new staff or arrange refresher sessions.

Training should never be a one-shot event. Schedule the follow-up sessions at the same time you schedule the training. You could bring the trainer back. Or you could have your own people take turns facilitating peer coaching sessions.

Never treat training as an expense - it is an investment. Make investments in your staff that keep growing.

George Torok brings practical insights to business. He is co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing, the first guide to personal marketing for the non-marketer. As host of Business in Motion he has interviewed over 400 business leaders. He is available to deliver keynote speeches and business seminars. Contact him at 905-355-1997 or info@torok.com

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