If we can anticipate the 7 early warning signs of training failure, we can actually take some action to prevent these failings, and get a much better outcome from our training programs.
1. Pre-work missing
The first thing to watch out for is participants who have been given pre-work, and have not made the time to do the pre-work. This illustrates that before people come into the training room, you have not got the initial buy in from them, or that support from their manager is in short supply. This in itself isn’t fatal, and you can still work with them during the training process to increase their buy in to the program. If they haven’t given commitment beforehand it is however a warning sign that you need to work considerably harder to get their buy in and their commitment after the program.
2. Manager Support lacking
The second early warning sign relates to the aforementioned managers support. I often see in organisations that the managers are asked to have a conversation with the participant beforehand, to highlight what they want to get out of the program. If those conversations haven’t happened, then you have an indication that you haven’t got the managers support. This may result in a lower level of buy in from the participants because they anticipate that their manager isn’t behind it. Within your organisation, if you really don’t think the managers are going to be conducting those conversations, in my opinion it’s more damaging to ask for those conversations and them not happen, than to find another way to get that initial buy in or conversation happening. Interestingly, a training provider I was speaking to recently informed me that they implemented a pre-program three-way conversation with the manager and the participant to absolutely ensure that those conversations happened. They found that one-on-one conversations with the participant before the program resulted in a much better level of engagement and openness from the participant about needs and what they wanted to work on, rather than when the manager was sat with them having the three-way conversation; an interesting thought to consider. You’ll know the relevance for your organisation, and what level of expertise and level of support you have within your management population.
3. A Fluid Training Attendance
The third thing to watch out for in terms of early warning signs of training failure is people coming in and out of the training room. Historically, a lot of training used to happen off site, and people would be away from their desks. In this day and age, with mobile devices, where people can always access their email, and often when training actually happens on site, you’ll find that people are perhaps pulled out of the training program part way through, or are actually in and out of the program for different reasons. Obviously business needs to happen, and there will be business priorities; such as executives visiting from other countries, or business conversations that need to happen. However, generally, if you have people not even prioritising whilst in the learning environment itself, you’re going to have a harder time when people leave the event to keep the momentum and keep the change happening.
4. Action Plan Slippage
The fourth early warning sign to look out for is when you get to the end of the program, whether people are actually completing their action plans, or indeed recording actions as they go, throughout the program. My view is that you really need to capture the action plans before they leave the learning environment. People may intend to complete the plan later but that certainly won’t happen. Also, their view of what’s achievable will change once they’re out of the learning environment. The sense of what can be achieved will often be lower when they get back to their desk and back in day to day activity, than when they had that sense of learning and growth. People really need to be encouraged to complete their action plans at the end and record notes and key highlights as they go through the program. The facilitator can help this by allowing time for participant to do so.
5. No “Happy Sheets” at all
The fifth warning sign is reviewing your happy sheets; often trainers and participants are anti happy sheets because they feel they’re meaningless. In some cases they have been stopped. In reality, there are some really key questions that you can actually have on your level 1 evaluation, with reference to the Kirkpatrick and Phillips 5 Levels of Learning Evaluation. Learning level 1 is the reaction at the end of the training program itself. Rather than just use your level 1 evaluations to capture reaction to the venue, whether they liked the trainer, and the facilities, really focus on capturing the relevance to their work, and the intention to use. Useful questions you can use here are;
- How relevant is the program?
- How important is the program?
- Are the facilitators effective?
- How appropriate is the program?
- Is this new information?
- Is the program rewarding?
- Will you implement the program?
- Will you use the concepts/advice?
- What would keep you from implementing objectives from the program?
- Would you recommend the program to others?
If you want more information on this, a fantastic book to look at is ‘Beyond Learning Objectives – Develop Measurable Objectives That Link to the Bottom Line’. (Phillips, J. J. & Phillips, P. P., 2008).
6. No Follow Up Process
Number six, in terms of our early warning signs of training failure; if there’s no follow up process in place, and people don’t know how they will be held accountable for putting their learning into action, then there is an indication that you’re going to have problems creating transfer and results from the program. For more about these review other articles on my blog.
7. No Evaluation Planned
Finally, number seven, if there’s no evaluation planned and people don’t know how success will be evaluated, measured or collated, maybe 2 or 3 months after the training program, then again that could be a challenge in terms of indicating that you might not get the level of transfer and change that you’re looking for.
Hope it has been useful to consider the early warning signs of training failure. With any luck, even just looking at these warning signs will give you some ideas of things that you really need to put in place to ensure the best results from your programs.
Good luck!