How to avoid pseudo-training - Savvy

How to avoid pseudo-training

There is nothing worse than pseudo-training when both the trainer and the trainees pretend to be doing something important. These can feature slides, beautiful notebooks, a few clever terms, and a day or two of wasted time. Therefore, when clients ask us to conduct training on a specific topic or, even more vaguely, “some training,” the first two questions we ask are:
  1. How exactly will this topic help your team?
  2. What issues do you want to solve with this type of educational event?
And what a pleasure it is when customers come to us ready for partnership. Once we familiarize ourselves with both the company’s and employees’ needs, we assess the skills, identify growth areas, and offer a comprehensive solution.
“We conducted 360-degree feedback and found that in general our managers and team leaders are good at giving feedback, the main complaint from colleagues is that this feedback is not enough. Could you suggest any solution?” – recently said HRD of one of the tech companies.
To solve this case, we compiled a questionnaire for managers’ and team leads’ self-reflection. We found out that the main cause for feedback shortage is the lack of emotional and time resources for feedback. And indeed, it is true. It takes good preparation to provide correct, yet inspiring feedback. Also, it appears that a significant amount of energy and time is wasted on doubts about given feedback in the answers. There is a hypothesis that by teaching the theory of the rules for providing feedback, as well as conducting a series of supervision of the feedback, the team would gain confidence and reduce feedback preparation time by half. As a result, we held three 2-hour sessions, where we analyzed six feedback models that can be used in different situations (more detailed and abbreviated formulations). We determined which models aligned best with certain types of employees. We worked with cases and figured out what to do when employees resist feedback and react unconstructively. Participants also received feedback on their feedback to understand their strengths and areas of growth.
“Look, now everything seems so simple, I know exactly which model to apply to whom and how you can strengthen the relationship by giving feedback!” – we heard from the participants with pleasure at the end of the program.
And the biggest thrill was right at the training, when the trainees added reminders about feedback to each of their team members into calendars, realizing that they don’t need to organize 1-2-1 meetings every time. After all, sometimes a cleverly written message is enough to boost the motivation and loyalty of those people we’re responsible for. To summarize, we urge everyone responsible for L&D activities within your company to start with the question of the training relevance to colleagues. Unfortunately (or fortunately? :)), you can’t forcibly improve anyone or make everyone happy. And if you have a desire to develop soft-skill skills in your teams, but don’t know the best way to organize this process, we at #SavvyUA will be happy to find the best solutions to identify needs, increase motivation to attend training, and discover ways to consolidate gained knowledge.