Keep it Simple and Fix It!
By Rob Zell:
As a learning professional, I am no stranger to having the business units that I support approach me with issues that require solutions. In most cases, they come looking for training solutions when the bottom line results aren’t appearing as expected. Their approach reminds me of one of my favorite Saturday Night Live skits.
During the Saturday Night Live Weekend Update, Kenan Thompson portrayed a very concerned financial expert whose solution to the recent financial crisis is that someone should “Fix it!” In his humorous tirade, he outlined several steps that “someone” needs to do to fix the problem:
- Identify the problem
- Fix it
- Identify another problem
- Fix it
- Repeat as necessary until it’s all fixed!
I’m sure many of you can relate to this.
Typically, the next step is to start problem-solving, asking tough questions about the environment, prior performance, management, obstacles, motivation, prior knowledge and a multitude of factors that likely impact performance. Unfortunately, the business didn’t come to you for questions; they came for answers. They might even feel frustrated because they perceive your line of questioning as an indictment of their own research into the issue!
Learning organizations are under huge pressure to generate ROI for training so they can’t run out training solutions for every issue that arises, especially if the problem is unrelated to training. If they don’t respond they may be seen as uncooperative, and so the business unit takes matters into its own hands. Neither is a high quality outcome.
You need to do a thorough analysis of the problem, so look for ways to collaborate with the business owner to find the root causes. Engage them to help you explore the aspects of performance that you know are most relevant but that they may not have thought about.
The challenge is to be perceived as the team that helps the organization reach its goals in the best manner possible. By focusing on the desired behavior, we can usually offer our clients and stakeholders solutions that meet the need and get results by giving them the choice of options and showing them the ROI.
- Always provide a good / better / best menu of choices with price points. Even the staunchest client has the good of the organization in mind. Faced with having to diminish results based on training cost, they will often choose the solution that makes the most sense.
- Stay focused on the desired behavior. Clients love to talk about all the things they believe learners should know to do the job. Unfortunately, all that extra knowledge might be getting in the way. Document the desired behavior, run the task analysis and return with sound data to make your case for the simplest solution.
- Get outside your own comfort zone. The best solution might be a simple communication piece or policy update that the learning organization is typically not responsible for creating. Look at that as an opportunity to collaborate across the organization and influence others to think about performance. This might also be a great opportunity to leverage some informal learning strategies like wikis or peer coaching rather than developing a full-blown training intervention.
Sometimes in order to “fix it,” training is not required. If based on your analysis you think there are better ways to solve the problem, offer up those solutions not as a trainer but as a performance consultant. Utilize what you know of visual media and learning to make communication tools and job aids easier to read and absorb. Make recommendations to the business regarding process or task changes. The simplicity of the solution may earn you more influence and credibility in the end and make an even bigger impact to the bottom line.
What unique training and/or consulting experiences have you encountered?
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