Training Industry Magazine - March/April 2020 - 49

strategy, tools for success and people
sharing challenges, as well as learning
experiences.
EMERGING RESULTS
The training community of practice has
taken the challenge of coordinating
learning development and improving
the quality of the WSDOT workforce
as an opportunity to build relationships
and share ideas. As a result of those
relationships, face-to-face contact is
made between trainers who may never
have met before, and it's easier to
connect with trainers around the state.
Better coordination between trainers
allows WSDOT as an agency to develop
a workforce prepared to meet emerging
challenges in the transportation sector.
With hundreds of individuals around
the agency, the community allows
trainers to connect and share their
experiences, expertise and resources,
no matter what type of training they
deliver or mode of delivery. For an
agency like WSDOT that creates and
delivers hundreds of different kinds of
training, the knowledge shared with
one another in these meetings is highly
valuable. This quarterly forum creates
a low cost opportunity to share that
expertise and work through challenges
as a community, which only adds to the
diversity and effectiveness of each of
our trainings.
Training is more than delivering content
for an audience, and it has more impact
at WSDOT than simply increasing
skills and competencies. It develops

communities, coordinates efforts and
creates connections between groups
that were previously siloed. The
emergence of a group with a unified
goal to share ideas, strategies and tools
is a critical component for successful
learning and development in an agency
as large and dispersed as WSDOT.

new tools and techniques. Because of
the community of practice, the group
was able to engage in a collaborative
discussion to identify the most valuable
features in a new learning management
system.

The results from the WSDOT training
community of practice include a
SharePoint site to facilitate easy access
to a collection of resources, complete
with a discussion board for continuing
conversations after meetings conclude.
The community has also started a
growing photo inventory of training
rooms and locations and a Kanbanbased tracking system for agency-wide
training improvements.

Connecting
individuals
across
a
widespread organization with complex
and variable business areas allows
WSDOT to develop more robust networks
and working relationships. As the business
of transportation continues to shift and
change, a welcoming environment that
fosters idea sharing and innovation is a
result in its own right, but the processes
and tools shared in the training community
of practice also plant ideas in the minds
of trainers that can transform how they
go about their work. That simple shift in
how each member creates a concept of
what it means to be a trainer at WSDOT
can help them create and deliver training
in a way that continues to prepare
the workforce for the challenges and
opportunities ahead.

THE COMMUNITY ALLOWS
TRAINERS TO CONNECT
AND SHARE THEIR
EXPERIENCES, EXPERTISE
AND RESOURCES, NO
MATTER WHAT TYPE OF
TRAINING THEY DELIVER.

Through this work, the group of trainers
has gained valuable space and time to
participate in sharing and reviewing
challenges
and
success
stories
associated with the implementation of

CREATING CONNECTIONS

As transportation and the technology
that drives it continue to evolve, the
WSDOT training community of practice
continues to grow and adapt to meet the
needs of the agency.
Tommy Brown is a technical training
consultant at the Washington State
Department of Transportation. Molly
Sullivan is a training coordinator with a
focus on environmental subject matter
at the Washington State Department of
Transportation. Email Tommy and Molly.

T R A I N I N G I N DUSTR Y MAGAZ INE - MODERN LEADERS 2020 I WWW. T RAI NINGINDU S T RY . C OM/ MAGAZ I NE

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Training Industry Magazine - March/April 2020

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