Training Industry Magazine - September/October 2021 - 36

TO GIVE YOUR TRAINING ANY
CHANCE OF BEING SUCCESSFUL, YOU
MUST PROVE GENUINE RELEVANCY.
two components: individual and
environmental competence. If these
two components are at or above a
threshold level, the employee will
perform the task well. Notice that
this has shifted naturally into talking
about performance and it is probably
a lack of performance that brought
the manager to you with their request
for training.
Individual competence is made up
of knowledge, skills, the insight and
understanding of how to apply the
knowledge and skills, mental and
motivational state and sometimes
physical abilities.
ENVIRONMENTAL
COMPETENCE
Environmental competence is made
up of all the things outside and
surrounding the employee that affect
how they do their job. It includes
things like systems, processes,
IT provision, tools, spare parts,
organizational culture, management
provision, support from colleagues
and more.
It's common to talk about the
competence of an individual, but
people seldom talk about the
competence of the environment
surrounding that individual to support
them in what they are tasked with
doing. A competent employee can be
rendered incapable on the job if their
environment conspires against them.
Ask yourself: When an employee is
unable to perform a task, is it their
incompetence, or the incompetence
of their environment that cause the
lack of performance?
Consider your own experience; think
back over the last month or two at your
job. When you couldn't do a task, was
it you or your environment that was
cause of the poor performance? Most
people, when asked this question,
say they knew what to do and
wanted to do it, but couldn't because
of outside factors. In other words, it is
more common for the environment to
cause poor performance than lack of
competence of the employee.
Of all the components of individual and
environmental competence required
for performance, the only ones directly
affected by training are knowledge,
skills and understanding. If, and only
if, these are lacking will training be
relevant, and then only as part of a
holistic solution that addresses any
other inhibitors to performance.
This is why a performance diagnostics
process is essential to establish the
relevancy of training and to give you
an 'audit trail' to prove that relevancy
to other stakeholders, especially the
delegates and their managers. If you
can't prove that training is required
with this process, don't do training.
You need to find another solution
to
the
performance
problem,
and
that solution is probably now much
more obvious after the performance
diagnostics process.
Mary, the manager who requested
the training, should now see whether
the initial desire for training was
valid or whether this was wishful
thinking that would not have
solved the performance problem.
Let's assume that the diagnostics
process did indeed confirm a need
for better knowledge and skills and
that training, amongst many other
possible L&D interventions, looks like
the best way to proceed. The next
step is to establish the relevancy of
the training to the target employees.
You must ensure that the training is
not only relevant - it must also be
perceived as relevant to delegates
so they see what is in it for them.
This means you now have a marketing
exercise to convince the delegates,
and any other important stakeholders,
of the relevance of the proposed
training. They all need to see that
it is relevant to them personally, or
they simply won't invest much of
their precious time and energy into
engaging with your training, and
even less into transferring what they
see as irrelevant learning into action
in their jobs.
This raises the concept of learning
transfer. Relevance is one of
many factors required to ensure
learning transfer and thereby make
training effective.
Returning to the first sentence of this
article, " Think about it - if training is
not seen as relevant by the learner,
or their manager, how likely is it to
change behavior? "
If you seek behavior change through
training, your training must be relevant.
Think about it!
Paul Matthews is one of the leading
learning and development experts,
with three best-selling books. As
well as being a sought-after speaker,
Paul provides consultancy services,
training workshops and webinars
for blue-chip clients in the UK and
beyond. Email Paul.
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https://www.trainingindustry.com/magazine/may-jun-2020/the-learning-transfer-elephant/ https://www.trainingindustry.com/magazine/may-jun-2020/the-learning-transfer-elephant/ https://www.paul-matthews.com/
Training Industry Magazine - September/October 2021

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