We’ve not set the bar high enough to begin with. We don’t require training to be better, to deliver true change, and we let it continue as a check-the-box function. So ultimately, training (and now, much needed continuous learning) isn’t great because we have not demanded it be great. We say we make learning, our people, and their development a priority, but we don’t really invest in doing it with excellence. It just doesn’t seem like the best use of resources, and that’s because…

We unfairly set training up as a cure-all and it disappoints us. It’s the training team that leaders turn to when they need a quick fix, and then these same leaders wonder why that team can’t deliver one. The fact is no training program, in and of itself, is the answer. Leadership bears the burden of holding their people accountable to results—they just don’t, won’t, or can’t seem to make time for it … and perhaps they aren’t sure how to do it either.

How do we break free from the baggage around training and avoid a lot of  frustration and wasted resources? Let me offer some perspective and some hope.

First, ask yourself: Is a learning MINDSET at the core of your people? Is it at your core? If not, it will be hard as a company to compete and keep your current workforce intact, engaged, and productive. I say mindset because having a “learning culture” is all the rage these days, but the mindset comes first. You can’t set up a catalog of training events, a Corporate University, and professional development goals and call it a culture.  Your people’s collective beliefs set culture—do they believe in realizing their potential? Do you? Are you willing to stay up-to-date on the latest books, try new things, and learn from mistakes? What do you want to accomplish together? Instilling this mindset is a transformational effort that demands leadership engagement—it’s not a project for your L&D team alone.

Second, upgrade your training. How? Stop doing it the way you’ve always done it and completely rethink your approach. We need to stop looking at training as a silo that helps other departments when called upon. We need to stop looking at it as purely remedial, compliance-driven, or developmental. We need to stop looking at it as a “nice-to-have” and an employee benefit. We need to stop looking at it as something only L&D people can do. Instead, we need to start treating learning year round, every day, as a strategic component of a larger company movement to compete in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent marketplace. It should be a part of the same conversations as Marketing, Ops, Communications, and Customer Experience. I’m not saying you should throw out strong programs that have proven results. What I am saying is that the pace of change is accelerating, and you likely need to reimagine what learning looks for you and your teams so that they thrive, stick with you, and keep you viable.  

There are many ways to get there, so rather than chart a course, I’d rather paint a picture of what it will look like when you arrive. When your company has a learning mindset, employees pull new content, new ideas, and new approaches into your business, without you having to stay on top of it all and push new strategies to them. They present and invite a critique of each other’s work and want to learn how other teams might approach the same problem. They seek personal feedback because they know it will make them better. They bubble up what they hear from customers and thoughtfully share information with team members who will benefit from it. Finally, they openly own the mistakes and misjudgments they make, because they understand these are a part of learning, and they want everyone else to benefit from their lessons. What you get with a learning mindset is a lack of ego, newly realized potential, and a lot of progress for the benefit of all. If it sounds utopian, it’s not. But it does require interpersonal trust, and it takes leaders at all levels to promote and protect learning as the ultimate cultural norm.

And if you need support, we’re here to help.

If you’re ready to start a conversation about how Frontier Academy can help create a learning mindset in you team, reach out to us: 

First, check your mindset. Training isn’t something your people do on their own. They shouldn’t be solely responsible for their own growth immediately after being introduced to a new tool, concept or mental shift. Instead, recognize that you play a critical role in creating the environment they’ll need to change and develop.

Why? It takes between 21 and 254 days for individuals to form new behaviors. It’s a bumpy journey, one that requires reinforcement, focus, and nurturing. What you’re really doing when you form a behavior is replacing the old way of doing things.  And that’s super painful. The old way has worked for so long that you’re naturally going to fight the new way, consciously and subconsciously. Which is what the people on your team will do, too.    

Which begs the question: so what do you do to get the most out of training, exactly?   

Before the Training

A checklist you are likely familiar with.

1. Identify the skill gap or area for growth.  (We can help if this is a struggle, as it often is.)

2. Source the content and learning partner, internal or external.

3. Plan the implementation and iron out those logistics mentioned earlier.  

During the Training

Here’s where the real work gets started, and questions are important.

 1. Listen.  

Once you begin, and activities unfold between your team members, get ready to hold back.  Because you have so much invested—both in terms of resources and your own energy—you will have an almost unfettered desire to re-direct conversational tangents or assert a rationale for a current process.  You will want to tamper skepticism when it arises to anything new.  Don’t.  Instead, ask yourself, “what is the underlying issue?”  Provide enough space to find this.  

 You can always ask a clarifying question as the conversation unfolds, or afterwards, at lunch or over a phone call.  When your team expresses concerns or communicates their reasons for pushing back, listen: They are about to give you something valuable. Think of it as critical intel on the roadblocks you can help remove for your team to move forward. Shut this communication process down, and you’ll have no clue what needs attention in your organization’s environment. 

Note: if you are not attending a session in person, find a surrogate to do this for you—someone that you trust to give you their honest observation, even when—especially when—that means hearing something they know you won’t want to hear.  

2.  Identify one item your people need most.  

Because you’ve listened, you can now clarify the needs being expressed.  And here’s where your judgement and experience come in. What, truly, is going to fuel your people? What is in their way regarding the new practice everyone wants to see in action? Is it time? Clearer direction from you? Access to different information? More accountability between business units? Find these things, then, pick one as a place to start. Keep your notes on the others for future consideration.  

After the Training

Here’s where it gets tangible.

1.  Require commitments of your team and, most importantly, of yourself.  

Start by sharing the primary item you’ve identified that your team needs—this can be done in 3-5 minutes. Then, most importantly, tell your team what you are committing to do about it. That could mean a commitment to a new sales-pitch flow, creating protected time for people to spend on a new practice, or socializing a new feedback practice. Each individual will need to do this, too. Ideally, everyone will self-identify what they need to work on so that they are personally invested. If, for example, you run your team through a workshop like Insight Selling, some people will need to work on how they structure their pitch and others will need to work on re-calibrating their collateral. Allow enough space for your team to identify an area for change or improvement. Capture these goals and make time for regular and shared reflection on the progress between leadership and team members.  

 2.  Adopt a new mechanism for catalyzing the progress and use it intentionally.

Here’s how I’ve seen this done after a workshop with Frontier Academy.  Start by picking a tool to drive a desired behavior. Think of this tool as your small, burning ember.  If you’re not personally attending the session, this is where your surrogate becomes most important.  They’ll need to recommend this piece and you’ll need to advance their recommendation.  This could look like a feedback tool, a new formula and process for innovation, that new sales pitch flow that everyone will adopt, or even shared expectations regarding meetings management.  Now, allow that tool to do the building it is capable of.  Use the language and vocabulary that supports what you’ve selected.  Do this regularly, and do this yourself.  Push opportunities into meeting agendas.  Where else does your team think this tool needs to exist?  Work with them to put it there.   

3.  When you see effort, reward it.  

As you move forward you may see a furrowed brow or hear someone asking for help, or maybe you’ll witness early morning arrivals to invest more time into the project at hand.  When you see this, well before the final product is shared, reward the effort.  A thank you in person, a card to the same effect, calling someone out at a team meeting, or even stopping into their office with ten bucks and a walk to grab some coffee around the corner will nurture the effort—and progress—being made.  If someone identifies a mistake and works toward understanding what happened to learn from the misstep—it’s critical that you reward that, too.  

4.  Share what you’ve learned—the good, the bad, the key takeaways.

Find a time and format for sharing your own learning—this will model the type of sharing you are looking for from your team.  This is can be as simple as sharing small anecdotes about what happened when you used the tool you committed to.  What were the bumps?  What worked well?  Great.  Now, what’s your team got to share?  This reflection both demonstrates there has been effort made and generates shared engagement with the new behavior(s) you’re after.  Without this follow-through and digestion, that ember from several weeks ago will die.  Keep it appropriately oxygenated.  

The good news about all of this is, really, that it won’t consume epic amounts of time.  Instead, you can reflect on the pieces above as you move through the process, adjusting and tuning as you go.  The hard work is re-configuring what you are doing right now when the topic of training comes up.  Print this out, put some time on your calendar to take your own notes, and you’re on your way.  

And if you need additional support, we’re here to help.

If you’re ready to start a conversation about how Frontier Academy’s workshops can help your team engage with one another on a deeper level, here’s what you need to know: