We’re down to our last 2 tips! Numbers 9 & 10! We hope this series has helped you navigate your current project, or eased the stress of starting a new one. These are common mistakes, so if you’ve made them, you’re not alone. And you can recover!
A big thank you to AXIOM partner Linda Wade who has offered up her Top 10 Training Project Mistakes for this series and we know these ideas can really save you a lot of time, money and stress. Linda has an extensive background in helping Fortune 500/1000 companies build global strategies to roll out Siebel CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software. She’s no stranger to large scale training projects!
Getting your project on track from the very beginning is essential to its success. In case you missed them, here are the rest of the problems that many people run into and great ways to avoid them:
- Tip 1: Failing to Obtain Executive Support
- Tip 2: No User Involvement
- Tips 3 & 4: Failure to Quantify Objectives and Lack of a Training Plan
- Tips 5 & 6: Testing, and Forgetting to Train your Management Team
- Tips 7 & 8: Forgetting the Value of Time and Sweat the Small Stuff
Most likely, your training is coming to an end… what comes next? Here are tips 9 & 10:
- Training is Over. What Now?
A strong training plan is critical to your overall success. However, equally as important is the Post Training Plan. Training is often viewed as an “event” that happens and there is not much time or thought given to what will happen after the training event. Creating a post training plan will help your team continue to achieve its project goals but also provide you with a road map for continued success.
Post training plans link directly back to the original objectives that began the project. Measuring the effectiveness of training means the performance of the end user is enhanced in significant ways. It also means that there are effective feedback systems that allow for the design and development team to make necessary improvements that can only be discovered in production. Ultimately, your post training plan insures that the learning style of each participant is met beyond training to provide the highest return on your investment. End users feel supported and are motivated to embrace the difficulty of adapting to the changes addressed by training the new system.
Post training plans also involve the leadership teams as they continue to communicate their vision for the changes and encourage the success of the project. It’s important that the leadership at all levels learn to access critical business information and processes from the new system and lead the way for total adoption. This can only be done with an effective Post Training Plan.
It’s important that the leadership at all levels learn to access critical business information and processes from the new system and lead the way for total adoption.
- Stealth Projects
As nice as it would be, training projects cannot survive in a vacuum. Communication is the key to your success. Establish your communication expectations early in the project and stay the course. Conduct weekly stand up meetings that give project leaders and all team members the opportunity to discuss their status or challenges that lay ahead for the week. However, try to remember the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Be sincere, be brief, and be seated.”
Keep track of the project issues and resolutions and make sure to review outstanding items on a regular basis.
Most important, keep the lines of communication open between the training team and all members of the development team. It will be especially useful when the crunch time hits and the emotions are running high.
Many projects fail after training because they did not develop a solid communication strategy. Never make the mistake of ignoring the end user’s feedback in a training project. The key to overcoming negative feedback is to expect it, address it and overcome it. The feedback will either improve the system or will reveal the need for reinforcement.
Leadership is the critical factor in the communication process. Leaders must know the benefit of the changes at all levels and be involved in the adoption of the new system so that it becomes fully utilized in the system. This requires active involvement by the development team, the training team and the executive team in order to share the same messages to and through the organization.
-L&D thoughts
-Have a thought on our blog post? Please comment below, we love to start new discussions!