Saturday, January 27, 2007

Tip #154: Designing Training with SME's

frequently work with subject matter experts to design participant-centered skill-building training programs. When we sit down together, we already know the general subject matter of the training. The SMEs bring their specific technical expertise. My job is to help them focus in on what the learners REALLY need to learn and then collaborate on a training format that will achieve that learning.

I accomplish this by asking the SMEs a series of questions:

Question #1: "Who is our target audience?"

Question #2: "In general terms, what do you want the participants to know or be able to do when they leave the training?"

Based on their response, we craft the first training goal: WHAT the participants will learn.

Question #3: "Why would the target audience want to learn that, from their perspective?"

Based on their response, we craft the second training goal: WHY the participants will want to learn.

Question #4: "What do the participants need to know or be able to do in order to accomplish the first goal?"As they brainstorm, I post their list on a flipchart.

When necessary, I coach them to ensure that they identify everything necessary to complete a basic skill-building task analysis template:

  1. What it is [definitions of terminology or standards]

  2. Why it is important [benefits of the training from the learners' perspective]

  3. What is needed to do it [necessary tools or materials]

  4. How to do it [procedure]

  5. Do it [application]

We work with their posted list of responses to eliminate the non-essential items and place the remaining essential items in a logical sequence similar to that of the task analysis template above.

Up until this point, my role has been as a facilitator, asking logical questions to help the SMEs focus their technical expertise on the key content. With Question #5, my role changes to a trainer, introducing the concept of learning levels.

Question #5: "What level of learning is necessary for each essential task analysis item ? For example, do you want them to know it, but not understand it? Do you want them to understand it? Do you want them to do something with it?"

In this way, I introduce the building blocks of learning, otherwise known as Bloom's Taxonomy of Behavioral Learning Objectives.

Based on their answers, we identify a learning level-appropriate active verb to plug in at the beginning of each task analysis item. This converts the task analysis into a specific, observable, and measurable learning objective.

We now have the goals and learning objectives for the training program. The next step is to identify the training methods necessary to accomplish each learning objective.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Tip #153: Preparing SME's

Subject matter experts rarely refer to themselves as SMEs and they certainly don't find that role on their job descriptions! We need to approach them in a manner respectful of their other responsibilities and let them know how important their expertise is to the design of effective training.

My dear friend, Julie Almont, who is the Executive Director of Employee Development at Delaware Park, sent this wonderful description of how she prepares her SMES:

"I have embarked on a campaign to take the company's TEAM leaders, who comprise many of our SMEs and peer mentors, and offer them a very simple approach to training tasks. These folks are line-level employees and first-time supervisors. They have never had any kind of 'Train the Trainer' experience. Most of them have been successfully multi-tasking for so long that they have little understanding for the novice and no understanding of the theories of training adults.

My reasoning is that our company moves people on a fast track to management. I'm doing myself a favor by preparing these future managers with the tools and understanding of the demands of properly designing and implementing a training program.

Often times, department heads put line-level champions in the new employee orientation/training process believing that the the assignment is seen as an act of recognition. They believe it to be a gesture of acknowledgment of the employees' years of service and outstanding work.

After interviewing several of our employees who are seen as new employee 'mentors', I found that most see this type of duty as a frightening and troublesome nuisance. Why? Because, no one took the time to train them to train or set expectations.

One of the problems with continuing to use this process is that the workplace champion feels taken for granted and begins showing signs of negative behaviors. Not the right personality to assign to service training of new employees!

So, I created a few modules for our line-level team leaders that help them understand their role in all of this. Informing them that I see them as part of my SME reference group when writing proposals or developing programs, allowed them a sense of team pride and belonging...true recognition! I visit them in their workplace to add a level of comfort and confidence.

I am finding that some of the most important highlights of the training are:

  • Getting departmental approval and support

  • Defining the role of SME as both a developmental reference and facilitator

  • Providing training materials, references, coaching and support

  • Simplifying and encouraging the use of task training skills (Explain, Demonstrate, Practice, Test and Repeat)

  • Offering reward and recognition

The thing I like most about this program is that it is simple in theory and method. It certainly isn't expensive...I take individuals out for a cup of coffee or lunch when I follow up. They enjoy the recognition. And, I have increased my workplace SME reference group by about 20%! "

Isn't that an inspiring model? Actually, knowing Julie as well as I do, I believe that folks in Delaware Park probably fall all over themselves volunteering to serve as SME's to simply bask in Julie's warm and generous attention!

Monday, January 8, 2007

Tip #152: Educating Managers About Training

I blame it on the approach that many college professors still model. If lecture is good enough for higher education, then many business owners and managers assume that lecture is good enough for their employee training. But as we know, "good enough"is not necessarily the most cost-effective use of training dollars, because there is a lot of learning slippage that occurs.

When a company is interested in training on any topic, I like to meet with the owners or managers to discuss their desired results. When their employees walk out of the training, what does management want them to think or do differently? Sometimes the desired results are attitudinal changes and at other times the focus is on specific skill building. Regardless of the desired end result, I have found that introducing two concepts into the discussion makes all the difference in the ultimate training that is approved.

First, I walk them through the building blocks of learning (Bloom's Taxonomy of Behavioral Learning Objectives), drawing each step as I go. I ask them if they will be satisfied if their employees leave the training knowing something but not understanding it, the way I can tell them that E= MC2 without knowing what I really mean. Understandably, knowledge alone is usually not the level of learning that appeals to them.. So I ask them if they want the employees to understand what they have learned, which typically garners nods of agreement. So we know that we need to at least get to comprehension. And if attitudinal change is desired, that is where we will stop. However, if skills are involved, I ask them if it will be all right if the employees know and understand the new skill or technique, but don't use it. If it is not all right (and we can count on that response!), then I explain that application is the next required level of learning.

Once we have determined that either comprehension or application is appropriate, I ask them what level of learning lecture alone can accomplish. I may need to coach them with the answer, by discussing what many of us were taught years ago regarding lecture: "Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you've told them.."I point out that with lecture, we only know that the lecturer knows the information to the third power. We have no idea if the participants know or understand the content of the lecture until they have some opportunity to interact with the information. This neatly brings us to the need for more participant-centered learning methods, such as large and small group discussions, pop ups, question and answer sessions, questionnaires, worksheets, case studies, and games. It is a short step from this to the next point, that in order to achieve application as a learning level, the participants need to be able to practice what they have learned in the classroom. At this point, we can introduce hands on, simulation, and role playing exercises.

To cement the idea that lecture alone is probably insufficient for their desired training results, I pull out a copy of Edgar Dale's Cone of Experience and Learning. This reinforces our previous discussion of learning levels and interactive learning methods by showing the correlation between our level of involvement and how much we tend to remember. Even lecture with visual support garners only 50% retention. The minute we add an opportunity to discuss the content, that increases to 70%- and if we can both say and do it, retention is increased to 90%.

If they want effective and lasting learning, which is the most cost-effective use of their training dollars, then participant-centered learning methods are the logical and only solution. Few reasonable people will argue with that conclusion!!

Saturday, January 6, 2007

Tip #151: The Source of My Inspiration for Business

I have four brothers- and all five of us are in business for ourselves. I have owned my own training and consulting firm for over 25 years. My first brother is an award-winning poet and teacher who runs a highly acclaimed and often honored printing press. My second brother owns a very successful national security firm. My third brother is an amazing instrumentalist, music teacher, carpenter and artist. And my fourth brother caters to the famous in California with musical extravaganzas and business products.

All five of us are also heavily musical. My first brother was first clarinet for the Albany Symphony Orchestra. My second brother has performed with the New Lost City Ramblers and now plays klezmer music as a sideline. My third and fourth brothers make their living with music. And I dabble with the piano and use music throughout all of my training programs.

None of this is surprising. My father, Seymour Solon Levine, has been a clarinetist all his life. Classical music continually played in our house and my father expected that each of his children would master at least one instrument. Oboe, clarinet, piano, violin, trumpet- every school day afternoon was filled with homework and practicing. Throughout my childhood, family gatherings always included instrumental recitals.

My father also owned his own engineering and marketing business. So the dye was cast very early. My mother, Merle Plockie Levine, inspired three of us to become teachers. My father inspired all five of us with the impetus and initiative to work for ourselves. He showed us all that it was possible, though not always easy.

Because of his national business clients, my father frequently flew around the country. Three of us still emulate that continual travel to serve our national clients. When he was in his mid-nineties, my maternal grandfather shared his secret belief about my father’s travels. He drew forward conspiratorially to tell his story, and I fully expected to hear some alarming news that perhaps my father had had a forbidden sweetheart in one of the major cities to which he often traveled. But no, that wasn’t why my practical naval officer grandfather sounded so scandalized. According to my grandfather, the reason my father traveled so often was to have time and privacy to practice his clarinet, away from a home filled with five small children! You can just imagine my relief!

When my father retired from the business world, he apprenticed himself to Sam Goody to learn how to repair instruments. Now in his mid-eighties, my father continues to play clarinet in a variety of orchestras, bands, and chamber groups- and repairs all types of wind instruments from schools and individuals throughout the region. His business IS music!

An engineer by training, when Dad was afflicted with Bell’s Palsy a number of years ago and was unable to close his mouth tightly around the reed, he solved the problem by designing a clamp that enabled him to continue to play his beloved clarinet. Throughout his life, he has modeled dedication, creative problem solving, drive, persistence, ingenuity, and a complete unwillingness to take “no” for an answer.

I have often written about people who helped me along my way, sharing information and tools to improve my skills and my effectiveness as a trainer. My father is the reason I am in business for myself. To this day, he continues to provide business and marketing insight and suggestions that shape the way I do business. He is the source of my inspiration!


This week’s Tip concerns how to how to market effective participant-centered training to managers who believe that lecture is enough