B O O K S
Higher consciousness is key to leadership
Constant attention to quality, and a continuous process
of self-evaluation are the keys to to maintaining a competitive edge in training, according to the authors of this book
Achieving a Leadership Role for Training
(How to use the Baldridge Criteria and ISO Standards to Keep Training Function Competitive)
By Judith H. Hale and Odin Westgaard
176 Pages
Quality Resources
New York, N.Y.
In the current, competitive market, training centers that do not stay in the lead may soon go out of business. According to the authors of "Achieving a Leadership Role for Training," being a leader means making your organization more efficient and effective.
And, as the authors point out, no organization can achieve lasting efficiency and effectiveness unless they work at it all the time. The constantly changing business environment necessitates an ongoing process of permanent evaluation and improvement.
To help training organizations remain constantly conscious of quality, the book attempts to provide a framework for all the actions required to survey your training institution or department and restructure it. The authors point out that existing sets of standards, such as those required to achieve Baldridge or ISO certification, are meant to enhance efficiency and effectiveness. So, they argue, training managers should apply these criteria even if they are not going to certify.
The book explains how managers should:
- Set standards for the work they produce;
- evaluate the trainings' effectiveness;
- determine the type of relationship they want with their customers and suppliers;
- and define what role they will play.
Formal training nowadays has become a necessity, and in the current quality-minded market, this training is subject to constant evaluation. The instructor's mandate is no longer just: "Train our people," but, "bring our people up to speed as quickly as possible and do it for less money." The book points out that training in such an environment needs a good return on investment. You will stay in business only if you are better than your competitors.
Trainers should be prepared to do more than merely give the client what they request. They should be ready to analyze the client's needs and make the suggestions to enhance the value of the training.
Know where you want to go
To make training measurable it is necessary to know who you are, what you want, and where you want to go. You need a goal and a mission statement. The authors give theoretical explanations on how to formulate this statement. But they don't just tackle the theoretical questions. They also analyze how a mission statement looks in reality in a successful organization. This concept continues through the whole book: Theory is always accompanied by practical examples.
The authors point out that an inefficient process can become standard procedure. If a method of doing something is accepted once, it can become the norm, and then develop and change in incremental way simply because everyone is used to it. In order to become more efficient, the authors exhort trainers to think about their process design.
The first step in optimizing your training processes is to document the processes you use. Only good documentation allows managers to communicate what will be done and how it will be done. Documentation also allows accurate evaluation of output, cycle time, costs and use of resources. Once this is done, the book explains, you must restructure your processes to eliminate the superfluous steps that do not add value. A complete analysis and understanding of your processes should allow you to steadily provide better quality at lower costs.
Using standards
When you perform any kind of evaluation, you are making a comparison against an ideal model. Standards describe this ideal and state the criteria of the model explicitly. As mentioned, the authors favor the use of a standard to check your organization and constantly improve it. The book includes a brief but thorough overview of three well-known sets of standards: ISO 9000, UK Training standards and the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction (IBSTPI). Though they say that all three types of standards are useful, the authors express a preference for IBSTPI as being the most comprehensive. IBSTPI describes what an organization is expected to do, and specifies modes of performance and criteria, while the other methods talk in terms of principles and assessment indicators.
| UP TO STANDARD |
To measure the quality of their work, trainers should use International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction, according to the authors.
IBSTPI has seven categories of standards for a training program or institution: Customer Relationship; Standards and Measures, Performance, Resource Use, Leadership, Processes and Change. These categories are based on five principles. To meet the standards, a training institution should:
- Operate as a well-run business whose business is learning and performance improvement.
- Add value through an appropriate range of services depending on the needs of the host organization.
- Provide quality products and services, on time, and within budget.
- Support the achievement of its customer organization's mission, objectives, key initiatives and business strategies.
- Document its processes so they can be shared, managed and improved.
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Evaluation
There are many different ways to evaluate the effectiveness of a training program. In the most basic analysis, you might ask whether participants liked the program. But you must also ask whether they actually learned something during the training. Finally, the participants' managers will want to know if their employees are applying the skills they learned to improve their performance. The first two means of evaluation are very common. The other measure, whether the training actually increased the value of the trainees' work, is becoming more common as well. The authors point out that evaluating this last, more complex measure, requires a careful structuring of your training program. They suggest that you keep this measure in mind the whole time you are designing your training program.
Be conscious
If the book's suggestion for becoming more efficient and effective were summarized in one simple statement, it would be: Be conscious of everything you do, and do everything consciously. When you give a workshop, you should always be asking yourself: Is this action necessary to fulfill our mission and vision? Are the mission and vision still valid or do they need to change? Do our strategies further our mission? Is this action the right one to reach the goal? Is there a more effective and efficient method?
A well-organized book
The book is organized in a practical way that makes it easier to use. At the end of each chapter there is a checklist, in the form of questions you can ask yourself, to help you apply the methods discussed to your own organization. These questionnaires can serve as a basis for developing your own quality control system. They give direction and motivation and can help you to monitor, assess, and restructure your own performance. The checklist is always followed by another useful section called "What to do Next?" Here, the reader finds proposed plans of actions based on the answers they have just given to the preceding questionnaire.
The book has a cohesive focus: helping you evaluate and optimize your training so that you can become a leader in the field.
- Dirk Amtsberg
REC * EMTC * PUBLICATIONS * INSIGHT * WINTER 1997
