Have you ever
taken a course and placed the workbook on the shelf, never looking at it
again?  If your answer is “yes” just as
it is for most of us, it just means you haven’t either held yourself
accountable or you haven’t been held accountable by your manager.  The following leadership formula for success
is a way to get more out of your training investments.  Since taking a workshop delivered by
Introspect International in 2003, I’ve been able to better reinforce effective
use of training, but it was more about the changes in me rather than the
changes in others.

According to Scott
Crandall, Principal of Trinity-Lincoln
Consulting, starting around July every year, training departments begin
receiving e-mails and phone calls around the same topic:

“Such-and-such
course is on my annual plan, and I need to get signed up.”

This should remind
us of a statistic from the British consulting firm Lane4:

At least 80% of
all corporate training cannot be linked
back to any performance improvement, let alone a business-related improvement
resulting in Return on Investment.

Considering that
over $134 Billion is spent annually, that’s a staggering
implication.

The
Secret Formula

However,
there is a solution.
Consider this equation:

ET + LR = BC
–>  ROI

It means Effective
Training (ET) and Leadership
Reinforcement (LR) result in Changed Behavior
(BC), which leads to Return on Investment
(ROI).

The corollary is
also true: Effective Training (or development) without
Leadership Reinforcement will NOT result in Changed
Behavior or ROI.

Ideally, the equation
would read:  ET + IA = BC –>  ROI, where IA stood for “Individual
Application”.

In other words, if
people came back from training, eager to apply the new techniques
they learned (and actually did it!), effective training (or development) might
be all that was needed.

Instead, isn’t
this the more common post-training response:

Back from 2 or 3
days away, people realize they’ve got 90 or 100 e-mails to wade through, two
dozen voicemails, and they’re behind!  They glance wistfully
at the training notebook, swearing to look at it “as soon as things calm down a
little,” and up on the shelf it goes, never to be seen again.

Honestly, isn’t
that what most post-training becomes?

The evidence says
this is common for over 80% of us.

Two
Conversations and a Follow Up Plan

So how
can we change it?

Knowing that the
“IA” – by itself – is unrealistic. As leaders. we must provide the
“LR”.

One question we
need to look at then is what exactly makes up “leadership reinforcement.”
Leadership Reinforcement, at its essence,
consists of three things: two conversations and
an accountability plan.

Conversation Number
1

The first
conversation should be an outgrowth of the annual plan. What training or
development actions did you agree upon with the person?  Assuming that the
plan itself is effective, within a week or two before the person attends a
training course or developmental opportunity, you need to have a conversation.

This talk should
initially:

• Discuss the developmental
  issues with the person
• Agree why you
  want them to attend the training in the first place
• Express your expectations for what
  you want them to get out of the training
• Tell them to what they should pay
  particular attention
• Discuss their
  reaction and expectations
• Convey how you expect their behavior
  to change when they return.

In other words, if
you want a particular output, you must ensure that the inputs
are correct.

The bottom line,
however, is this: When your employees leave to attend training, they must know
precisely what your joint expectations are, what to pay particular attention
to, and they should begin thinking – during training – about how they’ll apply
it.

In this way your
employees will be more focused when they attend training or participate in
developmental activities.  They’ll be more engaged, listening and watching
more intently, asking better questions, doing their homework, and making sure
they’ll meet your joint expectations.  People at training courses would be
there for a purpose (one they understood and agreed with.)

Everybody wins in those situations.

Conversation Number
2

The second
conversation happens once the employee gets back.

• You should ask them to identify
  the “Big Rocks” that they got from the training.
• What were the major
  impacts they received?
• What are they going
  to do about them?
• Specifically, how are they going to perform
  their job differently than before they went
  away?
• Have this conversation
  in detail
• Make notes
• Set dates for specific accomplishments
• Then follow up!

If Action A was to
be completed by September 15, check in with them on the 15^th (not
the 16^th) to see how they did.  Hold their feet to the fire,
closely verify the details.  Check randomly after that date, but make sure
the committed actions or changes are truly completed, and implemented to your
satisfaction.  Praise their efforts and reward their
accomplishments.  Don’t allow their completed commitments to pass in
ignored or overlooked silence.

This silence is
deafening in the corporate world.

The Plan

This reinforcement
method is a golden opportunity to do several things.

1. It improves your people’s
   performance (and the business performance of your team)
   and makes them more productive employees.
2. Praise and feedback are the
   greatest motivators there are
3. Motivated employees have higher
   morale and productivity
4. Satisfied people stay, so your
   attrition, recruiting, and related
   costs are lower
5. Higher morale and productivity
   brings improved business results

I don’t know about
you, but I don’t see any downside to “Leadership Reinforcement.”