Customized Coaching Improvement Errors And Options
Tips for a better teaching design
You have therefore decided to create an individual training program for your employees instead of trying to find a standard solution for your individual organizational challenges. Chances are this option is more of an investment, but developing custom training gives you several advantages over the standard option.
- Tailored training
Since you are in the driver’s seat when designing the program, you can tailor it to the unique needs of your company. You can create training courses that support your employees’ learning goals and your company’s business goals. - Better results
Developing custom training leads to better results because it suits your needs so well, is based on hands-on experience, and is tightly focused on your business goals, increasing completion rates. - Reflects organizational needs
Regardless of how empathetic designers are, they haven’t lived and breathed corporate culture and processes the way you did. Understanding the business nuances you bring to the project ensures that training is relevant and presented from a perspective that your employees understand.
There are many reasons to be optimistic about the impact custom training development will have on your learners. However, be aware that there are risks and pitfalls in conducting this type of training that must be avoided. Let’s take a look at some common mistakes developers make when creating a custom training development, followed by solutions that can be used to avoid and overcome them.
Errors and solutions in the development of customized training courses
Error: Creating training courses that don’t change behavior. Even training that is carefully crafted by business professionals to provide relevant learning that helps achieve business goals is of little use if learners don’t buy-in.
solution: Make learner engagement your guiding star to ensure that the training has a meaningful impact on the learner and is not just another check box so we can get on with the real work. Focus on these areas:
- What’s in it for me
Helping learners answer this question by tying the training to personal goals or business goals can help you get and hold their attention. - Smaller is better
Dividing the training into shorter sessions increases retention and prevents burnout and overwhelm. - The best medium
Present the training in a format that learners are most comfortable with so that it will involve them, whether or not it’s gamification [1], Scenarios, simulations, social media, additional resource materials, ILT (Instructor-Led Training) [2]or WBT (web-based training) [3]. Find what works best and use it.
error: Targeting skills unrelated to business goals. If your focus deviates from the learner’s needs, there is a risk that your individual training development efforts will become irrelevant.
solution: Identify the skills learners need and keep learning limited to the goal of teaching those skills to staff. Use the following:
- Must be analyzed
The needs analysis shows which skills the learners need to develop during training. Useful analytics tools include interviews, focus groups, and surveys. - Performance allocation
Start by translating company requirements into key employee performance goals. Then measure current employee performance to determine the impact of certain behaviors on those goals. If these behaviors need improvement or if there is a lack of staff, make these key goals the center of your training program.
Error: Setting unrealistic schedules. This has more to do with project management than developing custom training, but it can affect the creation of your new program.
solution: If the project deadline is out of your control, focus on other factors that you can control and bring the project back into balance.
- scope
If time is limited, consider changing the scope of the project or the scope of the deliverables. For example, use an agile strategy for managing training projects to provide functional components of the training in phases. By using smaller training units over time, the employee development teams are relieved and at the same time training material is provided for the learners. Additionally, the initial deployment can serve as a pilot to review and revise process improvements. Using these elements and activities as templates can also improve content creation in future iterations of design and development.
error: Trying to create a training with a flawed design strategy.
solution: Designing and creating your own custom training is a complex process that requires a detailed design strategy that includes the following:
- Adequate planning time
Take the time to create a plan for how to lay out your learning program rather than delving into the work right away. Proper planning at the beginning will shorten the downstream development time. - Work breakdown structure
Breaking up a large custom training development project into smaller components can be stressful, but it makes the project clearer and provides a framework for measuring progress. - Well defined charter
Before starting, create a document that provides a general description of the project and its measurable learning and performance goals. The accuracy this requires gives you a sharp, clear vision that will keep the project and subsequent employee performance on track.
Conclusion
Creating a custom training program for your learners opens up great opportunities and potential for success, but it also brings with it a number of mistakes that must be avoided. Use these innovative strategies to enhance your individual training development and you will see the benefits to employee performance and business success.
References:
[1] Adding GAMIFICATION to MILLENNIAL TRAINING
[2] ILT AND VILT: CREATE INACTIVE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
[3] LEARNING AND DIGITAL LEARNING: Reimagine your digital learning solutions
AllenComm
AllenComm experts solve business problems with beautiful custom learning solutions. We bring creativity to the teaching design. We change behavior and influence decisions. We’re building a better workout.
