Rethink Training & Push Performance

Do You Have Weatherman Training? **(see note below)

The 2009 Randstad World of Work survey highlights how corporations are putting a greater emphasis on retaining and motivating current employees. The same survey also reveals that employees feel that corporations aren’t providing enough training and development opportunities. Now factor in the July 24th increase of the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour and the whole perception of employee retention changes.

NEWSFLASH – Greater Emphasis on Training & Development in Future

In the UK, Canada and Australia it's the same story. This is a giant, humongous, world-class opportunity to blow the dust off the traditional ideas and take a different approach to training, development and performance. Forget the instructional design axioms. Forget “tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them and then tell them you told them.” Forget repetition, repetition, and repetition. Take three giant steps away from education and towards results.

Just imagine what would happen if we put the emphasis firmly on results and then worked backwards to develop the total experience?

Just imagine what would happen if we balanced positive outcomes, measurement metrics and a pragmatic creative approach?

Just imagine what would happen if the programs, seminars, webinars and classes sounded exciting, interesting and promised valuable results and positive changes … and didn’t sound as riveting as a college syllabus?

Rethink Training and Push Performance

• Rethink it all and focus on performance and results that help the organization attain business objectives, like increase revenue, control costs and improve productivity.

• Develop a performance management system that integrates training and development.

• Design programs, seminars, webinars and classes that are results driven and develop real-world metrics to measure the impact.

• Focus the curriculum more on behavioral modifications than simple skill building. The goal is adding value to your organization’s competitiveness.

• There is an underlying marketing aspect to everything. Make it a branded experience and not a generic one. Beyond communication, market the information to build and sustain interest and mobilize people into action.

• Realize that the programs, seminars, webinars and classes are an extension of your company and have a direct influence on its image. Whether it’s a corporate employee or a client, customer, franchisee, owner or user, each person expects the same consistency and value that you provide in all of your products and services.

What are your tools? Look beyond the same one’s we’ve used for 10 years or more. Web-based training isn’t new. Video-based training isn’t new. Weatherman training isn’t new. Your audiences watch television, go to the movies and play video games. They aren’t impressed by PowerPoint and won’t cut us any slack just because it’s a “corporate” project.

Rethink, Repurpose, Reintroduce

Spiral Learning - The video game industry revolutionized how generations of people relate to technology. Game designers utilize a strategy known as Spiral Learning that uses experience to create a framework that builds in repetition, reinforcement, and new concepts. Instead of focusing on one subject at a time, the lessons spiral among topics, ensuring learners stay fresh and continue to build on each skill area.

Blended Learning – Let’s face it, there are topics that work best electronically and others that require live interaction. Prioritize the information and use a blend of techniques to generate the desired results. When the economy is uncertain, pure web-based training looks very attractive because it’s economical. It isn’t always the best decision. Why? Please see The Ultimate Reality in this blog. All will be revealed.

Information Marketing – Even if your participants are required to take the training, please don’t make it sound as exciting as watching a person you hate, flossing his teeth. Market the experience! Emphasize the interaction, involvement and personalization. Remind participants what they have to gain from investing the time. Market how much participants will enjoy it. If all the materials about the programs, seminars, webinars and classes sound dull and boring, you will have trouble generating the results you need.

Let’s declare 2010 the New Generation of Performance Management. The best news is, you are in on the ground floor.

*** Weatherman Training - A talent stands in front of a green screen as key words and Powerpoint graphics appear behind him - just like the weather map. The camera shot doesn't change. The advantage is it's inexpensive and fast to produce. The disadvantage is the lack of visual interest and involvement for the participant. It works best in short, 2-minute clips.

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Please Subscribe! There's a new article every week and we are determined to give you valuable information you can use to be successful and make more money. So, go to the Be The First To Know box and just fill it in.

Andy Johnston is an multi-faceted communication professional with deep experience from strategic planning, to messaging, to marketing, to media, to events, to training, to creative direction … and there are several other ”to’s.” Andy is known for his energy, creativity and his unique ability to discover the key results that must be generated – and then to develop ingenious ways to engage and motivate audiences. Positive business results are the objective. He believes that one of the most important results is an enjoyable experience for everyone involved. Andy is a principal partner at Think! Consulting Group and The Idea Group.

Dancing Pigs - What Are You Marketing?

Hop in the Way-Back Machine

Okay, where the heck does modern marketing come from? It means taking goods and services to market. Hopping in the Way-Back machine we see Mr. & Mrs. Farmer with their wagon of produce, chickens and pigs heading to the closest market. They got there very early because they wanted one of the best stands that were easy to see. And, they knew that the farmers who were “early to market” usually sold the most goods. Showing up and being visible was just about all there was to marketing.

All was well in the world until some wise guy started talking and yelling to the people walking past. “Red, juicy apples and plump chickens!” He started getting more attention and encouraging people who wanted apples and chicken to buy from him. Pretty soon the market place was filled with a cacophony of voices trying to attract attention and entice shoppers to buy.

Great Idea - Big Problem

All the stands seemed to be selling the same products. So, that ingenious wise guy started doing unexpected things to attract more attention and be different. He began putting on little shows to stop shoppers and hold their attention long enough to sell to them. Since dancing girls were in short supply and his wife was working he used what he had. He dressed up a pig. With a little training, piggy could actually be enticed to do a little porker-polka. Low and behold, the advent of what we know as modern marketing.

Remember, unless someone has a need, there is no marketing. If you didn’t want apples you wouldn’t buy, not matter how slick the sales presentation or how attractive the pig. Often we get so caught up in designing entertaining “creative marketing” we forget the basic truth. Unless we take the time to identify legitimate needs and provide meaningful, valuable solutions … we are just lining up dancing pigs.

Harvard Business School Professor Emeritus Ted Levitt rocked marketing in his book Marketing Myopia. “Marketing is a stepchild in most corporations because of an overemphasis on creating and selling products. But selling is not marketing.” He explained that marketing is more focused on value than just the exchange of money. Marketing “views the entire business process as consisting of a tightly integrated effort to discover, create, arouse, and satisfy customer needs.”

Marketing is everything a company or organization does to acquire customers and maintain a positive relationship with them. Customers can be consumers, clients, owners, franchisees, stakeholders, internal and external audiences … anyone you rely upon for your business success and sustainability. Marketing is highlighting a need and then showcasing how you will satisfy it in ways that are valuable to the person and beneficial to your company.

Market to the NEED!

Imagine every person is asking two questions:

What’s in it for me?

Why should I care?

Got a product or service? Market it to remind people how you are different and better than the competition in meeting their needs.

Got a training program? Market it to remind participants what they have to gain from investing the time.

Offering a workshop? Market the experience and how much they will enjoy it.

Having a booth at a trade show? Market the results that customers receive from coming to see you.

Producing a meeting or conference? Market the value of attending. How will the event make the attendee more money, improve business, reduce costs, decrease turnover? What’s in it for them?

Retire the Pigs

At the center of the marketing process is satisfying needs. You are matching whatever you are offering – products, services, information, training - to the people who need and want them. You can’t create a need. You can’t make people want something. But you can discover a need, create awareness, arouse demand and then satisfy it in ways that are beneficial to you and your company.

I realize that this will put a lot of pigs out of work. But, as a wise man once said, “Never try to teach a pig to dance. It’s a waste of your time and it irritates the pig.”

If you liked this article then you might enjoy:

You Can Build Response By Blasting Buzz Marketing - Stun Them!!

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Please Subscribe! There's a new article every week and we are determined to give you valuable information you can use to be successful and make more money. So, go to the Be The First To Know box and just fill it in.

Andy Johnston is an multi-faceted communication professional with deep experience from strategic planning, to messaging, to marketing, to media, to events, to training, to creative direction … and there are several other ”to’s.” Andy is known for his energy, creativity and his unique ability to discover the key results that must be generated – and then to develop ingenious ways to engage and motivate audiences. Positive business results are the objective. He believes that one of the most important results is an enjoyable experience for everyone involved. Andy is a principal partner at Think! Consulting Group and The Idea Group.

Give Your Toughest Audiences What They Need

What are you doing for me - now?

High-level audiences may be the toughest ones of all. The stakes are high, every event is critical and the audience seldom changes. There’s always the fear that they have seen and heard everything before. So, we pile on the food, ladle on the beverages, dazzle them with high-priced entertainment and hope for the best. Or, maybe, temporary amnesia.

Corporations with a number of divisions or units, hospitality, retail, restaurants and QSR, healthcare, franchise… any audience comprised of individual businesses or organizations presents the ultimate challenge. It’s an X-Men-like mutation of an internal and external audience.

By now we’ve used up the traditional approaches of informational workshops, long general sessions and even longer cocktail receptions. So, what do we do now? Think of these special groups as the new experts in surviving a recession. They don’t need to be reminded that times are bad and business stinks. If they are going to show up at the event, convention, meeting, trade show or conference they expect specific information, action and results.

Avoid Temptation

• Avoid the temptation to review the past rather than deal with today
  
• Avoid the temptation to “remind them of all we are doing for them”
  
• Avoid the temptation to just be there in case they want to talk
  
• Avoid the temptation to make claims or provide numbers that can’t be broken down to the local level
  
• Avoid the temptation to always talk on the national or global level

All success is achieved at the local level. In reality they don’t need to be the best in the nation, the state or even the city. To be successful they need to be the best in the neighborhood, mall or on that street corner.

Isn't That What Are We Paying You For?

Prepare early and give executives, owners and franchisees what they need. You should know their businesses very well so be prepared. Where do they want to go? They want more make more money and be more profitable. Okay, that’s a start. How does this happen? What are their sales and revenue realities? What is their competitive or market situation? What do they expect you to do for them? What can you do for them that they don’t expect?

They Don’t Want To Enjoy The View, They Want To Go To Work

High-level executives, owners and franchisee don’t need views from 30,000 feet. In a challenging economy they are down at ground level looking for solutions. They are more hands-on than they’ve been in decades. They don’t need broad generalities and overviews they want details. Provide them with specific information about their businesses and their business with you.

Make It Business-Specific

Do they have multiple locations or properties? – Give them side-by-side comparisons with key details and totals.

• Revenue
  
• Where the revenue is coming from?
  
• Market comparison
  
• Brand comparison
  
• Year-To-Date

Of course the information is already available but you want to give it to them in a simple format – 1-2 pages. This isn’t the annual report it’s a working document. With this data in hand the executive, owner, or franchisor can be engaged in a discussion over the actions you can take together and the results they can expect.

Make It Actionable

Awareness isn’t an objective. Assume that every person needs reassurance that your organization knows what it is doing. Then they want an Action Plan. Again, no broad-brush generalities are allowed. To be blunt, if you can’t show up with specific, recommended actions to answer their current needs, you shouldn’t be talking. This really isn’t a time to focus on what you will do for them or might do for them in six months to a year. Just imagine every one of these key people yelling, “What can you do for me now?”

Prepare an Action Analysis that answers what you anticipate are the main concerns. Match each one with an action or actions that you can take together. It has to be Together. If not, you are only asking them to do something that they, most likely, consider is a part of your responsibilities. As economic challenges increase they expect you to do more. Be prepared to either do things with them or for them.

Make It Results-Driven

Every item on an executive’s, owner’s or franchisor’s Action Analysis should produce a definite result. “If we do X then it should generate Y in the next Z months.” I realize that way back in Management 101 we were taught to avoid making promises. Gee, what if we can’t do what we said? Remember the “together” part of the Action Analysis. If it’s a joint effort then the responsibility is shared. After all business is a series of commitments. If we can’t provide intelligent, thoughtful direction and planning to our organizations or strategic partners, we are headed for business extinction anyway.

Make It An Active Consultation

Go 1-on-1 and review the specific information, agree on the key recommendations in the Action Analysis and back it up with the results. Instead of hangovers, the people you rely on for your success will have greater confidence in your organization. You are their working partner and you’ve given then definite, positive answers to their big question:

What are you doing for me - now?

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Please Subscribe! There's a new article every week and we are determined to give you valuable information you can use to be successful and make more money. So, go to the Be The First To Know box and just fill it in.

Andy Johnston is an multi-faceted communication professional with deep experience from strategic planning, to messaging, to marketing, to media, to events, to training, to creative direction … and there are several other ”to’s.” Andy is known for his energy, creativity and his unique ability to discover the key results that must be generated – and then to develop ingenious ways to engage and motivate audiences. Positive business results are the objective. He believes that one of the most important results is an enjoyable experience for everyone involved. Andy is a principal partner at Think! Consulting Group and The Idea Group.

The Ultimate Reality

Okay, Let’s Be Honest, We Want It All
It doesn’t matter if it’s a marketing campaign, meeting, learning and development program, video, print piece, internal communication or audience activation … we want it all! Is it too much to ask to have unlimited resources, unlimited budget and all the time in the world? Okay and then there’s that thing about pigs flying.

Actually we understand the limitations because we face deadlines and budgets every day, but have you ever had the challenge of explaining the ultimate reality of a project to an executive or a team in your organization? No matter how you try, they have a hard time grasping the relationship between time, quality and budget.

This is how I've been doing it for many years. You show the triangle and ask the person to pick two. If it’s Fast and Cheap it won’t be Good. If it’s Good and Cheap it won’t be Fast. If it’s Fast and Good it won’t be Cheap. You get the idea and so will they.

I want to give credit where credit is due; I think I “borrowed” the idea from Tom Hannaford about 20 years ago. The value is the concept makes people smile and then they realize that they can only have two of the three ... no matter how much they want it all.

Try it sometime and let me know if it works for you.

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Please Subscribe! There's a new article every week and we are determined to give you valuable information you can use to be successful and make more money. So, go to the Be The First To Know box and just fill it in.

Andy Johnston is an multi-faceted communication professional with deep experience from strategic planning, to messaging, to marketing, to media, to events, to training, to creative direction … and there are several other ”to’s.” Andy is known for his energy, creativity and his unique ability to discover the key results that must be generated – and then to develop ingenious ways to engage and motivate audiences. Positive business results are the objective. He believes that one of the most important results is an enjoyable experience for everyone involved. Andy is a principal partner at Think! Consulting Group and The Idea Group.