Don’t Make This Rookie Mistake!

Though the solutions to many problems seem obvious, they’re often wrong.

Training programs are usually meant to address business problems, needs, or goals, typically for internal or external stakeholders.

Unfortunately, these are often presented by stakeholders in the form of pre-determined training solutions, such as “we need you to provide our employees with customer service training” and may even be as seemingly well-thought-out as “our employees need a two-day customer service workshop on product knowledge, positive language, and reading customers.”

As a professional, you may be inclined to begin outlining a course and creating PowerPoint slides to deliver the requested training as quickly as possible to make your client or boss happy.

This would be a mistake.

Though the solutions to many problems seem obvious, they’re often wrong.

Don't make the rookie mistake of prematurely jumping to a solution or allowing a manager or stakeholder to push for a particular solution before you conduct a needs analysis.

This includes assuming that training is the solution, which is not always the case, as training is meant to bring about improvements in knowledge, skills, and attitudes.

You must first verify that these are the causes of the identified problem rather than, for example, a call center’s hours of operation.

In doing so, you’ll avoid spending time, money, and effort on a solution that may or may not address a real need or bring about desired improvements.

The first step in the analysis process typically involves working with stakeholder managers to clarify the current state(often reported as problems or needs) to develop and agree on the desired state in terms of specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) business goals.

You’ll ultimately use your analysis to recommend a solution that addresses these business goals, which are often hindered by gaps in employee capabilities, their performance at work, and the results they ultimately create.

You’ll also use your analysis to establish from the beginning the performance measures that will substantiate the effectiveness of your solution after it’s been implemented.

Next, you’ll work with your stakeholder to identify the key work processes contributing to the business goals.

The stakeholder should also identify the subject matter experts (SMEs) and the job titles of the employees most familiar with these processes.

Once you have this information, you’ll begin collecting more information about the relevant work processes at a high level as well as an increasingly granular look at the phases, steps, and tasks involved.

You’ll use multiple methods to get this information, such as the review of process documents, interviews with SMEs and employees, surveys, questionnaires, and even observations of the relevant work as it is carried out.

During this portion of your analysis, you’ll ascertain the pain points most likely contributing to the business problem and, if appropriate, specific gaps in employees’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are the underlying root causes of the problem.

The information gathered here becomes the basis for your findings, which should accurately represent the current state.

Often, you’ll have to cycle through a few iterations of this process to check back with managers, SMEs, and employees and review additional reports and other documentation to make sure you have your ducks in a row.

However, it’s important to remember that it’s easy to get stuck in analysis paralysis by over-gathering information or over-analyzing the data.

Try to establish reasonable, verifiable causes for the business problems that you will address with a proposed training solution.

By ascertaining and then maintaining an unwavering focus on your stakeholder’s business goals from the beginning, you’ll ensure subsequent efforts aren’t sabotaged by our own opinions or those of others.

Where business results are caused by employees’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes, you will likely propose a solution that is some form of employee training.

However, other causes (e.g., systems, processes, working hours, etc.) should be addressed through other solutions that may require the expertise of professionals in other fields.

If you’ve collected data systematically, identified the pain points in work processes, determined plausible causes to these problems, and aligned your recommended solutions to all of these, you’ll make a compelling case for your recommended training solution.

You should also include performance measures, such as key performance indicators (KPIs) related to the business goal, which the stakeholder can use to measure the success of your recommended solution.