In some cases, being trained is a passive act. The candidate witnesses potential new knowledge being professed, and chooses whether to take this on board. That is, unless the engagement is made real. This can be achieved by wrapping the training in a business context, by preparing for training and then deciding how to exploit its lessons.

The business pays for the training and so should benefit from it. The training will provide the potential means to produce that benefit, but it will require the training candidate’s involvement to transform that potential into changed behaviours.

Techniques and Methods

Any candidate attending any MISD training will be taught numerous techniques and methods that are directly relevant to his or her working day. They will be equipped with new tools, specifically designed to be used immediately. What is more, the candidate’s understanding of those tools will have been tested under examination conditions. So the lessons will have been cemented. This presents both the candidate and the commissioning manager with a perfect opportunity to immediately convert that learning into value.

Training attendees make the training engagement real by enacting the learned techniques, so as to improve their work performance. On returning from training, they carry the potential of being more effective workers than they were prior to attending it. The business could wait and hope that the newly trained employee will deploy these new practices independently – or it could take an active role in ensuring the effective increase is realised.

Opportunities

There are two opportunities for this active role. These are immediately before, and immediately after the training. This is our suggested approach for getting the best from the training.

Before the training:

• Visit the MISD Curriculum page for the qualification that the candidate is about to take
• Go through the syllabus and highlight the lessons you want to be sure the candidate will learn
• Work with the candidate to indicate that the training is important and that the business expects results from the training
• Make this as real as possible by relating syllabus topics to the candidate’s working day at present
• Ask the candidate to reflect on difficulties or impediments previously experienced, where the described lessons can help
• Help the candidate build a list of key areas of focus to be considered during the training
• Work out how the candidate, not just the business, should benefit from the training

After the training:

• Working with the trainee, revisit the highlighted lessons to see their applicability to the working day
• Ask the candidate to describe how working methods are likely to change as a result of the training
• Set precise, measurable objectives against these new ways of working, so the results become clearer over time
• Go deeper to monitor the conversion of training lessons into workplace results. See our suggestions at ‘How to Check It’s Working‘

Drucker’s Wisdom

In following such an approach, the business is making clear its expectation that training leads both to improvements in results and to an easier and more successful working environment for the trainee. As management pioneer Peter Drucker said, “What gets measured, gets improved.” Equally apposite here is another of his maxims, “Results are gained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems.”

MISD training is an opportunity, for the business, for the candidate and for the new level of professional service the candidate will be able to provide.

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