It Is All About Connect...

In my experience, I have come across several people who have given fantastic insights about how a good training program should be designed. To a large extent, whatever I know about training and how it should be conducted, I owe it to them.

 I was working as the head of human resources function of a small organization, which was part of a large group having diversified interests and businesses. Typical to such organizations, I had a dual reporting, one to the CEO of the company and second to the Group HR head.

 This organization was unique in several ways, one of which was the belief that practice of organizational values was the only route to success. This belief was relentlessly pursued and practiced by our CEO. That this company was very successful and profitable only lent support to the belief.

 Every year we had a festival of sorts where all employees were invited to a two days event.  While the main reason was celebration of success in the previous year, we also picked one of the company values to focus on during the coming year. A one day workshop was designed around the value chosen where the employees were explained the meaning of that value in the organizational context. Various events and activities were also announced to propagate the value in the company. In the previous years, external trainers had been chosen to facilitate the workshops.

 That year the value that was identified as a theme was ‘creativity and innovation’. Being the head of HR, the task of identifying an external trainer fell on me. I met several training consultants but was not able to select anyone though I couldn’t place a finger on what exactly was not right. Just to make sure that I was not going about it incorrectly, I had them present their workshop designs to the senior members of the company. The outcome was the same. “Something is not right… The spirit is missing”, was the common feedback.

 The date for our festival was fast approaching, and I was still wrestling with identification of the right trainer. Finally in sheer desperation I went to my functional boss, the Group HR Head. For reasons of propriety, I will call him Mr. A. I explained the problem to him and asked him for help. The conversation that followed is as follows:

A: I think I understand the reason for your problem.

Me: Then please explain. Some of the workshop designs are good, but for some inexplicable reasons, not good enough.
A: What is missing is the spirit that drives your company. You are talking about values. That spirit has to be built into the workshop.

To me it sounded like some esoteric thing floating out there

Me: Spirit? What spirit are you talking about?

A: That value system you talk about is a belief. A belief that is held by all of you. Do any of the trainers you have identified have the same belief?
Me: Of course not! They are external people, not a part of the company.
A: And therefore when they talk about the values, they will talk at a cerebral level, whereas beliefs operate at an emotional level.

 It was making sense at some level, but it still did not give me a solution to my issue.

Me: Ok… But how do we resolve this?

A: Why don’t you conduct the workshop?

It’s quite amazing how bombshells explode in your face when you are least expecting them. I wasn’t even sure I had heard him correctly.

Me: You want ME to conduct the workshop?!
A: Why not? You are part of the organization. You believe in the value system of your company. You have seen it work. You can convey things much better than any external trainer.
Me: Sure, I can convey it much better if I am doing it one on one. But addressing 200 people together… I doubt if I can convey anything at all. I don’t have any experience in training!
A: One or two hundred, it does not matter. When you are talking about things that people relate to at an emotional plane, then you connect at an emotional level. If it was a skill, then you would have to connect with them at a cerebral level.
Me: All that’s fine, but I don’t know how to connect with two hundred people together, emotionally or intellectually.
A: I am sure you will find a way. You still have some time.
Me: But why me? Why not someone else from the company?
A: As Head of the HR function, you are the custodian of the company’s value system. Who better than you?

 When the boss says, you do it, one doesn’t have much choice. But I was not about to give up without at least an attempt to fight.

Me: But I don’t know anything about training!

A: Use your creativity… After all that’s the value you are propagating. You have to practice what you are preaching…

 I was cornered. One last ditch effort

Me: It will be a complete disaster… People will laugh not just at me, but at the entire HR function!
A: Look at it this way… People will enjoy themselves and have a good time. After all isn’t that what festivals are all about?

 Left with no choice, I did work on the design. Of course Mr. A did not abandon me completely. I went to him several times after that to seek assistance in building content for the workshop. But that is the subject of another conversation. One thing that I did learn from him is how to connect with the audience.

 I still remember the two hundred pairs of eyes staring at me when I opened the workshop. After all these years, the memory still gives me shivers. But it gave me great confidence when the first few heads nodded in agreement to what I was saying. At some point I realised that the workshop was actually all about telling the participants that they knew the subject as well as you did, and it was only a matter of realising it.  Once that happened, it was a lot more easier and smoother.

I wouldn’t call that workshop a great success, but at least people were not laughing at the end of it. There is however one important thing that I learnt that day as an indirect outcome of my experience. You cannot be a successful trainer if you don’t believe in what you are telling your participants and you can only connect with them if your belief is genuine. It is this belief that differentiates a good trainer from an average one.

"Its all about Motivation"

It was my third year in the Training Function, when one day our company’s business head barged into my office.

 “Nitin, my team’s performance is slipping. We haven’t met our business targets for the second quarter. I need a solution for this!”

 He looked at me expectantly. Perhaps he expected me to pull out a magical solution for his problem. If I could, I would have loved to do just that. But I really didn’t have even a practical solution, forget a magical one. So I kept looking at him silently.

 “Don’t you get it?” he asked sounding exasperated. “I want a motivational workshop for my team.” “What is a motivational workshop?” I asked.

 Believe me, I wasn’t trying to be sarcastic or humorous. I really didn’t know what a ‘motivational workshop’ was. The look I got was one of total disbelief and surprise.

 “What do you mean you don’t know what a motivational workshop is? I can’t believe that someone from the training function is saying this. Everyone knows what a motivational workshop is!”

“Actually I don’t. So help me. What is this motivational workshop supposed to achieve?”

He still didn’t believe that I was serious. “Achieve? It is supposed to motivate my people to put in their best and achieve their targets!”

 I didn’t know how a training workshop could achieve that. But I decided to find out. So I asked him to give me a couple of days and that I would get back to him.

 I called a few trainer colleagues working in other organizations to find out what motivational training was all about. The gist of what I got from them was, “Do a training program, preferably off-site to energise the participants. Talk to them about how their individual dreams will get fulfilled if they achieve the organizational targets. Like a football coach motivating the team before a big game.” I understood that. But that gave rise to another issue. How do you sustain that energy over a period of time? How do you make sure that the energy gets translated to output at work?

 I got several vague answers to that. The best one was, do another workshop in about three months. So motivational training was like that energy drink that they show in ads. An athlete has this drink every time he is tired, and he is ready to run another 100 meters in under ten seconds..

 It really didn’t make sense to me. Something was not right. So I went back to the business head and told him, “Look I really don’t know how to dothis motivational training.”

 He was angry. “If you are not capable of doing motivational training, I am going to get an external trainer to do it.”

 So he went ahead and found a trainer who took the team to someplace outside the city where they spent two days. Obviously disappointed with my response, I was not involved in the exercise. However, a couple of days after, the business head did drop into my office to tell me about it.

 “It was a great workshop. Really charged up my boys. You should have been there… learn a few things about motivation.”

 A couple of months later I bumped into our business head again. He looked tense. Naturally I asked him if everything was all right.

 “No, everything is not all right. Business is not picking up. Targets are not being met still and there’s a lot of pressure.”

 No wonder he was looking so stressed out.

 “So the motivational workshop didn’t work?” “I don’t know what’s wrong. They all seemed so charged up at the end of the training. But back at work, they were the same as before.”

 “Let’s talk about it. Maybe we can find some solution.”

 He looked sceptical. But maybe he was desperate enough to talk even to a trainer who did not know what a motivational workshop was. So he came to my office and sat down. It was an interesting conversation. At the end of it, I also learnt something about motivation.

 Me: Forget the word motivation for a bit. Tell me what you want your team to do.

Business Head (BH): I want my people to take ownership of their targets. I want them to do everything to achieve their targets. I am not asking for too much, am I? That’s what they have been hired for!
Me: And why do you think it is not happening?
BH: Because there is no motivation!
Me: I told you to forget that word. Think again…
BH (After a long pause): Because they are not taking ownership.
Me: You told me that. Why are they not taking ownership?
BH:I told you… there is no motivation!
Me: Please forget motivation… The word does not exist. Now tell me, why are they not taking ownership?
BH: I don’t know why they are not taking ownership. If I knew, I wouldn’t be sitting here!
Me: Ok tell me, what does taking ownership mean?
BH: This is such a waste of time! You know what taking ownership means!
Me: No I am dumb. I don’t know what taking ownership means. So please tell me.
BH: Look, I need to get back to work. I don’t have time for these silly games
Me: You have tried things that haven’t worked. Why don’t you give this conversation a chance. Maybe we will discover something that will work
BH (After another long pause): Ok….. So what do you want to know?
Me: I want to understand this word, ownership..
BH: Ownership… These people have been hired to do a job. They have to take responsibility for their jobs.
Me: And what do you do to enable them to do that?. .
BH (Almost exploding): DO?! Every day, twice a day I tell them to take ownership!
Me: What if our CEO also did just that? Just told you take ownership. Would it work?
BH: But that’s what has happened. The day I joined this company, he told me that meeting sales targets was my responsibility. After that I took ownership of sales and have been driving it.

Me: No he didn’t do just that. He also made sure that certain enablers were in place.

BH: What enablers? He does not tell me how to do my job!
Me: Well, he enabled you to create your own team. He made sure Operations team and the service team gave you the needed support. Systems and processes to ensure smooth functioning between departments, things over which you have no direct control.
BH: But these are things that are necessary. How would you otherwise run a business without them?
Me (Smiling): Exactly
BH (Now suspicious): What are you trying to tell me?
Me: Your team also needs certain enablers to do their jobs. It could be the right skills, or the right systems and processes, or even words of encouragement at the right time.
BH: Of course they have all these things!
Me: Why don’t you ask them?
BH: Ask them?! What do you mean ask them?
Me: Well your team is doing the job. They would best know what they need to do it effectively.
BH: (Another pause): I am desperate enough to try even this… But what about motivation?
Me: Come back when you have done this. Then we will talk about motivation.

He didn’t come back. The next communication I got from him was an invite to a party to celebrate achievement of the next quarterly target.

 I still don’t know about how to motivate others. I believe that you cannot motivate others. People drive themselves to do something. All another person can do is provide the right environment. I believe it is all about the enablers.

 

Where is the PPT?

A constant crib among my fellow trainers and something that I have experienced also is that every one considers himself/herself as an expert on the subject of training.

 Look at it this way – I cannot dare tell a marketing person or a finance person or any other person how to do or not do his/her job. But each one of them considers himself/herself an expert when it comes to the subject of training.  Not only that, they consider it their right to tell every trainer they come across how to do his/her job better.

 Most times the situation for us suffering trainers is one of ‘grin and bear it’. But once in a while one does get an opportunity to tell someone that training is much more than standing in front of an audience and “delivering”. These rare occasions, when they do come, the efforts are well worth the results.

 I was in discussion with a business head for a personal development program for senior members of his team. “I have a great bunch of people”, he began the discussion. “Each one of them has unique strengths, but there is no synergy between them. I want your help in breaking any barriers that they may have so they can work together as a team”.

 So we spent nearly two hours discussing the objectives, design and flow of the workshop. Towards the end, the conversation went as follows:

Business Head (BH): So that concludes our discussion. I hope you have all the information you need.

Me: Yes, I think I have all data to work on the program, but if I need any further information, I will come back to you.
BH: Any time! How long will you take to finalize the program?
Me: About a week. We can then finalize dates for the workshop.
BH: Great! And please share your PPT with me once you have finished with it.
Me: PPT? What PPT?
BH: Your presentation for the workshop… Your slides
Me: I don’t have any PPT for the workshop
BH (A little exasperated): How come you don’t have a PPT? And even if you don’t, you will be making one for the workshop, won’t you?
Me: I meant I will not be using any PPT for this workshop

 The look I got from him was something. It was almost as if I was telling him that I would be painting a picture without paints or cooking without ingredients.

BH: But how can you conduct a workshop without a PPT?
Me: I don’t need a PPT for this workshop. There are no slides that I need to show the participants.
BH: No slides to show? Then how will you standardise your inputs?

 By now I was confused. Standardise inputs? And a power point presentation does that? Maybe I was missing something.

 Me: Why do I need to standardise inputs?

BH: If you don’t standardise, then how do you maintain consistency in quality?
Me: If the desired objective in each program is achieved, isn’t that a measure of quality of a training workshop?

 From the look on his face, I could make out that he was having second thoughts about going ahead with the workshop. But he couldn’t do much about it now. After all I was the training head of the company and it was he who had come to me with an issue.

BH: I think you should have a presentation. It will help you get consistency in your inputs.

It was then that I realised that this was one of those rare opportunities…

Me: Do all the participants think, feel and behave in a similar manner?
BH: Of course not! They are human beings… they are different
Me: Is there consistency in the way they communicate or act?
BH: No…
Me: Then why should there be a consistency in the inputs they receive?
BH: Do you mean to tell me that training cannot be standardised?
Me: You can standardise some training, like a skill training. But here we are talking of personal development. You can’t standardise that. Every participant will have to be dealt with differently

That got him thinking.

BH: Yeah, I can see that. Skills training like driving… That kind of training will need to be standardised.

Me: Correct. But even there I don’t know of anyone who uses a PPT…

 He smiled and nodded.

We did the workshop without any PPT. It went off quite well. And the business head was happy with the results. It’s been eight years since I left that organization. I have heard that now whenever a trainer comes to him with a PPT, he wants to know if it is really necessary.

 A convert, one could say. Or perhaps he still hasn’t given up on giving advice to trainers…

So What Do You Do?

Imagine this scene – I am sitting in what could be described as the best Chinese restaurant in town. Its lunch time and I have been invited by the chairman of the company I work in. There is great food on the table. But I can’t eat. I can’t eat because I am stumped by the conversation that is happening. “So what do you do Nitin?” “Sir, I look after the training function in the company”. “Oh, then how do you fill up all the free time that you have?”

 Let me rewind a little. It all started when I reached office one Wednesday morning. My business Head called me to his office. “Nitin, the Chairman has invited you to have lunch with him.”  The Chairman inviting me for lunch! Recognition for some great work that I had done perhaps… Even a promotion perhaps!! But these visions were quickly dispelled by the business head. “This is his way of keeping in touch with the management team. His office picks a name every month. This month it’s your turn.

 Mr. G, the Chairman was over 70 years of age. He had started the company nearly 50 years ago in a small way and had grown it into a sizeable profit making organization. I had heard many stories about his down to earth hands on approach. Although now he had passed the reigns to the next generation, he still liked to keep in touch with the events in the company.

 So at 1 o’clock sharp I entered the restaurant. Mr. G was already there. Preliminary introductions over, we ordered food. Of course he did the ordering. I merely nodded my head to each suggestion. Once that was over, the conversation started.

“So what do you do?”

“Sir I look after the training function in the company.”
“Oh, then how do you fill up all the free time that you have?”

 There must have been a very perplexed look on my face. Free time? What free time? I rarely managed to leave office before 7.00 p.m. Sometimes I even came to office on weekends. So what’s he talking about?

“How much training could you possibly do in a month?”

“We try to target 4 man-days of training per employee per annum”
“How many people do you have in your team?”
“There are six people in the team, Sir”

 He took out a pen and a small notebook from his pocket and started doing some calculations.

 “With 1200 employees that we have, that accounts for 86 days of work for each one of you. So what do you do with the balance free time?”

What do I tell him? How do I explain the amount of time that goes in coordinating with business heads and ensuring that the nominees attend the training sessions? And that did not include the time spent in building content for the workshops.  I had to try to explain. And try I did. He cut me short.

 

“Do you know that we all work for approximately 220 days in a year. Do you mean to tell me that you spend 134 days to prepare for 86 days of training? That’s almost 5 days of preparation for each day of training!”

 The way he expressed it, it sounded unreasonably high. I kept quiet. But he didn’t. The main bombshell was yet to come.

 “And what difference do your training sessions make to the business of the company?” “I’d like to think that they do make a difference in a positive manner. If we are able to improve the skills and behaviour of employees, it will certainly impact the business”, I countered. “What you think is not important. Can you support your claim with any data?”

Here I would like to point out that while the words were sounding pretty threatening, the voice was not. It was quite warm, soft and friendly. Like a grandfather talking to his favourite grandson. That made it all the more ominous. I had no answer to his question. So I decided to keep silent. The food was quite forgotten by now.

 “Nitin, all of us work for a living. And to earn that living, we spend a major amount of our productive time at workplace. All human beings want growth, intellectually, emotionally and financially.  And since we spend most of our lives at workplace, it is only natural that maximum opportunities of growth should be at the workplace. Now you can’t give growth to people. They should want it for themselves and they should want to put in the effort. Most of us get caught up in the mundane aspects of our lives. It is your job as the training head to shift the focus back on growth. This involves changing the way people think about themselves and their lives. If you are able to do that, you will never need another training workshop. And if you are able to do that with even one person in the organization, you will have justified the salary that this company is paying you.”

 I would love to know what the expression on my face was at that moment. No one had ever given this perspective about the Training function. So simple and yet so profound and so obvious. I would have looked quite dumbstruck. I do remember that I was staring at him. He just smiled back with a twinkle in his eye and said,

“Now finish your noodles. They are getting cold..”