Been There, Done That: Overcoming ‘Check-the-Box’ Training Syndrome
by Dr. Trish Holliday and dr. ernie ricketts
Have your employees ever attended a training workshop, checked the box that they completed it, and then nothing more was done? Sure, they may have enjoyed the experience, as they indicated on the smiley-sheet evaluations they filled out. Some may have even learned some useful knowledge or skills from the training event. But do you get the feeling that the training was viewed as a done-and-over event: “Glad I came, and now I’m glad it’s over.”
This same experience also happens in multi-day training events or leadership academies that organizations implement. Much like graduating from a college, once one has graduated, participants think the formal learning process now stops.
I often find it interesting to teach courses where the audience consists of participants who were told to attend the class, who were informed they needed the training to improve their performance, who came to the event to “get out of work,” or who were sent as a result of a punitive strategy by a supervisor.
Training is often perceived as having no connection to work. I am challenged frequently with participants who are complacent and have no desire to continually improve. These types of participant dynamics certainly make it challenging for a course facilitator to be successful.
We facilitators who are involved in the learning business know that such attitudes about training events are detrimental to long-term improvement. Without a strategy that ensures continual improvement via learning events, knowledge and skill acquisition can easily be stifled. Training becomes viewed as just an event — just something to go to that takes one away from the real work that needs to be done. An important strategy to overcome the “check-the-box” training syndrome is to create a learning community within the organization.
The importance of creating learning communities within organizations has received much attention lately. In his book, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization (1990), Peter Senge wrote about the vitality of certain disciplines of the learning organization. In his book, Building the Learning Organization (1996), Michael J. Marquardt states rather bluntly that “Unless an organization continuously adapts to the environment via speedy, effective learning, it will die.”
Create a Learning Community
Implementing initiatives that provide continuous learning opportunities is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. As chief learning officer for Tennessee, I responded to this need by collaborating with leadership to focus on how we could create a learning community within state government.
An organization that focuses on creating a learning community differs from a more traditional organization by adapting to a changing culture, attracting and retaining a talented and committed workforce, embracing diversity and innovation, and promoting emphasis on learning and growth.
Perhaps most telling is that learning organizations do not stifle creativity, but create a culture that invites it. Learning organizations assume that learning is an ongoing process, not simply one-time events. Learning becomes part of an overall strategy founded on the concept of continual improvement. Learning becomes part of the very culture of the organization, a way of life for all employees.
Learning is not just for a select few, but learning opportunities are created for all members of the organization, holding to the belief that enormous human potential lies locked and undeveloped in the organization. As Walter Wristen, former Citibank CEO, said, “The person who figures out how to harness the collective genius of the people in his or her organization is going to blow the competition away.”
A strategy for creating a learning community is essential for state government. To meet the challenges of a rapidly retiring workforce, a shrinking labor pool, and the loss of critical institutional knowledge, I collaborated with executive state leadership, embracing the department commissioner’s vision for learning and development for state employees. We created a leadership development program that would increase the state’s leadership bench strength by providing agencies with a continuous pipeline of motivated and prepared leaders that share a common language and mindset about great leadership.
Create a Pool of Talented Leaders
The focus of the program was to create a pool of talented leaders that will help lead the state into the next generation. The leadership development initiative—the 2010 IPMA-HR award-winning LEAD Tennessee—is a statewide, 12-month development initiative for current and emerging leaders from all branches of government. It consists of six one-day summits of intense, high-impact learning focused on eight leadership core competencies. The goal of LEAD Tennessee is to increase the state’s leadership bench strength by providing agencies a continuous pipeline of motivated and prepared leaders who share a common language and mindset about great leadership.
Participants learn a combination of behaviors, knowledge, and skills through experiential learning that drives effective job performance. This shared leadership language enables leaders across agency lines to increase networking efficiency, which has a direct impact on the workforce and contributes to greater opportunities for resource sharing and problem solving. State government directly benefits by higher productivity, efficiency, and improved organizational performance.
Better-trained leaders provide clearer direction and guidance to employees, who in turn provide agencies with desired accomplishments and results. The overall workforce is better equipped to serve the citizens of Tennessee.
Throughout the initiative, participants have an increased exposure and access to experienced leaders (for example, the governor, major general of the Army National Guard, presidents of universities and colleges, subject matter experts, and state appointing authorities). With this type of interaction, participants gain a deeper understanding of how powerful leaders use core skills to lead, and how the eight leadership core competencies apply to real work situations.
Each participant is assigned to one of four experienced coaches. The coaches assist participants in creating an individual development plan that serves as a guide throughout the program. Coaches schedule time with each of their “coachees” and also facilitate each session.
Integration Strategy: Apply Learning Immediately
One of the most powerful components of the program is the incorporation of an integration strategy section for each session. Participants spend quality time discussing how they can take what was learned and immediately apply it to their workplaces the very next day. This part of the program provides transference of the learning to situations faced upon return to their teams. Though LEAD Tennessee is proving to be a successful program, participants still may feel that having completed the program, their leadership learning and development is complete. When graduates of the program were surveyed, they expressed the concern of “what now?”. After meeting with executive state leadership, we realized that another strategy was needed to make certain that the learning did not stop, and that continuous improvement was truly part of the culture.
In 2013, we initiated a program that would allow graduates of LEAD Tennessee and other leadership development programs to continue their learning and development as well as contribute to both the state government community and the local community.
Following the theme of a martial arts belt concept, the Black Belt Leadership Program is a self-directed, structured development opportunity. There are six levels of the program: white, yellow, orange, blue, green, and black. To advance from one belt level to the next, participants must earn a specified number of points in strategic development and in service.
At the initial belt levels, strategic development is the most emphasized component because personal learning is fundamental to professional development. As participants advance through the belt levels, service—both internal to state government and external to the community—becomes the more emphasized component, recognizing the importance of paying it forward and investing and focusing on others (see chart for point distribution on page 20).
Leaders Model, Learners Pay it Forward
This program provides an opportunity for state leaders to “model the way” in giving back. Participants are able to “pay back” state agencies for the time and money invested in their development as a leader, by learning the knowledge, developing the skills, and having the competencies to become more effective and efficient in their respective job roles.
This provides a tremendous return-on-investment for state government. In addition, the program provides a guided venue for participants to continue their leadership development and to pay it forward to the state community, and more far-reaching, to the local community, through acts of service. Strategic development points are earned by completing activities such as training, leadership development programs, seminars, webinars, and conferences. Service points are earned by completing a balance of internal service and external service activities. Each belt level requires an accumulation of points in both service categories.
Examples of possible service points include serving on state service committees, facilitating a LEAN event, or being a mentor to another state government employee. To earn external service points, participants may volunteer at a local food pantry, serve on community or not-for-profit boards or commissions, participate in a disaster relief effort, or lead a youth club or similar effort. In addition, participants acquire a total of 50 points through individualized development activities.
These activities are tailored by the individual to meet particular development needs such as reading a leadership book and completing a summary on it, or training and serving as a Tennessee Center for
Performance Excellence Board of Examiners member. Participants advance as they acquire the necessary points for each belt level, culminating in 500 points for the black belt level. Colored belts are awarded at designated intervals throughout each year.
The interesting part of the program goes beyond the potential development of each participant in leadership content areas. The service aspect of the program allows participants to reach out and give back—pay it forward—not to just state government, but to the larger community.
Approximately 2,800 Tennessee state government workers have graduated from statewide leadership development programs. To date, 151 have enrolled in the program, and eight have received the yellow belt (first) level of achievement. With an alumni community that increases by up to 200 per year, the impact on both state government and the local community is potentially immeasurable. In many aspects, such impact truly exemplifies the idea of “public service.” The challenges of implementing the black belt program were minimal. Executive leadership had immediate buy-in and gave their full support.
The biggest challenge was deciding what activities would qualify for points in both the service and strategic development components. Assigning a point value to different community activities required a lot of input and discussion. The tracking of participant’s progress using the employee learning management system had a few bugs to work out as well. However, the challenges were minor and collaborative work is solving them.
One of the most significant lessons I learned in implementing large development programs was the absolute need for executive leadership to support the initiative. Being able to bring that level of leaders before groups to share why they feel continuous improvement is critical was Immeasurable.
The black belt leadership program is still in its infancy, and we have yet to gather any long-term assessment data. LEAD Tennessee is in its fifth year, and the evaluation data gathered indicate that participants find the program relevant to their job roles (51.35 percent rating as excellent); rate highly the effectiveness of their coach (52.7 percent rating as excellent); and give the program overall a high rating (71.7 percent above average to excellent).
Don LaFontaine coined the famous movie trailer phrase, “In a world where ...” Now, imagine a world where public service organizations offer training and development programs that are not seen as check-the-box, “been there, done that” events. Rather, learning communities are established and continual improvement is part of the very culture.
Learning is ongoing, and one never truly stops developing in the knowledge and skills needed to become more efficient and effective. And if training and development can extend beyond the workplace and reach out to the community at large, then such programs truly model the very idea of a public servant.
This article was originally published by The Public Manager in Fall of 2014.