Posted in Uncategorized | Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 | Trackback
(This is my response to a Human Resources blog that was promoting training as major support in change management.)
I agree that organizations need to be savvy about change management. But, change management training is a bad investment of money and time.
1. Training is a poor substitute for leadership. When training is used as the primary way of engaging people in change, you put the new initiative at risk. Training supports leadership, not the reverse. Without leadership people learn skills but lack a focus to apply them.
2. Training that is offered before it is needed is soon forgotten. And, even worse, people grow cynical. They begin to believe that they know all they need to know about managing change without ever having had to apply these ideas.
When training is linked directly to a new project as a way to give everyone a common language and set of tools, it can be a fine intervention. This is especially true if the training itself is an intervention. For example, teach a model and then apply immediately to the project. Teach the next tool and then apply it right away. Etc.
Posted in Uncategorized | Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 | Trackback
(This is my response to a Human Resources blog that was promoting training as major support in change management.)
I agree that organizations need to be savvy about change management. But, change management training is a bad investment of money and time.
1. Training is a poor substitute for leadership. When training is used as the primary way of engaging people in change, you put the new initiative at risk. Training supports leadership, not the reverse. Without leadership people learn skills but lack a focus to apply them.
2. Training that is offered before it is needed is soon forgotten. And, even worse, people grow cynical. They begin to believe that they know all they need to know about managing change without ever having had to apply these ideas.
When training is linked directly to a new project as a way to give everyone a common language and set of tools, it can be a fine intervention. This is especially true if the training itself is an intervention. For example, teach a model and then apply immediately to the project. Teach the next tool and then apply it right away. Etc.
May 5th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Great post!
I was involved in a divestiture where the HR folks had marketing tell all of the latest updates and reasons why. When the CEO addressed the staff, he just said the same stuff from HR. When asked anything outside of what was already told, he still did not answer and promised HR will distribute.
Everybody felt like they were being SOLD about the divestiture and there was not clear leadership. The time spent with the CEO adressing us felt like a waste of time since nothing new was learned.
May 5th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Brian -
Thanks for your response. Someday I’d like to wrong about my cynicism regarding how change gets communicated, ah well. . .
Rick
May 5th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Rick,
Good post. I’ve also found that organizations are often interested in using training as a means of getting their employees to accept mandated changes rather than applying leadership to bring employees into the process of planning and implementing changes for improvement.
May 5th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Phil - I’ve found that too. And a variation on that: they expect that through our “brilliant” motivational skills, we’ll turn poor planning into glorious results. Ah, if it were only so. - Rick
May 7th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Rick,
Good post. Whatever hapened to ‘walk the talk’? What does it take to make (senior) managemers realise that their (active) sponsorship is crucial in making the change. If they are not able to convince their co-workers about the need to change, who am I to tell people to change? - btw: mostly I am the external consultant helping them guiding the change process -. I believe that teaching people ‘trics’ in a training room does not make them accept changes. It takes more than just training. Often a lot more!
May 7th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Yeah, whatever did happen to walk the talk. I guess they just kept on walking. I think you said it very well when you wrote: If they are not able to convince their co-workers about the need to change, who am I to tell people to change?
Rick