Whether your organization wraps its business model around products, services or both, the one common denominator in every business is the need to sell. As products and services become more complex and customers become more sophisticated, many established sales professionals struggle to communicate the value of their products and services effectively. Moreover, new hires who may have stellar sales skills may nonetheless have zero knowledge of how to engage your unique customers in more powerful conversations about your products and services. While new hire training programs are rich with product knowledge, company culture and other corporate mandatories, they are often lacking in the kind of human-focused, globally consistent information that enables new people to hit the ground running with your customers. Most would agree that they’d rather not have new people learning to develop their skills on the customers themselves, but that’s often the only recourse as sales leaders and training leaders find it difficult to speak the same language and collaborate effectively on meaningful sales programs. The following series of essays from GP Strategies’ Sales Enablement expert, Brian Lambert, addresses the issues of new hire sales training programs, including improving effectiveness among existing sales leaders and closing any communications gaps between sales leaders and sales enablement and other training professionals. Download a copy of the Sales Enablement eBook today: http://bit.ly/1Da2caQ

Based on my 20 years as a sales leader, many tasks and priorities have remained consistent; however, many more have changed. It’s still about driving revenue, yet the evolving needs of our clients as well as the profile changes of our salespeople point to the fact that as a sales leader, there are things I know for sure and areas that require serious rethinking. What has stayed the same? The basic definition of what my job is remains true. My role is not to be a super salesperson. It isn’t my job to close business. It is my job to ensure that all of my team members have the tools to be successful. That means removing barriers so they can do their jobs. Most importantly, I lead from behind and not out in front. Recruiting the right people is still the most important thing that I do. If you hire the right people, they will find a way to get the job done. However, it is the hardest thing that I do. Great salespeople are in demand. Because of their regular client contact, the word gets out quickly when someone is available, and they usually have their fair share of good offers from competitors. Working with salespeople regularly still enhances their engagement. Being in sales is a lonely job. Although they thrive from individual contribution, most salespeople appreciate the team-selling process. It remains important to spend time with team members so they know that they are connected to a company with other employees and resources. I can provide that connection. There still is a surprising amount of luck involved in order for salespeople to be successful. The most successful strategy includes casting a wide net. In other words, one should work both hard and smart. Leading with certain metrics in mind is a strategy critical for sales leaders. These metrics are particularly important when a salesperson is not satisfying certain revenue requirements since adhering to metrics should eventually lead to sales results. Sales talent is still street smart and is often successful because of strong relationships. A sales leader should understand these relationships and interact with customers in a similar manner. Yet, the sales leader needs to be mindful that key relationships are always with the salesperson and not with their leader. The leader has to be sure to step aside when confronted with a client relationship opportunity since it could undermine the client’s relationship with the salesperson. Now, what has changed? A lot. Using business development technology has evolved over time. It requires understanding database management and sophisticated CRMs. CRMS are not only useful to salespeople, but also the data available to understand customers, the way they buy and sales activity, has become invaluable when leading a sales team. If a salesperson isn’t successful, the data gleaned from a CRM will often provide the diagnostic information necessary to make changes that will ultimately put him or her back on course. The way salespeople develop leads has changed; therefore, coaching this process requires understanding social media, grassroots marketing, and other ways that customers interact with each other. In addition, being active in organizations where customers and competitors find valuable resources is critical in a sales leadership role. It allows me to develop soft leads for my team members in a non-sales capacity. Leading virtually has become more sophisticated based on technology tools available. Conference calls are the norm; however, meeting tools encourage sharing of information real-time with the ability to build community among a remote team. Because our clients are global, the job of a sales leader is not confined to the normal workday in a respective time zone. Often, we are on calls early in the morning to late in the evening. There is no such thing as an eight-hour day in this job. The global aspect of our business also creates account ownership challenges. Client locations were generally confined to territories so salespeople could be aligned as such in the past. Now, buying decisions, client locations, and implementations often cross over defined geographies, making decisions regarding account ownership complicated. Often, it’s the client that dictates who the account manager should be based on their own organizational structure. What is still true and will remain true is the dynamic and exciting nature of this job. Deciding to become a sales leader is never made because of financial reward or status. In fact, in some compensation schemes, top salespeople make more than their managers and could have much more prestige and influence in an organization. Still, a great sales leader has the ability to both increase the engagement levels of their team members and to positively and measurably impact the bottom line of their organization through others. I will continue to embrace this great challenge in the future!

As the next generation of learners enters the workforce, many organizations are finding that traditional learning methods are no longer as effective. Whether distance is a challenge due to a global workforce or budgeting is a challenge to bring individuals together, organizations are finding a need to rethink their core programs. When redesigning a program, blended learning using the 70-20-10 rule is considered the industry standard. But how do you decide what you keep as the 10% formal learning? And what does that formal learning look like? This can often become a time and cost-intensive exercise to redesign a curriculum. However, there is a better way. By using the Inform - Define - Practice - Apply model, you can quickly map your existing curriculum to a new format by answering the following questions: What knowledge does a learner need to be informed of? What details does the learner need to define? What knowledge will the learner need to practice on the job? What information will you want the learner to ensure they can apply to their job? In a recent GP Strategies Webinar, I discussed an accelerated analysis tool that can take your curriculum into the next generation and beyond. Below is a look at this approach: Training Approach The training approach is composed of four types of training, as shown in Figure 1, with each type building upon the previous type: Inform: The first level of training informs the learner about the training program, information that should be prerequisite knowledge, or other basic awareness-level information. Define: The second level of training defines the new information. This knowledge could include tasks, definitions, desired skills, or behaviors. Practice: The third level of training allows the learner to practice the new skills or knowledge that has been presented. This is typically completed in a highly interactive format. Apply: The final level of training requires the learner to apply all previously presented information into a capstone scenario. This is the final phase to ensure the learner can transfer the knowledge to the job. Figure 1: Inform, Define, Practice Apply Strategy The knowledge types will build upon each other. As such, each training solution will have an Inform component prior to beginning to define the knowledge, as shown in Figure 2. However, all training programs may not progress to the Apply level. As the learner begins the journey, the training can be conducted independently through self-study tactics. As employees become competent in their jobs (Practice), being able to perform tasks without job references or being able to complete complex tasks, learning advocates can provide support through on-the-job training and guidance to where to go for assistance. As employees transition to the skilled level of knowledge (Apply), the need for a mentor diminishes and is replaced by a coach. A coach is available to provide guidance in troubleshooting, brainstorming, and sample experiences. This is a critical role in keeping the workforce engaged. Figure 2: Role of Learning Advocates and Coaches Modalities Training will be delivered via a blended approach, involving multiple formal, on-demand, social, and coaching methodologies. This format will effectively address multiple audiences, cater to various learning styles, and provide numerous opportunities to further embed the client’s culture into the concepts. Table 1: Modalities outlines a number of potential training delivery methods in formal, on-demand, social and coaching categories.  Table 1: Modalities      

Staying a step ahead of your business requirements in the area of learning technology can be difficult when dealing with antiquated technology and limited delivery options. During a recent Saba webinar poll, an outdated LMS was the number one reason for needing to change to a new LMS. In my experience, I’ve found that some often-overlooked and less obvious better practices tend to have the greatest positive impact during an LMS upgrade or migration. Consider these ideas when you need to step up your learning technology to create a strategy for the migration and provide tools and tricks for preparing your organization for a limited-impact change. When leaders within learning organizations were asked which best practice is the biggest fear when moving to a new system, data migration took the top spot. Ensure that only accurate, relevant data is migrated to the new LMS. Plan as much time as possible to clean up data in the old system before migrating. It is worth it. A new system full of clean data will make it easier to use, maintain, and administer. Also, find out how many years of data must be in the system based on your corporate, industry, or compliance requirements. Archive the rest. Change management was another key concern related to migrating. You must prepare your audiences for an LMS migration and technology upgrade. Training on the new system is critical and must be planned. Who needs to be trained? Administrators, managers, learners, instructors? Others? What topics and functionality does each user group need to be trained on? When during the project will be the most ideal timing to deliver the training to the different audiences? How will the training be provided and best received by the end users? In addition to training, good communication about the new LMS is a key task for successful change management and to ensure organizational readiness. Identifying the recipients that should be provided communication related to the project, the format of that communication for each group, and the frequency and timing for key communications are all important and must be planned in advance and accurately delivered. Lastly, you must ensure through these communications prior to the system launch that you are obtaining buy-in. The reason for the change must be communicated clearly. Make sure the end users know what’s in it for them. If you can sell the destination, change should be easy. Resource engagement is also critical for your migration. Before the project starts, ensure stakeholder buy-in so that you have their support. Then identify the project team that will be involved. Ensure their commitment throughout the entire project. Finally, if not already established, form a governance committee to oversee decisions that must be made that may impact other groups using the LMS or even the entire system. You must also carefully plan your cutover. Don’t be afraid to take a long cutover to ensure tasks aren’t rushed and resources have time to perform the configuration and testing that must take place when the old system is down and before the new system launches. Also consider when to sunset your old system. Avoid taking it down and losing access to it immediately so it can be a reference in case something needs to be verified from a historical standpoint. Lastly, carefully strategize your launch. Consider a pilot or phased implementation to lessen the impact to end users by allowing for a "live testing" period before the organization-wide system launch. Involving this select group of pilot users may also result in obtaining "champions" of the new system who can support the change. Additionally, consider only enabling minimal, necessary functionality at launch of the new LMS to make the switch to a new system easier for end users. New features can be introduced after the dust settles. In your experience with learning technology and lessons learned from other migrations, which of these best practices do you feel is the most critical to incorporate when upgrading or migrating to a new LMS? Which can have the greatest impact? What other best practices not mentioned here led to a successful migration for your organization? Please leave questions and feedback as I would love to hear from you!

You receive a request for a three-hour, medium-complexity virtual instructor-led training on a new software system still in development. The training needs to roll out within two weeks of the system stabilization, and key roles must be trained before system launch. Does this sound like a familiar project request to you? In recent years, the increased needs from clients to rapidly develop learning content have led teams to work with more unknowns in a shorter amount of time. These factors have steered teams to turn to agile training development methodologies. If you’ve been in the training field, I am sure you are familiar with the agile concept or at least have heard of the terminology. The concepts of agility and agile design and development may be simple to understand, but often are difficult to implement. To reap the benefits of an agile approach in the development of performer-centric learning systems, an organization must be willing to shift its culture, decision-making practices, and talent development strategies. As agile design and development processes become more prevalent in the field, several myths can get in the way of a team or organization making the shift. The following are some of the myths that organizations and teams need to work to dispel as you set your expectation for agile training development: Myth: Agile works for everything. Reality: Agile can be a very powerful approach to solving learning and performance challenges; however, it isn’t appropriate for all situations—especially if the solution is well-defined. For example, it would be overkill to adopt an agile process to implement a handful of clearly defined changes to an existing, well-designed eLearning course. On the other hand, a project involving the creation of a learning system to support an emerging business process would be a more appropriate application of the agile process. Myth: Agile can be optimized through a transactional process. Reality: An agile design and development process is powered by the quality of collaboration within the team, which can only be achieved through a consistent, shared experience. Gaining the commitment of key stakeholders is critical to the success of an agile design and development process. Myth: Agile means fast. Reality: Although a component of agile is getting to a prototype sooner in the process, agile training development at its core is not about being faster than a linear development process. It is about being responsive to the insights you learn from the rapid prototyping and testing process. Myth: Agile is unstructured. Reality: Progress in a linear development process is measured by the progression of signed-off documents and deliverable milestones. Agile, on the other hand, progresses through an evolution of discussion and dialogue, which may seem unstructured. However, this evolution is driven through regularly scheduled conversations and rapidly developed outputs from which the process and results are documented. Myth: Agile has one size of tools and templates for all projects. Reality: The agile design and development of training solutions includes a range of tools and templates that can be used to meet the varying needs of a project. You can use a Scrum, Kanban, or other approach to manage the workflow. You could use personas or performance visualization tools to help drive the design. The key is to engage the team in the selection of tools and approaches for the project at hand. Would you consider an agile training development approach for the scenario at the beginning of the blog post? How would you work to ensure that these myths don’t get in the way of your team’s success? Learn more about agile development methodologies by downloading Matt’s recent webinar "Agile Isn’t For Everyone", hosted by Training Industry.

As you finish your delivery and glare into your catcher’s open mitt, you think of nothing other than successfully executing the decision the two of you just made. As a pitcher, your "battery mate" is not only there to catch the ball when the batter whiffs—he is also there to share accountability for the result of each at-bat. A catcher is a pitcher’s most valued customer, a partner who is in search of a trusted collaborator who can effectively map his arsenal of capabilities (e.g., change-up, curveball, slider, two-seam fastball, etc.) to successfully solve the problem at hand (e.g., runner on first, one out, full count, top of the eighth inning, your team has a one-run lead). I’ve been delivering "pitches" for nearly my entire life—first in baseball and then in business. Here’s my biggest takeaway so far. Nobody cares about your pitch. That may sound harsh, but stick with me, as I’m actually trying to help. What’s truly important is the role each pitch plays in a much larger problem-solving process. Mapping out the problem-solving process In baseball, the top brass from each major league team is faced with the exact same macro-level problem at the beginning of the season—build an organization that will win the World Series in October. If you break that problem down a bit, each team has 162 chances to earn the right to compete for a World Series championship each season, and within each of those regular season games are (at least) 9 innings, or a total of 27 outs, where each team has the same opportunity to make progress toward earning the season’s grand prize. If you were to zoom in and take an iterative approach to winning the World Series, you might begin to focus on the only thing that really matters during each moment of a game, that is, winning the current at-bat, one at-bat at a time. A pitcher and a catcher should guide their team toward solving one mini-problem at a time pitch by pitch while always keeping their "October destination" (winning the World Series) in mind. What does this have to do with sales? Having been a pitcher and a salesperson, I could probably cook up a long list of similarities between pitching a baseball and pitching a product/service/idea. For now, let’s just go with the following four elements that showcase the common ground between the world of baseball and the world of business: There is no clock - Have you ever been right at the verge of closing a sales deal when it suddenly seemed to go backwards in time? New proposal, new stakeholders, new opportunity all over again—from scratch. It’s not fun. I’ve been there too, but it demonstrates the fact that your customers aren’t on a clock to close your deal. They are on a journey to solve their problems. The absence of a game clock is one of the reasons I love baseball so much—absolutely anything can happen, or as Yogi Berra once put it, "It ain’t over till it’s over!" Situational awareness is vital - Walking into a sales meeting is one of the most interesting things that happens in business. At its very core, the meeting serves as a potential platform for value to be created. I believe that’s mostly up to the salesperson and her/his ability to connect the dots logically between three key points: the customer’s current situation, the customer’s desired future state, and the sales organization’s set of capabilities. Mastering this art is harder than it sounds, so I’ve decided to give it a name that sounds difficult: "situational triangulation." Pitching also requires this type of expertise—you’d better know exactly what you’re aiming for in a given situation (e.g., in my example at the beginning of the post, with one out and a man on first, you’d rather get a ground ball than a strikeout). Success depends on navigating one conversation at a time - I’ve been involved with sales deals that took as short as two weeks to close and some that took as long as two years to close. In every single meeting were key conversations that took place between "sellers" and "buyers"—and keep in mind, the seller isn’t always the salesperson. In fact, I usually know that a deal has some good momentum when I am no longer selling to my main point of contact, but instead enabling that individual to sell to others about the value that needs to be created to move away from the status quo. A pitcher and a catcher have as many "conversations" during a game as the number of at-bats. You can think of every single pitch as a "value exchange" during the conversation: The catcher communicates what type of value he expects by flashing the signs, and the pitcher responds with the value he believes his catcher needs by either agreeing or shaking off the suggested pitch and then ultimately delivering to the plate. With every pitch comes a new moment that’s never existed before, a new count, a new at-bat waiting to unfold, and the result of each conversation is recorded in the history books for further exploration by players, coaches, fans, and an avid community of sabermetrics experts. Wouldn’t it be interesting to explore sales conversations with such rigor? The way things are today, many sales conversations vanish the moment they’re over, never to be analyzed again. If you could shine a light on sales conversations the way we do in baseball, what would you measure? What would your customers measure? Your competition is literally sitting in the waiting area - A colleague of mine told me that as soon as he finished a recent sales meeting, a competitor was waiting in the lobby of a customer’s office ready to roll with the next sales pitch. When you are a pitcher, it’s even more cutthroat than that. You have seven guys sitting on a bench staring at you from the bullpen, each one chomping at the bit to get his shot after you’re done. That’s right; I’m making reference to a pitcher’s competitor as other pitchers, not the other team. I know it might sound taboo to say that, but when it’s a healthy competition, everyone steps up his game. The other obvious competitor is, of course, the opposing pitcher. Here’s something I’d love to see—a nine-inning buying cycle where the customer narrows the competition down to two finalists who each take the "field" for three outs at a time. Let your imagination go wild with the rest of the rules. A quick comment about hitters You might wonder why I haven’t focused on the hitters yet. Here’s what I’d say: Hitters introduce a little something we can call "reality" into the pitching equation. A pitcher and a catcher can lay out the perfect strategy together and attempt to execute exactly as planned. Guess what? You might still give up a home run. And every single person in the stadium will be watching closely to see how you bounce back afterwards. We’ve all had sales meetings we wish we could erase, but the only thing we can control is how we behave in our next one. The complexity of dealing with a new hitter with each new at-bat is similar to dealing with the complexity we are faced with day in and day out in the constantly changing business environment. Your plan is one thing. Reality is another. Don’t ever underestimate the hitter. If you’ve ever pitched anything in your life—a baseball, an idea, a business plan, or a tent—it would be great to read your thoughts, reactions, and questions. Or if you’re just an avid San Francisco Giants fan looking for a place to boast, feel free to take advantage of the opportunity here.  

Knowledge of the factors leading to human performance, exemplary job safety and work practices already exist on your plant floor. What if you could easily share the knowledge of your accomplished performers with the rest of your team? Organizations can make the most of their training programs by leveraging the best practices of their high performers to create a sustainable training system based on process guides. In this video, Directors of Performance Improvement for GP Strategies, Bill Moser and John Lapolla, discuss the use of process guides in training programs, including: Standard operating procedures Best practices Job aids Trouble shooting guides

It’s December again, and people often ask how the operations in my workshop are carried out so flawlessly and effortlessly each year. Managing toy-making, gift wrapping, and delivery for kids all over the world is a lot of work, but we ensure that behind the scenes we’ve got the process nailed down so that when December 24th rolls around, things go off without a hitch. About five years ago, we implemented a best-in-class learning management system (LMS). The LMS did so many things for us! We loved it. The elves were able to take much-needed training on how to make all the toys, and we were able to catalog the courses into all the basic subject areas in order for everyone to function correctly in the workshop. These included courses and curriculums such as Woodworking, Locomotives 101, and Advanced Gift Wrapping. Using the LMS to manage and track online and classroom-based training made our learning processes automated and streamlined. Our initial experience with the LMS was wonderful and we felt it met our needs. But as the organization and future roadmap of my workshop operations have evolved, we are now struggling to find ways for the LMS to provide all necessary training. One of the first things we started to realize was that we needed to push out our annual Return Policy compliance training. The elves had to be recertified each year since our acceptance of returns was constantly being revised. However, the LMS couldn’t provide that functionality very well. We just couldn’t quite figure out how to configure the training in the LMS to handle return policy revisions and automated training assignments without resulting in training being pushed out inaccurately. And reporting on the data was an even bigger headache, so we just said, "Forget it." Another challenge with our LMS is due to technology toys. They have really been heavy hitters for us. They’re at the top of almost every child’s list, and since technology products are always changing, the elves need to know more than just traditional toy-making. Training on the most current and up-to-date computer games and smartphones is critical. We are constantly adding new product training to the LMS, but we are really having a tough time tracking and reporting which elves have taken what training. We are seeing duplicates in the reports and aren’t able to filter on certain fields. It’s really quite a mess, and oftentimes the elf managers get so frustrated with reporting that they just ignore the reports and let the elves work on toys however they want—trained or not. So now we have no way of knowing if the elves working in that part of the workshop are capable of handling, for example, the iPhone 6 Plus (never mind that the phone is nearly as big as most of our elves and "handling" it takes on another meaning). External to the workshop operations, we’ve also determined that as some of our reindeer are getting quite old, simply taking the Driver Safety Training online course in the LMS isn’t enough. We need to do more on-the-job training and include an observation checklist while the reindeer go through their annual certification in our test track, ensuring their skills and ability to lead the sleigh are still sharp. Unfortunately, as critical as this training requirement is, the LMS doesn’t provide a way for us to include an observation checklist and track this for the reindeer. Our gift delivery accuracy and timeliness is at risk here! I really think we have a good plan in place with our training, but we need to implement a system that can keep up with our ever-changing needs and ensure we are staying on track year over year. Without a doubt, a new LMS is on my wish list and we are working with a great partner to implement it before the holidays. What? You didn’t think Santa had a wish list? Of course I do! Everyone should!

The holidays are always a busy time at the North Pole and like every year, Santa has been wondering how to ramp up production to prepare for the busiest day and night of the year. Last year was rough; some of the elves were not as productive as they could have been. Some of the toys had manufacturing defects, and then thrown into the mix, Mrs. Claus was pushing to use the new tablets in the North Pole Fulfillment Center to modernize processes. Santa has been stressed to say the least. Time was short. As the Head of Elf Training I knew I had to act fast to get at least some basic processes in place for this year. First, Santa and I had a long conversation, while enjoying some delicious hot chocolate that Mrs. Claus made, about the current state of training. The conversation revealed that currently most of the new elves trained via on-the-job training (OJT), and the ramp-up time for the elves was much longer than Santa would like. He needed them to be ready and productive as soon as possible. I told him we could put some measures in place for immediate improvements using the short time we had available. The conversation brought me to these questions: How could we make the elves more productive? Where did the OJT component fit? Where could we implement and leverage the new technology? I could see some of the stress leaving Santa as I explained there were some things we could do right now to streamline the training while providing assistance to his long-term elves. I knew I was on the right track to help bring the joy back when I saw him smile. The short time frame meant we needed a solution to get new elves up to speed quickly while attempting to smooth out the bumps in production that Santa was dealing with. My suggestions: Communicate the plan. First, Santa would gather all the elves and explain how some small changes would be implemented immediately to save time and effort while making the whole holiday process much less stressful. He would ask for cooperation from all levels to make this change successful and make the holidays bright for all the boys and girls of the world. He would also gather his key elves, the ones he identified as subject matter experts (SMEs) in the processes, and ask them to articulate what a new elf needed to know to be productive so we could document the processes in the simplest terms. A checklist would be generated from this conversation to be used in conjunction with OJT. Use the tablets for eLearning. With many existing source materials we could onboard the new elves with key required quick bites of eLearning using the tablets as the delivery platform. Materials would be sure to cover the basics that the SME elves had identified. Using expert contractors, we could quickly transform this knowledge to a tablet friendly format. The tablets could also be used in the field; for example, we could provide downloadable work instructions for the different toy assembly procedures for use right on the production line to keep errors down. Leverage OJT for new elves. Although OJT had always been the major component of training, it now made sense for OJT to come after new elves had some basic, foundational training via eLearning. We could then team them up with experienced elves for their first days out on the production line. The SME checklist would provide guidance for a leader elf to help them judge if the new elf was ready to tackle assembly independently. I knew I was on the right track when Santa grabbed his belly, looked into my eyes with a twinkle, and chuckled "ho, ho, ho." He asked me jovially, "So tell me, what would you like for Christmas?"    

70:20:10 is a relatively new learning model focused on how adults best adopt and learn things. Although the concepts have been in practice for years, this adult learning model is growing in popularity especially as the workforce itself changes. In a recent webinar, I introduced some of the history of the model and dove into the three primary categories, including: On-the-job or experiential learning Mentoring and coaching Classroom and reading. If you missed the webinar, a recording is now available. But if you’re looking for the Reader’s Digest version, I wanted to offer a quick look at some of the key takeaways we offered: 70:20:10 Model Advantage Learning at the Speed of Business - rapid adoption of new topics allows for more agile workforce development Increased supervisory and managerial support - more informal affords them to perform more JIT style learning Substantial cost savings being realiz 70:20:10 Cost-Effective Strategies Reduction of classroom time Reduction of facilitator’s time Reduction of brick and mortar training costs\increased use of SOJT Integrated learning while performing job/work responsibilities Q: How do you measure the effectiveness of the 70:20:10 model? A: Measurement with training initiatives is often very tricky and subjective. There are a few key business metrics that can supply you with some effectiveness insight: During the session, a number of questions came up, and while we were able to address most of them, we weren’t able to get to all of them due to time. Below are those questions and my best answers. This is an ongoing conversation, and I encourage you to keep the questions coming in via the comments section at the bottom of this page Training Spend - Many organizations observed reductions in their total dollar spends while still providing equivalent or better training. Some documented significant year over year reductions when facilitation costs (per diem too) where reduced while deploying VILT, coaching or SOJT training methods. Participant/ Employee Survey Vehicles - Several organizations received strong positive feedback in annual or periodic employee survey vehicles. Quantified Production Data - Some organizations have been able to track elements such as reduced down time, reduction in waste/scrap, reduction in time to complete tasks etc. This is some of the best data but requires considerable diligence and effort to compile and analyze the data. Q: How do you recommend reinforcing coaching after classroom training? A: In today’s frenetic world the learner needs reinforcement almost immediately or their attention will be distracted and the training moment or opportunity is lost. Line leaders should be prepared to engage learners within hours of completing a session. While that may not be reasonable in all cases as a norm the faster the coaching and mentoring process is initiated the better the odds of the learning transfer is effective and behavioral changes are effected. Q: How do you suggest we train mentors to be effective at training? A: They are already subject matter experts - do not waste their time trying to engage them on their subject matter - focus instead on adult learning principles and assist them in learning how others learn. Explain to them the 70:20:10 learning strategy and then engage them on great instructional techniques, questioning techniques and educating them on best practices in coaching and listening skills. Ensure they have a sense of ownership in the development and growth of the talents they are interacting with. It is also prudent; if you have the luxury, to hand pick your mentors. Just because someone is good at her job does not immediately translate to being a great mentor. Select knowledgeable mentors but ensure they also have high EQ skills and are relatable with their co-workers. Unfortunately there are too many examples of misfires related to poor communication and/or interpersonal skills rather than a lack of knowledge on the subject matter.