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Page 1: Aligning Training to Business Results · Aligning Training to Business Results ... study strategy, and planning group, re-ports that one of the operational concerns in drug development

34 TDJune 2005

DID YOU KNOW that U.S. corporations in-vested more than 50 billion dollars in train-ing in 2004? Fifty billion. That’s equivalentto Bill Gates’s net worth and about 40 per-cent greater than the $30 billion spent an-nually on pet care in the United States. Biginvestments warrant big returns. But whatkind of return are organizations getting fortheir training dollars? Unless you align cor-porate training to organizational goals,any returns you realize from the traininginvestment will be by chance alone.

Drawing from our experience and thatof several corporate colleagues, we’ve laidout seven paths that can help you aligntraining programs to business goals suc-cessfully. To apply these guidelines, youneed to ask your CEO and managementteam the right questions.We’ve provided anumber of suggestions you can adapt toyour situation.

Route 1Become the organization’s GPS.A global positioning system has savedmany geographically challenged drivers

from getting lost. Of course, to be of anyvalue, the driver has to know the destina-tion. Similarly, once you know your man-agement’s destinations, you can help yourorganization get there by steering traininginitiatives in complementary directions.

Here’s what to ask your CEO first:Where are we going, and how will weknow when we are there?

The purpose of that question is to determine the organization’s goals—which must be bottom-line and specific—as well as to define how the CEO measuresprogress toward those goals. Increasingmarket share, reducing production costs,improving the customer’s experience, re-ducing errors, and minimizing accidentrates are some common examples of bot-tom-line, strategic goals.

When approaching the CEO, you canask the “direction question” in a variety of ways:● In the ideal world, what would this organization look like?● What kinds of indicators would tellyou that you’ve realized your vision?

● What are the organization’s major pri-orities for the next one to three years?● What would you like to see next yearthat you don’t see now?● Do you have some executive manage-ment targets for next year?● Which business units will be most instrumental in achieving those targets?

Frank Nguyen, senior learning technol-ogist with Intel Corporation, recommendsplacing the training function within spe-cific business units to closely align withthe bottom line. Nguyen says, “My previ-ous training organization was a cost cen-ter: It was an organization that supportedanother support organization and wasnot directly aligned with a business unitthat generated revenue for the company,such as manufacturing or sales. The cur-rent organization I work for is aligned directly with manufacturing.”

By associating with important function-al business units, you’ll find it easier to pro-mote important operational objectives.

Joey Connelly, manager of employee effectiveness at RadioShack, concurs. He

Aligning Training toBusiness Results

See page 4 for an Executive Summary of this article

Seven routes to explore with your CEO.

By Ruth Clark and Ann Kwinn

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TDJune 2005 35

recommends that all trainers “get the heckout of your office.You cannot figure out theanswers to the questions that you have,that you’re asking yourself, sitting in yourown cubicle. If you want to know how tobetter align yourself to the business, youhave to go out into some part of the busi-ness. I like to say, ‘The closer you are to thebatteries in one of our stores, the betteryour decisions become.’ I don’t care whoyou are in the organization or who yousupport; you’ve got to get close to your cus-tomers. Those people who are closest tothe customers have the clarity necessary tounderstand how the business operates.”

Tom Eucker, knowledge strategist forIntel, takes a more drastic approach to focusing on business results. He recom-mends “moving out of traditional trainingroles and focusing instead on improvingthe business itself and the critical learn-ing processes that are more naturally in-tegrated with doing the job.” Eucker saysthat he has “added value by developingmore effective teams and staff, address-ing challenging cross-organizational is-sues, and enabling business processes tobetter leverage the knowledge—both doc-umented and ‘undocumentable’—that ex-ists in the organization.”

Route 2Alleviate the pain points.You need to identify management’s great-est areas of pain. Ask them,● What keeps you awake at night?● What business issues have given youthe biggest headaches recently? ● What do you see as your biggest sourceof frustration or concern over the nextyear or so?

Katheryn Seiders, a business opera-tions manager for Bristol-Myers SquibbCompany’s global clinical development,study strategy, and planning group, re-ports that one of the operational concernsin drug development is the time it takes toget a new drug to market. One solution isto move from a functional to a matrixedteam structure and get cross-functionalglobal teams to work together efficiently.

During a drug study, protocol managersmust align and engage as many as 40 dif-ferent technical specialists globally,including bio-statisticians, drug supply

managers, site managers, and physicians. Project man-agement training withfollow-on coaching hashelped by guiding teamsto develop a team char-ter in which they definetheir roles and clarifyobjectives, deliverables,team norms, and pro-cesses. That effort hasallowed the organiza-tion to become moreflexible, accountable,resource efficient, andrisk adverse, and has in-creased the number ofdrug applications in ayear—ultimatelyreducing overalltime to market fromeight to 10 years to fiveyears or less.

Route 3Work in the squeeze zone.Facing such constraintsas downsizing and tightdeadlines, most trainingprofessionals need towork in “the squeezezone.” That place ischaracterized by re-duced budgets, fasterturn-arounds, and ashortage of subject mat-ter expertise. Nguyen, ofIntel, says that “the lastfive years have been anexercise of delivering increased scope andproduct with reduced headcount due tothe economic downturn. Training organi-zations have had to find ways to use theirlimited resources to deliver highly repeat-able, scalable interventions in a short peri-od of time.”

But, forewarned is forearmed. To en-sure that you factor in project constraints,identify them early in the process. Hereare some questions to ask: ● What kinds of constraints do you seeaffecting organizational operations in thenext year or two?

● What are the biggest corporate re-source limits, and how do you see themaffecting departments, such as training?● What kinds of actions do you anti-cipate taking to address the following:economic downturns, increased retire-ments, rising benefits costs, and in-creased competition?

Route 4Make lemonade.Take a lesson from Martha Stewart, whohas turned around a dismal experienceinto better business results. Making

FRANK NGUYEN Senior Learning Technologist, Intel Corporation

Frank Nguyen recommends placing the training functionwithin specific business units to closely

align with the bottom line.

“Get out of your office.You cannot figure out the answers to thequestions that you have,that you’re asking yourself,sitting in your own cubicle.”

JOEY CONNELLY Manager of Employee Effectiveness, Radio Shack

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lemonade means turning problems intoopportunities. Once you’ve defined thesqueeze zone, it’s time to think of ways toturn those constraints into opportunities.Be innovative. Consider how to take ashrinking training budget for develop-ment and transform it into a more cost-effective blended learning approach. Forexample, you could convert some ele-ments of a training program into writtenor electronic prework.

Graduates of Clark Training’s How toUse the Virtual Classroom program havemany ideas for creatively accomplishinggoals previously reserved for face-to-facetraining events. For example, applicationsharing in the virtual classroom environ-ment has provided trainers the opportu-nity to migrate software training fromphysical classrooms to synchronous e-learning, thus reducing travel costs.

Edith Logue, manager of curriculumdevelopment at FileNet Corporation, hasparlayed constraints into opportunities byturning increased requests for nonclass-room delivery of technical training into aseries of virtual lab classes for partnersand customers. Students receive a kit thatincludes a student guide and lab work-book, and watch recorded lectures ontheir own time, with two weeks to com-plete all labs using a virtual environmentaccessible via the web.Be fast. Another common barrier trainersface is short delivery timeframes. If you’refaced with decreased training time, con-sider evidence-based methods to acceler-

ate learning. For example, in their forth-coming book, Efficiency in Learning, authorsRuth Clark, Frank Nguyen, and JohnSweller summarize research showing thatlearning comprehension is six timesfaster when some practice exercises arereplaced with worked examples. Alterna-tively, simulations run in classrooms orvia e-learning have been proven to accel-erate expertise. For example, in E-Learningand the Science of Instruction, Clark andRichard Mayer summarize research thatshows that 25 hours of work in a simulat-ed troubleshooting computer tutorial resulted in three-year Air Force techni-cians able to perform at the level of 10-year veterans.

If organizational constraints requireyou to make lemonade, you might askyour management team what flavor oflemonade appeals the most to them. Con-sider the following scenarios:Scenario 1. Explain to your CEO that“many organizations are providing train-ing faster and saving travel costs throughvirtual classrooms delivered to workers’desktops. We will need to make a smallstart-up investment of around $100,000.But, in the next year, we could migrate 50percent of our training from the physicalto the virtual classroom. We would makeup the costs within a year.”

Schedule a demonstration of the virtu-al classroom and invite management tosit in for part of it—from their offices—tosee firsthand what the virtual classroomcan do.

Scenario 2. If you think some form of elec-tronic performance support system is abetter solution, start your conversationwith the following: “We can save a lot oftraining time by developing automatedjob aids for the new system. This projectwould require some up-front investment,but the savings on the backend trainingwould more than make up for it. Wouldyou like for me to work with the systemsfolks to create a small demonstration ofwhat I have in mind?”

Your goal is to offer some solutionsthat will improve worker performanceand, at the same time, reduce costs usingnew technologies that can be more efficient than traditional classroom training.

Route 5Mine and distribute the best.If your company regularly recognizes pro-jects or processes that are well done,or people who are able to get better results than others, why not replicatethat success across the organization?Taking the time to identify and documenteffective processes and procedures canleverage best practices throughout theorganization.

Copy Exactly!, a program at Intel, is intended to do just that. When setting upa new manufacturing facility, Intel re-quires everyone to use the Copy Exactly!approach to duplicate the best methodsused in existing factories. According to Intel, “Everything at the developmentplant—the process flow, equipment set,suppliers, plumbing, manufacturing cleanroom, and training methodologies—is selected to meet high volume needs,recorded, and then copied exactly.” Intelreports that Copy Exactly! has helped thecompany to bring high-volume factoriesonline quickly, decreasing time to marketand increasing yields.

To apply such a methodology, ask yourCEO these questions:● What processes, divisions, or people

B U S I N E S S R E S U LT S

“One solution is tomove from a functional

to a matrixed team structureand get cross-functional global teams to work together efficiently.”

KATHERYN SEIDERS Business Operations Manager, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company

What’s in a Name? One way to change perceptions is to change your title from trainer to one of these options used by your colleagues: ● Manager of Business Operations—Bristol-Myers Squibb ● Learning Technologist—Intel Corporation

● Knowledge Strategist—Intel Corporation ● Manager of Employee Effectiveness—Radio Shack ● Learning Evangelist—Microsoft

36 TDJune 2005

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have done the most to achieve our orga-nizational goals of the past few years?● What success stories have attractedyour attention?● Who has received executive awards inthe past year or two?● If you could magically duplicate anydivision or process, which would it be?● What metrics do we have about ourcurrent processes, and how might we usethose metrics to define and improveprocesses?

Karen Zwick, CEO of 1st Class Solu-tions, a training consulting firm, suggeststhat she adds value for such clients as EliLilly by modeling exemplar performance.By mining for best practices in the worksite and incorporating those in trainingprograms, reference manuals, workingaids, online templates, and process re-alignment, Zwick and her team are able todistribute expertise residing in a few tomany.

Route 6Plan for the future—today.As soon as the Enron debacle started tounfold, the handwriting was on the wallfor large corporations. Nguyen says, “Inresponse to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act andvarious corporate scandals, our corpo-rate office mandated business ethicstraining for all employees last year. Infact, Intel now requires refresher trainingon a yearly basis.” Logue, of FileNet, re-ports that Sarbanes-Oxley and other reg-ulatory legislation resulted in a newproduct to help its customers meet com-pliance requirements. As that new prod-

uct rolls out, FileNet needs toeducate its customers about theproduct, which is based on gov-ernment regulations thatprompted its features.

The future is shaped not onlyby far-reaching events like Enronbut also by industry-specific ex-ternal forces as well. For exam-ple, many industries areregulated by government agen-cies, such as the Food and DrugAdministration. You should beaware of industry-specificevents outside of your organiza-tion that impact how your orga-

nization does business. And, you shouldask these questions: ● What kinds of events does the management team see outside our company that will influence our goalsand directions?● Are there new regulations on the horizon?● What industry-specific journals doyou read on a regular basis?● What has happened in our industry in the past year that you see shaping our future?

Sometimes, the core business objec-tives are the basis for future planning.

“It is important to anticipate issues,and they can generally be defined in your planning process. For example,

customer retention, the impact of org-anizational growth, regulatory and fin-ancial compliance—these are generallyalways present,” says Shin Lee, learningand development manager with WellsFargo. “As a result, our objectives focus on those issues. Each year, we identify issues tied to those themes. At times,a new objective may get added, but [objectives] are generally consistent.Through that consistency, our organ-ization can plan for growth to ensure success.” By focusing on the core busi-ness, a company can best plan for the future and use past experiences to main-tain the organization’s recognized brand.

Route 7Partner with management.These guidelines rely on forming linemanagement partnerships in ways thatintegrate you, the training professional,into the business. Management execu-tives can inform you about the goals theyneed to achieve and provide you with ac-cess to the resources you need to do yourjob, including subject matter expertise.As your partnerships grow, you’ll be per-ceived as less of a cost center and moreof a critical service provider.

Through that process, you’ll come tobetter understand the business itself.Joey Connelly, of RadioShack, puts itwell: “I like to say that I am a businessperson first; I am an HR professionalsecond; and I am a performance consultantthird. In that order. Every hour, every day.I should be just as concerned about top-line and bottom-line growth andknow what the drivers are. If [trainers] do that well, we can spend less time try-ing to educate our internal customers—our businesses owners—what we meanby intervention and performance con-sulting, and performance technology. Bytalking in their language, we’re betterable to help [management] distinguishbetween knowledge and skills issuesand other performance barriers.” TD

Ruth Clark is the founder of Clark Training &

Consulting; [email protected]. Ann Kwinnis a partner at Clark Training & Consulting;

[email protected].

B U S I N E S S R E S U LT S

Learn More ● Efficiency in Learning by Ruth Clark,Frank Nguyen, and John Sweller. Thisbook is due out in late 2005, www.clarktraining.com.

● “Acceleration of Expertise ThroughComputer Simulation”: page 255 of E-Learning and the Science of Instruc-tion by Clark and Richard Mayer.

● Copy Exactly!, www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/manufacturing/copy_exactly_bkgrnd.htm.

● How to Use Virtual Classroom Train-ing, click “Virtual Class Course” underSeminars at www.clarktraining.com.

38 TDJune 2005

“Move out of traditionaltrainingroles and focus instead on improving the business itself andthe critical learningprocesses.”

TOM EUCKER Knowledge Strategist, Intel