How to get the most from Training and Development. The Three Keys to Getting Your Money’s Worth as a Participant.

December 3, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Training and Development 

How to get the most from training and development programs, take responsibility for your personal development, improve your performance, and make more good things come your way.

Think about how good it feels to be recognized for a job well done, to earn a raise, win a promotion, or be asked to lead an important project. How do you get more of those good things?
You get better at what you do. One important way to improve your performance is to attend training and development programs that enhance your knowledge and skills. You are holding a copy of this book because you are scheduled to attend such a program. It might be a program you signed up for, one that is required for your job, or one that was recommended to help advance your career. You might be enthusiastic about attending, apprehensive, or even irritated. It doesn’t matter. You need to make the most of it. The program is going to consume your time and your employer’s money. You can choose to waste it or to extract maximum value.

The Three Keys to Getting Your Money’s Worth as a Participant

Preparing ahead helps you get more out of the program; it increases your return on investment.
There is clear evidence that those who meet with their managers prior to a training program create learning intentionality that pays off as greater improvement compared to those who attend the same program but don’t meet with their managers beforehand.
Likewise, learning research has shown that once we decide that we want to learn something, our brains are subconsciously alerted to attend to information about the topic. When we encounter data relevant to what we have decided we want to learn, the brain spends more time processing it than processing unrelated facts. The additional processing makes the information easier to remember and use subsequently. Deciding what you want to learn, in effect, makes it easier to learn it.
Finally, well-designed training programs usually include preparation—reading, assessments, or other assignments (sometimes referred to as pre-work) that will be used during the training itself. Completing these assignments is essential to participate fully in the program. Moreover, research confirms their importance. Recall is greatly improved by “spaced learning,” that is, revisiting the same topic more than once with an interval between.You’ll master the material faster and more completely if you encounter it twice, once in the preparatory work and again in the program itself.

To get your money’s worth from your upcoming training and development opportunity:
1. Get Ready
2. Get Engaged
3. Get Results

1. Get Ready

Getting prepared is one of the most important things you can do to get value from a training program. The three steps to getting ready are:
□ Get clear about what YOU want.
□ Get your manager’s agreement
□ Get the preparation done.

2. Get Engaged
The second key to getting your money’s worth out of training and development is to get fully engaged in the experience.

Whether you elected to attend the program, or whether you were dragged in kicking and screaming, you’ll lose out on much of its potential benefit if you don’t actively participate.
The five elements of engagement are:
□ Get your head in the game
□ Get out of your comfort zone
□ Get connected
□ Get specific about what you are going to do
□ Get your story straight

3. Get Results

The real work begins when the training ends. All your preparation, all your participation, all the best teaching in theworld won’t do a bit of good unless you apply it.
For many years, organizations treated the last day of class as if it were the “finish line” for training and development.

Certificates were awarded for completing the course . . . and not much happened afterward.

Nowadays, pressure for performance and return on investment demands a new finish line: on-the-job results. You’re not done until you have transferred what you learned to your job and have used it in ways that improve your own and the business’s performance. To meet expectations, you need to get results.
The keys to getting results after training are to:
□ Get reconnected
□ Get going (and keep at it)
□ Get the help you need
□ Get better
□ Get ready to do it again

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