Give Your External Speaker A Chance

Why bother having external speakers for your training courses?  Well, there are many reasons and it depends on what the course is trying to achieve but a couple of obvious reasons spring easily to mind.  Firstly, by bringing in someone who has real life experience of the course subject matter they can provide some reality to the theory and scenarios covered by the course material.  Secondly, and some people may disagree with this, it gives the students a break from the trainer who is running the course and in that way provides a different style of delivery thus preventing over familiarity with one trainer and their way of working, no matter how good they are.

But to make sure you get the most out of your guest speaker, who may well be a volunteer or in some cases has been volunteered for the role, they need to understand what on earth is expected of them so that they can suitably prepare.  Remember that they may or may not be comfortable with talking to groups large or small, it’s their experience and expertise you want them to impart so you need to help them understand what’s required of them up front.  Using the following few items as a checklist ought to help ensure external guest speakers are as well prepared as possible.

Session Brief

Speakers brought into courses can often deliver material that is at odds or even seem irrelevant to the content of the rest of the course.  This is usually because they have been inadequately briefed on what the whole course is covering or more often than not, not briefed at all.  It doesn’t have to be much, course objectives and outcomes, a course timetable and overview of how the course operates (mostly presentations or very interactive with lots of group sessions).  Most importantly, what should the students get out of the session of the visiting speaker.

Group Description

Demographics, whether the students are fresh out of school or college or have significant work experience together with gender and geographic mix are all important considerations for any speaker.  Is the course of an academic or more of a training nature? Is it part of a wider series of courses (and if so what are those subject areas?) and have the students paid for this course themselves or is it part of an employer paid course?  Do any of the students have particular disabilities that need to be accommodated e.g. hearing or visual?  Do any of the students require translation or if you are presenting in a language which isn’t the first language of some of the students then you may have to keep the pace to a level that allows everyone to be able to follow what is being said.  Providing answers to all of these questions can really assist an external speaker appreciate where the students are coming from and enable them to better pitch their session.

Logistics

Even if the background information isn’t provided any visiting speaker can provide something for a group on a training course – it may not match what students are expecting but it will be something more or less along the lines of the session title.  Far from ideal of course but what can really cause problems is assuming that the visiting speaker understands the training venue and how it operates as well as ‘a local’.  Each training venue, company premises or conference centre has its own way of working and for even the most competent visiting speaker it can be these ‘basics’ that cause the most problems.  Make sure you provide directions, instructions for how to get into buildings and rooms, a point of contact with phone number and how the training room or area is likely to be set out.  Also, ensure you ask what they need by way of facilities such as projectors audio/visual, break-out rooms, flip-charts, hand-outs and anything else they might want.  Not everything may be available and some venues can be quite restrictive in what they allow but better to have that conversation well in advance rather than having to deal with a crisis with 10 minutes to go before things start.

Using an external speaker on a course of any description is almost always a benefit as it adds a different perspective to that of the main trainer/presenter.  To get the most out of it though it’s important that the external gets as much information about the course, the group of students and how the venue operates to give them the best possible chance of providing something that meets the students’ needs.

© Paul Slater and Mushcado Blog, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Paul Slater and Mushcado Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Project Risk – Is It All Bad?

No-one would disagree that managing risk within a project is not a good idea. Risk Management is an essential part of any programme or project and can vastly contribute to successful delivery.  Where is can and does go wrong is when there is an over-reliance on the risk aspects of the project and they in themselves start driving the way the project moves forward.  The management of risk is part and parcel of project management but is not the be all and end all of it as it sometimes becomes in more risk averse organizational cultures.

To help understand how risk within projects can be better managed it is worth considering a number of aspects of the risk identification and mitigation processes involved.

Appropriate monitoring and mitigation

The most important aspect here is the word ‘appropriate’.  For large, complex programmes covering numerous disciplines, say construction, software, and telecommunications and running for a number of years it is entirely appropriate to have a risk set-up that matches that complexity.  Matches and is appropriate, a set-up that identifies risks in the disparate areas of the programme and allows judgments to be made across the programme as a whole.  There may well be a Risk Manager and team to assist that individual in collating the requisite management information.  The difficulties arise however when the scale of programme or project is much reduced but the risk processes of large complex programmes are applied.  When this happens, the risk process starts to drive the programme and stops providing a benefit.

Record once not in multiple related projects

Far too often the same risks are identified across multiple related projects or within a programme of projects.  Even with sophisticated risk software the potential for confusion is great with different scores being applied to probabilities and impacts.  Make sure you identify the one true risk and record it and track it within the correct project.  If other projects or a higher level programme need to be aware of it that is fine, make them aware of it but make sure you don’t start double or triple scoring the same risk.

More risks recorded, the longer the project will take

Strange but true.  The more risks you identify and manage within a project the greater the chance that the project might not come in on time.  The reason for this?  Well, think about it, it’s very easy to identify lots of risks for any project but it’s how far you go that really matters.  Get right down ‘in the weeds’ and you will still have to identify risk owners and people to investigate mitigation strategies etc. etc.  All this takes valuable time and effort away from the main job of project delivery itself.  So, make sure you have the important risks identified and managed and keep reviewing to ensure your list is up to date.

Accept the risk as is

Once you have identified your set of appropriate risks for your project you need to decide what to do about each and every one of them.  Putting in place some form of mitigation may be necessary and add cost to the budget but that’s just the way it is.  Having said this there could well be risks that you decide simply to accept as they are because either the probability of them occurring is so low and/or the cost of putting in place some mitigation is so high.  You aren’t ignoring the risk you are making a conscious decision to accept that it may happen.

Opportunities arise

Risks happen in any project and some may have been predicted and planned for while others may not have been.  The project is the project with its set requirements, that’s what everyone accepts as the truth.  But what if a risk occurs which starts to make you think seriously about the validity of the project or the direction in which it’s going?  When reviewing the project risks and looking at those that have occurred ask yourself the question “Does this project still need to go in this direction or should we consider altering it?”  Of course, the ultimate might mean cancelling the project altogether, never an easy decision for anyone.

So, are all risks bad? Of course not.  Make sure you are managing the risks that are appropriate to the project and make related programmes and projects aware of them and you are most of the way there.  Opportunities can be anywhere within a project space but just remember to think about them as you go through the risks – it starts to make that risk review meeting far more meaningful.

© Paul Slater and Mushcado Blog, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Paul Slater and Mushcado Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Getting Training Right

Getting the most out of training whether it’s trainer led or e-learning is one of those perennial problems for all businesses.  The training return on investment (ROI) is discussed on forums, at conferences and in academia constantly but sometimes the simple things don’t seem to be sorted out initially.  For any training to be effective for individuals, business groups and their organizations it needs to be appropriate to their particular needs.  Quite a simple statement, but one that is crucial to the success of any training.

By considering some of the reasons why training might not be seen as being effective we can take actions that will ensure that when people attend courses or register for e-learning they know exactly what that they will be getting.  The following four areas, if taken into account by businesses when procuring training or developing their own in-house can help in ensuring that the benefits to individuals and their organizations are more effectively met.

Training is Specific, Not  Generic

Training that is of a generic nature can fail to grab the attention of people as they simply don’t relate to bland descriptions that they could just as easily have read in a book or on a web-site.  Just as off-putting are examples that are overly simplistic which while they may demonstrate a particular issue they don’t relate to the real word experiences of course participants.

Training is Not Over-Sold

In any competitive marketplace sellers need to advertise their wares and training is no different in this respect.  The difficulty comes when training objectives developed by training professionals become marketing material either as a direct copy and paste or edited to sound even more positive.  So if a company sees advertising that states that ‘after the training you will be ale to do x, y and z’ they quite naturally expect that people coming away from that course will be able to do just that.  Now in some cases that may be possible but for many courses ‘being able to do x, y and z’ will only happen at a sufficient level after it is practiced back in the workplace for a period of time.  Indeed, it is not uncommon for people returning from courses to alter their behaviour as they endeavour to put into practice what they have learnt and this can be seen by others as a downturn in performance, albeit a temporary one (hopefully).

Training at the Right Time

Despite the myriad of training opportunities available putting aside sufficient time to complete a course can be a problem.  Attending training is often driven more by the availability of the training at a suitable venue and at a price that be afforded rather than at a time that meets the need of the individual and their business.  Training that is delivered too early can lead to skill fade where the person simply doesn’t have the opportunity to put into practice what they have picked up on the course.  Conversely training that is delivered too late can either be a waste of time as it is no longer required or can cause the individual personal difficulties as they try to unlearn what they have learnt on-the-job.

Training for People who Work in Groups

While a great deal of training is suitable for individuals to undertake to develop particular skills the vast majority of business is undertaken not by individuals but by ‘teams’ or ‘groups’.  The tasks and activities that such groups undertake can only be effective if everyone fully understands their role and how they and the group interacts with other groups, suppliers, customers and many other stakeholders.  If individuals are being training individually perhaps by differing providers who will understandably have a different slant of the same topic then it is reasonable to assume that the resulting effectiveness of the group will be sub-optimal.  Compare this with a scenario where a group attends training that is designed specifically to meet their ‘group’ needs.  Focusing on what the group needs to develop and strengthen, it could  be functionally based or process driven, will better engage people as it will be focused to what they need to achieve in their business role.  It should be said that this is not teambuilding but is taking the role of a group and building the capabilities of those group members together.

Getting The Training Right

Taking all these together and providing targeted training to a group that is delivered when they need it greatly increases the chances of success.  Not only will the training be seen as successful but the group will be able to demonstrate improved performance far sooner.  This approach, Just In Time Team Training (JIT³), with the Just In Time referring to getting the training achieved ahead of when it is needed and allowing sufficient time for new skills and behaviours to become the norm is no doubt more complicated to design and deliver but the benefits to individuals and their businesses have to be worth it.

© Paul Slater and Mushcado Blog, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Paul Slater and Mushcado Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Why Change Initiatives Don’t Work

Change Programmes, Change Initiatives, Transformational Change Programmes – lots of different titles for making a change in business, and there are many more.  So why is it that very many of these change management activities fail?  It doesn’t really matter which sector we consider, some form of change activity will have taken place recently, will be in planning or will be due to start in most businesses.  Competent business leaders know that in order to survive and grow they need to upgrade their products and services.  Changing the way they operate is no different as the operational side of a business, i.e. the way it does what it does, always has to fit with its output.  So, if we accept that change is necessary, why do so many initiatives fail to live up to expectations?

Not Enough Time – Quite simply, despite extensive efforts to work out what makes sense to change, piloting changes and communicating with all who need to know, impatience can still win the day.  The change can be deemed a failure if it doesn’t deliver quickly and something else, another change, is started in its place.  What of course this misses is that for all but the most basic of changes it takes time to really see the benefits of a change coming through in improved sales, reduced costs, faster turn-round of inventory or whatever it is that needs improving.  So, give the change enough time to become the new ‘business as usual’ and measure what needs to be measured to confirm whether or not there was a benefit or not.

Wrong Changes Made – Insufficient analysis up front as to what needs to change can be an absolute disaster if it means that processes or organisational structures change that were working perfectly well in the first place.  This does not mean that you should spend months and months analyzing a situation, paralysis can come about through too much analysis, but it does mean taking sufficient time to gauge what is really going on.  So how best to do this?  Engage with those people and groups who really know how things are and can help design the change.  This could be your own employees but equally could be your suppliers and customers.  Explain to them what you perceive the issue to be and what you want to achieve and they will let you know what they think.

Changed Priorities – The business environment is constantly changing and each company needs to stay ahead of the game in order to survive and grow.  So, if something needs to change then that is not a problem in its own right providing it is the right change and is implemented correctly.  The problem here is when one change comes on the back of another which has hardly had time to become the norm and the new change has unintended impacts on the original.  Employees can become extremely weary of continuous change that they may see as change for the sake of change and if this happens the engagement you want from them will slowly evaporate.  So, don’t overdo the change thing, keep it to only when you really need to change something.

Ego Led Change – Surely the worst kind of change that can happen within a business.  Many leaders believe that in order to make an impact and become known within their organizations (or indeed sectors) they must make a change as soon as they arrive.  After all, why have they been brought in if not to improve on their predecessor?  And to be seen to be doing something significant it goes without saying that the changes that have to be made have to be significant too.  Significant changes made with insufficient analysis to boost the ego and job prospects of leaders can have catastrophic effects on productivity and morale.  How to avoid it?  Make sure you recruit the right people for leadership positions and ensure their objectives and targets make sense – never easy but vital to get right so well worth the effort and resources involved.

Changes can be made that really benefit businesses in the way they operate and improve profitability.  Avoid making changes too often, expecting immediate improvements as soon as a change is made, making the wrong change and letting leaders instigate a change just to show that they can and there is a great chance that if you need to make a change it will be a success.

© Paul Slater and Mushcado Blog, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Paul Slater and Mushcado Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Processes That Really Work

Processes surround everything we do in business but how often do you find that the process you are expected to follow just doesn’t makes sense because it’s too complicated or simply wrong?  If your answer is ‘yes’ then you are not alone, many people get really frustrated with inappropriate processes or ones that just don’t make sense.

If we look at what makes a business process useful we can perhaps start to identify why some just don’t make the grade.

• Appropriate – a process needs to be appropriate for what it’s intended to achieve.  It needs to be defined to a level that the majority of people who have to use it can understand what to do and NOT down to the n^th degree with loads of unnecessary detail.  At the same time if there are obvious stages that need to be understood then include them and don’t wrap them up into one item that might be miss-understood.
• Understandable – touched on above but well worth bringing out separately.  A process that works only works because it’s appropriate to the needs of the job and is fully understood by those who operate it and are touched by it, e.g. customers.  If employees can’t really understand why parts of a process are as they are then they can’t be expected to explain to customers and suppliers why things are as they are.

So, if good processes are appropriate and understandable, how are they developed?  Use the expertise you have within your organization to develop or re-fresh your processes, after all your employees are the ones who know their pitfalls and the ways round so that things get done regardless of process – yes, this really does happen!  By all means bring in external assistance to help facilitate the development of processes and input suggestions but it’s your organization that needs to decide what a process needs to be and own it, not an external consultant.

‘good processes are appropriate and understandable’

Once your new process is captured and people who need to know about it have been suitably informed and/or trained (the process will fail if your employees don’t know things have changed) then it’s time to try it out in anger.  You may have trailed it and used simulations but don’t be surprised if the first time it’s used for real things don’t work as anticipated.  Not to worry about this, just build in a little time to refine until the process works as smoothly as can be expected, in other words the process is appropriate.

Of course nothing lasts forever and as other elements of your organization and business environment change it’s highly likely that your process will lose it’s appropriateness and need amending.  Don’t wait until you find out about this through a failure or complaint, build in regular process reviews, say annually just to check that all is still well.

‘build in regular process reviews’

Oh, and don’t forget that if you trust your people they will still ensure that your business operates seamlessly in the eyes of customers even if your processes aren’t quite right.  What you want is for those self same people to feel confident in coming forward and saying they bent the process for the good of the organization and the process needs to be modified accordingly.

© Paul Slater and Mushcado Blog, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Paul Slater and Mushcado Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.