CSG’s channel focused Business Development Managers (BDMs), possess the knowledge and experience to assess areas of improvement for partners and identify vendor resources that can be utilized to address these problem areas. Using Knowledge Anywhere’s innovative certification and training portal technology provides vendors with straightforward, easy-to-use systems for designing and executing effective trainings. Pairing Knowledge Anywhere’s impressive e-learning tools with CSG’s extensive understanding of channel function and partner needs brings vendors the perfect resource to increase their business through certifications and trainings.

“In order to prepare partners to effectively drive channel revenue, it is often necessary for vendors to provide one-on-one support to guide and assist partners to increase their overall skill-set,” said Tina Lauzon, CSG VP of Marketing and Alliances. “Our integrated efforts enable vendors to easily address the challenges partners face regarding certifications and trainings so they can equip partners to reach the revenue goals anticipated by the vendor.”

Project managers and channel strategists frequently test, analyze and update the program to ensure success. Constantly assessing the program provides CSG’s BDMs with the data necessary to make beneficial adjustments and modifications, which result in educated, inspired partners that possess the knowledge to sell new products effectively.

ABOUT CHANNEL SERVICES GROUP (CSG)

Channel Services Group (CSG) is the leader in channel partner marketing and sales solutions, with expertise and precision in indirect sales channels and strategies for technology based companies. CSG’s highly agile services and SaaS software empower enterprises and their indirect selling partners to gain channel efficiency, performance and predictability with results in increased sales revenue. For more information on CSG, visit our Web site at www.csgchannels.com.

ABOUT KNOWLEDGE ANYWHERE

Founded in 1998, Knowledge Anywhere provides technology-based learning and performance solutions to corporations around the globe.  They deploy products and services to educate large numbers of employees, customers, and channel partners to directly impact performance. For additional information on Knowledge Anywhere, visit their website at www.knowledgeanywhere.com.

Home Care Aides, who are professional workers who work in the home, can take the courses as many times as they like, from any computer. Mary Margaret Callahan, Director of Research and Development for the Training Partnership, said of the new initiative, “Online learning provides the flexibility that perfectly suits our learners and meets our training goals. We are thrilled we accomplished these goals with our first set of online continuing education courses and plan on launching more soon.”

One Home Care Aide said the training has met an important need. “It has always been very difficult for me to take training,” she said. “I work two jobs with irregular schedules and have my own family to take care of on top of that. The online training is available to me any time, and that’s so helpful to me.”

The courses were developed with Seattle-based e-learning solutions provider Knowledge Anywhere, Inc.

The SEIU Healthcare NW Training Partnership, as part of the SEIU Healthcare NW Benefits, and Knowledge Anywhere both strive to deliver high-quality products to their industries and are both located in the Pacific Northwest, so there was a natural fit between the two organizations.

“We know that Knowledge Anywhere training has been helpful to many people,” said Charlie Gillette, CEO of Knowledge Anywhere. “But it is especially gratifying to us to support Home Care Aides, who work so hard at such an important job.”

With over 40,000 home care aides throughout the state of Washington, the Training Partnership (http://www.myseiubenefits.org) is the ideal partner for providing training and benefits to home care workers.

About the SEIU Healthcare NW Training Partnership
SEIU Healthcare NW Benefits – through the Training Partnership and Health Benefits Trust – provides training and health care benefits to home care aides across Washington state. These professionals provide life-sustaining support to seniors and people with disabilities. Through our innovative training and affordable health plans, SEIU Healthcare NW Benefits is helping transform the long-term care profession.

About Knowledge Anywhere
Founded in 1998, Knowledge Anywhere, Inc., (http://www.knowledgeanywhere.com) is an award-winning company that has emerged as a leader in the specialized arena of building technology-based learning solutions and performance support systems that provide tangible results. The company uses innovative technology to offer a broad base of products and services, including custom and mobile content development, and virtual classrooms.

“As a sales representative, it is nice to have access to a training resource that’s not just another binder, but an interactive, engaging online learning tool,” said one sales professional when reviewing the newly launched system called eXpert 2.0. The courses can be taken as many times as the user likes, from any computer, at any time. The sales representative can also go back and take the training again in preparation to an upcoming customer meeting.  Quizzes are included for users to ensure that the material is retained. The course also has a tracking feature that enables sales managers to see how well their reps are performing by viewing their quiz scores and how many attempts each user needed.

Dave Barth, the President of Biotix Inc., said of the new initiative, “We are extremely happy with the innovative value these courses will bring to our dealer partners around the world. This approach to training has been highly successful in other industries outside of the Life Sciences market.  We are confident that they will recognize this newly added value immediately with increased sales and customer satisfaction.” The courses were developed with Seattle-based e-learning solutions provider Knowledge Anywhere, Inc. Biotix Inc.  and Knowledge Anywhere both pride themselves on delivering high-quality products to their industries and stakeholders so the partnership was a natural fit between the two organizations.

With extensive experience in OEM manufacturing and comprehensive quality processes, Biotix Inc. (http://www.biotixholdings.com) is the ideal partner for the design of unique and distinctive product lines to match your stringent life science industry and market distribution requirements.

Founded in 1998, Knowledge Anywhere, Inc., (http://www.knowledgeanywhere.com) is an award-winning company that has emerged as a leader in the specialized arena of building technology-based learning solutions and performance support systems that provide tangible results. The company uses innovative technology to offer a broad base of products and services, including custom and mobile content development, and virtual classrooms.

Founded in 1998, Knowledge Anywhere, Inc (www.knowledgeanywhere.com) is an award-winning company that specializes in building technology-based performance support systems and Elearning solutions that provide tangible results.

OJT is usually quite cost-effective, because it focuses on the tasks at hand, and requires no equipment beyond what the company already provides.  It’s also much less disruptive than other forms of training, because employees aren’t removed from their duties, but are instead trained for their work while doing it.

The actual training is usually done by a manager or supervisor who is coaching employees while they work.  Supervisor feedback tends to be immediate, and trainees often improve their job performance quickly.  Employees also feel more confident about their job performance when they are being coached by supervisors, and on-the-job training is a good way for new employees to build relationships with their comrades.

Problems to Avoid

There are, however, potential issues with on-the-job training.  Supervisors and experienced employees may not have the needed skills for training other employees.  Often, supervisors or managers were promoted because they were good at performing or managing their own work, but this doesn’t guarantee that they also possess the skills or ability to coach new employees.  Not everyone is a born teacher.

Time also can be a huge issue! Supervisors and mentors may not have the time to spare to  help new employees. And since on-the-job training usually follows no formal procedure or specified content (other than the task at hand), supervisors and mentors will need still more time, to pass on the extra knowledge, skills, and  business context that employees will need to solve future job problems and respond to business changes. So upper management must give employees who are doing this training the time they need.

During on-the-job training, trainees also need time to practice the skills they must learn.  In turn, supervisors and trainers must prepare adequate drill materials for trainees, and provide feedback early and often in the drilling process, to prevent trainees from acquiring unwanted job behaviors. So again, upper management must make sure that everyone gets the time they need.

An often-overlooked issue that can plague on-the-job training is company lingo. Trainees must receive a clear, consistent understanding of the concepts and terms used in their organizations. And even when an employee says they understand a word or concept, they may not.  They will often say they understand to avoid looking incompetent. So supervisors and mentors must keep this in mind, and constantly repeat and reinforce the terms and concepts that new employees must learn.

And on top of all the above, supervisors and mentors are only human. They can easily pass on their own counter-productive habits to other employees…and must work hard to avoid doing so.

OJT Development Techniques

Usually, OJT employs one or more of the following four techniques:

·         Coaching—This one-on-one interaction is usually done by a supervisor or someone outside the company, and is often prescriptive and corrective in nature.  It helps the trainee understand their strengths, weakness, and areas of improvement, and tends to be applied for a fixed amount of time until the employee is deemed proficient.

·         Mentoring—This too is an ongoing one-on-one technique that’s usually done by a more experienced company executive or supervisor.  The mentor works with the trainee to find their strengths, weaknesses, and areas of improvement.  The mentor provides feedback and guidance, and points out areas that may have been overlooked.

·         Job Rotation—This approach allows trainees to practice and become proficient in various aspects of the work at hand, or different roles within the company.  It helps employees because they are exposed to different work areas and learn about various company functions.  (It’s also a great opportunity for employees to try out different functions, to see what they like or don’t.)  The company also benefits, because job rotation diversifies worker skill sets in critical areas, and helps the company respond to unforeseen events like vacations, flu epidemics, and catastrophes.  Job rotation also fosters organization-wide goal- and objective-sharing, because employees better understand each other’s job responsibilities.

·         Job Instruction Techniques—There are many great online resources to help you plan, prepare, and implement on-the-job training. But most models ask trainers to plan, present, trial, and follow up.  The plan consists of a written breakdown of the work and of your training objectives.  In the trial stage, the plan is presented to the trainee(s), who are asked to try it out…with regular follow up during the process. There are variants to this method and it can be either streamlined or made more complex, depending upon the business case and the tasks to be learned.

How Can LMS and e-Learning Tools Help?

Learning Management Systems (LMSs) and e-Learning authoring tools can help with all parts of on-the-job training.  Depending on your organization’s needs, you can use an LMS to track and manage one or more parts of the OJT process, including:

.

·         Registering trainees

·         Scheduling training

·         Storing and delivering reference materials (such as company procedures, concepts,  and terms)

·         Delivering regular practice drills

·         Testing and evaluating job competencies being learned

·         Collecting and storing training results

·         Delivering and collecting follow-up employee surveys

·         And, more!

About the Author:

Mary Polley-Berte is Director of Customer Support & Training at SyberWorks, Inc., in Waltham, Massachusetts. Mary is a graduate of Boston University and resides with her family in New Hampshire.

About SyberWorks

SyberWorks, Inc. (http://www.syberworks.com) is a leader in providing Learning Management Systems and custom e-Learning Solutions for Fortune 1000 corporations, higher education, and other organizations. Located in Waltham, Massachusetts, the company serves the multi-billion-dollar e-Learning market.  Since 1995, SyberWorks has developed and delivered unique and economical solutions for creating, managing, measuring, and improving e-Learning programs at companies and organizations in the United States, Canada, Europe, and other countries.

http://syberworks.com/articles/ojt-article.htm

When I had written the article, “Recession Proof your Training Organization,” for the Chief Learning Officer back in May of 2008, the recession was just beginning.   Now, a year later, with better understanding and realization, I still strongly stand by the key points I stated in the article to help make your training organization thrive through this tough time:

1.       Right Size Now

2.       Demonstrate Clear ROI from your Training

3.       Deliver High-Quality Programs, On Time

4.       Outsource Noncore Activities

5.       Choose the Right Training Modality

For your training organization to survive the current recession and support long-term success, it’s crucial to understand what all of these points mean.  However,  I dropped the “right sizing point” since all organizations already reduce the size of their teams, and I doubt there is much “right sizing” left to complete.

I will dive into more detail, and also add another key point, which is to reuse the content you already have.

1. Demonstrate Clear ROI from your Training.  Simply saying that you are delivering a great training product won’t cut it these days. You have got to be able to prove your value to the company in hard, cold dollars, demonstrating an uncontestable return on investment for every penny in your budget.  If you cannot measure the ROI, you might want to question why you are doing the project before someone else asks the question. When in doubt, work on projects that drive incremental revenue or reduce costs within the next six months.

2. Deliver High-Quality Programs, On Time, that Align with Business Objectives.  During corporate belt-tightening, all things perceived as “fluff” should automatically go. Take a good hard look at the programs you offer— how well do they align with the two universal goals of increasing revenue and cutting costs? Clearly, any training that improves employees’ critical skill sets will be a must-have, such as compliance programs and other mandated training initiatives. This is what will allow you to stay in the game.

But for other programs, keeping them may be something you will want to reevaluate. Inspecting your organization for indications that training quality is slipping, and fixing those issues fast is critical. In many cases, Pulitzer-quality text or sophisticated graphics are less important than timely delivery, which lets the organization start realizing value immediately. A perception of being slow and unresponsive will doom your group, even if there are really good reasons for these delays or changes.

3. Outsource When it Makes Sense.  Like anything else, outsourced training has its pros and its cons. Bringing in contract training resources saves headcount and related fixed costs, and often allows you the flexibility of offering training programs that would not possible with just your in-house staff. However, on the other hand, outsiders often lack the industry or company-specific knowledge necessary for effective training in your particular market niche. A good solution is maintaining a small core of trainers to manage internal coordination and provide subject matter expertise.

 4. Choose the Right Training Modality.  Studies have shown that training effectiveness is heavily dependent on the way material is presented. Some topics, like diversity awareness or interpersonal communications, are best taught in a traditional instructor-led classroom setting. Others, like introducing new product features or regulatory compliance, can often be covered faster and more easily with an e-course. Webinars work well for other topics that require discussion in addition to content, such as an overview of an issue with a question-and-answer period following.

Selecting the best modality for your various training offerings demonstrates to senior management that you are a good steward of tight dollars. By explaining why one delivery method is superior to others, you substantiate your role as a leader, and prove your personal value to the company. You might point out, for example, that switching your new-hire training from an instructor-led to an online format trims orientation time by an entire day, at a savings of $1,000 per person (see the Training Calculator). Once again, this underscores the need for credible metrics and a value-driven approach to training.

5. Reuse the Investment in Content that Already Exists.  Most of the budget for developing new online training relates to the content creation.  As we work with large organizations, we usually find they have an abundant of content in the form of presentations, recorded webinars, white papers, etc.  However, often times, the content needs to be trimmed down, organized, the interactivity needs to be added, and the assessments needs to be built.   These organizations have spent historical dollars in developing the content, so this presents an opportunity to leverage their investment.   In addition, re-using and enhancing the existing content will support the turnaround time

I am in high hopes that my next follow-up article will relate to supporting your organization during the faced-paced time of the recovery.

Biographical Note:  Charlie Gillette is Managing Director of Knowledge Anywhere, an online training company in Bellevue, WA:  www.knowledgeanywhere.com.  email: charlie@knowledgeanywhere.com

With the advent of “Software as a service” (Saas), and SalesForce.com’s commitment to that technology, a rich API is available to allow integration between SalesForce.com and other client applications. And one of the client applications that can be integrated is the LMS system.

General Considerations

First, there are two primary (and competing) factors to consider for streamlining SalesForce.com transaction times:

    * Batching data

      Batching as much data as possible in an APEX API call can reduce the cross-network traffic.

    * Reducing the size of data requests

The more data that is sent to SalesForce.com, the more time it will take to process. It is best to send SalesForce.com only the data that is necessary at any time. Sending superfluous data only increases the size (and processing times) of APEX API calls.

Of course, these factors are at odds with each other. And users must often balance transaction speeds with other business requirements, to determine how optimal SalesForce.com transactions really can be.

A related factor to keep in mind is that SalesForce.com enforces a daily limit on the number of APEX API calls. This is done to balance server processing across multiple concurrent users.

From Users to Business Leads

There also may be good business reasons for turning LMS student data into business leads through the SalesForce.com application. This is especially true in situations where companies sell training to customers, vendors, or partners.

An automatic process can turn a newly registered learner in the LMS into a SalesForce.com business lead. Using the SalesForce.com APEX API WSDL (Web Service Definition Language), lead objects can be generated and directly added to the SalesForce.com leads database. And the individual who is used to authenticate into SalesForce.com becomes the owner of the newly generated lead.

And if your registration process collects data that is not inherent to the SalesForce.com application, custom data objects can be created to represent this application-specific data. A new APEX API WSDL needs to be generated when these objects are created, to make them available to your application interface.

From SalesForce.Com to LMS

The next question becomes, “How can I get to my LMS data from SalesFoce.com as seamlessly as possible?” Given the nature of Saas, SalesForce.com provides the ability to create your own application within the SalesForce.com structure. You can create custom tabs that are visible to your SalesForce.com users. These tabs can use custom S-controls of type HTM, URL, or Snippet. You can use whichever is suitable to your LMS integration and acceptable as a user-interface element for your users. This setup allows you to connect pretty easily to your LMS.

A related task is logging in to the LMS. If your LMS supports single sign-on, you may want to use the same User IDs in both SalesForce.com and the LMS. If this is done, the user can click a link in the SalesForce.com application, be automatically logged into the LMS, and presented with its starting page. Of course, you need to consider user password security here. And this again depends on the LMS. It may use a generic password for all users connecting through a single-sign-on procedure, or an MD5 hash (or similar encryption technique) of previously agreed data, which could be verified against each user’s specific LMS data for authentication.

From LMS to SalesForce.com

Communicating in the other direction-from the LMS to SalesForce.com-depends on the data that must be stored in SalesForce.com. Some examples of data that could be passed from the LMS to a SalesForce.com application are training purchases and course results. (Training purchases would assume that the LMS uses an e-Commerce module, where web- or classroom-based courses can be purchased.)

A major consideration again becomes whether this data should be transmitted on a real-time basis or by means of scheduled batch jobs.

    * The real-time option requires the LMS to support calls to the SalesForce.com interface whenever user results are updated or an LMS purchase is made. These calls would be made through a web service that transmits the data to SalesForce.com. Any data properties that SalesForce.com does not inherently support can be created as custom objects, so no data need be omitted.

The benefits of this are that the SalesForce.com application is up-to-date whenever a SalesForce.com administrator or reporter interrogates its data. The downside is the overhead for each call made to the SalesForce.com application. The number of calls made through the APEX API, though they can be estimated, cannot be predicted, since they occur as events occur.

   * Batching data does not use real-time call outs from the LMS code, but instead retrieves data directly from the LMS database at scheduled intervals.

      This naturally lends itself to the recommended batching of data to SalesForce.com’s servers, and the number of calls to do that is both predictable and low. However, there is a time lag between actual activities in the LMS and the transfer of their resulting data to the SalesForce.com application.

The decision between using a real-time interface or batch process depends on, but is definitely not limited to, the following:

    * The timeliness with which business needs to reach SalesForce.com.

    * The ability of the LMS to support real-time data collection and communications.

    * The estimated volume of data that will be transmitted to SalesForce.com (keeping in mind that SalesForce.com enforces a daily limit for API calls).

About the Author:

Stuart Campbell is Director of Software Development for SyberWorks, Inc., a privately held supplier of e-Learning software and training. A native of the United Kingdom, he had previously served as a Principle Software Engineer, Senior Consultant, Senior Software Engineer, and Development Specialist for companies such as Brooks Automation Inc. (Chelmsford, Mass.); Digital Equipment (South Queensferry, U.K.); and Honeywell Control Systems (Motherwell, U.K.). Among his many roles at SyberWorks, he leads the software-development process and helps to build new software releases and update kits.

About SyberWorks, Inc.

SyberWorks, Inc. (http://www.syberworks.com) is a leader in the custom e-Learning Solutions and Learning Management System/Learning Content Management System (LMS/LCMS) industries for Fortune 1000 corporations, law enforcement, healthcare, and other industries. Located in Waltham, Massachusetts, the company serves the multi-billion-dollar e-Learning market. Since 1995, SyberWorks has developed and delivered unique and economical solutions to create, manage, measure, and improve e-Learning programs at companies and organizations in the United States, Canada, Europe, and around the world.

1. Read a book.
2. Watch a video.
3. Attend a speech or workshop.
4. Enroll in an online course

Now suppose that in addition to being more knowledgeable you wanted to become skillful at something. It could be anything like golf, karate, selling refrigerators, negotiating, making presentations, etc. The point is you want to become truly proficient. Your objective is not just to know something; you want to be able to do something, and do it well. If skill is your objective, then your only option is to practice with an expert coach under realistic working conditions until you achieved fluency.

When you do something repeatedly – trying to perform up to an explicit standard – your mind and body get the “feel” of doing it proficiently. And the “feel” of doing it is the skill. If you don’t acquire the feel, you haven’t acquired the skill. Further, the feel is acquired only by using the skills to produce a real result: A good golf stroke, a sale, a successful negotiation.

Coaching the actual performance shortens the time it takes for an individual to become proficient enough to achieve the desired result repeatedly. Eventually, the new behavior becomes a preferred and self-chosen way of behaving.

Yet, when it comes to interpersonal-skills training in the business world – the teaching of so-called “soft skills” such as listening, leadership and teamwork, practicing with an expert coach under realistic working conditions is the least chosen development method. And that is the real reason behind the endless hand wringing in the corporate training field about how hard it is to get “learned” skills to transfer from the classroom to the job. It is also the reason that in difficult economic times, the training budget is often the first one cut, and it’s our fault

Training vs. Education
There is a great deal of difference between training and education, though the vast majority of trainers are not aware of it. Educating is not the same as training. For most people, there is no causal relationship between education and performance. There is, indeed, a causal relationship between training and performance. Knowledge isn’t power. Competence is power. Power is the ability to create a desired effect and that is performance.

To educate is to increase intellectual awareness of a subject. To train is to assist someone become proficient at the execution of a given task. Many wonderful things can be said about education, but education doesn’t cause competence.

Try making a youngster competent at riding a bicycle by sitting her down at the kitchen table and explaining how to ride a bicycle. Try taking a one-hour golf lesson from someone who uses typical online “training” methods. He’ll meet on your computer screen far from the golf course, talk to you about a golf swing for 30 minutes, show you his swing for 10 minutes, let you take make-believe swings at an imaginary golf ball for 5 minutes, then ask you to write an “action plan” describing how you will apply what you’ve “learned.”

Skeptics will protest that some people who receive education in soft-skills areas actually do turn out higher performance as a result: They do, in fact, get better at selling or influencing or working in a team. And this is true-for maybe 10 percent to 15 percent of the trainees. In fact, that 15 percent were already skillful before they attended the latest online educational offering. If you take anyone who is already competent and add more education, you often will get better performance to some degree.

What about the other 85 percent or 90per cent? It make no sense to pretend that the training department’s job is simply to deliver some information about skills (The Five Key Practices of Famous Leaders, The Ten Fabulous Values of Team Players), and then abdicate responsibility for proficiency to the person’s manager/supervisor. If you accept the title of “trainer,” your task is to make people competent, not just more aware. Blaming managers because the “skills” you supposedly imparted in your educational event failed to transfer to the job site is irresponsible.

Real Training For Real People
Begin by abandoning notions of what people ought to know or what sort of attitudes they ought to have or even how people acquire knowledge. Instead, ask, “How does one acquire skillfulness?” The most efficient and effective way to acquire skillfulness is straight forward: 1) Spend a little time educating about the results to be achieved and the skills to be executed in order to obtain those results. 2) Spend a lot of time practicing, with a coach who can reduce trial and error time, until fluency is achieved.

In the hands of a good trainer or coach, Step 1 takes up 5 percent to 10 percent of the allotted time. Step 2 takes up the other 90 percent to 95 percent. Step 1 is purely education. Step 2 is training.

If the student isn’t doing it, it isn’t training. A day spent talking about skills will not make anyone skillful. Nobody gets the “feel” for real execution, done to a specific standard of competence, and if they don’t acquire the “feel,” they don’t acquire the skill.

Even if you agree with these points you may say: “Fine, but all of that would have to be done in the field. It can’t be done in a classroom. And even if it weren’t too expensive and difficult to put that many expert coaches in the field, we don’t want our trainees practicing on real customers. So how we do make them proficient before we send them into the real job environment?”

There is a way.

How to Do It

To do real training in soft skills, start by taking a tip from advocates of “action learning”: Invite people to a meeting room for a genuine working session—into which some coaching will be added. You can provide some online pre-meeting assignments and education to maximize your work session time.

The purpose of this working session is to evaluate and make decisions about ideas for improving the business: Real ideas for real improvement that will make a real difference to the company. Ask participants to bring their own ideas to the meeting. Stipulate that these ideas must meet two criteria. First, the people in the meeting must be capable of implementing them; that is, someone in the room must have the authority to give a real yes or no to the idea. Second, if adopted, the improvement must be both measurable and capable of producing financial consequences for the business within 90 days.

In other words, you don’t want ideas such as, “Let’s change the cafeteria’s vending machines.” That might be an improvement, all right, but it’s unlikely to produce a measurable ROI within three months. Your online pre-work gave them a quick educational overview of the skills that would most likely help them gain the commitment and support they’ll need to implement their ideas.

Next you must also clearly define what “skillful” means – not just what the skills are. For instance, you are skillful at “showing respect” if you can acknowledge another person’s point of view so well that the person begins to feel they are being taken seriously within 15 seconds.

Make this introduction as succinct as possible. Then put everyone to work on the task of trying to gain commitment and support from one another. Coach them while they do so. Make them do it over and over again, until at least 85 percent of them have become proficient at the skills and have achieved concrete desirable results.

An obvious “desirable result” is that a participant gains the needed support and approval for a good idea. A less obvious but no-less acceptable result is that the participant becomes persuaded that his idea is flawed, but accepts this with no hard feelings; that is, the participant and his “adversary” agree that the idea is a nonstarter, and emerge with their relationship undamaged or even strengthened.

You can stop worrying about “reinforcement.” Why? Because we all naturally keep doing what works. We only need the goading or encouragement or reminding of managers when we can’t produce the results we want.

Online “training” is acceptable and even preferred when the desired outcome is to educate.

Doing the real training is required and perfectly feasible, even with large groups of people when the desired outcome is acquiring skill and proficiency. This approach – Educate briefly, then train at length – is the method of martial arts trainers. It’s the method of sports teams. It’s the method of coaches in the performing arts. It works.

This formula almost always achieves measurable success, regardless of the skills you’re trying to develop: Selling, leadership, teamwork customer service, problem-solving and so on. Instead of seeing slight improvements in the performance of those 15 percent of trainees who were already capable, you’ll send 85 percent out the door with genuine skillfulness instead of mere awareness.

The group is producing real initiatives that will make or save money, your company can expect a very healthy return on investment within three months. These outcomes are critical in these difficult economic times. And nobody will have to ask you again if your training actually makes a difference.

G. Thomas Herrington and Patrick T. Malone are co-authors of the new book Cracking the Code to Leadership and Senior Partners at The PAR Group, an international training firm headquartered in Atlanta. They may be contacted at info@thepargroup.com.