This tip discusses a just-in-time training in group facilitation where the employees and their supervisor immediately apply new learning.
Rethinking Just-in-Time Training
In the past, whenever I heard about “just-in-time training,” I assumed that it only pertained to specific technical job skills. A web search for “just-in-time training” uncovered a number of e-learning and computer software offerings.
However, a recent classroom training experience showed me that my perception of “just-in-time training” was very short sighted and incomplete.
All of the training programs that I design and deliver are intended to build or strengthen practical skills. The programs are always highly interactive and participant-centered.
Unfortunately, it is often the case that the participant employees learn the skills. However, their supervisors and managers are not there learning along with them. As a result, the participants leave the training without any guarantee that their new skills will be valued and supported. As a matter of fact, it is fairly typical to hear participants comment that they like what they have learned. Unfortunately, they won’t be allowed to use it when they get back to their worksites.
An Entire Intact Work Team in Just-in-Time Training
So imagine what can happen when an entire intact work team that includes both supervisor and employees attend the same training. There, they not only learn new skills but also actively incorporate them into their team goals and work relationships!
You might attribute the effectiveness of the training to the reality that the entire work team was present and participated. But this is not the first intact work team that I have facilitated. Consequently, I know that this is a necessary but not sufficient element for success.
What made the difference in this case was the fact that each member of the team was truly committed to learning and applying what they had learned. In addition, their supervisor was incredibly thoughtful. She was also focused on the immediate significance of every concept and tool.
As a result, they took the training content and ran with it. They applied it in deeper and more complex ways than I had ever planned or imagined.
Let me give an example.
Working With an Affinity Diagram
The training focus was group facilitation skills. The team members were already relatively experienced facilitators. Therefore, the training challenge was to introduce and model specific facilitation tools that would be new to them.
One of these tools was an affinity diagram. It was introduced in an early training module as a way for the team to identify different facilitation challenges. Later in the program, I planned for them to apply other facilitation tools to determine how to meet or manage those challenges.
The participants were asked to write down current and/or anticipated facilitation challenges. They did this on large post- it notes, one challenge per note. The group was then supposed to create an affinity diagram. They worked together to identify categories of like challenges on a flip chart laid out on a table.
Applying Team Operating Principles
I had intended for them to create and label the categories based on the type of facilitation challenge, such as “interpersonal conflict” or “time management.” But gradually, as I watched in awe, the team recreated and relabeled the categories on the basis of what would solve the issues!
The previous day, during a team building workshop, the group had learned the importance of establishing team operating principles. These were intended to set guidelines for how the team members participate and interact with each other.
When they worked with the affinity diagram, they placed the following four challenges:
- “all bosses on the team,”
- “positional power interfering with process,”
- “group wants decisions made but does not present decision options,” and
- “participants are not forthcoming with comments nor actively participating”
under a category titled: “Operating Principles.”
Talk about “just-in-time training!” They were able to take their new knowledge of team operating principles to solve real pressing facilitation challenges.
The Best Gift a Trainer Can Receive
What a thrill to have every single participant:
- eagerly absorb the content,
- seriously discuss its implications, and then
- intently apply newly learned knowledge and skills to work through real work issues.
That is the best gift that trainers can receive: to actually watch their training make a visible, significant and positive difference in the attitudes, capabilities and actions of their participants.
If your organization has facilitators who would benefit from learning how to use more facilitation tools, please book a call to discuss a tailored group facilitation skills workshop. https://laurelandassociates.com/contact/
May your learning be sweet.
Deborah
#groupfacilitation #operatingprinciples #intactteam #justintimetraining
