Finding a good training provider is not as easy as it sounds but if you have thought through three simple questions it becomes a lot easier.
One of the things we get asked to do for clients is to facilitate or chair strategic planning meetings. Our role on those days is to enable our clients to emerge from their meeting with a workable plan that will take them into their next phase of growth. Prior to the meeting we engage in a series of conversations to make sure both we and our clients know what the goal of the meeting is.
Those discussions can be filtered down into three questions and they are questions you ought to be asking before even approaching a training provider.
What are you trying to achieve?
Sounds obvious doesn’t it? Before approaching a training provider make sure you have a clear answer to this question. What is the training for? You’re about to commit significant budget to this project. What are you trying to achieve with your spend. It’s not enough to train people for the sake of training them. Why does the business need people to have this training under their belt?
What would success look like?
Admittedly this is easier to answer about a strategic meeting but it is equally important to know the answer before commissioning training. So often, when people return to work from a training event, the pressures of the daily grind mean that no attention is given to implementing and integrating new learning. Those on the training don’t expect to have to implement or share their learning and managers don’t expect to work with them to do so. Nobody knew what the training was for. They certainly don’t know how to measure success beyond “was it fun/ interesting?”
You can add the specific details but, measured immediately after the event, successful training should result in some form of plan to implement or integrate the learning into the life of the business.
Six months from now what will define this as having been valuable?
Now we get down to lasting return on investment in training. Before approaching a training provider work out what lasting impact you are looking for. Whatever your answer to this question it should have improved the performance of the business or individuals within the business. Make your answer measurable. You want to be able to review your training spend and associate measurable business gains against your training budget.
Once you’ve answered these questions you are ready to approach providers. You’ll know exactly what you are looking for and you’ll be able to filter out tick-box trainers who have no interest in the growth of your business or on providing lasting impact for their clients. You’ll also be in a position to objectively review the value of your training budget and integrate training into your growth plans.