!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> Streamline Training & Documentation: Who's a Player?

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Who's a Player?

A woman I've worked with for over ten years used to be a training specialist at a large media company. A constant issue she faced was one she shared with many other managers in human resources, namely how to make sure she was regularly included in discussions of company goals and strategies.

In my colleague's case, her ability to participate constructively was stymied by a boss who never managed to establish credibility as a player. Upper management appreciated his ability to do things like follow legal regs when firing people, but his lack of strategic smarts was all too apparent.

My colleague came to mind today when I checked out a sidebar in the June issue of Network Computing magazine titled "How to be a Player". The sidebar is addressed to Network Computing's audience of IT managers. However, the advice author Andrew Conry-Murray offers applies with minimal translation to any department, including HR and Training.

Conry-Murray makes five recommendations:

Find tools to maximize your time — "When you're always putting out fires, you don't have time to think strategically." To free up time for strategic planning and business intiatives, you should delegate, automate (and, perhaps, outsource) any tasks whose quality will not suffer as a result.

Advocate for your department — Outreach to decision-makers is key. Arm yourself with ideas for how training can contribute more profoundly to meeting company goals. Be sure you have a persuasive business case in support of each idea you promote. What does "outreach" mean? A director of technology at a Florida law firm with offices in seven cities reports that "I travel around and talk to managing partners, knock on doors. I have staff do that as well."

Demonstrate cost savings — We're not talking "penny wise, pound foolish" here. If your company is underinvesting in training, and you are already spending every budgeted dollar wisely, don't devalue your contribution by trying to justify your existence in terms of cost-cutting. On the other hand, if there are steps you can take to reduce costs without sacrificing the effectiveness of training activities — e.g., perhaps making greater use of video technology to cut down on travel expenses — by all means include commentary on these steps in your discussions with company management.

Demonstrate competitive advantage — For just about any company except the surprisingly small number who are already doing a stellar job of designing and implementing strategically aligned learning programs, there is significant scope for using improved training and development to support growth. In fact, it is my experience that the top competitors in any established industry are sophisticated learning organizations.

Anticipate needs — By making sure you're in the loop as top management explores strategic moves, you position yourself to timely identify related training and performance support needs. Providing sound recommendations on how to meet those needs, and then delivering effective programs to address the needs, is among the most reliable ways to ensure that the company earns a high ROI on its investment in training.

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