The good kind of pressure

The demand has been there for a long time.  Now that the curriculum is coming to fruition, the constant question is, “What more can we do?”

For weeks, this has looked like a question that has a right answer, one that I didn’t like.  Neither did the managers I work with.  We saw risk and resistance to accelerating the rollout.  We knew that patient repetition of the program would overcome both.  When my boss and I got the request to do more and to do it faster again last week, we sat down to discover whether there was an argument “pro” and a plan we could live with.  Together, we had a little breakthrough that looks obvious now.  I want butts in seats.

If you work in learning and development you know that butts in seats is the lowest measure of training.  But training is not a flea bath that eradicates mistakes or shortfalls in skills.

The breakthrough?  More butts in seats allows us to address the next real need: without reinforcement, the effect of training steadily deteriorates.  The organization needs to show meaningful effort to provide skill and knowledge for crucial financial and compliance responsibilities.  Check.  But afterward?  Training professionals are often left to hope for the best.

All at once, the argument was clear.  By speeding up and delivering this program often, we lay a solid foundation for future skill development.  and free ourselves to address the needs for support and follow up on the job.   This is no small need in our very distributed and independent-minded organization.  For the people who will benefit most from this new curriculum, management may be indirect, matrixed, variable, or a combination of these three.  In fact, many of the people in our target roles manage their own team.

The learners need the follow-up support at least as much as they need the foundational training.  More butts in seats means we can build the reinforcing training.  Instead of hoping for the best, we can stem the deterioration of skill and knowledge by design.