What to Do?

1. It is axiomatic that successful training must be tied to expectations for specific improvements in group or individual behaviors: competent training can demonstrate measurable results. 2. Specific improvements must be tied to identified needs; therefore, do a needs assessment before you even entering classroom. If company doesnt want to invest time and money in an assessment effort, walk away. Needs assessment is critical to any classroom training effort. 3. The needs assessment process should identify specific improvements that are needed improvements that are measurable and specific. This may seem an elementary point, but it is often missed, or undervalued. 4. Educate internal person who is “driving” training effort as to why needs assessments are necessary, what can be expected from them, how they can inform and guide a successful training effort, why performance criteria are necessary, etc. Get internal person and other key stakeholders in organization - involved and committed to entire training process. 5. Hold trainees accountable for learning. This can be done in a number of ways, including pre-and post testing of training content, simple verbal quizzes during class, using a paper-and-pencil evaluation exercise as part of class, etc. Some resources for evaluation activities include: Games Teams Play (McGraw-Hill), More Team Games for Trainers (McGraw-Hill), “101 Ways to Make Training Active ” (Jossey-Bass), and “101 Good Ideas: How to Improve Just About Any Process (ASQ Quality Press). 6. Develop mechanisms, with trainees that they can use to continually evaluate their own learning and application of newly-acquired skills.

There are numerous resources online to help you answer some of these questions. Here are a few of sites I recommend.

http://www.sba.gov http://www.bcentral.com

Of course, some of these questions can only be answered by you. Be honest with yourself. A successful home business is a wonderful thing, but a failed business can be a hard pill to swallow. Honestly answering these questions (and others) will help direct you on path to success.