How to Save Money on TrainingWritten by Steve Kaye
1) Use a live instructor. Adults learn best by doing, practicing, and experiencing. Effective instructors customize their programs to meet people’s needs, provide counsel on individual challenges, and respond to questions. Videos, CDs, and E-learning are seldom effective for primary learning. Since greatest cost of learning is payroll cost of participants, you want to make sure program delivers results.2) Hire external experts. They can speak candidly about crucial issues related to complex work skills. They are free of prior encounters with your staff. And they bring a fresh, outside perspective based on a worldwide view (instead of an internal one). Those who specialize in one skill area have developed extensive knowledge. Ideally, choose one who has written books or published articles. 3) Include accountability. Work with instructor to develop a review and reminder process. Plan follow-up sessions to check on progress applying new techniques. Ask your staff to select one change that they plan to make and describe how they will apply it. Then monitor application of changes being made. Include learning as a dimension in performance reviews.
| | What You Don't Want to Know About Bad MeetingsWritten by Steve Kaye
Bad meetings are a cultural malady that senior executives pass on to new employees.Long pointless meetings are useful in that they keep incompetent people from interfering with those who are working. An employee who needs permission to buy a box of paperclips can spend tens of thousands of dollars worth of employee time on bad meetings. Many people attempt to save time by Not planning. This false short cut guarantees that everyone will spend more time later. Unstructured spontaneity leads to serendipity, which (in business) leads to bankruptcy. Meetings are a magnetic opiate that keep people from tasks they were hired to perform. The main activity in many meetings consists of simple chit chat. If it's an important meeting, then this becomes sincere chit chat.
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