Change Management and Training Success
Change management is a continued discussion as organizations respond to current and future changes that affect their workflows. To effectively respond to the changes in technology and processes, organizations need to have a thorough understanding of what events create a need for training and what training techniques fit best with those needs. With change comes a need for preparation and ensuring that your workplace is prepared with the right training is a key component for successfully adopting to change.
What different types of training are available?
While there are many types of training available, deciding which approach you will take depends on type of need or compelling event. Elire categorizes these types into “5 Moments of Need.” The 5 Moments of Need can act as helpful project management tools to use when addressing change.
Need #1: Introducing a New Topic
When new concepts arise, people will need a thorough explanation and examples to best retain the material. Show and tell webinars can introduce new concepts and get the end user thinking about the topic from a new perspective. An educational approach that provides use cases about the new topic will leave end users with general knowledge about the topic, as well as insight on how to apply what they’ve learned.
Need #2: Mastering a New Topic
If the new topic has already been introduced, employees can enhance their knowledge by attending E-Learning classes and practicing self-paced activities to become a master of the topic. Some self-paced activities that can further engage employees in the topic include reviewing video clip examples, practice sessions, and “lunch and learn” events.
Need #3: Applying a New Topic
Once employees have been trained to understand and master a new topic, they must have proper training and resources to apply the knowledge gained. Creating quick reference guides that will be readily available for employees to use can help streamline the process of application. Another important resource that can prevent employees from making mistakes during application are job aids that guide them through step-by-step.
Need #4: Addressing Mistakes & Problem Solving
Mistakes will happen, but providing employees with the right resources is essential to promote problem solving. Ensuring that there is project team and help desk support for employees to turn to will aid in problem solving and allow employees to create solutions for mistakes.
Need #5: Reacting to Change
When any changes or enhancements are made, like new releases or planned future implementations, training should be modified so employees can effectively work with the change taking place. To keep training up to date, Elire recommends that you use the “Evergreen Strategy.” The goal of the Evergreen Strategy is to ensure that employees or projects continue to succeed despite changes that may affect their direction.
For example, a streamlined communication technique that immediately notifies employees of changes can help navigate the change and prevent the crash and burn of a specific project.
How do you decide what type of training is best for your team?
Understanding how people are currently trained and how they might prefer to be trained in the future can align your team with the best type of training to use. Established methods of training in a business allow people to hold onto the reliability of them when learning new material.
Organizations can enhance the reliability of existing training methods by acknowledging employee identified gaps in the current training infrastructure. This will help them understand if the training techniques for the specific moments of need.
For example, in the “applying a new topic” moment of need in training, there may be a need for a more formal training process than a quick reference guide.
This leads to identifying the impact of the change and training that will occur to mitigate greater change impacts. Changing or altering training will have impacts on business processes, so leaders need to take note of a few things before deciding on a training technique. Leaders should identify how many people will be affected by the change in training and prepare for new needs like accessibility to computers or learning outlets for various job types.
How do you get started?
Understanding the current environment of training and where it might be headed for the future is key to starting an effective training process. Elire’s recommends that you start with a stakeholder interview and analysis to review current and desired state training.
Then, a change impact assessment can help understand the projected impact and prioritize specific actions. A change impact assessment can help determine high priority or high impact changes to the system or user and can help lead you to the types of training that will align with inventoried and prioritized items.
After completing a change impact assessment, taking inventory of the required training for impact, frequency, and audience will ensure that each moment of need is addressed. This also promotes confidence that for each moment of need, the perspective of all roles involved will be included.
When you have addressed the high priority changes and taken inventory of what is affected in each moment of need, you can begin to create a training schedule. This will include tracking for adherence to the curriculum and business requirements for employees to be trained and prepared for User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and/or Go Live.
Addressing change and responding to create effective training can be complex but will lead to a streamlined process for solutions and success.
To learn more about the Change Management process or to speak with a Change management expert, visit our Management Advisory Services Page or attend our upcoming webinar.
