'One of a Kind' training Program

Any activity tends be done well when it is appreciated; valued both by the person doing it and the one who is a recipient of the benefit from the activity. In the absence of the feeling of being valued, it would merely be about going through the motions. When we look at corporate training, although these days behavioural and soft skill training is done a lot more than in the earlier periods, it is often organized to declare to the world “that we are a progressive organization. We can proudly claim to have done’ x’ man-days of training during the year” Homework as to the real needs for the training and addressing them through the training exercise is not given the adequate attention it deserves.

While reporting on the best practices of 3M, which were discussed in a professional evening program, I had shared in my blog about the experience of the company with respect to a coaching and mentoring initiative. The following feedback that 3 M received from the coaches associated with the exercise is very interesting and revealing:    

(i)  Most organizations are not proactive; in fact, they come to us at the last minute

(ii) The participants are simply referred to us. We do not get the opportunity to interact with the HR Head and senior management team before the program, as was done in the 3M program

(iii) Usually, the participants come in to the program with a negative mindset since they feel they have been sent to the program, in view of their being 'not good enough'.

(iv) The fact that 3M had already identified the areas of improvement helped the process of coaching and enhanced its effectiveness.

As the challenges for a trainer is similar, it becomes a matter of great delight when the client is a responsible participant in the entire process  identifying the areas of improvement, extending full support during the program and facilitating the implementation of the learning from the program, post training. I had the good fortune to experience such delight recently.

When I was working in Hyundai Motor India in Chennai as HOD of Learning and Development, we did a program for our future leaders through the Great Lakes Institute. Professor V. Ramachandran, Executive coach and business consultant was associated by the institute for providing coaching support to our participants.I got the opportunity to interact frequently with him during his visits to our factory as part of the assignment. Subsequently I retired from Hyundai, settled down in Bangalore, and focused on offering training programs on soft skills through my organization “Niche Learning Services Ltd”. In July 2017, it was a pleasant surprise to receive a  telephone call from professor informing me that there was an opportunity to do a program for Ms. MTS Foods who were looking for specific inputs and would like the trainer to be multilingual ( speak in English and Kannada) as they intended to do the program for participants across the board. He advised me to contact the CEO Mr. Krishna Kumar Menon, or KK, as he is popularly known.

I visited KK in his office at first cross JC road and we discussed in detail the operational activities of the organization and the purpose of the program. MTS Foods are agents for supplying excellent food processing machines manufactured in countries like Germany and Belgium. .The tagline of the company reads” Cost effective technological solution for the Indian food processing industry,” They supply and maintain these machines for sorting, cutting and peeling raw materials. The employees therefore work in both the areas of sales and maintenance.

The focus desired was on enhancing communication skills while communicating internally between employees as also while interacting with the clients. Improving the report writing skills was another focus area. It was decided to do a pilot one-day program and then consider further programs as per requirement. I explained to KK my pet concepts of the “Law of attraction” and “Mind Programming”. It was agreed to elicit from the participants the important aspects learnt in the training; the ones they would like to implement at work and use these for a mind programming exercise at the end of the program. (You may like to read my blog   https://hrdian.blogspot.in/2012/10/mind-reprogramming.html  to know more about mind programming).

When I asked KK about the participant profile, he drew for me an organization chart explaining job description of each position, the age and experience of the participant and other details of their job requirements and reporting relationships. It was very clear from the interaction that KK valued the role and significance of training. The reason for the same could be attributed  to the fact that he himself had worked in senior positions in professionally managed companies in the Gulf and in India before deciding to start his own venture. KK wanted the program to be a memorable experience for the participants so that the training day ended with dinner with all the participants. Accordingly, we tweaked the program starting a little late and ending late in the evening.    

KK was present to inaugurate the program, explain its significance and the expectations from the program and from the participants. He stayed for a while and left (because he wanted the participants to be free and express themselves without inhibition) promising to return towards the end. I am happy to report that I had a group of very active participants who comprised of the entire company. This was indeed a unique experience! The company had made sure that this was possible. The learning from the program and the priorities of implementation was presented to the CEO after a group discussion amongst participants. This was followed by the mind programming exercise.  

I describe this training program as “one of its kind” because of the consistent involvement and support of the client throughout the program. It is a rare occasion that the entire company attends a training program.The discussions about future focus areas, long after the program in a relaxed atmosphere over dinner was a unique feature.Incidentally, it was the only program wherein payment was credited into my bank even before I commenced the program. 

To conclude, it is to be reiterated that training programs can be a lot more effective if the corporates are responsible participants in the training process.An actor who comes to a movie set having little knowledge of the story, the plot or his own role is likely to perform differently from the one who has been given a bound script months in advance detailing the entire script of the movie.The same is true of the training initiative. Signals given as to the importance an organization attaches to its training initiatives will go a long way, in reaping the best results by everyone-the company, the participants and the trainer...