There is a misconception related to ‘cycles of investment’ that an organization has to make at the modern workplace. This refers to rising costs of keeping them relevant, productive and at the same time interested in what they are doing.

It may sound slightly generalized, however, the cycles of investment in all 3 cases can be molded (with exact purpose) and provided to the workforce. This is referring to the training and knowledge transfer activities. Training, on the principle of integration can have a great impact – skill enhancement for relevance, agile management for productivity, while career enhancement activities ensures low attrition.

But at the end of a defined time cycle; marketing, sales or any other industrial activity, such concepts boil down to efficacy of the trainings in-place- How the new employees are taught the way and means of executing the overall organizational strategy. In simple terms, an employee is, by the extension of their career goals, an agent of progress for the organization and vice versa.

Training 101

Three key aspects control the measure of how effective your trainings (or contracted trainings) will be:

Adaptation: Although conventional management consultancy approaches might try to “bucket and silo” your industrial objectives and outcomes, yet, each of us in the operational domain understand the paradox it creates. A credible training provider understands this very paradox and creates customized domain ‘knowledge oasis’ – spots from where information and knowledge can be readily dispensed to worker and supervisor alike. While they observe and replicate this from a familiar and known point-of-view, adaptation of domain knowledge and transfer to skill based trainings is the modern way of creating relevant workforce.

Communication: An objective versus outcome template in communication styles has more to offer than rote learning. Animation clips, recreation of scenarios and efficient communication involving behavioural cues and nudges have been proven to work more than just subject matter expertise. The trainer needs to impart ‘ready to digest’ learnings rather than core understanding – these two are separate activities and both the organization as well as the trainer should realize it.

Improvisation: Is the virtue used by doyens for displaying a masterclass for one of the most challenging aspects of creativity – acting.

Improvisation for trainers comes in a not-so-different format – Improvising as per their audiences and domain. Each specialized training will have the core principles yet their methodology or mode of transfer will change from industry to industry. Work at height in oil and gas will be similar to work at height in telecom industry at its core. However, the associated hazards, control of works and worker knowledge will be the differentiator in this case. The trainer needs to understand and assimilate such differences and provide a uniform but improvised learning experience to his/her audiences.

Overall, the modern trainer has more diverse responsibilities than his/her predecessors. With the availability of free web, knowledge repositories and communication material, the challenge lies in precisely understanding what the training sessions require and how to accurately transfer them onto the training class.