Each fiscal year divisions, departments, and teams start a new budget cycle. Many managers take last years’ numbers and paste them into their planning spreadsheets and leave it at that. Same work, same budget, new year. But as managers we are all tasked with maximizing productivity. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to enhance our teams by providing training to staff.
Unfortunately, most managers rarely are proactive about developing their staff. In most cases training is only provided when a major problem arises or when a corporate mandate is issued to address a specific situation. Compounding this is a prevalent perspective among managers that training removes staff from productive activity.
Staff are often receptive to attending training. Who doesn’t want to enhance their skill set and receive a certification that looks great on a resume? Often, they see training as a personal enhancement that could lead to a career move. Managers perceive and understand this as well. Most followed that same path, leveraging training to enhance their own marketability. Now, as a manager, they can’t afford to have a staff member leave the team, so training is not a priority.
HR Managers and Talent Developers have a lot of resistance working against them. They are trying to enhance the staff but are working against the grain. At the core of this issue is how most training is executed in corporate environments. It is done to show completion – get the certificate. There is a better way, in fact if done right training can yield dividends for many years to come. The best time to start is a new budget cycle.
To do training right, you need to provide more than just class material, there needs to be value through the instant implementation of what was learned. This does two very important things: 1) It solidifies the lessons for staff by giving them the opportunity to put the class material to work. What they learned is instantly put into use under the guidance of the expert who presented the material. 2) It delivers a real benefit to all stakeholders generating a real ROI. The results of the class is more than a certificate for those who went through the lesson plan. The results include the implementation of the material to the benefit of the division, department, team, the enterprise.
This methodology represents a new paradigm in training. It can be implemented in many types of courses but one of the first to do this is Lean Six Sigma A Practical Approach offered by The Efficiency Group. This course integrates hands on guided implementation of Lean Six Sigma techniques with online learning. Lean Six Sigma techniques help enterprises make their processes more streamlined and productive. It also helps teams look at how they work together and interface to make them more cohesive.
But once the material is taught, how to take an existing process and reengineer it can be daunting. The Efficiency Group addresses that. In the Lean Six Sigma A Practical Approach training course, the instructor stays with students to help guide them in the effort. The implement the theory and get hands on experience doing so.
The result is staff that are trained with new techniques to increase productivity that can be used every day. The course delivers to the division, department, or team a new process that yields real improvement. The enterprise benefits because there is real ROI from the training of the team and the implementation of the techniques to reduce expenses in an identified process.
With the start of a new budget cycle, consider giving your staff Lean Six Sigma A Practical Approach training that  integrates course work and hands on execution. It’s an investment that will pay off handsomely with staff that are empowered and skilled at improving what they do every day.