Three tools that make training more effective

So you've decided to send your employees to training. Maybe it's customer service training, or a time management workshop, or perhaps it's a life-changing transformational leadership development experience.

Whatever it is, you are probably about to waste a lot of time and money.

The goal of training should be to help people improve performance. Many training programs focus instead on delivering information. In many cases, it may not even be the right information.

Fortunately, a some simple adjustments can change all this. I've assembled a few of my favorite tools to help your next training event deliver results.

Learning Objectives Worksheet
Many training programs fail to achieve their goals because, well, there are no goals. You can fix this by writing goals that target the specific performance areas you are trying to improve. This worksheet uses the classic A-B-C-D model:

  • Audience: Who is being trained?
  • Behavior: What will they be able to do?
  • Condition: Under what conditions will do it?
  • Degree: How well must they do it?

Download the Worksheet

Workshop Planner
Preparation and follow-up are the keys to a successful training program. This tool helps you perform a simple needs analysis and then create an action plan to maximize the training's impact. And, it's all done on one page.

Download the Worksheet

Employee Development Worksheet
Many Individual Development Plans (IDPs) fall short because they focus on activities rather than results. It really doesn't matter how many books you read or conferences you attend or training classes sign up for. What matters is whether you can use those books, conferences, and training classes to improve performance.

The employee development worksheet helps create a targeted IDP that gets results. 

Download the Worksheet