Performance is the target - if training is only a means to an end, what IS the end toward which it strives? The name of the game is to smooth the way toward an ability to perform at high levels because it is through human performance that results are achieved.
Successful job performance requires:
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Skill - trainers teach people "how to and why to". However, skills are not developed just by listening to someone talk about how to perform. Skills are developed and strengthened through practice and application during and after the training.
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Self-efficacy - the judgments people make about their abilities to DO specific things. Self-efficacy is not about the actual skills people have, but more bout the judgments they make/attitudes they have about the strength of those skills. Quality trainers understand that the training environment is a good place to have open discussions about how people view their ability to perform and to provide training that allows people to assess and improve their self-efficacy. If a person has no self-efficacy, he or she will often have poor performance or no performance improvement.
The presence of skill alone is not enough to guarantee performance.
Trainers alone cannot assure the job performance of the people they train. If the trainer ensures a high degree of skill-learning (#1) and self-efficacy (#2), and the employee returns to a work environment where there is no opportunity to perform the skill, or a less than supportive environment to perform, then there will be no performance improvement.
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Opportunity to perform - includes: permission to perform, information about performance expectations, tools and equipment needed to perform, a place in which to perform, the time to perform. If there is no opportunity, there is no performance.
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Supportive environment - Without knowing it, do you punish people for doing things right? People should get "brighter" when they do it right, and "dimmer" when they don't.
Trainers can guarantee skill, but they can't guarantee on the job performance. It is the trainer's responsibility to teach your employees what they need to know and do, and to strengthen their belief to do those things, but only YOU can provide the opportunity to perform and the environment that supports the desired outcome.
Quality training professionals are concerned with the presence of opportunity to perform and supportive environment, because without those two elements, they are not effective in helping to facilitate try performance improvement.
As managers, you can't tell the trainers to "train 'em" and then expect skilled performance to magically appear. Here's how it breaks down:
Skills & Self efficacy (#1 & #2)
Can be provided by trainers
Opportunity to perform & Supportive environment (#3 & #4)
Can be provided ONLY by management
Points to Ponder:
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What do employees experience if they are sent to training and return to work without an opportunity to perform skills and/or a supportive environment to work in? What is their attitude towards training and performance improvement in the future?
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What kind of return on investment does a company have if all four elements of training and performance improvement are not present?
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How can managers get assistance from their employees in the areas of opportunity to perform & supportive environment? IN other words, how can you get your employees to take on some of the responsibility of these two areas?
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