Lectures are the worst way to teach employees -- and the most common

Isn't it about time we hunted down and laid to rest lectures as a way to teach employees?

New Moon just opened in theatres, so maybe that's why I have vampires on my mind.

But as I was looking over yet another mailing filled with dry "training" books and canned lectures, I could not help but think of putting a stake deep into the heart of this long-since-dead training method and making the corporate world a whole lot safer for the rest of us.

We all know that standing at the front of a classroom talking at a group of people who would rather be almost anywhere else that this is a lousy way for one adult to teach other adults. Heck, we've suffered through it ourselves since elementary school and well into our professional careers. Over and over and over. And yet we do it.

Thank about what you and I and almost everyone else does during a training lecture...

We sit. We fidget. We doodle. We check our watches a dozen times, then count our blessings when the lecture is over, hoping no one answers the call for "Questions, anyone?"

Sound familiar?

How much learning do you think goes on in that kind of setting? So why, why, why are we STILL doing it?

Some alternatives to turning employees into glazed-eyed zombies drawing endless circles and squiggly lines on their notepads....

1) Give your employees something to read about whatever it is they're supposed to be learning. Oh, and make it entertaining. Boring is NOT more professional -- it's just boring.

2) And give them someone or something to watch so they can SEE how the process works. Again. Scrap the boring. Make them smile and their learning curve goes up. An example?



3) Let them try it out. Yes, they may mess up. But they will learn much faster and understand much better if they work through it with their own two hands. If it works for brain surgery -- that's what internships and residency are all about, after all -- it will certainly work for most of the things your company needs employees to do. Learning by doing. Or at the very least, a simulation of doing, followed by for-real doing.

4) If it's not something that can be taught by doing because it's an attitude or a personal skill, let them pretend they're doing it. Or trying to stop someone else from doing it. Or someone is doing it to them. This role-playing approach works great for intangible lessons like discrimination, harassment prevention or managing a group of difficult, opinionated, clueless...opps, sorry. Got off the track a bit there.

Back to what I was saying....

The only part of training employees that really matters is actually TRAINING them! Seat warming and doodling does nothing for them, for you, or for your company.

Get people out of their chairs and get them engaged in whatever it is they're learning.

If it matters that they learn it, make sure your training will actually teach them.

Training Trends: Can training = fun?

The latest issue of our Training Trends newsletter hit inboxes yesterday. This month you’ll discover new ways to make training more enjoyable and even fun, how to unlock employee creativity and why it’s time to refresh your project management skills.

Here are some snippets from the August issue of Training Trends from TrainingTime.com:

Can Training = Fun?
Ways to make your training more enjoyable

Have you ever facilitated a training session and found that one or more attendees caught up on sleep the entire time you spoke? Let’s face it, training has the potential to be boring, for both trainer and employee. The last thing you want are employees trudging all the way to the training room feeling doomed to a session of uncomfortable introductions, awkward silences and yawn-worthy material.

As a trainer, there are ways to engage your employees with fun, worthwhile training that will relay useful and important information in a way that will stick. Take the initiative and use these suggestions to give your training an extra boost of enjoyment. (more)


Six strategies for unlocking employee creativity
Embrace creativity, create a competitive advantage

A few lucky companies are beginning to rebound from the recession, but most of us are still feeling the pressure. Employees and executives are stressed; budgets are tight and businesses are hunkered down. Though every business goes through natural ups and downs, stagnancy is something no business can afford right now.

Studies have shown that companies that emphasize employee engagement and encourage creativity will attract high-performing job candidates and retain loyal employees, giving the company a competitive advantage. Try these six strategies and unlock employee creativity in your organization today: (more)


Project management refresher
Skills to help manage your projects more efficiently

It’s Monday morning and, unlike your fellow employees, you’ve got your feet up in a lounge chair on the deck of a cruise ship. The sun is shining; a gentle breeze is blowing through your hair, and an ice cold beverage sits in the cup holder next to you. Then, exactly one week later, you find yourself dragging your sunburned heels across the company parking lot toward the entrance in a pre-coffee daze, still dreaming you’re on that cruise ship…

With all the distractions that come from the summer vacations, it’s a good time to brush up on your project management skills so you don’t fall behind schedule. If you have a team working with you on projects, it wouldn’t hurt to give them a refresher as well. Here are some basic things to keep in mind when managing your next project... (more)

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If you’re a training expert or HR professional and are interested in writing content for Training Trends or TrainingTime.com’s learning library, visit our “Write for Us” page for instructions on how to contribute.

Employee engagement at Campbell’s: It's mm, mm good

Turning poor engagement around is a challenge for any organization, large or small. Finding a recipe for success came with its own set of challenges for one of the most recognized brands in the U.S., but the company now stands at the head of the employee engagement table.

In an interview with Forbes, Douglas Conant, CEO of Campbell Soup, shared how he took a “bad” company to a high-performing “extraordinary” company. We’ve put together some of the highlights in this post, you can read the full article here.

How did he do it? With a mix of “cost-cutting, smart innovations, increased marketing and, especially, a concerted effort to reinvigorate the workforce.”

"To win in the marketplace," he has said, "we believe you must first win in the workplace. I'm obsessed with keeping employee engagement front and center and keeping up energy around it." (Forbes)

The year after Conant became a part of Campbell’s he hired the help of Gallup, polling and research firm, to better understand his company’s engagement levels. Gallup found that 62% of Campbell’s managers were not actively engaged in their jobs and 12% were actively disengaged.

Today the engagement numbers look much different. According to the most recent poll, 68% of all Campbell employees say they are actively engaged, and only 3% say they are actively disengaged. The company’s engagement levels are “world-class” in Gallup’s eyes.

After Conant realized how it tied directly into shareholder returns, he used employee engagement as a tool to measure progress, build a high-performance company culture, and set high standards for Campbell’s leaders.

The company now surveys all 580 work groups at the same time once a year. Managers review the results with their direct reports and everyone is updated on their progress related to specific goals. The top quality leaders are measured on is their ability to inspire trust in those around them.

“The other thing we do is celebrate at a high level when people do things well. Learning to celebrate success is a key component of learning how to win in the market. On a personal level, I send out about 20 thank-you notes a day to staffers, on all levels. And every six weeks I have lunch with a group of a dozen or so employees, to get their perspective on the business, to address problems and to get feedback.”

How do you inspire trust in your teams? What is the most important factor any company can focus on to turn employee engagement around?

Employee engagement starts with a smile

Whether you’re kicking butt or dragging your feet at work today after the long holiday weekend, this short video (via Employee Engagement Zingers) may help you smile just a little brighter.

Since “the small things can have the biggest impact,” this “small” three minute video briefly explains how smiling and movement can have a big impact on service. Set three minutes aside today and watch:



Or, watch the video here if you're having trouble above.

The Carrot Principle: Motivating without money

What we need now, more than ever, is day-to-day employee recognition, according to motivational expert Chester Elton who shared his thoughts in a recent interview with BusinessWeek's Management Editor Patricia O'Connell.


The co-author of The Carrot Principle who’s been called the “apostle of appreciation,” suggests that small gestures, such as handwritten notes or funny voice mails, can go a long way in increasing employee engagement and retention.

In her first question for the author, O'Connell asks how he expects businesses to continue delivering quality recognition, even though there's not as much money going around as there used to be.

Elton says that what we need now is low-cost, high return recognition. It’s about doing simple things that engage employees and really make them feel valued. He also explains how even the busiest manager can find the time to deliver employee recognition on a daily basis.

It's only five minutes long, but full of useful ideas and advice. Take a look:

Improving employee engagement? Ask 3 questions

Over the weekend, Tammy Erickson shared an insightful story at Harvard Business about how any business can find low cost ways to improve engagement. She believes it all starts with creating goose-bump moments for employees.

She explained how years ago AARP asked her to audit their employment policies. AARP, an association dedicated to serving retirees and older Americans, also touts its commitment to being an employer of choice and strives to follow only the best human resource practices.

So, when company representatives began their presentation for Erickson and she became extremely bored, she interrupted and asked the presenters a few questions, including these three:

1. Why do you work here?
2. How often do you feel passionate about your work?
3. How often do you get to have experiences that make you feel passionate about your work?

One of the presenters explained how passionate she was for improving the lives of older Americans. She described a goose-bump moment she had with the company on Capitol Hill when a piece of legislation AARP worked to support became law.

“I strongly believe that the essence of a great employee experience — one that deepens our commitment and heightens our engagement — are those moments that give us goose bumps — the moments that remind us why we chose to work for this particular organization in the first place.”

With the recession taking a serious toll on morale, improving employee engagement is a top goal for many organizations. As Erickson explained in her article, sometimes all it takes is reminding people of the reasons why they wanted to work for the company in the first place.

Though the reasons for wanting to work for a company will vary from employee to employee, the desire to be happy and feel passionate about what they do is a shared feeling among many. Creating opportunities for employees to have goose-bump moments will remind employees of that passion and encourage them to go above and beyond in their work.

“In this difficult year, it's important to understand why people joined your organization and reinforce those values. In most cases, these steps don't cost a lot of money, but they can have a huge impact on employee engagement and commitment.”

Reminding employees of the reasons why they chose to work at an organization can be as simple as talking to customers or as involved as a trip to Capitol Hill. It’s all about creating experiences for employees that bolster the passion they have for the work they do.

“Find the authentic core of work at your organization and create ways to amplify and extend the experience to all employees. Give 'em goose bumps.”

How do you remind employees about what it means to be a part of your organization? How do you “give ‘em goose bumps”?

Change puts engagement and productivity at risk

More than one-third of employees are unable to adapt to workplace changes, decreasing their effectiveness on the job and suggesting that employee engagement and productivity are at high risk, according to a recent survey by Right Management.

Right Management asked more than 100 senior human resource professionals across North America: Is your workforce able to adapt to change and increase their effectiveness on the job?

• 31% answered, “No, employee engagement and productivity are a major risk”
• 43% answered, “Somewhat, our workforce gets the job done, but morale suffers”
• 26% answered, “Yes, our workforce is very agile and responds to new challenges”

Among other changes, layoffs and organizational restructuring require leaders to make difficult decisions that many employees have trouble dealing with.

"As our poll results demonstrate—with only one in four employees having the agility to adapt to change—most organizations don’t prepare their employees to handle changes at work. As a result, change management strategies tend to fail, undermining the organization's ability to achieve the goals the change initiative was designed to produce," notes Right Management President and COO Douglas J. Matthews.

Matthews also commented that most hardships originate from a lack of planning, preparedness and skill in managing the change process. It is only through careful planning and with support at every level of an organization that employees will be able to manage change effectively.

Though the causes of workplace change can vary, there are a few basic concepts that every manager should review to help reduce its impact on engagement and productivity:

• Communication. Keep communication lines open and inform your staff of upcoming changes as soon as possible. Having clear expectations is one of the most powerful ways to reduce workplace stress.


• Participation. Involve employees in the decision-making process whenever you can. Involve your staff in managing the change and ask for their input when implementing new procedures or training programs.


• Provide positive options. If a negative change, like a layoff, is unavoidable, offer employees something positive to balance out the situation. For example, implementing an employee development program for the remaining staff after a layoff can help improve productivity and relieve stress.


• Monitor progress. Monitor the progress of your staff throughout the change. Keep an eye on productivity, attendance records, turnover rates, the use of sick leave - anything that may suggest your team is not adapting well.

Whether your organization is moving offices or has gone through a series of layoffs, communication is the key to making sure employees are managing stress effectively. Managers must listen, learn and take action to replace negative situations with positive experiences.

Mix it up with peer-to-peer training

Do you regularly force your sales teams to sit through days of training only to be left with employees who are zoned-out and overwhelmed by the overflow of information? Are your instructor-led training courses completely boring your teams so much that they’re ready for nap time?

Lauren Kinke, Marketing and Sales Operations Manager at ReachForce, recently shared on the company's B2B Lead Blog how they have created an employee training program that keeps employees actively engaged in the learning process.

Here’s a piece of the story:

Our typical training regime used to be comprised solely of a full-day quarterly kickoff. During that time we would run through a few “sales” skills specific sessions, some background on our industry, and a piece on what we do and how we do it (for newbies). Part team-building, part skills training, it was an exhausting day and by the end of it some of our more ADD inclined employees had mentally checked out. Recently we decided to make some changes.

First, instead of only hosting training sessions on a once a quarter basis, each of our weekly sales meetings would be host to a mini-session led by a sales rep. Second, our quarterly sales training meeting would be shortened to a little over half a day.

Through this new training program, members of the company’s sales team have presented topics including how to prepare for a first call, overcoming customer objections, closing techniques and time management.

There are no strict rules as to how a team member can present their topic. Some employees have found success with PowerPoint, while others simply stood in front of the class and spoke.

I can’t say that we’ve measured our results, but I can say that our reps have been able to put these things into practice as quickly as they are being taught.

The benefits of using a peer-to-peer training program are seemingly endless. It allows employees to connect and fosters teamwork, improves engagement and, above all, keeps trainees awake.

Have you ever put peer-to-peer training to work in your organization? What benefits/drawbacks have you found in the process?

Dealing with a sudden drop in performance

As the economy continues to hurt business and diminish our 401(k)s, new research is showing that it’s also pulling employee engagement down with it.

In a national survey of U.S. companies by Quantum Workplace, 66% of firms saw decreases in employee engagement between 2007 and 2008.

“By an almost two-to-one margin (134 to 76), more employers had lower overall employee engagement scores in the fall of 2008 than in the fall of 2007. This result is out of the ordinary from our trends for the last five years, and strongly suggests that external circumstances regarding the economy may well be influencing employees' attitudes about their jobs and workplaces," said Greg Harris, president of Quantum Workplace.

The survey measured employee engagement by “the ability and willingness of individuals to exert extra effort for the benefit of the company, their tendency to speak highly of the organization and their intent to stay," according to Harris.

Engaged employees won’t make the recession disappear, but they are one of your most effective tools for pulling through it with more success than you would otherwise.

Workplace studies continually show that engaged employees perform significantly higher than those not engaged in their work. Businesses with an engaged workforce will typically have increased service and customer loyalty, better individual employee performance and reduced costs including safety, absenteeism and lost productivity.

Whether it’s due to the economy, a child’s health issue or dealing with a bully in the workplace, managers need to know how to spot when an employee is in trouble and what they should do to help.


It starts with a conversation

Training managers and supervisors on how to address a sudden drop in employee performance in a previously high-performing staff member starts with a lesson in communication.

Rather than making assumptions or taking an accusatory stance, supervisors should start with a conversation. Explain to the employee that you’ve noticed a drop in their performance and ask if it’s because of something that is going on at the office or at home.

Once you get down to the root of it, you’ll be in a better position to help the employee with their problem and eventually improve their performance. With that knowledge, supervisors can then help employees find the support they need.

We’ve been conducting our own research on employee performance and need your help. Please answer this simple, one-question poll on LinkedIn: How do you handle a sudden drop in a star employee's performance?