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Unit 1:
TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT BASICS
What I hear, I forget;
What I see, I remember;
What I do, I understand.
-Confucius
In this unit you will be introduced to the basic concepts of training and development. Although often linked, these are distinct concepts and therefore it is important to differentiate them from one another and from related constructs. Additionally, you will learn how training is related yet distinct from concepts like education, motivation, and consultation. Finally, the unit considers how training is in fact a communication process.
Training is the direct delivery of skills, through some formal process, to
enhance human performance
Human performance in work settings is a function of the performance equation, which is a combination of:
motivation
employee abilities/skills
opportunities and/or constraints imposed by the social system in which the work takes place
Different Types of Skills
Training essentially involves teaching skills. So it is important to understand different types of skills. Skills can be differentiated as either:
Hard or Technical involve precise procedures to follow (e.g., computer training, equipment operation) and relate the production of a product or the delivery of a service
Soft or skills related to managing people, information and Human Relationship ideas (e.g., conflict management, negotiation, team collaboration, presentation skills)
We often associate training with beginning a new position and certainly trainings is always necessary when we do so. But training can take place at any time during an employee’s career. Training might be necessary when:
a new worker must be trained in procedural skills
a worker who wants to be promoted needs to be trained in supervisory skills
new managers must be trained to deal with specific problems that accompany their new position
teams need to learn team-building skills
organizational changes require employees to learn new systems and protocols
Training, in turn, can occur for many reasons and can take many forms. The types of training include:
Informational purpose is to teach someone about something
Training (learn thoughts and ideas about topics — e.g.,
company policy, customer service orientation, mission statement — lacks actual physical exposure to the topic)
Behavioral deals with specific ways to act or perform tasks
Training (teach trainees how to do something via experience with the activity — achieving knowledge and expertise through activity)
Results-Oriented training designed to have an effect on the
Training organization with the goal of improving
productivity
Development Includes, but goes beyond training. It incorporates an emphasis
on “why” or “how” certain skills and behaviors fit into the wider context of the whole organization.
Development, then, entails situating employees and their roles in relationship to others in the organization through self-awareness.
Concerning the performance equation, development relates more to motivation and opportunities/constraints whereas training equates particularly to skills.
It is important for people to know and understand their roles in a given organization. Development serves to help employees recognize their importance of their roles relative to the enterprise as a whole.
Thus, training might emphasize building the skills necessary to effectively handle customer service interactions, whereas development would help employees understand the importance of customer service to the larger operation of the company.
Within organizations we all have two types of roles:
Functional Roles Defined by the responsibilities set forth in our job
description.
Behavioral Roles The way in which we interact with others in the
workplace. This can be thought of as an informal role, which might include the difficult teammate, the helpful colleague, or the obstinate coworker.
It is important to realize that the two roles do not necessarily correspond.
Training then focuses on specific skills and behaviors, whereas development aims to help people achieve their full potential — both personally and professionally
Regardless of whether or not we are involved in training, development, or some of both, we will be dealing with adults. Thus, spending some time on what is relevant to adult learners is critical.
How is Training Different from Education, Motivation, and Consulting?
Training the process of developing skills in order to perform a specific job or task more effectively
-to train is to develop skills
-a skill is a defined behavior that can be repeated when needed, the ability to do something as apposed to knowing something
-focuses on developing specific actions, skills, and behaviors
-the goal of training is that the worker will perform his or her job with greater skill and effectiveness
1. Training and Education
training emphasizes doing while education emphasizes knowing
training emphasizes achieving a certain level of skill attainment while education often evaluates by comparing one student to another
training is less concerned with evaluating you in comparison to others and more concerned with determining your competency to perform a specific skill
training operates as more of a closed system, while education operates more as an open system (i.e., skills require specific abilities and answers whereas education allows for greater creativity in finding multiple possible answers)
training emphasizes the requirements for performing specific skills linked to a particular job or role, whereas education is not as readily linked to performing a specific job
training is more likely to offer a comprehensive list of skills required to perform a specific behavior, whereas education is less likely to provide a summary of all information on a specific subject (knowing everything there is to know versus understanding that there is still more to learn)
2. Training and Motivation
Motivation an internal state of readiness to take action or achieve a goal
trainers are more likely to seek individual and organizational change by teaching skills, whereas motivational speakers attempt to stimulate emotions and attitudes to instill change
skills have staying power while emotional and attitudinal change may not persist
3. Training and Consulting
Consulting an expert brought in to address a specific organizational concern with
the goal of personal and organizational development
can be external or internal
consulting can be enacted from several different approaches
These include the purchase, doctor-patient, and process approaches.
Purchase a solution to an already identified problem is purchased from a consultant
Doctor-patient the consultant provides a diagnosis and a treatment
program for addressing the identified problem(s)
Process overall vitality of a company is assessed, problems identified, and recommendations made for addressing issues
Training and Communication
Communication and training relate in several ways.
communication is a transactive process whereby both senders and receivers of messages make sense of those messages and attend to them as they are sent and received
thus training is a communicative process that involves the interplay of message exchange between trainers and trainees
training is rhetorical too in the sense that it involves persuasion — because trainers need to persuade trainees of the importance and necessity of the skills being addressed
finally from a practical standpoint training is not only communicative in nature but often focused on communication as the skill set to be addressed
in fact, training is a multibillion-dollar industry and the number one skill for employees in organizations is effective communication
thus training and communication come together in the process of training, in the argument for needing training, and as the outcome of training
For the final portion of this unit, we will review the training and development process. Double click on the document below to see an overview of this process. These are the standard steps involved in training and development and for that reason the course is organized around these steps. The following units introduce you to these various steps/processes.
