You are the project manager of a project with the aim of providing training on new fire alarms to various aged

You are the project manager of a project with the aim of providing training on new fire alarms to various aged

care facilities associated with your organisation. You have two trainers on your project team and have access to fire alarm specialists. One trainer (trainer1) was appointed by the organisation a number of years ago and has conducted training for the staff on their accounting package and uses PowerPoint presentations and in prearranged sessions.

The other trainer (trainer2) is a secretary but their position was made redundant so the organisation asked for assistance with this project to keep them on for a while longer. After briefing the trainers on the project requirements (train all the staff at 20 aged care facilities as well as the deadline which is one month), you continue with another project which you are also responsible for.

You assume that the trainers have sufficient knowledge and do not need to be monitored. You do not bother scheduling any meetings. You receive a phone call from one of the facilities asking if there are two different lots of training as one of their staff was trained by trainer2 and moved facilities and received training from trainer1 but the training content was very different. You phone the trainers to clarify this—it is now two days before due date.

During the conversation you realise that trainer1 is not very good with organisational skills and has only managed to get around to one facility and has not been able to train all the staff at this facility. The trainer's reasons were that the facility would not provide the staff with sufficient time to be trained and was very strict in the dates and times that trainer1 could come in, which meant that there were only a few hours a day in which trainer1 was able to train the staff.

Trainer1 has not even contacted the other facilities as they wanted to complete them sequentially. Trainer1 has produced elaborate PowerPoint presentations and needed a whole day to train the staff in the workings of the new fire alarms. Trainer1 also requested small groups of people so that everyone can have a good look at the alarm and the interaction will be better.

Trainer2 had a similar disappointing story. Trainer2 lined up all 10 facilities during the first week but realised that they were unable to complete the training in the time allocated, so they only managed to get through half of the supplied material. Unfortunately they did not correct their activities but only attempted to reschedule the sessions. The facilities were not so accommodating due to the staff feeling that their time has been wasted. Trainer2 was frustrated as the facilities were now deferring their appointments and they still had only half trained people.