Ann...Here's an example of a way to turn training on its ear.
In 1995, at Charles Schwab & Co in San Francisco, teams of employees
elected to learn from each other in brief, daily "learning sessions."
Participating managers gave teams 15 minutes a day to trade discoveries
and key them on-the-fly into a data base.
At first, the discoveries consisted of observations about back routes
through computer menus, whom to call within Schwab to get fast
information, and improvements in how-to-do-the-job without changing it.
To you or me, these "lessons" would have been highly technical and hard to
remember. But the team members understood the context, so explanations
were rapid and, as the teams proved, easy to remember because the
information was discovered and explained by a fellow worker.
Moreover, this ad-hoc syllabus constituted what you REALLY needed to know
to do the job.
Naturally, the discoveries evolved into process improvements, often with a
discoverer serving as champion of the change.
Some process improvements were interpersonal--how to work best with each
other. One team figured out who were morning people and who were
afternoon people, so that they knew when was the best time to approach
each other for help.
When I left Charles Schwab in late '95, the program had spread into the
branch offices. Then there occurred several re-organizations, and I think
that the learning sessions were discouraged.
But while this Corporate Camelot lasted less than ten months, the amount
of learning that occurred AND WAS APPLIED would have required years of
development and delivery by a trainer.
In the future, a training department could be a team of coaches who
facilitate learning sessions, helping teams to use thinking tools like
induction, reframing and systems sketching, and showing them how to
"cross-learn" even faster.
Hope this is helpful....Malcolm
-- Malcolm Brooks ovington@inetw.netLearning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>