Good versus Great Training

11 Jan 2015

Training is good. Training is important. Far too many articles suggest because you use consumer technology at home you should be able to use "similar" enterprise technology at work with no training. They are wrong. I use a knife at home when I'm eating but you can't hand me a scalpel at work and call me a surgeon. You can't hand me a sword, an "enterprise-grade" knife, and call me a Samurai warrior (although it would be really cool to be a Samurai warrior!).

Another argument I hear against formal training is "But the iPhone doesn't come with a manual," implying that technology should be so easy that no manual and no training is required. My response to this is typically one or more of the following...

  1. It is one thing for a consumer to invest several hundred dollars and choose to not get the most from a technical tool (the iPhone). On the other hand, for an organization to invest hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars on technical tools and then not help employees derive maximal value from the investment verges on incompetence.

  2. Google "things you didn't know your iphone..." Why do you think there are 163,000 articles?

  3. Many of the people lined up at the Apple Genius Bar are asking questions that would have been answered in the manual.

In my experience training, combined with communications and change management accounts for at least 50% of the project's success. (Change management is really helping people understand why and how to use the new tools to accomplish the existing processes and as such is really a form of training). Certainly technical design and implementation is key; but, training helps set expectations and drives usage and adoption. Training promotes user efficiency which is aligned with the intended objective of unified communications to improve overall business efficiency.

If people are an organization's most important asset, as many corporate slogans claim, would you not want to leverage this asset? Training allows people to make the most of the tools they have been provided.

Training is good. And good training can be great training with a little extra effort.

1. Get the timing right

Training should not be too far in advance of when the skills will be used. For instance, for contact center implementations I lead, we scheduled agent training at most two weeks before the launch of the contact center. This is plenty of time for training and some practice, and not too much time for people to forget what they have been taught. If you have already deployed a UC client without training, consider scheduling a "tips and tricks" training session now. Great training is timely.

2. Focus on relevant use cases, not every option or feature

Some trainers start with the options screen and proceed to cover what each and every setting controls. In my experience this takes a really long time and causes most of the attendees to disengage. Consider a Lync 2013 training session run this way. The Options screen has over 100 customizable settings!

Lync options

A better approach is to focus on specific use cases, ideally the ones that are of the highest priority to your attendees. Continuing with a Lync, or other UC client example, for a general introductory course, you might cover:

  • Searching for and adding a person to your contact list

  • Presence, what the presence states mean and how to control your presence state

  • Federation (if your organization supports this)

  • Initiating or participating in an IM conversation

  • Placing and receiving calls (Lync-to-Lync, Lync and PSTN, if you have enabled enterprise voice)
    • Including how to mute, unmute, place calls on hold, receive a second call while on a call

  • Setting up simultaneous ring (if you have enabled enterprise voice)

  • Scheduling a Lync meeting (which is really training on how to use Outlook with the Lync add-in)

  • Participating in a Lync meeting

  • Communications etiquette (which would be tailored based on your specific organization's culture)

Of course you may want to mention the options screen, show the users how to access it, and then give examples of some of the key things that can be configured (e.g. a common one for Lync users who are using headsets is setting a secondary ringer so they don't miss calls when their headset is off). You could also remind people that all the options are explained in detail in the online help or point users to other documentation.

A separate session should be held for those individuals who answer calls on behalf of someone else (sometimes referred to as delete or boss-admin scenario). Likewise, if you make use of Lync response groups (hunt groups) you may want to hold a specific session focusing on these use cases.

Trying to cover every feature in an introductory session often overwhelms the attendees. For a more advanced Lync, or other UC client course, you might consider covering topics such as:

  • How to transfer calls (blind and consultative transfers)

  • Team call functions (if relevant in your environment)

  • Privacy Relationships (controls what presence, location and contact information is shared)

  • Tagging contacts for Status Change Alerts (in my opinion one of the great features of Lync)

  • Advanced online meeting options (private meeting rooms, the lobby, muting participants, pre-uploading content, etc.)

  • Connecting with Skype contacts

Great training focuses on the use cases most relevant to the attendees.

3. Allow interaction

Some training sessions are formally structured and others informally structured. In both cases, there should be time allocated for questions and answers, especially if you are doing training after a UC solution has been in use for some time.

No matter how extensive your training session is, real users operating in the real world come up with interesting unanticipated questions. For example, does it matter which USB port I plug my headset or speakerphone into? (Answer: Generally no.)

4. Follow-up

Training should be thought of as a process more so than a one-time event. As you plan a training session, plan the appropriate follow-up activity. Follow-up can include:

  • A Q&A session (perhaps run during the lunch hour accompanied by free food).

  • A secondary more advanced training session. (See above example topics for advanced Lync session.)

  • Knowledge reinforcement via a "tip of the week" or other mechanism (we have had good success with a gamification approach using TriviaEngine.com for Lync).

Early in the New Year many organizations develop their training plans. As you consider training for your 2015 initiatives, strive to arrange, coordinate and/or deliver great training.

What are your plans related to training? Do you think technology is now easy enough that no training is required? Do you want specific help making your training great? Please comment below or via Twitter @kkieller. I will respond to any comments or questions.

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