Cut through the noise
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In Same Training, Half the Time, I invite readers to expand on this excerpt from the book – a list of challenges that are driving increased demands on learning. Please share additional reasons from your experience in the comments of this post.
What additional challenges are creating the time crunch in your organization? ©2018 Kimberly Devlin, All rights reserved In Same Training, Half the Time, Kimberly provides strategies, tools, and resources to help the experienced or novice instructional designer and those connected with creating and deploying learning events – such as managers, HR professionals, trainers, and subject matter experts – to create better training in half the time.
76 Comments
Annemarie
5/2/2018 11:11:19 am
I think the attitude of one and done has also hindered effective training. Learning isn't an event it's a process. Sometimes not making time for "follow up" and continual learning is the biggest obstacle to overcome.
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Kimberly Devlin
5/30/2018 01:13:53 pm
Absolutely! Just this week, we launched a VILT training booster series for supervisors/managers of participants in an organization-wide training program. Three things made it rewarding: their enthusiasm to support their staff, their surprise at the importance of their role in transfer of learning, and the value they placed on the tools we introduced and that they practiced with. Thanks Annemarie!
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Nichole Dinato
5/2/2018 04:23:44 pm
There's a lot of "fear factor" at my company where we think our client is going to freak out over every single new thing and we over-design, over-plan, over-complicate our training offerings to head off the anticipated meltdown instead of training to gaps and providing what is needed for the situation in the moment. Then we end up with training that is less effective and, ironically, makes the client more nervous and feel less prepared.
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Kimberly Devlin
5/30/2018 01:15:50 pm
Nichole - fear can be debilitating! Thank you for shining a light on the need to break the cycle by sticking to sound design principles and what we know works.
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Donald Clark
5/2/2018 06:43:21 pm
The time required to train a topic and the time given by companies to do so isn't something that matches well. Companies need to see value in training or they will always opt for the minimum.
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Kimberly Devlin
5/30/2018 01:13:29 pm
And therein lies all training teams' first challenge -- demonstrate the value! Nicely said Donald.
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Aleia R Hendricks
6/15/2018 02:29:29 pm
For my organization we are in a time crunch always because of bureaucracy. A million and one steps to do something simple. Then we lose opportunities because we can't get through the paperwork maze in time. We have a great push now towards "agile" business, specifically HR, but we are a long way from putting it into real practice.
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Kimberly Devlin
6/15/2018 03:24:15 pm
Oh -- to miss opportunities over bureaucracy...tragic! And, sadly, you are not alone. But, fortunately, you have identified your obstacle and a potential solution.
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Stephanie Martinez
6/15/2018 02:41:18 pm
Our issue is accountability. Our managers are on board for training, but don't hold their supervisors and techs accountable for the learning transfer that should occur post training.
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Kimberly Devlin
6/15/2018 03:27:37 pm
Stephanie -
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Britany L
6/15/2018 05:04:12 pm
I can relate to this all too well. Another challenge that I have seen occur is training design being hampered by stakeholder requirements.I love the phrase, “telling is not training.”
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Kimberly Devlin
6/15/2018 05:31:53 pm
Britany - Yes! My version of that concept is "listening is not learning." We are on the same page!
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Yvette Harris
6/17/2018 10:49:59 pm
One oppty for change in my organization (state government) is first trying to change the old mindset of "it's never been done like that before!" This really gets to me as we are blessed to offer various types of training modules and programs, similar to private sector -- all for free! But it's up to you to step out and up and try something new.
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Kimberly Devlin
6/18/2018 09:45:57 am
It sounds like you are already making progress Yvette, because "it's never been done like that before" is already an improvement over "but we always do it THIS way." Thank you for labeling this an opportunity!
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Alysse
6/18/2018 12:18:52 pm
I agree with all of the above challenges. One hurdle I often have to overcome is managing expectations of the SMEs and managers. They can tend to want to be over involved which could slow down the process if I'm not careful. Overall I'm never one to complain about others being excited about training.
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Kimberly Devlin
6/18/2018 02:00:31 pm
So true, Alysse! Maintaining others' enthusiasm for training while balancing roles and responsibilities can be a delicate balance.
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Jennifer
6/19/2018 10:37:35 am
Our leadership team is on board with the programs that we create and present to our team, but the buy in from our managers is where we fall short. It is the knowledge transfer for us as well, the managers want their team to be well trained but yet do not hold them accountable to the information that has been taught while in training.
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Kimberly Devlin
6/19/2018 05:29:03 pm
Those managers are such a critical link...and there is SO much we should be doing as instructional designers to inform and support them in that role! Thank you, Jennifer, for raising the point here.
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Amanda C
7/6/2018 12:44:49 pm
It often seems like we run into problems when we don't know how people will access the training. At my company, we tend to create a combination of online learning and printable documents, which when then push to the learner. All of it works fine as long as everyone's equipment works, and that seems to be one of the big If's: if people start thinking of accessing training as confusing, frustrating, or something that "just doesn't work," then getting people to use training is pretty difficult.
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Kimberly Devlin
7/6/2018 03:03:33 pm
Yes, Amanda, a critical link in the needs assessment process is determining the appropriate medium, and -- to your point -- doing it with the learner populations' input!
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Yodel
7/8/2018 06:01:06 am
In our organisation one of the challenges we face is calculating RoI/RoE. While it may be possible to see quality standards or behavioural change to be able to account for it in dollar value is almost impossible due to external factors outside our control.
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Kimberly Devlin
7/9/2018 05:53:43 pm
Yes, Yodel! The managers and supervisors are a critical link -- one we will be exploring together over the next seven weeks in our sessions, and which I address head on in chapters 5 and 7 as well.
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Maria L.
7/11/2018 04:10:31 pm
Simply put- it's hard to keep up with the training demands. There is new training that needs to be built out, out-dated training that needs to be refreshed and training that needs to be removed altogether. It can be difficult to prioritize especially when the team is small (but mighty!) and resources are low.
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Kimberly Devlin
7/17/2018 10:02:37 am
Maria -
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Sam Barrera
7/11/2018 05:27:41 pm
As mentioned in a previous post one thing is to train the associate in a skill/task but if there is lack of support from Management its all for naught. Associates need to able to put into practice these new skills and as trainers we should be able to give management metrics to show how these will add to the productivity of the team (if not in the short term but in a definable time span).
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Kimberly Devlin
7/17/2018 10:04:35 am
May I add, Sam, that as training professionals we should also be giving management tools to support them in supporting their teams!
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Alison D.
7/15/2018 08:43:54 pm
You explained these challenges very well. I work in a small office right now, and when we hire someone new, it is most often because we have had someone leave, and in that case, there is usually no one in the office who is able to fulfill the duties of that position until the new-hire is trained. This typically results in training being cut short or many important things being left out because we have to meet deadline. Then when it comes to getting the tasks done which require the skills that were not learned in training, the person is unable to do those tasks correctly. It is a vicious cycle.
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Kimberly Devlin
7/17/2018 09:59:20 am
I empathize with the situation you describe, Alison. Perhaps you can break the cycle and turn the situation around by letting this quote help you change your relationship with deadlines:
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9/21/2018 04:28:09 pm
It appears that little time is put into communicating effectively with peers back at the office post-training to disseminate learning. Often, the learner returns to the office to find that peers are unable to relate to the training experienced by the learner and are therefore, unenthusiastic about efforts to put the learning into practice. The learner may then spend more time trying to overcome roadblocks to implementation efforts than implementing what has been learned. Approaches for effectively communicating the benefits of the training to peers could help to equip the learner to build support for the implementation back at the office.
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Kimberly Devlin
9/24/2018 09:41:43 pm
Gerrard -
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Ted Henson
9/25/2018 07:24:00 am
Your point - "content transmission is not the same thing as learning," really hit the nail on the head. Designing trainings that are truly educational and that have adult learning principles incorporated into them will lead to greater impact. Otherwise, we are just relaying information that participants can read on their own time.
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Kimberly Devlin
9/25/2018 12:40:52 pm
Thanks for the validation Ted!
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Yasmine
9/26/2018 06:11:10 am
I guess maybe for some companies they have too few internal trainers, where it takes a lot of time to introduce the external trainer to the structure, culture and preferred learning outcomes. We should be looking for internal trainers more that know the company as a whole and have experience in the matter in order to win time and make sure that the part designing the training is minimised. Could that have an impact on the training time crunch? I believe so!
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Kimberly Devlin
10/1/2018 04:06:42 pm
Internal trainers are an incredible asset to an organization -- for sure!
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Rebecca Brooks
9/16/2019 02:50:00 pm
We have been working on creating enthusiasm for training. In a sense, we are "marketing" the training to our front-line managers to obtain their support for the training, the new system, the new process, so that they "sell" the training to their staff. We are trying turn, "I've got to go to training..." into "I get to go to training!!" It is not an easy process, but we keep trying.
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Kimberly Devlin
9/21/2019 05:35:46 pm
Rebecca - You are fighting the "good fight" to be sure! Use the pdf on this page to support your effort:
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6/1/2020 06:40:57 am
In a nutshell, short time frames for knowledge transfer paired with paralysis of analysis undermines the instructional design process.
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Kari Campbell
6/1/2020 08:50:09 am
Short time frames for development due to emergency situations....mostly due to a reactionary response and an unwillingness to be proactive because it risks "wasting time" developing for what may happen or alternate needs. I find that our developers/ISDs want to plan ahead, but are told not to because it wastes time and effort... but when something happens, its all hands on deck and a less than ideal solution because we had to scramble to support something.
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Lisa W
6/3/2020 09:53:55 am
So true
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Heather Walker
6/1/2020 10:23:49 am
Their is an overall push in every aspect of our lives today to get things done faster, instant gratification and maximized efficiency is evident in our corporate world as well as our personal lives. I feel like this mindset can be a challenge when creating a learning environment that is effective. We have less time to "capture"
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Lisa W
6/3/2020 09:58:23 am
This is exactly what I was thinking. I think almost every business is having to do more faster with fewer resources to stay competitive in a global market while still remaining innovative enough to stay ahead of the curve. It's essentially societal pressure to prioritization profit over everything else, and if you go against that trend, your business will likely fail.
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Veronica Clemons
6/1/2020 10:38:19 am
Creating impactful and relevant training requires receipt and understanding of specific needs. There is a huge time gap between the needs assessments and results which put pressure on the content developer and designer who have a short window.
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Jody Gardei
6/1/2020 10:54:46 am
The challenge I have is that training is requested only at the time of need. Something happens, training is part of the solution, and it's needed now! It takes time to determine the actual learning objectives that need to be met to address the issue and it's not always clear what they are when a trainer or instructional designer isn't involved in the initial conversations.
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Melissa Willis
6/1/2020 02:32:22 pm
Jody, we have the same issue!
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Dana Thomas
6/1/2020 05:01:35 pm
Yes, absolutely! Our clients often come thinking they know what learning solution they need and how long they think it should take us to develop it. But they aren't the experts in adult learning principles and so it can be an uphill battle to convince them to have the discussion about what they actually need and what they actually need to try to accomplish.
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Brandon Arnold
6/1/2020 11:36:12 am
My company is fairly new to elearning, and one of the biggest challenges that I've faced is introducing training that should standardize processes across the organization, and having to space it out so that our associates and management aren't overwhelmed. As the catalog has become more robust, management has decried the seat time required to train a new person. Often times, in some locations, it just doesn't get completed.
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Training falls under a time crunch for us because we don’t have enough people on our team to keep up with all of the training demands. I facilitate in-person training and design eLearning. Our deadlines are sometimes aggressive because they are set by our clients who we are just starting to be introduced to ISD. Due to the nature of Workday and it’s continuous updates, we need to develop new training for enhancements and also update our old training. It’s a handful, but everyone gets along and communicates.
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6/1/2020 12:08:48 pm
Loved hearing the time constraints portions of your ATD talk. So many are or have been applicable to our organization. Perhaps one that I would add is the difference between training and telling. In the past, our stakeholders held firm to the belief that all we needed to do was get information out there. Now several years later, we're still dealing with learners overwhelmed with information and still not performing at a desired level. We're actively limiting information to what pertains to the lesson at hand. (i.e. need to know vs. nice to know). It's a small change, but we're seeing positive results already.
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6/1/2020 12:25:28 pm
I would for a human services agency that is mostly government funded. Over the past 10 years, our funders have asked for more documentation, instituted more procedures, and at the same time reduced our funding so we can hire less staff, and also reduced the amount of money we can allot for training. Our staff honestly do not have time to participate in training. So training that was ILT and 3 hours long, and took some time to develop a few years ago is no longer realistic - our staff need training that is much shorter in delivery time.
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Monique Goodwin
6/1/2020 12:48:57 pm
At our organization, the amount of extra duties added to our front line employees plate has reduced any time allowed for taking learning. It is at the bottom of a very large to-do pile!!
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Jennifer Benbow
6/1/2020 01:29:17 pm
Our application is constantly being updated with new features and functionality. Additionally, there are always so many changes to processes as well.
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Annika Pile
6/1/2020 02:01:43 pm
We are a human service organization that bills for our services (case management), so everything throughout the day is broken down into units. (1 unit is 15 mins). So to have a one hour training (4 units) already staff think/feel... that "could be" my consumers session for the week. I call it "Blocked by Units" LOLOL Instead of focusing on the learning opportunity... it's viewed as training... blocks my (daily/weekly) units.
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Dana Thomas
6/1/2020 04:57:01 pm
Our clients don't necessarily engage us early enough and expect us to throw together training quickly. Also, often our clients can't commit the time necessary for us to really understand how best to suit their needs and identify the most important things learners need to know.
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Katie Baker
6/1/2020 06:18:51 pm
We have a couple ways training falls under a time crunch. We product a large suite of software applications.
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Kristin Ellis
6/1/2020 07:23:26 pm
Everyone wants greatness and they want it now. Our society in general is so used to getting what we want when we want it and when you combine that with our ever changing environment/technology ... I feel I am always behind.
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Victoria Bacon
6/2/2020 08:04:10 am
For my organization I think its two fold, we failed early on to brand ourselves as the training experts and leaned heavily on the subject matter expert to determine how the training was going to be given. So now we have a hard time getting the information we need from them which makes development take longer which makes the SME unhappy with our process. We also have the mentality of "if I can't see them I can't teach them". Then once the students are in the classroom they are lectured at and receive very little in the way of how to complete their job.
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Emily
6/2/2020 10:08:45 am
Leaders are committed to "bite-sized learning". They feel as though courses over 15-30 minutes are not effective, efficient, or will be retained. No buy-in or commitment yet regarding follow up practices, role modeling, etc. Additionally, design time is limited as in smaller training teams, you are not only the facilitator and manager, but you are also the designer. Does not leave much time to garner content, design it, and run through it.
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6/2/2020 01:49:43 pm
My organization implements HCM systems, and prior to my arrival SMEs would create PDFs or do an off-the -cuff live training (lecture) that took little time to prepare. So they feel that all of my training should be developed just as quickly. Even though I'm working through ADDIE steps, using Articulate and editing video. They love the product, but can't appreciate the time it takes.
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Brandi
6/2/2020 02:27:17 pm
Training is often an after thought, a means to fix an immediate problem, instead of a proactive approach to avoid future problems or implement a new process. When we are asked to fix a problem, the expectations are usually unrealistic.
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Sara Hartsell
6/2/2020 03:58:23 pm
AND they think ALL aspects of the problem can be solved by training! While we can certainly help in some areas, sometimes it's not really a training need. My organization sometimes thinks they can "hand it off" to training, and all is solved when many times there is a chance for true collaboration and defined areas of responsibility.
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Jennifer
6/2/2020 03:49:11 pm
SMEs are focused on the content and not the learner or learner experience. People don't think about business needs/impact.
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Melvin Brender
6/2/2020 03:50:05 pm
The biggest reason is staff new to Instructional Design. The job description of our staff changed to include Instructional Design. The staff is learning how to do ID while creating the material. This slowed down the development time, but the deadlines remained.
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Sara Hartsell
6/2/2020 04:02:08 pm
Couple that with an organization that doesn't understand WHAT true instructional design is, or that not just "anyone" can do it. And sometimes doesn't support that we have a desire to design and the importance/value of it rather than coordinate training, and you have our situation.
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Kayla Hubbell
6/2/2020 04:27:24 pm
My organization uses training initiatives as a way to increase employee engagement; however, the stakeholders do not take time to actually listen to what the employees want from their training. Often there is a disconnect between the two that results in employees failing to take the training seriously. Our talent development department could make an impact; however, the stakeholders fail to listen to our suggestions or fail to let us do a thorough needs analysis to get to the root of the problem. We are putting some processes in place to assist with that, but we will not make progress if we do not incorporate proper change management into our process.
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6/2/2020 09:03:49 pm
We are a small but growing cloud based software company and training has always been an afterthought. I am the first training "deparment" (yep,,, training, department of one!) so I've just been behind from the very beginning and don't know when I'll get caught up. Trying to make cases that we need more headcount to make progress on both the internal training front AND the customer training front has been difficult. The other issue I run into is that they think once a training is done, it is done forever but with a software environment there are constant changes and update required that get left off the to-do list always! Job security, I suppose!
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Lisa Nicholson
6/3/2020 08:51:42 am
Our company views training as “non productivity time” so it’s seen as a cost, not as an investment. We run very lean, so even minutes of non-productivity affects bottom line. I think people do understand the need for training, but profit is top priority. Being able to help people be more productive in a shorter amount of time is really important.
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Jonathan Sam
6/3/2020 11:48:45 am
Org changes end up causes folks to to more than one job. This results in less time to create training for for SMEs to interact with developers.
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Lia Wilson
6/3/2020 03:34:05 pm
I would say a lack of communication between departments. It often feels like our training department is the last to know about certain changes. As a result, we end up playing catch up trying when we are looped in, and having less time to design/implement effective training.
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Jessica Schenck
6/3/2020 03:44:57 pm
Our company has often responded reactively versus proactively, so when there is a need for a training product, it's often needed RIGHT NOW, or even yesterday. I also agree that training is often an afterthought as part of a product or process launch - we aren't always engaged from the beginning which creates a time crunch.
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Lindsay Hoyle
6/3/2020 07:53:00 pm
I think a lot of it comes down to strategic partnerships as well, and being able to leverage your champions appropriately, and get buy-in from all the right people. I've seen it done well, and seen it done poorly, and if you're not bringing in the correct people early enough to get buy-in, you lose trust in the organization.
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6/4/2020 08:29:55 am
This may have already been said, but the expectation that you can easily create a training within a day or so if you have the "right amount" of information available. No need to ask questions or clarify details, just take it and make it.
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Pam Mika
6/4/2020 02:51:42 pm
For us it is too much work - our sellers and consultants are swamped with daily activities and adding training into causes them to multi task. So then they never learn or don't do the activities. This is especially bad when you put in a peer review and no 2 students are at the same place at the same time to DO the peer review.
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Nicki Griffin
6/4/2020 07:29:59 pm
Our organization wants people to focus on doing their job and don't understand how much time and effort is needed to provide people with the skills they need to do their job properly. They think we should just be able to do it all in a couple of webinars.
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Kelly Heese
6/5/2020 04:10:35 pm
Everything is a priority. and we always need it now. In my experience as soon as someone identifies a training need it needs to be implemented immediately. I try to remind folks of the project management triangle - good, fast or cheap. You can pick 2 but you can never have all 3.
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Yong Goh
6/14/2020 04:30:31 am
Too many distractions from bosses email, existing work that still need to be completed while on training, and meetings to attend.
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Mike Bradshaw
1/7/2022 08:52:43 am
I am some what new to this field, but coming out of a production role into a L&D role has shown that all the above is true. Especially when it comes to sausage making, and the level of effort needed to make a simple but effective learning event. However, my biggest challenge now is getting support from my SME’s. I think the current situation will the work force demands is requires greater need on the floor then with an ID, in the eyes of the management.
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