My Most Effective Training Experience

A couple of days ago I was just trying to remember what my best training experience was. I started attending different training programs since 1993. Initially I was trained in working in NGO sector and starting 1997 I joined several business training programs. Following, I would refer to non academic programs.

I am particularly attached to my very first training programs because they showed me revolutionary approaches to learning, often opposite to what formal school has shown to me until then. I first learned how to lead a group in a voluntary camp or project, how to present to public, how to write requests for funding and how to make and execute a PR plan for my organization. I was really fortunate because the flexible NGO sector of that time (no “this is how we do things here”) allowed me to experiment most of the learning, although nobody had ever “pointed a gun” to my head. I saw results and this is how I started to appreciate benefits of such programs.

During my business tenure I have recalled a number of valuable programs that shaped me to what I am especially because I kept experimenting. Some of the programs were average but I was lucky to join some very good ones too. However, I forced myself to nominate the most effective program and to explain why I made that particular choice.

The winner was a small training course from Novartis on recruitment. Hope you’re wondering why?

Was it about highly competitive information? Not quite, it was mainly about behavioral interviewing techniques, not a breakthrough then.

Was it complete? No, there are a plethora of techniques besides the behavioral interviewing techniques that are really powerful but we did not touch them.

Was it exceptionally delivered? Not significantly better than other valuable programs I joined.

Then why was it? It is about a complete turnaround of the way we interviewed candidates in the company. It started at the training and it was immediately and completely implemented organization-wide with no room for going back to our “good old days”. Every single new hire from that moment on had to go through the process agreed at within the training program. And every single interviewer had to follow the exact prescription. We learned the concept, exercised the tools and nobody ever came back to anything else.

Looking now to why many training programs are a waste of time and money (or less effective in better cases), the answer may be found just here. A lot of energy and resources are wasted in picking the right program and the right delivery (and the right surroundings too) with few left (especially on management side) to engage in making sure there is no way back. Trainees have special senses to spot whether change is so imperative and as soon as they discover that is not, they move in comfort mode.