Tough Questions 1: What Precisely Do You Want to See Your People Doing

I will start a series of posts about some of the questions (prospective) clients find difficult to answer when discussing about developing capabilities of their own people.

Some emblematic encounters on developing people capabilities happen around these circumstances:

• People have not been trained for a longer period so it’s time to do something about it.
• People have been receiving most common training programs so its time to try something new.
• Company has tried virtually everything with limited results so  something totally different is needed now.
• People having different development background and company wants to “level” them or have them speak “the same language”.

Far from disregarding professionals viewing things this way, I would like to bring in a different prospective. The approach can be substantially improved by considering the following question: What precisely (behaviors!!!) do you want to see your people doing?

Critics may say that it is short term focused and lacks the big picture. And they might be true. However, I’m not preventing anyone from seeing the big picture himself; I am only challenging for a description of that picture as specific as possible.

Benefits of the proposed approach:

1. One may discover that only a small audience will have a particular need (leading to less redundancies and a smaller cost).
2. More effective solutions, other than training, will be discovered and considered (many of them at zero costs).
3. Measurability! Behaviors are visible, therefore easy to measure! One can easily say whether we had success or not. And if things can be measured, people put a lot more effort (and joy too) into fulfilling whatever is expected.
4. Improved communication! Some people do not do things in a particular way because they were never properly asked. Sometimes, is as simple as asking and they will do it too.

Why the question is seldom asked?

1. First of all, because it requires responsibility! A manager has to find himself what behavior will drive the desired result and, then, be responsible for the choice. Pretty often the manager becomes an important part of the solution too. With large, noisy programs responsibility dilutes seriously.
2. Secondly, because training industry educated clients that way. A large program (more or less customized) rolled out for the entire staff is more profitable for them than an effective, punctual intervention for a handful of employees. Seemingly, any provider of training services asking this question is likely to be asking for a smaller business too. But this is true only on a short run.