| More reasons why training should be your job |
Contributed by Alan Scannell,
Dayton Ohio
A new team member has been shown how to run materials through process
equipment.
The new operator is a quick learner and soon appears to master the
requirements of the job. Then the machine's calibration drifts,
and your new colleague, not noticing the change, continues to run
materials through the process. By the time the problem is discovered,
several thousands of dollars worth of material have passed through
and must be scrapped. Or the machine’s safety shield vibrates
loose, and the operator, who does not see danger, is suddenly struck
by a flying fragment that lacerates his arm.
Situations like these occur all too frequently in every company.
Insufficiently trained employees, despite their best intentions,
cause inefficiencies, excess costs, unhappy customers and worst,
injuries.
The importance of excellent, comprehensive training is abundantly
clear to every team leader. The trickier question is how much training
each leader should personally undertake.
In our organization the answer is firm: every department head is
engaged in training, every step of the way.
As leader of your department, your output is the output of the department.
Production can be compromised in no time at all, and it ill betides
you to complain that "the operator didn't know his job".
On the other hand, increasing the capabilities of your team members,
is one of the highest-leveraged activities you can perform.
Let's say you put on a one hour lecture for ten members of your
team—after taking three hours to prepare for the talk. Over
the next year your students work a total of about twenty thousand
hours for your department. If your training efforts result in a
1 percent improvement in your associates' performance, your company
will gain the equivalent of two hundred hours of work—all
as the result of your four hours of effort.
If you accept that training is an important tool in improving the
performance of your team members, and that what you teach must be
closely tied to what you practice, you can see that training should
be a continuing process rather than a one time event, and that you
should be very slow to delegate training to anyone else.
Training must be done by a person who is a believable, practicing
authority on the subject taught—a person who is well versed
in all the pitfalls that can affect performance—and who
has a vested interest in making sure that students know and perform
with sufficient skill.
That vested interest is important.
Who is responsible for the output of your department? Not an experienced
operator who can show other team members the ropes. That experienced
operator may have an important role to play, and may be a valuable
ally in passing along his or her expertise.
But ultimately, if a team member falls short, responsibility falls
on your shoulders. On the other hand, if you build a team of
superior workers, who regularly meet and surpass the company's requirements,
this accrues to your credit.
Now, who do you think should be involved in the training?
What should you do before you commence
training?
- Make
a list of all the things you feel your colleagues should be trained
in. Don't limit the scope of your list. Yes, you wish to
make sure that your team are technically competent. People can
hardly be given too much information. More often, they are not
given enough. Your team members should know the results of the
work they are doing, and the consequences of work that is sub-par.
Tell them about your internal or external customers, and how these
people rely on the work your team performs to make them effective.
Bring one of these customers to a training session, and have them
explain their needs. It can go a long way to instill a sense of
responsibility for the important work your team members are doing.
Give everyone on your team an excellent reason for performing
productive, quality work.
- Ask the people in your department what they
feel they need. They may surprise you by talking of needs you
never would have thought about.
- Plan the training in broad outline, and list
what you will demonstrate, a session at a time. You may find that
skills you have honed over many years, are harder to explain than
to practice.
- Guess who will learn most from the training?
You! It is an axiom of teaching that the teacher always learns
more than the pupil. The crispness that preparation for training
gives to your understanding of your own work is likely in itself
to make the effort worthwhile. The training will keep you sharp;
remind you of the hundred and one things that you had half forgotten,
but about which you now have to refresh yourself, to pass them
on to your team.
- You will find that seeing a team member practice
something you have taught him, competently, is nothing short of
exhilarating. Relish that exhilaration. By helping a team member
learn and know something that you know well, you are increasing
your own effectiveness, and leveraging your own knowledge and
experience, to be used by others who can help you and your department
grow.
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