RAC - Training Effectiveness

• Course: SPIN selling class

• Date: 9-11 Sep 08

• Location: Taipei

• # of Learners: 24

• I am feeling: OK

• Course: SPIN coaching class

• Date: 12 Sep 08

• Location: Taipei

• # of Learners: 8

• I am feeling: so-so

My experience in Taipei again posted the question to myself – How effective is classroom training alone?

In the classes last week, quite a few learners were significantly distracted by work i.e. attending conference call, going out to see clients, coming back late to class. And in one class, I even had a few ‘wrong’ learners. They simply did not have the necessary knowledge for the class. Coming to the class is a waste of their (and fellow learners’) time.

And when I looked at the learners at the end of the classes, I really had doubt whether they will try out their learning in class. I doubt how many line managers would care to simply ask about the learners’ learning from the class.

Yes, we can say that it is more about how we execute the classroom training. But it is also about the underlying stakeholder engagement (i.e. how much does the business want to have these classroom training? How prepared are they to put in place behaviour-changing consequence?). It is also about the follow-up work, essentially day-to-day coaching by the line managers.