There is no doubt that people training is very important, but how big is its real impact? what is the return on investment?
These are increasingly relevant questions, now that even functional training includes relationship and motivational aspects and it becomes increasingly difficult to quantify its effectiveness.
It happened to all of us: you go to a training course, learning a lot of new ideas, you complete a course full of good intentions, with well-outlined action plans to implement the notions acquired and what happens next?
You go back to business, you are overwhelmed by routine, stuck with work patterns, the company does not give the right support for change, and so maybe 20% of the acquired ideas are implemented, despite good initial intentions. You know what to do but you never find time or motivation to do it.
It’s easy to understand why this happens: changing is always difficult, you have to get out of your comfort zone etc etc..the point is how to prevent this from happening so as to safeguard the person’s development and the investment made by the company?
The coach can be that external resource that puts a mirror in front of you and helps you make that first step towards implementing your action plan.
The coach simply listens and asks challenging questions: by doing so, the coach helps people to understand
- The real reasons behind the desired change
- The obstacles to change
- The actions needed to make the motivation emerge in the form of actions and resources
- The actions needed to remove the obstacles
Not only. The coach will make the person aware of being able to find all the resources needed to make the desired plan happen. And this awareness remains a key point for building leadership.
Of course one can argue: is coaching really necessary? At the end we are talking about adult people, often responsible for departments and business processes, sent to training with a clear purpose?
You know my answer. To help you answer, I ask you: what has been the impact of training in your company over the last 3 years? How much did it meet your expectations?