Training as a Solution to a Problem Situation

I am in training domain and I am drawn to provide training as a solution to almost every problem that comes my way. But, at an individual level or at an organizational level, it may  not be prudent to rush to training as an immediate solution for any problem situation. As is widely perceived, training can be a solution to any requirement or problem situation that has resulted due to lack of knowledge or knowledge gap. For other problem situations, we may have to look for coaching, mentorship, counselling, etc.

The problem situations could be any of the given below:

1. Non-performance
2. New technology
3. Employees dissatisfaction
4. Change in leadership
5. Market competition and many more..

whenever such situations occur, the organization hires or asks its internal Organization Change Management (OCM) team to assess the situation and suggest the appropriate solution. It is very important for the change managers/agents to completely analyze all aspects of an organization such as environment, stakeholders, risks, audience, technology, etc. before suggesting a solution.

One look at the above given problem situations, and we can quickly deduce training to be a solution for problem situations arising due to non-performance and new technology. This is because, it is very apparent that with relevant training, the performance of the employees can be improved and a new technology can be taught.

However, if we look at other problem situations, training may not be a direct solution but can be a change factor. With right kind of training in place, we can bring around a situation to be more favorable one to accept any change. This brings us to understand two types of trainings: Targeted training and Affective training.

Targeted trainings are those that are conducted for immediate effect on employees performance. Examples of targeted trainings are subject related/Technical trainings that are intended to improve the subject knowledge of the employees.

Affective trainings are those that are conducted on a periodic basis to influence the feelings, general behavior, and attitude of employees. Examples of affective trainings are soft skill trainings.

Now let’s take a look at the problem situations given above and possible gaps in performance /behaviour and which training we can use to fill the gap.

Please note that affective training may or may not bring desired results and the change in behaviour immediately or within specified period of time. However, these trainings should be conducted on a regular basis to the wide spectrum of audience and should be repeated after a certain duration for re-inforcement.

Let’s understand more about targeted and affective trainings through the difference table given below: