The changing trainer
by Andrew Mayo

Most readers will know of Martyn Sloman, the adviser for learning and development at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. He has just published a new book called The Changing World of the Trainer: Emerging Good Practice, which is essentially the product of ongoing research at the CIPD into contemporary learning practice.

Although his postulation of ‘a shift from training to learning ‘ has always seemed a little odd to me – since it is not a question of one or the other – we can readily see where it comes from. Functions are more likely to use the label ‘learning and development ‘ today, and there has been a steady emphasis on self directed learning, especially using technology-based programmes and learning resource centres. Learning from others around us has extended beyond the workplace to the ubiquitous use of external coaches. Knowledge-management tools and techniques provide unprecedented opportunities for sharing and tapping into the learning of others.

It is our breadth of understanding and exploitation of the range of learning methods that is perhaps the real shift.

One quite powerful piece of research that the book reports concerns 17 facilitated workshops held in seven different countries, in which practitioners were asked for the most important L&D challenge they faced today. A dozen or so familiar themes emerged – but the top four were ‘developing a learning culture’ (behaviours and motivation), ‘getting management buy-in’ (to learning variety as opposed to tick-in-the-box training courses), ‘overcoming barriers to learning’ (the main one being seen as ‘time‘) and ‘analysing learning and development needs’ (particularly being business driven).

I want to offer a few thoughts about the second one of these – which actually scored highest as an issue in another piece of research that is quoted. There is a natural dichotomy between the level of thinking about a subject by the day to day operational manager, and the specialist in that subject – who thinks about it all day every day. Most functional specialists therefore perceive most line managers as lacking sufficient concern for their area. There are always exceptions; line managers with a particular enthusiasm for people assessment, or training, or finance, or IT, or some other niche. But generally the line manager is bombarded on all sides for attention, and is drawn into processes and initiatives which he or she may see as peripheral to the ‘real job‘.

In my last corporate job, I learned this lesson very clearly. I had taken my organisation and renamed it from ‘staff training’ to ‘the learning consultancy‘, and the whole team of 30 or so equipped themselves with consultant skills. We abandoned the course schedules, assigned account managers for the various parts of the organisation, and off we went to seek the learning needs that would help each business. To our dismay, we realised quickly that our intense re-think of what constituted effective learning had no counterpart with even the HR practitioners, let alone line managers. So it was back to the drawing board to think about how to achieve a cultural change that would shift people’s narrow view of training to the broader one of learning styles and options.

First, we had to patiently set up workshops where managers could learn and share about the learning process, and explore the many components that can make it effective. This knowledge opened up needs for new skills, in observing, analysing, giving feedback, setting objectives, assigning work challenges, coaching and so on. In parallel we looked at the processes, such as personal development plans, and redesigned them to support the workshop concepts.

Culture is encapsulated as 'the way do things around here‘. Processes dictate most of our practices, running in parallel with attitudes and behaviours. Thinking about learning is usually only at the top of people’s consciousness – whether manager or not – when a need is felt. But if they are working within a culture that values learning day by day, where all have ‘learnt about learning‘, we will find a complex and varied web of ‘learning curves‘ taking place around the organisation, quite independently of what training courses may be run. Then we won’t be worrying about ‘management buy-in‘.

This article was published in the May 2007 issue of Training Journal and is reproduced with kind permission. If you would like any further information please contact the author via this page.