Training providers adjusting to trends in learners' needs

      Two meetings last week reminded me of the utmost importance of understanding the needs of trainees, and revealed how recent trends are being reflected in major re-thinks by training providers of how they have traditionally delivered the information their stakeholders need.
      My business partner Susie Wood and I met with representatives of two major training providers, both professional membership organizations, to discuss their programs. We had perused their extensive suite of workshops and noted how carefully tailored they were to meet the needs of their very different member groups. We were, however, interested to note that matters relating to environment and sustainability were conspicuous by their absence in both sets of materials. Part of our discussions included canvassing how these organizations identified the strategic and operational issues affecting their members and the extent to which environment and sustainability featured in these.
      Our impressions from both meetings were very similar. Firstly, it was a great pleasure to engage with dedicated professionals who so clearly had their members' interests at heart: our meetings were enjoyable, informative and inspiring. Secondly, it was clear that in these unsettled times, the capacity of members to engage in training on their own behalf and to release their staff for training has been somewhat curtailed: people are reluctant to spend two whole days or even more, away from work. In fact, and this aligns with my own experience over the last two or three years, it's hard to get people to attend even a one-day workshop.
      As a result, both organizations were reviewing all of their training materials, carefully developed over many years based on members' needs and emerging issues, with the aim of reformatting many of them into half-day or even two-hour sessions. As I've also discovered as a result of some recent projects, this modular format lends itself to identifying a sequential series of learning steps that often build on some basic learnings which are common to several existing workshops on a given theme. On these basic learnings can be developed a modular series of workshops from which trainees and/or organization can select those that best meet their immediate needs. Such incremental steps reinforce and build on prior knowledge without tiresome repetition of important but basic knowledge.
      Different ways of engaging with members were emerging, more diverse than simply training, and information and awareness-raising were part of these: that is, people won't attend environment and sustainability training until they understand its direct and applied relevance to their work.
      Interestingly, in our discussions it became clear that while legal environmental compliance may be an issue for only some members of these two organizations, the business benefits of wider sustainability issues will, in different ways, affect them all.
      The ultimate lesson for us? The critical importance of focusing on trainees and their organization's business needs and making the case for why environment and sustainability meet personal, professional and organizational needs.  What fun!

Find out more about the technical work that informs the training Susie and I deliver here.