Participants Hard at Work at the ASTD Central Iowa Chapter Programming Event: "The Case of the Teflon Trainee"

Pictures of Terrance Donahue at the ASTD Central Iowa Chapter "The Case of the Teflon Trainee" Event

The Case of the Teflon Trainee Review

On July 9th, Terrence Donahue presented an eye-opening interactive workshop for the ASTD Central Iowa Chapter - The Case of the Teflon Trainee: Overcoming Obstacles to Make Your Training Stick. And for those who did not attend, you missed a very informative program about obstacles that prevent training from sticking and how to overcome them. Some of the highlights that can help training and management look at transfer of training more closely are:

• Consider the cost of unused training! Ask management what training actually costs. Ask them how much it will cost the company if training is not done. Finally ask them what the cost is if training was provided, but not used on the job.
• Form a performance partnership among trainers, managers, and employees. Training has a partnership with employees and management to assess the needs and train. Management partners with training and employees during and after the training. It should be managers who are responsible for performing Level 3 evaluations for determining if skills are being used at work. Employees have a partnership with trainers and managers to identify what they are to learn and how it will be applied on the job.

How can training help with this process? Why not train managers how to help their employees use the newly learned skills. Meet with management prior to training to discuss a plan of action for helping employees transfer skills to their jobs.

If you attended the workshop, please feel free to comment on more of the information you believe was pertinent to you.

What Is the Cost of Training to Your Company if Learners Are Only Applying 20% - 30% of What They Learned in Training?

The transfer of training is very important because the price of retraining a learner can be costly in the amount of lack of time on the job and retraining.

A question to consider prior to the July 9th ASTD Central Iowa Chapter event, "The Teflon Trainee: Overcoming Obstacles to Make Training Stick," by Terrence Donahue, is

"If your learners are only applying 20 - 30% of what they learned in training, what is the cost to your organization?"

Feel free to comment on the programming activity blog: http:\\astdiowaprograms.blogspot.com.

If you have not yet registered for the July 9th program, you can do so at http:\\www.astdiowa.org.

Terrence Donahue Interview: Part II

What should Training and Development professionals do to strengthen their case for training?

Mr. Donahue: Help executives and business leaders to understand 3 things...

1. The cost of training,
2. The cost of not training, and,
3. The cost of training provided that has not been applied on the job. This thrid item is a crucial conversation.

**************

What is your Myers-Briggs profile?

Mr. Donahue: ESTJ, but I'm a borderline introvert. I don't like being the center of attention, but really enjoy facilitating.

**************

How can a trainer make the most of his/her personality, and avoid worrying about some of the traits or characteristics s/he lacks?

Mr. Donahue: I try to remember that no matter what I do in Training and Development, my main product is the job performance of learners, so I focus on their ability to learn and apply the training. I like to ask trainers, "What is your product?" Interestingly, many of them have no idea; they don't know how to respond.

**************

On the Personal Side....

Terrence has 2 boys and 2 girls, all under 14 years old. When asked what his favorite family activity is, he said "Just talking with them - asking questions and listening." No doubt, home is where he's gained some of his best listening skills!

***************

Remember the question from Part I Is Terrence's favorite actor:
A) Will Smith
B) Charles Bronson
C) Bob Hope
D) Leonardo DiCaprio

If you guessed "C" Bob Hope, you're correct!

-- by Chris Ballew, Programming Committee