Basic training
Today’s blog is inspired by three events that have occurred over the last month.
Our daughter joined the army. Her ultimate goal is to be a lawyer and she sees the army as a great way to gain an education whilst also building camaraderie and (it has to be said) saving money!
My wife and I caught up with friends for a walk and brunch. We talked about children, holidays, the weather (we’re British, so we started with this) and work.
I met my friend and fellow culture obsessive Shane Hatton for lunch. As well as catching up we talked about the things that we are seeing in our work currently.
So what’s the common thread between these events? Basic training.
When you join the army - regardless of what you wish to do - you have to do 13 weeks of basic training, which is literally that. How to march, how to iron, how to dress, how to polish shoes, how to cook, how to collaborate, how to fire a weapon (😰) and so on. They don’t assume that you already have the knowledge. They teach everyone the same thing in exactly the same way, so that everyone has the same practical skills and there is consistency and discipline around the way things are done.
The day before we caught up with our friends, he had been on a ‘mandatory’ email training course. He was taught when to write an email, when not to write, when to copy people in (and not), the language to use and of course, the language not to use. His general feeling was ‘it was fine, but it would’ve been better when I started with the organisation’ as habits were now ingrained.
When Shane and I caught up, the single biggest opportunity that most organisations stillI have, is training their managers on how to be managers. When Shane wrote Let’s Talk Culture, one of the statistics that he and the research team uncovered was that only 3% of people leaders said they feel completely confident in their ability to build great culture. Yet, these are the people that are the difference between success and failure.
When it comes to work, I can’t emphasise enough the importance of basic training. This should start at induction into a new organisation/team and be updated regularly to ensure that consistency is maintained.
Development is not an exercise to be overlooked, every employee expects it. Neither can you ‘set and forget’ i.e. send everyone on a training program and assume that’s it. Forever.
Of course, there is a cost to basic training and if you are lucky enough to have it, it’s generally the first thing to get cut when money is tight!
Yet the ROI is compelling. Organisations investing in training achieve 218% higher income per employee and 24% higher profit margins than those that don't. MIT Sloan research demonstrated that a 12-month soft skills programme delivered 250% return within eight months. Companies with robust basic training programmes also experience 12% productivity increases and significantly lower turnover costs.
Email is a great example. Almost every office-based team that I work with complains not only about the quantity of email, but also the quality too. When I ask how much time it consumes, it’s anything from 5-25 hours per week! Yet, when I ask how many hours were spent training them on how the organisation uses it, it’s almost always zero. The same applies to meetings.
It’s a fact that organisations will invest millions in acquiring new technology, yet almost nothing on the basic skills required to not only use the technology, but also improve how people work together to get the maximum value from it.
If you work in learning and development this is your greatest opportunity for legacy building. Create a program to provide everyone with a basic skill level to make life at work easier and more predictable.
Everyone wants to do the best they can with what they have, which is only possible if ‘what they have’ is fit for purpose for your organisation and the goals that you have. Without that, then you can expect to continually struggle with ‘the basics’.
If you’re looking to train your managers on creating an environment of continual success, then drop me a note to find out about my Management Mastery programme.
