Many managers are not getting the highest ROI from their staffs’ attendance at any training event. Typically, the manager asks the employee to attend an event with little discussion about why. Or the employee asks to take a class or go to a conference and the manager approves it — again with little, if any, discussion beforehand.
And the only follow up afterwards is a perfunctory, “How was the class?” A “Good” response will suffice. Or maybe a manager, thinking s/he is holding the learner accountable, tells the staff person to “report on the best ideas” from the course.
There is virtually no accountability to the learner for an action plan to apply the new ideas. They get of the hook by merely reporting the good ideas, not implementing them.
That can change with three brief conversations between the learning and his/her manager. Email me if you’d like the free 7-page “Pre- and Post-Training Discussion Guide for Learners’ Managers” to how to get more ROI from your staffs’ attendance at learning events.
(P.S. If you are the learner and want to have your attendance at learning events approved more often, take the initiative to set up these 3 meetings with your boss.)