Here’s Your Job Aid For The New System. You Should Be All Set Now!
The field of organizational change management (OCM) has made great strides in demonstrating the value of engaging OCM resources as soon as an organization commits to a significant change. Despite this progress, the organizational change management team (OCM), which includes learning and development resources, often walks into an already baked project schedule. The outcome is a planning process and system implementation timeline that did not adequately account for the education effort required to get people on board.
First, the learning and development team need an opportunity to determine the scope of the training effort. How much time is there between testing, pilot, and launch? Has enough cushion been provided to develop training materials, re-tool them as necessary, and ready people to do their jobs with the new system? With a pre-baked timeline and no OCM input, learning and development resources often find themselves continuously “in the red,” doing their best to deliver quality training within an unrealistic project schedule (I have been known to refer to this as the training sandwich! Been there and done that!).
Second, training resources need time to evaluate existing training materials and to determine whether they need to be customized or augmented. Organizations often make the mistake of assuming that the training content delivered by the software company, such as job aids, as part of the negotiated contract, will meet their training needs. However, this generic content, while often good, typically lacks larger organizational context and related business processes, as well as interactive, engaging methods required for effective adult learning. The more complex a system is and the more integration it has with other systems and processes, increased the need for customization of out-of-the-box training content in order for it to be relevant and effective.
Finally, the effectiveness of training efforts can be greatly increased when OCM resources and stakeholders have access to a “play” or training environment. However, without early OCM input, upfront negotiations with software companies often overlook this need. Ultimately, every company introducing a new system wants adoption, but some often fail to make the necessary investment up front to support hands-on, interactive learning opportunities.
Handing folks a job aid and checking the training box can lead to frustration and perhaps cause people to just give up on a new system. Rather than jeopardizing the outcome of your system investment, engage organizational change management in the early planning phase to ensure that adequate time is allowed for training development and delivery to successfully move people to adoption.
Contact ChangeStaffing to learn how our organizational change management consultants can help your organization deliver effective training.
A special thanks to Mara Kershaw, a Strategic OCM Consultant and Coach, for her thought leadership and for collaborating with us on this blog.