Self Development Toolkit

Demonstrate Commitment to Reinforcement
Train-to-Ingrain changes the way training and performance improvement programs are perceived. Traditionally, learning programs have been thought of as interventions, solutions, activities, or events that address performance shortfalls. The Train-to-Ingrain perspective sees performance improvement as an ongoing process in which the three key partners of the Learning Triangle—trainers, participants and participants’ managers—are involved in individual performance improvement as an aspect of everyday work. Assessment, training and follow-up reinforcement programs are a part of that process.
Far from being a flavor-of-the-week quick fix or a “magic bullet” solution, Train-to-Ingrain envisions that an organization’s entire system needs to come into alignment to support performance improvement. Along the way, your organization may need to change a variety of things: new technologies, new mindsets, new roles for managers, and very likely some policies and practices. As always in the case of implementing change, you’ll have to earn the support of all levels of management.
This kind of commitment usually builds because a knowledgeable champion who owns responsibility for training and performance improvement understands the issues and wants to do something about it. Using this guidebook and other resources, this influential person educates executives up front and gains their commitment. The failure to get top management involved is likely to doom an organization’s prospects for installing Train-to-Ingrain.
Top-down commitment needs to be tangible and visible. Executive actions need to include:
Making sure that managers understand why a reinforcement-intensive approach is necessary and why a new approach to performance improvement will be taken Communicating to managers that they are expected to function as performance coaches for their direct reports. If needed, give them training to prepare them for this role Improving aspects of your organization’s policies and practices when it is discovered that they discourage on-the-job application of newly learned concepts and skills Clarifying expectations for results, to include measuring performance improvement and defining accountability Acquiring compatible behavior-based programs that work together to support assessment, training and reinforcement
Initially, getting managers on board can be a significant challenge. For one thing, there’s always resistance to change. A traditional mindset among managers is the notion that employee development isn’t their job. Their rationale is that the organization pays learning professionals to take care of training and development. Other managers may object to the costs of putting a new program in place. Still others won’t understand the problem. Your senior executives will decide which strategies work best to get the message across:
Meetings and briefings Presentations by experts Sending the message in a variety of media: email, web, video, newsletters, and memoranda Workshops for managers to customize your organization’s approach to Train-to-Ingrain and create a plan for implementation Expectations incorporated into managers’ job descriptions and performance reviews Appearances in courses to emphasize importance Setting an example by modeling desired skill
	For more information, contact ALD, Inc. at 208-762-1322 or email us at info@ald-inc.com