Working with Others

I have had the pleasure of building a learning team from scratch at one company and rebuilding a learning team from the ground up at another. However, that is nothing compared to next week’s guest on the Making Better Podcast, Brian Morrison.

Brian has started learning teams at four companies and you can get early access to the full interview here.

One important part of the discussion centered around utilizing other people in the organization as part of your learning team. When resources are scarce, this is one of the best ways to have an impact. But how to you do this effectively?

I have found that there are three essential steps.

Be transparent about your priorities

When you are getting help from others, it is because you are saying that the project isn’t valuable enough for your team to focus on. People deserve to know why that is. Know what your priorities are and why, so you can explain them.

Build templates

We have all spent way too much time re-formatting poorly created slide decks. As much as training isn’t all about slide decks, they will never go away. Creating a good template for what a training presentation should look like is a great way to make sure the things people send you look a lot better from the beginning.

Be a coach

Don’t expect that people in the business will be great at teaching others right from the start. Take the time to work with them on their learning objectives, evaluations, course organization, etc. Not only will the training be better, but you will also build strong relationships in the process.

No training team can do it all. How effective you are at utilizing people outside the training team will determine how much impact you can have on the business.