How to get your people better at doing stuff

There are so many terms and labels for getting good at things; performance management, people development, capability building, learning & development and training, to name some of the most common, simply put, we are talking about how to get people better at doing stuff. We know people are the most important resource in our organisation. In fact, they are the organisation! Their improvement and development is one of, if not the biggest opportunities for our organisation's success.

It is easy to forget this when the reality becomes being locked in a training room for a couple of days to ‘learn’ topics that are not of obvious benefit to someones job (you know the topics). Even worse when compulsory training gets in the way of people actually doing their job, and people begin pleading for time off before the course has started. In my experience, it is now common for trainers to add a buffer of time at the end that will be bargained away, and ensure attendees remain positive (this is so crazy!).

So, if that is the worst, what could great development of your people look like? Despite my flippant snapshot above, this is a complex area and there are some incredible practitioners out there to help steer you. To give you some pointers, I have come up with some key points to consider when you are looking to help your people get better at doing stuff.

1. Identify the 'Stuff'

What is the stuff you want them to get better at doing? Suffice to say, the more specific you can be with the 'stuff' the easier it is to address. Resilience training is very popular at the moment, along with ambition, persistence, influence, confidence and so on. These are some really important behaviours, but unless you tether it to what someone is actually doing in their job (or spare time) it is going to be incredibly difficult to embed and demonstrate development let alone know how to improve it.

Take sales training as an example, generic training may be interesting but to enable people to really get better at sales, it needs to be specific and relevant to their role, whether that is selling exhibition space to industry leaders, soft drinks to supermarkets or infrastructure to governments, this will be a difference in approach. 

2. Think About Your People

Think about the end user, the people who’s performance you are looking to improve, their mindset, how busy they are, their KPI’s, their interests. What is it that motivates them and are they motivated to improve the area you’ve identified. This is important because their interest dictates how you address the ‘stuff’ to improve.

What motivates your people to develop? The desire to progress their career, the motivation to be recognised as the best at their job, the drive to change careers or simply an understanding of how to complete their day job in a more efficient way.

On the flip side is compliance, organisations spend a good deal of money to ‘train’ (more often complete) online content to ensure they are compliant on their IT security, fire safety, anti-fraud commitment, etc.... The issue with this is the vast majority of employees retain very little from this compliance; it is the very definition of a tick box exercise both figuratively and usually literally.

3. Consider the When

Timing is everything. Learning by doing isn’t new thinking but it is still very relevant. The newer adaptation is learning in the flow of work, the idea that people can improve without stopping their day job. If you want to learn more about timing, the '5 Moments of Need' model devised by Bob Mosher and Conrad Gottfredson sets out that there are 'moments' when learners can be supported to complete tasks more efficiently and effectively. Practically, you should think about when people need support to do the ‘stuff’ better. Examples being when people start a new job, the introduction of a new system or the section of role which is consistently inefficient. 

4. Join the Dots

Once you have worked through the 3 points above, you then need to think about how to address the ‘stuff’ you want people to get better at. My personal favourite L&D book ‘How People Learn’ written by Nick Shackleton-Jones (2019) is a strong recommendation from me. Nick sets out some brilliant theory behind people’s ability to learn, but he also talks about how people do not need to learn everything. In fact, a lot of the time resources like checklists and cheat sheets are far more effective at the moment of need compared to mandatory 'learning'.

5. Impact

The last point to consider, which is probably the most important and overlooked, is to measure the impact. This is to say, how much did people get better and how are you measuring it, one of my preferred models is Kirkpatrick's (1959) but there are others available.

If you are thinking about your people's development this is meant as starting point but clearly there is a lot more complexity and depth behind this. If you would like to know more about how to ‘get people better at stuff’ I'd love to hear from you.

Kirkpatrick, D. L. (1959). Techniques for Evaluation Training Programs. Journal of the American Society of Training Directors, 13, 21-26

Mosher, B & Gottfredson, C. 5 moments of need - https://www.5momentsofneed.com/about.htm

Shackleton-Jones, N (2019) How People learn - https://www.koganpage.com/product/how-people-learn-9780749484705