Organizational development training strategies are a chore to design and implement. Nobody in any industry or corporate culture would begin to try to debate otherwise. With so many things to consider, the worst of which being human element, it’s a logistical headache, and one of the greatest trials of leadership in general.
But, organizational learning and training are very valuable, required capacities in any growing or evolving company, so it’s not something we can just dismiss as “well if it wasn’t such a pain”. What, then should intrepid leaders in the business world do? It is a veritable rock and hard place. But, the light at the end of this tunnel is thankfully not an oncoming train, like many in leadership would expect.
How to Develop Organizational Development Training Strategies
Here are three key tips to getting started with and planning out organizational development training strategies.
#1 – Unition of Goals
First and foremost, take a look at the goals of your organizational development. First, note the state of knowledge and capacity of your department or departments currently, and weigh it against what is needed as a result of the training.
Use this weighing to quantify how much learning must actually be accomplished over the time allotted. When you have a defined metric for this, the next steps in planning are going to be far simpler, with units like this allowing for division of efforts and setting time lapse goals over the time undergoing training.
As a leader, you’re likely familiar with measurements and metrics development in other areas, so it should come as no surprise that this concept is invaluable here as well
#2 – Departmentalization
There’s a whole training model based around departmentalization, but that model is usually for larger organizations in which multiple scaled departments or teams exist. If this isn’t the case, you probably won’t follow that model. Nonetheless, no matter what model (custom or widely known) you choose to follow overall, departmentalization to some level is kind of necessary for efficiency.
Recall your formal education in school and university, and all of the superfluous information you were required to absorb alongside that which you had a clear and defined use for in your chosen future career. How much time, stress and grade duress would you have been spared, had this superfluous information been mercifully omitted from your curriculum? This is where departmentalization of your training material spares this in a working environment. Look at your departments, teams or individuals, depending on scale. Which information is pertinent to which units? Focus on these units learning these specific aspects, and if time remains, give them extra material only if it’s semi-relatable, or pertinent to other units with which they directly interact.
With the unitizing you did previously, this is much easier to do, see?
#3 – Leniency
When planning your strategy, factor in the human element. Chances are, your employees are already hard-working, and have a lot on their plate. It’s a very bad idea to give them extra work in the form of this training. Assigning what is essentially homework or a heavier daily workload is ill-advised, as it will stress employees.
Companies have lost employees over this mistake historically, as employees already work 40+ hours a day and will not tolerate working doubly hard for the same salary or wage, nor will they tolerate their free time being impinged upon.
So, with your departmentalization and unition place, work out a way to disperse the training throughout workdays in a way that it replaces menial tasks they perform as filler. They will be glad for a break in routine, more often than not, and will not be overworked, as the same workload and time remains.
Be lenient also in demands for their speed of learning. Different people learn differently and at different paces, regardless of intelligence. Also, some people are inclined to understanding some things better than others. Do not chastise anyone for difficulty or slow going if the material just doesn’t naturally gel for them.
Conclusion
When planning out organizational development training strategies, these are the three key things to keep in mind, and once you’ve gotten these factored in, you can easily pick out a model or models which in conjunction, more than suit your needs.
Readers interested in learning more about organizational training should consider these five factors.