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When I was sixteen, I wanted my driver’s license and I didn’t want to wait. There were places to go, things to see, I didn’t have time to wait.  What I really wanted was for someone to slide a license across the desk, walk me over to my [Dad’s] car and rattle off a few facts to me: such as:
“…over here is the gas pedal; here is the brake; and these three things here, they are your mirrors; from time to time, objects in the side ones are larger or closer than they appear.  ‘Stop’ is an important sign and get used to this whole traffic light concept.  Oh and in case you forget, here’s a binder of things you need to know in order to use the car.  Enjoy!”

So… that didn’t happen for obvious reasons. I needed a lot more: most new drivers do.  I needed training, skilled coaching, and practice in a controlled environment.  Most parents of a 15 or 16 year old would cringe at the thought of my wish being a reality.

Ironically, it is often those same people who will easily allocate thousands of dollars of their company’s money to have their planners or forecasters sit through a week of training (or more) on the features and functions of software and (of course) “the binder of all the other things you need to know to be successful.”  Yes. a 700 page binder for an overworked, planner who is constantly interrupted, and doesn’t have time to flip through anything. Yes, a 700 page generic binder to help your planner manage a multi-million dollar book of business.

These managers don’t have the time or resources to spare for intensive training; they don’t associate the feature-only training with the lack of performance they see in their planners. When they do see a decrease, they throw up their hands and say, “well, what else can I do? We’ve sent them to training at the vendor.”

Don’t fault the vendor too much – customers haven’t looked hard enough either at what they’ve been getting. To be even fairer, feature-function used to be enough.  Really. 

There was a time when the people who signed on to some of these projects (supply chain planning as an example) were visionaries. They were pioneers in defining processes so that was enough for them – they took it from there. This is not the case today. Many projects, upgrades, or even “refreshes” are managed not as strategic projects, but as “must do line items” with very, very tight budgets. No one can afford anything but “off the shelf” offerings from a vendor.  Further, the planners and visionaries have moved on and in their place are planners who just want to do their jobs very well, and go home.
Our flavor of training is different – because we researched this space and decided to do something about it. 

Only 32% of the participants we surveyed reported their planning teams achieving “some” benefit from training by the vendor.  One survey’s free form comments read, “[the training] was a bit over my head – a lot of it didn’t apply to me; but the shopping was great”

Our web-based, interactive, and planner-focused training is focused on the planner in the trenches.  We worry about making sure they understand what to use, when to use it and why they need to use it.  Our training is about making the content relevant so that the planner can do their job better. 

In closing.  Fight the binder!

Filed under: Supply Chain, eLearning