I recently designed and delivered a session on strategic business planning skills. The topic had been trained for the two prior years but with little success; either the training was too “numbers focused” or too high on the “feelings” barometer. Also, like so many training programs, after the sessions, people failed to take action.

The Performance Problem:
From my initial client meeting I gathered that there was a potential lack of skill, a planning form that was 18 (yes 18 pages!) and little change in behavior after the training due to a lack of follow-up and accountability on the part of the managers.

Solution:
Given the above challenges, I designed a three hour session built on interactivity, sharing of knowledge and accountability through peer-to-peer coaching. First, I worked with the stakeholder to streamline the planning document. And I mean STREAMLINE by turning it into essentially five core pages of information. I felt that possibly some of the reason why the employees were not completing the document was because it was frankly, too daunting. I felt the process was similar to doing year-end taxes and we know how much we love to do those!!

Secondly, I created a lively session that focused on group work. I broke each section of the business plan into discrete components. Participants gathered to discuss a component, including sharing ideas of what they had done in the past. Once the group talked, I brought the discussion to the larger group and more ideas were shared. When the section was completed, participants moved around to work with a different set of people. This in essence got participants to interact with many different people with many different ideas, perspectives and experiences. During the session, it was often difficult to get people to stop talking and sharing (exactly what I wanted to happen)!!

Thirdly, at the end of the session, each person chose a peer to hold accountable and hold them accountable. I felt it was much more likely that participants would take action if someone was going to call them on it.

Results:
All six sessions went great and initial feedback has been VERY positive. It will be interesting to see how 2015 business results are affected by this training. My session design was not by accident; it was a thoughtful process intended on changing performance…and that my friends is the beauty and art of instructional design.