Sometime, close to a battlefield over 200 years ago, a man in civilian clothes rode past a small group of exhausted battle-weary soldiers digging an obviously important defensive position. The section leader, making no effort to help, was shouting orders, threatening punishment if the work was not completed within the hour.
“Why are you not helping?” asked the stranger on horseback. “I am in charge. The men do as I tell them,” said the section leader, adding, “Help them yourself if you feel strongly about it.” To the section leader’s surprise the stranger dismounted and helped the men until the job was finished. Before leaving, the stranger congratulated the men for their work, and approached the puzzled section leader. “You should notify top command next time your rank prevents you from supporting your men – and I will provide a more permanent solution,” said the stranger. Up close, the section leader now recognised General Washington, and also the lesson he’d just been taught. That support or input from the General Washington changed the dynamic of the result.
Dear entrepreneur, it is common knowledge that business operates on the principle of input and output. In other words, to achieve a certain level of business improvement, a relevant input is important. That could be the small change for your most desire improvement.
Where business owners become dissatisfied with the level of output, the first point of call is the input, since the level of output is directly proportionate to the level of input. To create a new level of output, a business owner may be tempted to increase the input, but usually, the focus is on the physical inputs such as the material, machine, money or workers. Often, we are quick to focus on the tangible. As much as these will bring about our desire, it may not guarantee the optimal utilisation of the resources available.
Resources are optimised when the same level of input is used to achieve more output or when an increased level of input is used to achieve a more than proportionate increase in the level of output. This can be summarised as small change resulting in big improvement.
Training or perspective improvement is a vital tool in improving the output level in any organization without necessarily increasing the level of material input. It is a qualitative resource that can be used to derive optimal benefit from investments in other physical inputs. However, in order to make the big improvements a reality, an organisation will need to make small changes in the following areas.
Training strategy
An organization with a training strategy is better positioned to maximise the benefit of training. Having established the fact that the same level of input can be used to achieve an increased level of output, it is left to each business owner to sit back and design a strategy that will enable him or her make small changes which have the potential of great improvement in process, output, service delivery or product differentiation.
The tone at the top must be such that favours the need for deliberate and continuous training across all cadre of level workers within the organisation. This way, big improvements will be the order of the day.
Training budget
It is not enough to have a training strategy. A training budget must be in place to ensure full commitment of the management. The same way funds are allocated for procurement of materials and machines, resources must be set aside for training with tools put in place to effectively monitor the implementation of the budget across the specified period of time.
Training approach/delivery
A training plan details the approach and delivery of the training in line with the budget. The scope should be such that covers all hierarchy of staff across all functions in the organisation. Every process that has the potential for improvement should be explored using the tool of training. Training resources can be sourced from both within and outside the organization but the emphasis should be on injecting new knowledge that will drive improvement.
Feedback assessment
To derive optimal benefit from training programs, there is need to obtain feedback from the participants. Since the ultimate goal is improvement, a lot of flexibility is required in training delivery. The level of effectiveness of the training delivery can be measured through feedback assessment. The information gathered can form the basis for developing subsequent training plan thereby ensuring continuous improvement.
My encouragement in this edition is for you to see training from the perspective of investment and a long term benefit for business. Training refines and help the crude knowledge workers apply knowledge in a productive way. The small change from a trained team can significantly improve your business bottom line.
Victor Mamora
