Not long ago a training consultant got a call from a sales manager who said, "We need sales training!" The consultant answered, "Are you sure?"

The caller explained that some of her customer service reps were doing four times the volume of work of others. It had to be because they were better salespeople ... right? So, the manager thought they needed sales training. The consultant agreed to help, but insisted on observing the company's top sales performers to get a better understanding of what sales techniques they were using. As it turned out, the top producers weren't better salespeople at all, but rather had developed a more effective method for processing customer transactions.

How do you identify that pocket of knowledge in your organization and train others to get it? Read more in this issue of Promotional Consultant Today.

Step One: Get real information from the right people. In stark contrast to getting only the leadership team or training department heads in a room, those designing training programs should invite the "boots on the ground." These are the top performers, the gurus and the go-to people everyone in the organization knows and relies on. A facilitator leverages a process by which they can extrapolate all that delicious institutional or "tribal" knowledge that exists only in their heads. This group may include:

  • That person on your team who's been in a role for six months to a year and really seems to get it. He or she provides a fresh perspective.

  • The go-to person who has been there forever. They provide historical knowledge about how the role has changed over the years.

  • Bring in someone who is not in the role, but close to it. This individual can provide an outsider's perspective and bring knowledge and experience to a different role.

  • Key stakeholders who are essential because they need the results. They are often your champions who need to understand the process and often support your budget.

Step Two: Create an occupational definition; prime their minds. Get everyone in the room focused on the role and get discussions about leadership, work ethics and good communication out of the way. Be prepared to document:

  • Reporting lines – Who does the role report to up, down and laterally.

  • Critical knowledge and skills – What specific skills are essential to doing the job well?

  • "Nice to have" abilities and traits – What type of person tends to perform well?

  • Learned but wasn't taught – What were those "aha moments" your group had on the job?

Step Three: Define the body of knowledge for peak performance. A duty/task matrix can be used to define the body of knowledge necessary to perform in the role.

Duties: This is a something that is top-of-mind for the role. It is ever-present while on the job and usually ends in "-ing."

Tasks: These are processes or procedures that have a beginning and end. They usually can have a metric associated with them. A defined task requires an object, verb and qualifier.

When you identify all the duties and the tasks required to fulfill a role, you've documented the entire body of knowledge used by your experts in the room.

Step Four: Understand the gaps and criticality: Now you need to know where the information is and what tasks have the highest impact on performance. Draft a gap analysis by going through the job task by task. Where is the documentation on how to perform this task? In HR? Marketing? Sales? Ops? Or is it in one of your expert's heads? Has it been passed down over time? If it's the latter, it's a gap! Then define what's most critical to the organization.

Step Five: Build your plan: You now have all the information you need to build your plan. You know what the role looks like, contained in your Occupational Definition. You know the body of knowledge that needs to be learned, as described in your Duty/Task Matrix. You know what exists and what doesn't, laid out in your Gap Analysis. And you know what information is critical to performance, as summarized in your Criticality Analysis. You can start to design and develop training around the gaps that really impact performance.

Source: Dan Black is the chief learning strategist at Tortal Training. He specializes in GSD – "getting stuff done" and is recognized in the industry as a "pleasantly disruptive force" that challenges conventional thinking on training and talent development.

Compiled by Cassandra Johnson