Designing a training program

In the previous post, I covered the process that one needs to follow for conducting a Training Needs Analysis. If you are familiar with the instructional design workflow, the next step after ananysis, is design. O in this post we will look at the process that a training professional needs to follow for designing a training program.

The main purpose of the design phase is two fold:

1. Create the overall program plan/schedule
2. Create the program development guidelines

Designing a training program is a very different cup of team when compared to analyzing a training need. While analysing you will be more concerned with the data, is it correct, is it all there, what does it mean etc. The design phase is in stark contrast as it is a very creative process. It builds upon the analysis done previously and uses the information of the training needs, audience profile, and the knowledge of various training strategies and techniques to create a blue print of the program structure.

It is very important to realise that creating a good training design is like making a work of art. It is a highly creative process, and is more often than not requires a lot of brainstorming. It is a very iterative process as there are constant Starts and Stops, blocks, backtracking, fast forwarding, and freezing involved. During all of this chaos and confusion it is important to remember that you are working like an artist, and all artists know that chaos and confusion sometimes go hand in hand with art and creativity. You will also need to trust that your analysis has prepared you to bring together the varied training strategies into a coherent training program.

Anyways, you can use the following steps to take you through the design phase. Once again I hope this helps.

1. Create the program guidelines
   
   • You will need to define the program guidelines in terms of goals, objectives, subject matter, assessment plans, and the mode of delivery
2. Decide if the training program needs to be created internally, or can it be outsourced
   
   • You will need to evaluate if the expertise to develop this program is available internally, or would you need to outsource it and also the costs involved
3. Next you need to design the "Instructional events" and "Instructional flow" for the training program
   
   • Your instructional events can be broadly categorized into prework, in-program, postwork, and support events
   • the creation of instructional flows allows you to bring your instructional events together
4. Next, you need to create a design blueprint
   
   • You will need to select, sequence, and create a timeline of the Instructional events and flows
5. Convert the blueprint into a development guideline
   
   • Guidelines are specifications that lay the groundwork on which writers, software developers, and graphic designers will use to develop training modules, sestions and learning events
6. Flesh out the project plan created during the analysis phase
   
   • You will now add more specific milestones to the project plam, identify specific people who will work on this program, and specify budgets
7. Finally, create a design document
   
   • This document will summarize the findings of the design phase and should be used to present to the decision makers as a progress report

In my career, I have always found the design phase to be the most exciting and the most rewarding phase in the life cycle of creating a training program. Personally, if you ask me this is the most important and the most influential phase in the life cycle.

Analysis of the Training Need

More often than not, Training Need Analysis is the most overlooked phase when it comes to creating a training program. In this post, I will try to cover some of the basic concepts that can be used to analyze training needs quickly, efficiently, and effectively.

The first step to starting a Training Needs Analysis is to understand the purpose of the exercise. A Training Needs Analysis exercise should help you answer the following questions:

1. What is the organization’s need?
2. Who is the target audience?
3. Is training a cost effective method of addressing the need?
4. If yes, then how are you going to train them?

The exercise of finding answer(s) to each of the above questions is called, Training Needs Analysis. Now let us see how we can go about answering these questions. You can follow the below mentioned steps to get the answers for the above-mentioned question:

1. Before starting the analysis, get an approval from your internal or external customer
• This helps you in identifying the commitment of the customer, and how strong is the training need
2. Understand and document the desired performance level
• This step helps you in identifying the needs and expectations of:
  
1. The Organization
2. The Customer
3. The Target Audience
3. Analyze the performance gap between the current and desired performance levels
• The identification of this gap will help you ascertain if a training intervention is required or not.
4. If a training intervention is required, then create a project plan
• Identify the time, budget, and effort required to complete this project
5. Create a broad level outline of the subject matter
• This will help in setting the stage for the design phase
6. Identify the learning needs of the target audience
• This help in identifying the appropriate learning strategy for the design phase
7. Finally, document the analysis conducted in a summary report
• This report will help the customer and the organization get a summary of your findings in the analysis of their training needs
  

Whenever I have to conduct a Training Need Analysis, I am always reminded of the first time I tried doing it. Based on the identification of the organization’s needs, I ended up creating a project plan without analyzing my target audience. In the very first session I realized, that the supervisors of my target audience should have also been included in the training program. Aah, the good old days of economic boom… when you could afford to make such errors and keep the job…

Indecisive

I don't know what to write anymore, so here goes nothing

I stare at the screen, thinking of something to write,
and the screen stares back, hoping that this time, I might,

I am confused and uncertain, I want to write something that rocks,
But right now I just stare at the keyboard, is this a writers block?

I am pondering, if it should be an essay, a sonnet, a poem, or a song,
then I can't decide, if I should keep it short or make it really long,

If that was not enough, these useless bunch of words need to be named,
As my motivation drops, I realize no one will read them, all the same,

But then, I write for myself, and not for fortune or riches,
though secretly I wish, to be one of those rich sons of bitches,

Who make their living, writing insanely stupid stuff,
18 till I die sells, and I am finding this tough?

oh man, i just realized that I have almost written a song,
Never mind, it's just a sonnet, cos it is fourteen lines long.

Tales from a land far far away

Hi people, this post is from one of my secret blogs. It was a secret in one of my previous organizations, but now I feel I can finally share these experiences with the public at large. I had other partners in crime too, but I shall be copying only the posts that are mine. I will also be saving them with the same date as they were actually created. So, in case you want to read my misadventures, please follow the label marked "Tales from a land far far away"... hop you guys enjoy this :)

Chennai...

I have been in Chennai for more than a week now. One of the first things that struck me is that the weather over here is so pleasant. I am told tat this year the weather gods have been kind. The temperature never seems to go beyond 35 degrees. It is really amazing for a Delhiite who is used the temperature never being below 35 degrees at this time of the year.

Another thing that I have noticed, people in Chennai specialize in looking... how should I put it??? For they have been nice to me... Let's just say they specialize in looking untidy. I am sorry, I couldn't be nicer. Trust me, it is not that they are ugly, but that they are unfashionable. You'll be looking at a woman, and thinking, if only she got her hair straightened, if only she weren't wearing those obnoxious spectacles, if only... oh forget it... I don't think you could teach them fashion if they were born and brought up in Milan and Paris. It is almost like the mirror is meant to look at ways to make yourself look more dorky. You can't even blame them, I mean, have you seen their fashion idols??? Rajanikanth, Mamooty!!! Back home in Delhi, I know people who would murder you if you said they looked like them. They will still kill you if you try and say that their father looks like either of the two. These guys strive to be like them.

But one thing I liked about Chennai, unlike Bangalore, if a place is a mere 12 kilometers away, you do not hear them saying that it's very far off. Just like back home in Delhi, every place is just 45 minutes away at max. :D


Signing off now...

We're still around...

It is not like we have quit InfoWhat, nor is it that this place has become sane now, the thing is that we have already provided you with enough specimens of this place's obnoxious antics and people that if we were to write about them on a daily or weekly basis it would start sounding more like a crib than anything else. So now, we try and limit our posts to very special incidents. Like the one that follows...

Yesterday, I had never thought I would see it happen again, but it happened... G Dude brought another bouquet to work. I was feeling very sleepy, so I decided to catch some sleep at my seat. I was drifting in and out of never never land. I was dreaming about a workplace where I had a room of my own and with a large desk, and there was this phone on my desk that suddenly started ringing. I realized I was dreaming and that the phone was ringing in the real world at my current desk. So, sleepily I answered.

"Harkirat"

"Sir ji, Giri Sir hain?"

So I looked at G Dude and said, "It's for you"

He comes to the phone and says, "Hello... huh?? ... Acha aa raha hoon."

I went back to sleep. I wanted a good look at my room and desk... maybe it was a premonition. Then I heard Rupi say "Aaj phir se women's day hai kya?", I jolted upright... I was thinking "what the fuck? It has to be an annual event... it can't be bimonthly, or have i been here so long to not to have realized that over an year has passed... Maybe I'm still dreaming... I should pinch myself." Then the G Dude says, "Nahi yeh Wonder Woman ke liye hain".

Everyone in the room had a huge question mark on their face... O.K., granted she came back after a two week vacation... but why the fuck would you get her flowers for that???

Then he goes to Fag Man and says, "Aap do na unhe." Fag Man said "give it yourself". So he says, "Wonder Woman ma'am yeh aapke liye, Iran jaisi jagah se theek thaak waapis aa gaye na, is liye."

Please find attached a snapshot of the flowers he gave to Wonder Woman.

Some people are alive, only because it is illegal to kill.