Over the past 13 years, I have had many requests to deliver our classroom program in other parts of the country. Unfortunately, the logistics of this type of program are difficult. We can’t do the work that needs to be done in a one-shot seminar.

So, we have been working hard to create the same learning program in an online platform. We studied online learning for several years and spent the time creating a platform we are finally happy with.
If you have interest in participating or have someone on your team that you think would be interested, here is the heads up.

• We will have about 20 participants in an online interactive group.
• I will personally be the instructor.
• There will be application assignments that have to be done at work (so to participate, you have to actually be working in a management capacity).
• There will be outside reading in addition to the time spent online with interactive discussion assignments, about two per week.
• This is not some zippy online course that you can wing your way through. Participants should plan to commit 2-3 hours per week for five weeks.

If you are interested, follow this link to the pre-registration. Pre-registration only commits your interest. Once we have a group together, we will confirm the start date and see who is ready to go.

The tuition for the program is $600, but if you pre-register, you will get a $50 credit toward the program. Looking forward to seeing you online. -TF

“I’m a little disappointed,” explained Ruben. “Disappointed in myself.”

“How so,” I asked.

“Since I was promoted to manager, everyone has been telling me to delegate more stuff. So, I have been trying.”

“What have you been trying?” I prompted.

“Well, I bought three books on delegating. I finished one and I am reading the second.”

“So, what’s changed, for you?”

“Well, nothing really. I mean they are really good books, but I am still doing everything myself.”

“Ruben, delegation is a skill. A skill that can be learned. You can learn how to delegate, but skill has two parts to it. The first part is technical knowledge. That’s the stuff you have been reading about in those books.”

“What’s the other part?” queried Ruben.

“The other part is practice. You actually have to get out there and practice. I really don’t care how much you know. I am interested in what you can do.” -TF

From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:

Please, help me. I am 26, a mechanical engineer, Egyptian, living in Egypt. I am working as a mechanical engineer on drilling rigs, but I want to move into a career in management. I think I am ready for this move, but the problem I face is that I don’t know how to start. What should I learn first?

Response:

There is no technique to learn that makes you a manager. It is a role that you play inside an organization. You report to either a supervisor or a manager. Your next step is to simply observe your boss. What kinds of things are they doing, what kinds of things are they responsible for? You will find it is a totally different job than your job. Talk to your boss, explain your interest.

Understand, this is a long term process. You may think you are ready, but you are only ready to start. You are only ready to start to learn. You are NOT ready to take a position as a manager.

Explain to your boss, that, over the next few months, you would like to help, assist in some of the smaller duties, so that you can understand what is involved, so that you can practice.

Becoming a manager is not something you learn. Becoming a manager is something you grow into. You have the first ingredient, your desire to grow. -TF

From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:

I have completed my MBA and I am now working in an office with a limited territory for our company here in India. I want to know what other things I need to do, like a course, to create better prospects for me to become a manager?

Response:

More learning, taking a course is always a plus, but not sufficient.

You need two things. First, you need to speak with your manager and ask for clear feedback on how you can improve in your current position. Whatever you are currently doing, be the best. Your manager is the best coach to give you that feedback.

Second, you need to find a mentor. Your mentor may or may not work inside your company, but should be in a position to speak with you long term about your career. This is usually not your direct manager, but one more level up. Your conversations should not be centered around your day-to-day accountabilities, but on longer one and two year goals.

Be the best where you are today and keep looking forward one to two years in the future. Congratulations on your MBA. You are now at the start of the game, a wonderful game. -TF

Yesterday, I spent time talking with Phil about his training program and what was missing.

We spend so much time fretting about our training programs, the curriculum, the workbooks, what to include, do we include too much, do we use powerpoint, who should the instructor be, should it last for one hour or two hours?

We sit on committees discussing this stuff, deciding, writing, re-writing, ordering the coffee, arranging for flipcharts and markers.

And we sit and wonder why our training programs are so ineffective.

Training is only the beginning. Training only gets you so far (and not very far at that).

The acquisition of any skill starts with training, but requires practiced performance. Without practiced performance (and coaching), the impact of most training is lost and all the resources are wasted.

So, the next time you create any training program, put as much thought into the aftermath, the practice and coaching that comes after the training.

What’s your experience? -TF

“Look at this,” Phil exclaimed. “We just had the training on this last week. And I just pulled samples from the prototypes. Thank goodness this isn’t a production run. I ought to fire the whole lot of them.”

I winced. “Yes, I guess you could fire them, all eight of them. But then you would have to run the line yourself. I don’t know if you could keep up.”

“You know what I mean. I’m not going to fire anybody. I’m just frustrated. Maybe it’s our training department. Maybe we need to look at the training program.”

“Perhaps,” I said. “You know, when people acquire a skill, I mean really acquire a skill, it takes more than a training program.” Phil looked at me, like I was from Mars.

“When you were a kid, did you ever learn how to throw a ball?” I continued. Phil nodded. “So, someone showed you how to throw, and you threw one ball and then you were an expert?”

Phil laughed. He suddenly knew where I was going with this. “Of course not. I had to throw a hundred balls. I had to practice. My mom was my coach.”

“So, what do you think is missing from your training program?”

Phil’s eyes narrowed. His head began to nod. “Practice and coaching.” And with that, he scooped up the samples, turned on a dime and headed for the production floor. -TF

“You tell me,” I said. “You see the new behavior extinguished after one week with no reinforcement. You only have two choices left. Positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement?”

Ryan was concerned that his training program wasn’t sticking. “Well, as long as they are doing it right, I shouldn’t have to say anything. So, I should probably watch them and correct the wrong behaviors.”

Ryan wasn’t lazy, but he really didn’t want to spend any more time than was necessary to make sure the training stuck.

“So, how are you going to monitor the behavior?” I continued.

Ryan was a touch frustrated as he was thinking this through. “I don’t know. I really don’t have the time to spend watching them all day, and by the way, we have 20 workstations in that unit. I would probably have to put three supervisors on just to do the watching. And if it’s the first week, they will mostly be doing it right, so catching them doing it wrong will be happen chance. But if I wait until after the first week to watch, it will be too late. I don’t know.”

“What if you considered positive reinforcement? Make positive comments when they do it right. Then, you could begin the reinforcement right away,” I suggested.

This had never occurred to Ryan in a million years. You could see a wave of relief come over his face. “You mean, I could hit each workstation, make a positive comment and leave?”

“Yep, make a positive comment, leave, go do some other stuff. Come back, make a positive comment, leave, go do some other stuff. You can bring some of the workstations together to watch one guy do it right. That’s one positive comment to five people at the same time. You could take a picture of someone doing it right, print it out, write good job across it with a marker and post it in his workstation. You can do lots of things quickly. Get the new behavior established and move on.” -TF

“The difference,” I spoke quietly, “the difference is the big three. Frequency, duration and proximity of the manager.” We had been talking about getting process changes to stick with the workforce.

“You have noticed that your training on these process changes seems to last for about a week before the new behavior is extinguished.”

“Extinguished?” Ryan asked.

“Extinguished, like a fire, put out. The behavior goes away. Let’s look at your management reinforcement to the new behavior. There are three possibilities. Positive reinforcement of the correct new behavior. Negative reinforcement of the old wrong behavior. No reinforcement regardless of the behavior.

“You described that your managers gave no reinforcement regardless of the behavior?”

Ryan nodded his head. “Well, yeah, we figured we had done our job in the training. Why should we have to go back to make sure they are doing it the new way?”

“Because, with no reinforcement, the new behavior is extinguished after one week. Not only does it happen, it is predictable. I will bet you a dollar that if you go back and re-train the new behavior, on the floor, that new behavior will be extinguished after one week.”

Ryan’s eyes were looking at me, but you could tell he was looking inward. “You would win your bet. It is predictable. So what do we do?”

“We trained them to do it. And when that didn’t work, we trained them again. They even passed the certification test,” complained Ryan. “But when they get back out on the floor, they go back to doing it the same old way. I just don’t understand.”

“So, you have focused all your attention on the time period prior to the behavior?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you train them, then they do it wrong?”

Ryan shook his head slowly. “Well, it’s not like they do it wrong immediately, but after a week or so, it’s like the training never happened.”

“What do you think is going on?”

“It’s like the training is wearing off.” Ryan had an exasperated look on his face.

“So, it takes about a week before the training wears off. What could you do differently during that week?”

This was painful. Ryan was hoping he could get away with a little classroom training and be done with it. “I suppose,” he paused. “I suppose we could watch them and see if they are doing it wrong and correct their behavior.”

“What if you watched them to see if they were doing it right and give them some appreciation?”

“What’s the difference?” Ryan asked. -TF