1.
Deal
ling with Constraints in Corpo Trainin
orate T ng
7 Com
mmon Solutio
ons to these C
Constra
aints
Capita
alWave In
nc. | Wh
hite Pape
er
Oct
tober 2010
0
1

2.
Table of Contents:
Training Constraints 1: Time ......................................................................................................................... 3
Training Constraints 2: Budget ..................................................................................................................... 4
.
Training Constraints 3: Staffing ..................................................................................................................... 5
Training Constraints 4: Cultural Constraints ................................................................................................. 6
Training Constraints 5: Technical Constraints .............................................................................................. 7
.
Training Constraints 6: Content and Development ...................................................................................... 8
Training Constraints 7: Industry, Regulatory, and Delivery Constraints ..................................................... 10
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3. Training g Constraint ts 1: Time revieew the results s, make changes, and then n go
to geeneral release e. But how m many projects, ,
Summary: In this series, we are goin ng to espe ecially in a corrporate envir ronment, allow us
examine s some of the c common cons straints we to hiit every single e one of these e milestones? ?
face in corporate training and how to deal with Prob bably not man ny. But the trick is to exammine
them effe ectively. One o of the most c
common what t the project entails and choose the rig ght
constraint ts when it com mes to corpo orate training mile stones.
is time. Le
et's examine h how time bec comes a
constraint t and how you can effectiv vely use time For eexample, if th he stakeholde er or departm ment
issues to yyour advantage. head d tells you tha at they need training on a
certaain process, p procedure or system, it ma ay
Corporate e training organizations are usually not bbe necessary to assess tha at need. In facct, if
"under the gun" when it comes to t time. the sstakeholder c can provide an SME who can
Stakehold ders, division heads, and su ubject prov vide content, then it may b be better to mmove
matter ex xperts (SMEs) want what they want on bbased on their r expertise. WWith this apprroach,
when they want it ‐ and this is most t often an you can spend mo ore time on tthe design,
understan ndable issue. After all, the pilotting, and evaluation of the e training proggram.
organization's ability to o meet its goals is almost On t he other han nd, if your stakeholders can nnot
always ba ased on a time e constraint o
of some kind prov vide an adequ uate picture oof the problem m,
or anothe er. Let's look aat how you ca an be faced then n you obvious sly need to sppend the bulk of
with a tim
me constraint as a corporat te training the ttimeline on assessment while shaving t time
manager ‐ and how to deal with tho ose off oof the other m milestones. In this case, on nce
constraint ts. you know the pro oblem, you ca an put the pro oject
into "overdrive" t to get it developed quickly y and
One of the first things to consider is s your ideal withhin the time constraint you u've been han nded.
training project placed d within an ideeal timeline. Man ny times a "jus st‐in‐time" in
ntervention ca an be
In that ide
eal timeline, w what trainingg milestones effecctive and solv ve the problem, and also c create
do you wa ant to include e? For examp ple, you a "pllaceholder" fo or further dev velopment an nd
would mo ost likely want to start with h a full needss perfe ection in the future.
assessment to ensure t that the cont
tent
addresses s the perform mance issue. N Next, you Whe en you are fac ced with a timme constraint t, the
would wa ant to include plenty of dev velopment nego otiation of a p project can coome down to a
time, thatt is, time to coonceive the training good d old‐fashione ed compromise between t the
programs, methods, m measurements s, and trainning organizat tion and the s stakeholder. One
evaluation ns. Along with that develo opment time, of thhe first ways t to deal with tthis is to analy
yze
you would d probably want to include e enough the ssituation as w we've discusse ed and then o offer
design timme to allow th he developme ent staff to an a lternative tim meline. Keep i in mind that
write and perfect content, develop instructional stake eholders or d division heads s may come u up
tools, proof those tools, and maybe e even run withh a timeline as s a first blush because it is
s the
them by a an SME or two o. Before you
u deliver the quic kest route to the solution. In cases like this,
program, especially for classroom p programs, the ddecision maker may be op pen to a timeline
your stafff would need "train the tra ainer" time as s that is a little long
ger ‐ as long aas you can deeliver
well as a lengthy pilot t to ensure tha
at the what t they need.
training is
s effective. Evven with onlinne
interventi ions, you wou uld want to taake some If theere's just no ccompromise, determine w within
time to piilot to a samp ple of the targ
get audience the ttraining organ nization what t you can deliiver
and have them test each piece of th he course. In in th
he time allotte ed. For example, you may have
addition tto all of this, y
you would wa ant time to had plans for an e elaborate onl line case stud
dy
3

4. program t to be delivere
ed before a cl lassroom withh the extra he elp. When it's time for a ne ew
program b begins. If you simply will n
not have time budg get, roll out y
your accompli ishments as p proof
to create the online inttervention, th
hen move of th
he need. Anot ther way to d deal with a sta affing
written case s
that to a w study section that will be budg get constraint t is to determ
mine what you u can
part of the classroom c course. This w
will shave accoomplish with t the current st taff and offer r that
time off o
of development while still d delivering as ann alternative. try, but if that
. It's worth a t
necessaryy components s. does sn't work, con nsider retooli ing the existinng
train
ning staff to mmeet the need d. For example,
Next, we will discuss another comm mon you may have ins structors that t can double a as
corporatee training constraint, budgets. instr
ructional desi igners until th
hey are neede ed in
the cclassroom.
Training g Constraint ts 2: Budget Whe en the budget t bottleneck c comes to
mate erials and training method ds, there are s some
Summary: It's very diff ficult to get th
hrough a crea tive workarounds that also may prove your
fiscal yearr in corporatee training with hout running genuuine need. Fo or example, m most vendors offer
into a buddget constrain nt. Let's discu
uss the kinds r online development tools.
free trials of their
of constraaints you may y encounter a and some Get tthe free trial,, develop a toop‐notch train ning
ways to deal with them m efficiently. piecee, and go to t the table with h the proof. Iff a
decission maker ca an see the finnal product an nd its
Budget co onstraints are e common in corporate effecctiveness, he or she may b be more likely y to
training, e
especially dur ring periods oof financial find the money to o fund the pu urchase. If the e
uncertainty. And any p phase of a cor rporate consstraint is relatted to training materials, b be
training project can be e the victim of f a budget crea tive. Conside er using three‐to‐a‐page
issue. Stafffing is a typic
cal budget co onstraint, in PowwerPoint printouts instead of handing out
which you u are told that the money does not the eentire presen ntation, and d do them in bla ack
exist to addd staff when n it is almost ccertainly and white. Or, co onsider puttin ng job aids online
necessary y. Organizatio ons also cut budgets for ead of into a p
inste print format. What about
materials or training m methods, such h as online crea ting training t that can mak ke a profit? Fo or
delivery toools. You may y even see the money cut exammple, you may be able to s sell training
off for delivery, such as locations or r number of proggrams to clien nts or other o organizations
times programs are de elivered. Let's take a close withhin the industry. The key here is to analyze
look at eaach of these c categories of b budget the mmaterial need d and determ mine what
constraint t and find ways to work ar round them. alterrnatives exist. And don't fo orget to keep p a
d record of the amount of money you save ‐
solid
Staffing budget constra aints are sommetimes the or m
make.
hardest to o break throu ugh. After all, adding and
retaining staff is the most expensive e part of Delivvery constrain nts may be th he easiest to g get
running a corporation. And with this heavy price e arouund. If the issuue is deliveryy staff, consider
tag, training managers s are usually pput in the usingg a well‐deve eloped design ner to deliver
position oof having to prove that staff needs to train
ning during th he height of th he need. Also o,
be added in order to co ope with a higher deliv
very is anothe er good use o of contract mo oney
workload. One way to work around d this for s
special projec cts or projects s of limited
constraint t is to ask for contractor m money. Hiring duraation. If the is
ssue is locatioon, analyze the
contracto ors does not h have the same e price tag as cost of renting sppace for the d delivery. For
hiring a peermanent em mployee, and the money is exammple, you may have a large e‐scale delive ery
not somet thing that is uused for the eentire fiscal that must take place in a certa ain amount of f
year. If yo
ou can get a contract budg get, keep a timee. Instead of d doing numero ous small training
record of what your de epartment ac ccomplishes
4

5. programs, consolidate it into a coup ple of large
ones. In some geograp phic areas, ho
otels are in Firstt, let's look at your staff of
f instructors oor
desperate e need of conference center business faciliitators. Many y times, this sstaff group is vvery
and may e even offer special rates. versa atile and flexible by their n nature. After all, a
totallly inflexible i instructor ma ay not be very y
The overa all key in dealing with budg get effec ctive in the cl lassroom at a all. The memb bers
constraint ts is to analyz
ze the situatio
on and come of thhis group know w training ma aterials and they
up with either cost‐free or less expe ensive also know how th he audiences respond to th hose
alternativves. But secon ndary to this is the mate erials. Why not consider h having the hig gher‐
absolute n necessity of kkeeping up wi ith skille
ed instructors s double as innstructional
accomplis shments base ed on the lowwer costs. In desig gners? For ex xample, a high h potential juunior
many case es, you may e even convince e yourself faciliitator who te eaches one or r two classes may
that usingg contractors during peak need is the be a ble to take re esponsibility f for the updat tes to
best way to go instead d of adding staaff. Or you thos se materials a and content. O Or, a senior
may decid de that rentin ng space for ddelivery once instrructor, such a as a managem ment‐training
a year is m
more effective e. On the oth
her hand, instrructor, might have the ability to take ch harge
your finanncial decision makers may see that you of thhe entire man nagement‐tra aining program m
have a genuine need and increase t the budget insteead of leaving g it to variouss staff membe ers.
aining department.
for the tra But y you can also look at delive ery staff as latteral
poss sibilities. For eexample, that t junior instru
uctor
Since stafffing is related
d to both time e and may be bored wit th one or two o subject area as ‐
budget, wwe will look at t that corporaate training see h how he or she e does in a neew subject ar rea
constraint t next. and make that pe erson available for all of th he
subje ects.
Training g Constraint ts 3: Staffingg Wha at about instructional desig gners and
deve elopers? Man ny traditional instructional
Summary: Staffing con nstraints in coorporate desig gners may ha ave started ou ut as SMEs or r
training ca
an be relatedd to both time e and budget. . instrructors. It may be possible e to utilize the
em in
Let's take a deeper loook at staffing c constraints thos se capacities, especially if y you have high h‐
and how y you can deal with them ef fficiently. levell designers w who are used t to facilitating
grouups as part of their design responsibilities.
We've already discusse ed how a staf ffing Wha at if you have instructional l developers w who
constraintt can be relatted to budget t issues. came e strictly fromm technical ba ackgrounds a and
We've also discussed h how that staff fing only work in deve elopment? Co onsider mentoring
constraintt can create pproblems whe en it comes themm into conten nt evaluation and even
to projectt timelines an
nd deliverable es. In simple proo ofreading ‐ this may take some of the
terms, a la
ack of budget t can mean a lack of staff, work kload off of th he instructionnal designers or
which me eans an additional time con nstraint instrructors.
within thee overall timeelines. But a staffing
constraintt does not have to mean the end of a We'v ve already dis scussed the b benefits of ask king
project orr a last‐minute request for r additional for ccontractor fun nds. If you neeed to employ y
funds. In t
today's enviro onment, staff fing can be cont tractors in either a design or delivery
mobile, thhat is, people do not neces ssarily have capa acity, it will co
ost less than h hiring them
to be linke
ed to one jobb function. The key is to permmanently. And d this also proovides a solidd
examine y your staff, theeir areas of re
esponsibility, recoord of what yo our departme ent can and ca annot
and their abilities to m
make a determ mination for accoomplish with t the extra help p. When it co omes
multi‐taskking. But howw does this wo ork in the to coontractors, ke eep in mind that the market is
corporatee training environment?
5

6. potentially saturated w with people wwho can and rules s and regulati ions, and new w processes ‐ and
will do thee work, so yoou will most likely have a som e organizatio ons' very survival depends on
great deal of choice in terms of exp perience and gettiing through these issues. L Let's look at a a few
backgroun nd. diffeerent types of f cultural constraints and h how
to un nderstand the em.
If contracting is not an option, cons sider
"sharing" people in oth her jobs to heelp you To b egin with, a m major cultura al constraint c can
through the upswing in n work. For ex xample, a be tr raining itself. Changes in the way an
special project may need an SME's expertise in orga anization is traained and educated can be an
a certain aarea. Why no ot examine the possibility obst tacle, especially if new trai ining courses and
of having the SME design or deliver r training meth hods are not within the cu ultural norm.
during the e special project? If the peerson is Perh haps you've in ntroduced a L Learning
regarded as an SME, he or she can p probably Man nagement Sys stem (LMS) or r you've move ed
express iddeas well enough to be part of the tradiitional classro oom training into online
training detail for the sshort run. And d if you do form mats. Or mayb be you've beg gun experime enting
get the oppportunity to add staff in t the future, with h blended lear rning where n none existed
you may b be able to hir re from withinn and keep befo ore. One of th he biggest cult tural constraints
the initial learning curvve to a minimmum. in coorporate train ning could be an overall
orga anizational lea arning needs assessment t that
Staffing coonstraints can n be very frus
strating, is ma aking the "kn nowledge guardians"
which me eans that we a are more likely to throw unco omfortable. B Because this c constraint is
our hands nd just deal with the
s in the air an direc ctly related too training, you have the ab bility
situation as it exists. But if you thinkk creatively to ha andle it very eeffectively. Fi irst, be sure tto
and consider the altern natives to cur
rrent com municate con nsistently wit th the population.
staffing, y
you may be ab ble to create a situation Expla ain the benef fits of the training changes s to
that work ks for both the e training dep
partment the a audience. Hig ghlight your success stories. If
and the overall organiz zation. you are dealing w with "knowled dge guardians s"
who are resistant t to a needs aassessment,
Next, we will discuss cultural constr raints that reas sure them that you are us sing their
arise in co
orporate train ning projects. know wledge for the improveme ent of the
orga anization as a whole. You c can even offer
them m a spot in the change as a a Subject Mat tter
Training g Constraint ts 4: Cultural Expe ert (SME) or f facilitator. The e idea in trainning
Constraints as a constraint is to help the o organization's s
cultu ure move tow ward the train ning knowing that
Summary: Sometimes the constrain nts you it is a
a big benefit and will help everyone me eet
encounter in corporate e training are
e cultural. their r goals.
Let's exploore these connstraints and determine
how to ha andle them. Over rall organizational changes s are initially not
relat ted to trainingg but sometim mes move int to the
Cultural constraints in corporate tra aining are trainning realm. Fo or example, there may be
usually lin
nked to something that is g going on majo or policy and procedure ch hanges relate ed to
within the e organizationn. Some of thhese new regulations o or rules, or poossibly a merger
constraint ts may be directly related to training, or ac cquisition. When these changes are firs st
while others may not b be related to training at levieed on the orga anization, you may not be e
all. In today's environmment, corpora ate cultures invo lved. But as t the changes a are implemen nted,
are in uph heaval, especially in certain industries. trainning most like ely becomes involved to
There are e organizationnal changes, laayoffs, new faciliitate knowled dge transfer. In this case, b be
6

7. sure that training personnel act as c change eithe
er during or a
after the chan
nge, and wait for
agents and champion t the benefits oof the change e the u
upheaval to ssettle.
while they y are carrying
g out the train ning
departme ent's duties. Nextt, we will examine technical corporate
train
ning constrainnts.
While we are discussin ng organizatio onal changes
that may lead to a training constraint, it's
helpful to
o remember that the audie ence may fall Trai ining Constr raints 5: Tec chnical
into threee different grooups. The ent thusiastic Con straints
group embraces chang ge and keeps a positive
attitude. TThe second group may be made up of Sum mary: Techni ical constrain
nts are commo on in
people wh ho are not sure about the change but corpporate training, and they so ometimes occur
keep mov ving forward a anyway. The t third group whe n all other as spects of a traaining project t fall
is comprissed of resistoors, that is, pe
eople who into place. Let's e
explore these constraints.
react badly and negatively to chang ge ‐ and
make no s secret about it. The key is to figure out Techhnical or technology‐relate ed training
how training can help members of t these groups consstraints can occur at any point during a
move into o the group above, i.e. the e "not sures" train
ning project, w whether in th he initial stagees or
can move e into the "ent thusiasts" grooup while afterr a program h has been runn ning for some e
the "resistors" can move into the "n not sure" timee. These types s of issues cann cause obsta acles
group. Looking for this s dynamic wit thin any for b
both online as s well as class
sroom‐based
cultural coonstraint can help the training team train
ning programs s. When conf fronted with a a
navigate tthe issue and end up with a positive tech nical constraint, you can look for
result. work karounds or a alternatives. OOr, sometime es a
well‐‐researched c cost benefit aanalysis can innform
There aree changes that t may not be related to decission makers a and allow the em to help yo ou
training at any point. FFor example, people mak e changes. Le et's look at soome common n
changes s such as layoffs, staff chang ges, or staff tech nology‐relate ed training co onstraints and d how
realignme ents may be r related to Hum man you can handle th hem.
Resources s and the indiividual departments. In
many case es of people cchange, training will not Whe en it comes to o online learn ning, one com mmon
be involveed. The key here is to figur re out if consstraint is that your audienc ce does not h have
training caan be a partnner or support t during the acceess to appropriate hardware for e‐learn ning.
change. PPerhaps you can highlight t the training This issue usuallyy surfaces at tthe beginning g of
that realig
gned staff me embers may n need and an in
nitial rollout p
project, but itt's certainly no
assure theem that you w will be there tto provide it. reas on to stop the project from m moving
In cases such as this, you may have to wait until forwward. The aud dience's lack oof access coul ld be
the chang ge has passed d and go back to regular relatted to the wo ork environme ent. For exam mple,
business. asse mbly‐line em mployees may y not have acc cess
to co
omputer term minals anywhere in their
The key inn dealing withh cultural con nstraints in immmediate enviro onment. Or, c customer‐faci ing
corporatee training is to
o first identify
y those issues s emp ployees may h have access to o a terminal b but
that are related directl ly or indirectly to training. cannnot use it for ttraining becaause of the
For those issues, deter rmine how yo ou can work custoomers' perce eptions of inac ctivity. In these
as a strate
egic partner tto work throu ugh the casees, consider innstalling one o or two termin nals
constraint t. Next, ident
tify those issuues that are arious locations for online learning activ
in va vities.
not relate
ed to training. For these iss sues, Perhhaps the IT de epartment has refurbished d
determine e how traininng can serve a as a support
7

8. hardware e that could be redeployed d as learning the cclassroom audience hitting g the online
centers at t certain locattions. interrvention while another po ortion works o on
casee studies. Alte the audience has
ernatively, if t
Another c common tech hnical constraint is that the aability to acce
ess online pro ograms away from
the audience does not yet have the e technical the cclassroom, structure the training to
skill for e‐
‐learning, esp pecially e‐learrning that is accoommodate e‐l learning at thhe office, follo
owed
self‐paced d. In many ind dustries, this problem is by a discussion or he classroom. If
r debrief in th
clearing ittself up as org ganizations mmove to more tech nology is nee eded in the classroom for a a
advanced technology in all of its operations. But t mass sive training rrollout but simmply is not
there may y still be pock
kets of inexpe erience out availlable, consideer leasing or rrenting equip pment
there. In tthis case, it's a step‐by‐steep education or sp
pace until the e upgrades ca an be made. S Some
process. M Many people are afraid of technology confference cente ers lease not o only the spacce but
simply because they do on't know how to use it. the ttechnology as s well, such as computers, ,
After all, tthis is an age when centen narians use projeectors, and LC CD displays.
Twitter an nd grandpare ents use
videoconf ferencing and d email to cha at with their As w
with all of the other training constraints s
grandchild dren. So anyo one can learn. One way to we'vve discussed, the key with technical or
deal with an inexperienced audienc ce is to take tech nology‐relate ed constraints is to explore e
training "o on the road" to show the a audience poteential workaro ounds first, and then
how to us se the techno ology. This arrrangement deteermine when a permanent t change or
also allowws you to posi ition the train
ning upgrrade can be m made. And rem member that t a
departme ent representatives as strategic tech nical constraint is no reason to halt a
partners. You can also consider intr roducing projeect that couldd be a major benefit to the e
quick refe erence guides s (QRG's) or video orgaanization as a whole.
tutorials tthat show the e audience ho ow easy it is
to access online learning. Next t, we will examine content t and
deveelopment con nstraints.
Sometime es you'll find tthat the organizational
infrastruc cture cannot a accommodate e a full‐scale
e‐learning g program. Th his could be related to Trai ining Constr raints 6: Con ntent and
bandwidth, i.e. too ma any people hit tting the Dev velopment
network a at one time co ould cause se erious
slowdown ns in other areas. And som metimes Sum mary: Many t times the training content t
organizations are hesit tant to pay fo
or additional itself
f or the development met thods are the
bandwidth space just t to accommod date training. sourrce of the connstraint. Heree are some wa ays to
In this casse, consider rolling e‐learning to work k around this obstacle.
smaller au udiences ‐ one at a time. T This way, the
entire pop pulation will nnot need to a access the Whe en you find thhat issues rela
ating to training
online app plication at th
he same time e, thus saving conttent or develoopment are causing a
space and d bandwidth. consstraint, the be
est action to ttake is to lookk for
a suiitable alterna
ative or comp promise. Cont tent
In relationn to classroom m technology y, what if you and development t usually invo
olves a team o of
wanted to o roll out a blended learnin ng program, peop ple, including
g managemen nt, instructionnal
only to finnd that there are not enou ugh desiggners, stakehholders, and ssubject matte er
computer rs (or funds) tto do it? Again n, you could expeerts (SMEs), so your skill in
n leading a tea am
find out iff IT has refurbbished hardw ware. Or, you will b
be helpful in resolving connstraints. Let's
can use a "station" me entality withinn the training exammine some co ontent and de evelopment
program i itself. For exa
ample, have a a portion of
8

9. constraint ts and determmine ways to handle them heree is to remember that a dif fferent idea is s not
efficientlyy. nece essarily a bad one, even if it is contrary to
origiinal specificat tions. The firsst action to taake is
One of the first and mo ost common content and to goo back to the SME or stake eholder to loo ok at
developm ment constrain nts occurs wh hen the SME the ssource first. D Discuss the differences wit th the
and training do not agr ree. Most training instrructional desi igner and point him or her r into
projects run across a p point where th he SME and the ddirection that t will result in
n the closest
the instruuctional designers have different ideas outccome, whethe er that is the original or a
of how the content sho ould be developed. mod dification.
Sometime es the SME m may be quite p possessive of
the content and does n not want changes. Or the At ti mes, content t scope may g grow, especia ally if
instructional designers s feel that conntent should an S ME sees the p product for th he first time aand is
be edited or truncated d in some way y that does remiinded of miss sing pieces or r choppy cont tent.
not go aloong with the S SME's origina al meaning or In th
his case, you m must be highl ly aware of thhe
intent. If t elated to e‐learning, there
this issue is re e timeeline, delivery y method, and d assigned
may be to oo much cont tent for the mmedium. If staff ssible to add or change
fing. If it's pos
any of the ese problems exist, talk to the SME to cont tent, go ahead f not, discuss a
d and do it. If
see if therre is a compro omise. Explain the poteential timeline e change with h the stakeho olders
benefits oof the changes and paint a picture of or SMME, keeping i in mind that y your overall ggoal is
what the end result ma ay look like. If there is no to geet the training g as close to "correct" in the
comprom mise, sometimes the best p path to take iss first design. If theere is simply nno compromise,
to continu ue with the SME's original idea. More delivver what was originally int tended and slate it
often than n not, he or sshe may see the obstacle redesign immediately.
for r
when the training is de eveloped.
The key to handli ing content and developm ment
Another c content const traint may arise when you cons straints is to bbe consistent in
discover t that the conte ent does not match com munication a and definition n of training wwith
what's act tually going oon in the environment. SME E's, stakeholde ers, and desig gners at all tim
mes.
For examp ple, you find out that customer service Alwa ays look for co ompromise o or alternatives s,
associates s are skippingg CRM steps in their day‐ and lead the team m into being o open to changes
to‐day int teractions, altthough those steps are alon g the way. Re emember tha at a change is not
part of a ppolicy or proc cedure. If an SSME is nece essarily a bad thing, especially after a
involved, talk to him or her first. If t there is no desig gner or SME i is deeply invoolved in the
SME, dete ermine what t the major dif fferences are cont tent. When th here is no com mpromise or
and prese ent them to th he training stakeholders. work karound, mov ve forward w with what you
But keep in mind that y you may have e uncovered have e. When it's ti ime to evalua ate it, your
a disconnect between Policy and Pr rocedure and learnners will most t likely be ablle to give youu
the depar rtments or ev ven between managers sugggestions for im mprovement or change that
and assoc ciates. The beest you can do o is highlight will w
work well.
the issue, make sugges stions for chaange, and
wait until a decision is reached to co ontinue the Our final corporate training co onstraint will be
developm ment of the to opic in questio on. induustry, regulato ory, and deliv very constrain nts.
Content c constraints ca an also appear in conflict
between t the instructioonal designer and the
person managing the d design or the project
itself. A deesigner may h have a differeent idea of
how the t training shoul ld be develop ped. The key
9

10. Training g Constraint ts 7: Industry, year rs these chang ges may occu ur on a daily bbasis.
Regulato ory, and Delivery Constr raints Obviiously this is a a constraint ffor the traininng
orga anization. Reg gulations now w not only
Summary: What happe ens when the e stipuulate content t, but also may stipulate th he
environment for training becomes a a constraint? lengt th of trainingg and prohibit t certain type es of
Let's defin
ne this obstac cle and discus ss ways to trainning. These sa ame regulatio ons may require
work with hin it. orga anizations to s submit trainin ng plans and
repo ort completions within a ce ertain timelinne. If
An organization's gene eral environmment can you are dealing w with a constra aint like this o
one
become a a training constraint, some etimes and you don't hav ve the manpo ower to hand dle it,
occurring quickly and n noticeably and sometimes s cons sider outsourc cing. Many tr raining
occurring slowly. The c constraint related to outs sourcers prov vide organizat tions with one e
environment could be due to inexperienced stop p shopping in regard to cer rtain regulatio ons,
facilitator
rs or training locations, or could be incluuding content t, tracking, annd reporting. This
something altogether larger such as s regulatory may be the way t to go until things settle down
or industrry changes. Le et's discuss th
hese or un ntil you have a good idea o of how trainin ng
corporate e training constraints and h how to depa artments should handle th he requirements.
manage them. Typic cally there is no workarou und or alterna ative
for rregulatory tra aining, but you may be able to
Industry cconstraints ca an occur when n an overall work k within the f framework to o determine a a
industry bbegins to chan nge rapidly. In
n today's trainning method t that works be est for your
environment, we see t that many ind dustries are orga anization.
being ove erhauled and must change the way
business iis conducted in order to su urvive. But We h have already discussed some delivery
how does s this affect tr
raining and de evelopment? cons straints in this s series, but let's look at thhem a
Remembe er that traininng managers s should little
e more closely y. A common delivery
always ha ave an idea of f what's goingg on in the cons straint is due to lack of exp perienced
industry aaround them, so that chan nges do not faciliitators. For ex xample, a reg gulatory chan nge
surprise the training te eam. So when n you notice may literally chan nge the playin ng field for alll
that a chaange is taking place, you m may not want trainning personne el. One way to o deal with th his is
to develop training in c certain subjecct areas to de etermine whi ich training personnel are the
because t they will be af ffected by thee change. In close est to being a able to deliver in terms of
this case, consider crea ating a "skele
eton" or know wledge and experience and then determ mine
using the least expensi ive training m
method what t it will take t
to get them u up to speed. If f the
available until the chan nge comes th hrough. Keep time eline for readi iness is too lo
ong, it may be e
in mind thhat "expense" " can be relat
ted to appr ropriate to co onsider outsourcing. If you u
money, time, or resources. You can also outs source, you ca an work out a a deal where your
benchmark other organizations within the instrructors are ab ble to work w with the
industry tto see how they are dealing with the outs sourcer's instr ructors in ord der to best prepare
coming ch hanges. If the ere is an advis
sory or them m for the next t round of deelivery.
regulatory y body, consider contactin ng these
groups to obtain advice or feedback k on how Wha at if there is a constraint re elated to the
training caan approach the changes. delivvery methods s themselves? ? For example e, an
SME E may be on b board with de elivery methods
Regulator ry constraints s occur hand i in hand with untill he or she ac ctually sees th he final produ uct.
industry cchanges. High hly regulated industries He o or she may de ecide that the e choice of de elivery
see chang me, but with the general
ges all the tim
meth hod doesn't a achieve the desired outcom me. If
upheaval that has occu urred in the ppast few
this is the case, lo ook for compromise with t the
10

11. SME, stak keholders, and
d instructionaal designers the d delivery meth
hod seems to work but the ere is
first. The compromise may be a cha ange in still d
disagreement ME, ask for tim
t from the SM me to
length, a qquick convers
sion of trainin
ng methods, evalu uate the prog
gram first. A g
green light froom
or a "backk to the drawing board" or rder. The learn ners and their supervisors is fact‐based
d and
idea here, as is usual w
whenever you u are dealing may help the SME to understa and that trainning
with SMEs, is to positio
on yourself ass a partner has m met its mark.
.
and not as an obstacle. On the othe er hand, if
© Copyright 2010 Capita
alWave Inc. All
l Rights Reserv
ved.
Bryant Nieelson – Managing Director at Financial Train ning Solutions aa division of Ca
apitalWave Inc c –
offers 20+ years of training and talent mmanagement f for executives, business owners, and top
performing g sales executives in taking th
he leap from thhe ordinary to extraordinaryy. Bryant is a
trainer, business & leadeership coach, and strategic planner for man ny sales organizzations. Bryantt’s
27 year business career hhas been based d on his results
s‐oriented styl e of empowering.
11

12.
Finaancial Trainin Solutions (FTS), the instructor-le division of CapitalWave Inc. is
ng s ed
a firm made of up industry professionals having a reputation fo providing first-rate
m u or
train
ning and co onsultancy to banks and other fi nancial inst
t titutions. FT offers
TS
profeessionals who have ex
w xtensive knowledge, ex xperience a
and expertis in the
se
area of banking and financ
as g ce.
Blennded learning is the philosophy on which th company was found
p o he y ded. Our
ning methodology, integrating theory with pract ice using ou own very powerful
train y ur
train
ning tools, creates a uniquely exciting and effe ective learnin environm
ng ment. The
resu pays imm
ult mediate dividdends in the retention of newly-le earned conc
cepts and
their practical ap
r pplication in the financial marketplac
ce.
Cap lWav Inc.
pital ve
Delivering Innovativ e Training Solutions
g
For further informa
ation, please contact:
e
Finan
ncial Training Solutions is a division of CapitalW
g Wave Inc.
Bryant Nielson, Managing Director
p://www.Ca
http apitalWave
e.com
http://wwww.FinancialTrainingS
Solutions.c
com
http://
/www.Your rTrainingEdge.com
Tele US: +1 (917) 477-3
T 3221
Te UK: + 44 (20) 3356 9
ele 4 9935
bryant.nie
elson@financialtrainings
solutions.com
m
12