Things We Can't Out-Train Part 1: Inefficient Processes
Even the best training won't fix an inefficient process.
This article is part 1 of a series focused on problems that cannot be solved by training alone. Follow along to gather a toolkit that will help you determine where to say no to training requests that won't solve the problem and maximize your impact by saying yes to those that will.
Most of us in L&D excel at creating engaging, interactive learning experiences. Given the time, access to the right information, and our own creative chops we design and deliver top notch experiences.
But when training won't solve the problem, even the best, most awesomest, most engaging, and most creative learning experiences are a waste of time and resources.
Training can only solve for problems that specifically relate to a lack of skills or knowledge. It's estimated this only accounts for 10-15% of organizational challenges (per Joe Willmore in his book, Performance Basics). The rest of the time, a different solution is needed.
However, by the time stakeholders come to L&D with a request, they have convinced themselves that training is the solution they need. Without a respected relationship with that stakeholder, our response can be a bit tricky. Especially if the stakeholder is stressed, overwhelmed, or under pressure. They don't have the time or energy to look for another solution and may not be willing to give you the time either.
Things L&D cannot out-train part 1: INEFFICIENT PROCESSES
If a process, or the system that informs that process is inefficient, training people to follow that process won't make things any better. You will just end up with more people who are intimately familiar with the details of the inefficient process.
Can training created by L&D provide even better knowledge of the inefficient process? A definite YES!
Can training created by L&D restructure the process to be more efficient? Not a chance.
Such was the case in my experience several years ago, when I was approached by the new client onboarding team in our organization. The team's busiest season was fast approaching and per their forecasts, they were not staffed adequately to handle the volume of work coming their way. The knew that the team wouldn't be able to hold the one-one calls needed to educate and walk clients through system set-up. But no fear, they had a solution and just needed the help of L&D!
Stakeholder solution: Client webinars to educate at scale
There wasn't time (or budget) to add and train new staff members before the workload hit, but leadership figured if the L&D team could design and deliver a series of webinars, it would reduce the need for one-one calls. They could educate multiple clients at once and because the webinars would be live, it would still allow for clients to ask questions and the client onboarding team could get more done in a day. Perfect!
Key stakeholders in senior leadership and sales were already on board. L&D leadership was skeptical. We knew that webinars could possibly be a solution, but were they THE solution? Any attempts on our part to ask additional questions were immediately squelched. The workload was coming, there was no time to delay! The directive had been given and we needed to comply.
A hardworking L&D team keen on high quality design
So we complied. The L&D team gathered information, wrote scripts, created visual aids, and worked overtime to get it all done. They carefully designed each webinar so that the client could follow along on their own screen, completing the onboarding steps in real time. It was education through hands-on guidance. As their leader, I was pretty stinkin' proud of their efforts.
Result: A complete failure to solve the problem
Despite everyone's hard work, the webinar strategy failed miserably. Very few clients attended. For those who did make the time and tried to follow-along there always seemed to be a tech issue that needed addressing. The facilitator ended up spending half the time troubleshooting or calling in IT. Those without the tech issue had to sit and wait for the webinar to get rolling (time wasted).
We quickly pivoted to have IT support available on every call and did our best to track trends in issues to address later. Now we had two staff available on webinars that averaged 0-5 clients in attendance. Even worse, the number of one-one calls held by the client onboarding team didn't decrease at all. Problem not even close to solved.
Analysis in the aftermath
When volume of new clients subsided and we had time to breathe, we looked at our abysmal numbers. We spent more time and resources than ever before and it hadn't helped the onboarding team through their busy season, at all.
But, in an effort to be strategic after the fact, I had asked for two things at the beginning of the project that set us up to more proactively help the onboarding team in the future.
L&D Leader Ask #1: I asked to record each webinar in short, 1-5 minute segments, as a video that could be accessed on demand and put them on a landing page that each new client saw as they were going through their onboarding process. The team was busy creating the webinars, so I went in on the weekends and created the recordings myself. We tracked views of the videos. Guess what? More people watched the shortened videos than attended the webinars. Win #1: Data told us that people preferred short, on demand videos instead of longer live webinars.
L&D Leader Ask #2: I promised the onboarding team all our best team resources if, at the conclusion of their busy season, they would allow us to help them with a full analysis of the new client education process. That way, regardless of the webinar result, we would be able to better help them prepare for the next time, without this season's time crunch. Now it was their turn to comply with my request, and they did.
As I dove into a performance improvement style analysis, I found something no one expected, but they weren't surprised either. It provided them with a complete reframe.
We were solving the wrong problem
The problem, it seemed, wasn't the one-one client onboarding phone calls. Instead, it was that all the processes surrounding those calls were extremely inefficient and clunky.
Inefficient process #1: Manual reporting. Team members had to run multiple reports each day to determine if they had any new clients assigned and which clients weren't keeping up with their onboarding tasks, indicating they may need assistance. Each report needed to be sorted and combed through manually. Every. Single. Day. This process took each team member a minimum of one hour to complete.
Inefficient process #2: Manual password reset. Passwords for the system were provided to clients one time in an initial email. They weren't able to change it and resetting it was a manual process that needed to be performed by an admin (a.k.a. client onboarding team member) for security purposes. This was the challenge we ran into in the webinars. But password resets were taking up a significant amount of time even without the webinar solution.
Inefficient process #3: Manual email communication. There were a few other manual processes around emails and getting the client needed information at each stage of their onboarding. Each of these emails needed to be sent manually, and although there were templates available, most team members were tweaking them to be more personalized to the individual client.
The inefficient processes added up to each team member spending multiple hours each day doing manual, administrative work.
The result? Limited time to engage with the client one-one, helping them with specific questions. The root of the problem was the inefficient, manual processes. The symptom was the inability to complete needed phone calls to provide client education. We were trying to solve for a symptom.
The problem and the solution didn't match. Our well-designed, well-facilitated webinars would never have solved the problem of time spent on one-one calls because the need for clients to learn wasn't the main issue. Even with the webinars, the inefficient, manual processes that were eating up the bulk of the team's time still existed.
Once we were able to show leadership the real problem, they immediately connected with IT and developers to begin automating and streamlining the administrative processes in preparation for the next busy season. Of course, we offered to help provide educational resources that were easy for clients to access, but it was understood that alone wouldn't ease the stress of the team.
Inefficient processes can't be tamed with training alone. The solution is in creating better, more efficient processes.
