Building Better Programs: The Training Cycle

The main focus of the Assess Phase is to assess the need of your program by gaining insights from your learners.

When going through the Assess Phase there are three steps to take:

1. Identify who your learners are

2. Identify what your learners need

   1. Focus groups with recently graduated learners and their managers

   2. Performance expectations

3. Identify why the business needs this program: What metrics are they trying to move?

Welcome to your first challenge of the Training Cycle Course!

As we go through each phase of the Training Cycle we will be pausing to apply these concepts to our very own programs. Follow along in the workbook linked in the resource section below to complete this challenge.

Keep your workbook handy as you will use the same workbook for each of the challenges in this course!

The main focus of the Design Phase is to design a program that will support your learners with the skills they need to succeed.

When going through the Design Phase there are six steps to take:

1. Develop a strong program strategy: the program strategy is the core of your program. A solid strategy will serve as a guide that leads to a smooth program development framework. Be sure to include the following when developing your strategy:

   1. A Learning Delivery Method Strategy

   2. An Assessment Strategy

   3. Branding Requirements

   4. An Implementation Strategy

2. Establish a program competency framework: Utilize the metrics and skill needs you gathered in the assess phase to map out the competencies that will be included in your program.

3. Create program microskills/topics performance expectations: break down all of the competencies into smaller skills. These smaller skills will become your content and assessments.

4. Assemble your team: Gather all the key players that you need to develop your program

5. Create a build timeline

6. Create an Implementation plan: outline the external stakeholders that will need to be involved in the implementation of your program and include the key steps to complete for implementation.

It's Time for Challenge #2! 

In this challenge you will be walking through the 6 steps of the design phase to map out your program.

The main focus of the Develop Phase is to bring your vision to life by developing the content within your program.

When going through the Develop Phase there are two steps to take:

1. Develop your courses utilizing a sprint structure: define how many courses you can complete in a specific timeframe and then group your courses together based on the number you determined.

2. Develop your assessment tools.

Challenge #3

You've assessed the need for your program and you have designed the core components, now its time to develop.. your vision board!

The main focus of the Implement Phase is go time! It is time to share your program with the learners you created it for.

When going through the Develop Phase there are two steps to take:

1. Communicate effectively: Utilize the implementation plan you outlined to ensure all of the appropriate stakeholders are effectively communicating your program launch.

2. Let your machine run: be sure to let your program run a full course before moving to the next step.

The main focus of the Evaluate Phase is to look at everything you learned, the data you collected, and the learner's initial response to determine how you will move forward with the 3 paths of the Maintenance and Optimization Process.

When going through the Evaluate Phase there are three steps to take:

1. Individual Course Maintenance: ensure that each course in a program is performing optimally and is up to date.

2. Full Program Maintenance: ensure the program as a whole is performing optimally. Evaluate components like:

   1. Learning path structure

   2. Assessment structure

   3. Group activities

   4. Social Learning channels

   5. Communication channels

   6. Branding/Design

3. Program Success: This is where all of the ground work you laid in the design and assess steps comes together to demonstrate the impact your program had on your learner population. As each learner cohort comes through document your key learnings:

   1. How did learners perform on each level of your assessment framework?

   2. What was the self reported feedback from learners immediately after the program? What were the key findings from the post course learning surveys?

   3. What does performance data infer about the success of your program?

Its Go Time!

In this challenge you are going to expand upon the implementation plan you established in the design phase to plan out your launch day flow.

It's Time for the Final Challenge!

In this last challenge you will be diving back into your workbook to outline your processes for the three steps of the evaluation phase.

You’ve had learners go through the program and collected all of this data, now what? It's time to go back to the top and reassess where your learners are at.

Consider the following questions:

1. What has changed about your learners' needs?

2. Has anything changed in regards to what metrics your business is tracking?

3. What are your recently graduated learners saying are gaps in the program?

Take the data you gathered in the evaluate step paired with the learner insights from the assess step to redesign your program- iteration! As you iterate your program will become better and better- there is always space to grow!

We’ve talked about why most programs fail and how to prevent failure in your learning and development programs. The bottom line is: The key to successful learning programs is developing programs that are learner focused, data driven, and iterative.

If you want to dive deeper into the steps of the training cycle including frameworks and templates that you can utilize when designing, check out Designing for Impact: The complete guide to designing programs that maximize impact (available for presale now!), explore the S&S consulting website, and join our email list for the latest updates on upcoming courses, posts, and programs. If you have a specific question you can also email me directly at samantha.willden@yahoo.com.

Finally, as I mentioned in the video above I truly value your feedback as it help me follow the training cycle on my own programs. Please complete the short survey linked in the resource  section and share your thoughts on this program.