The first 4 keys to successfully roll out an international training programme
In a previous post we drew a metaphor with a great cook. What should s/he do to be ready to feed a whole city? In a training environment, the question would be: what do you need to do to deliver exponentially growing amounts of training while keeping effectiveness?
Referring to this cook, I intended to illustrate how being good at short scale is no guarantee to be good enough when going massive. And what about going global?
Let me reinstate the comparison: you can be a great cook, but are you ready to replicate your meals working in different kitchens, run by different crews, using different spices and cookware? And most importantly, will they be as tasty as expected for demanding palates all over the world?
Coming back to our field: you want to train your delegates internationally, ensuring there’s a corporate common vision with enough adaptation to make the skills and practices relevant everywhere. Ensuring quality, control costs, secure planning… seems much? Well, let’s identify some key points you'll have to deal with if you want guaranteed learning outcomes and safe deployment!
I’ll start with 4 keys and leave 4 more for the next post!
1- Have clear objectives and a rollout strategy.
What do I want to achieve?
As with every plan and project, goal setting is key. In this case, it is important that you have a clear picture in mind of what your corporate programme should look like. And specifically what you aim to achieve in terms of KPIs and visible results in the workplace. These will illustrate your project scorecard and will be needed along the deployment to ensure you’re on the right track.
2- Define the right programme for you.
What should be the content and methodology?
There’s plenty of great learning solutions in the market (off-the-shelf). You may decide if you want to use any of them, to adapt and make them a company-specific, or to draft a totally custom one from scratch (maybe even combining existing off-the-shelf solutions). All options work, as it really depends on many factors. The more “off-the-shelf” material you use, the lower upfront investment would be ensuring quick implementation with an acceptable guarantee of positive results. On the other hand, if you go for customized you may benefit from earlier appropriation and will be able to tackle very specific objectives through the training programme.
3- Select a global training provider.
Who is able to do it glocally?
Well, we could have touched this key before. It is most frequently together with the training provider that you’ll define the content and methodology. But many times, a provider is selected based on the programmes they bring you. That’s why it’s important now to highlight that you partner with someone who can as well guarantee the footprint, the certified trainers and the PM capabilities for this rollout. Truism: for global initiatives, it is more effective to use global providers rather than a combination or multiplicity of local providers, or than a local provider who will fly or deliver virtually from one location…
4- Involve the corporate and local stakeholders.
Who promotes and who is to be engaged internally?
Yes, of course your local colleagues know great training providers with good content… Did you think that having a great corporate solution will mean that everybody will thank you, use your solution and just forget about their good old local (and reliable) vendors? If you want your harmonized approach to succeed, you’ll have to present them a winning business case to go for the global initiative. You will therefore need corporate sponsorship and support, and tailored arguments for local buy-in. And they will take it from there, with your support, to schedule, publish and promote, admin and pay.
We’re warming up! There are more keys coming in the next post:
- Consider culture, language and local futures.
- Staff and onboard the right trainers
- Keep budget and admin under control
- Monitor the consistency of the rollout
In the meantime, please add any comment you want to these first 4 (also you may add any other key worth considering – there’s indeed many).
Stay tuned! (to be continued…)
If you would like to learn more about how Cegos can help you roll out a successful training programme, visit our website and get in touch.
