I walked into Starbucks the other day, looked to the menu, and didn’t see anything that looked good. So I ask the person behind the counter “What was a cool and hip drink everyone is drinking these days that I might like”. I didn’t get an immediate response so I thought perhaps the person loo
I didn’t like that idea to well so I thought perhaps they looked at me and said “Wow, this guy is already so cool and hip I couldn’t even begin to think of a drink that would improve upon that.“
Finally it occurred to me the question was a bit obtuse so I rephrased the question to "I'm really not sure what I want but I would like something a little bit different than I normally have. What would you recommend?"
What followed were a series of questions about my preferences and a complete description of a number of beverages that met my criteria. I placed my order, received my beverage in a timely manner, and enjoyed it immensely. It was a great experience and I was impressed with the capability of my server.
I found out later the beverage was from a new line of products that I can’t even pronounce the name but it was very good and I gladly paid $4.35 for it.
As an astute business professional, I was certain that my server did not know how to do this when they were hired. I had a great experience because the person who served me was well trained. They needed to develop the skills and knowledge for success. Starbucks has 100,000 employees in 10,000 locations. To train all your workers to provide the same positive customer experience whatever Starbucks they enter is a huge task.
So is this really about Starbucks? Yes, it is but it is also about every business that is striving to grow and be successful by developing the skills and knowledge of their employees in support of their business objectives.
The pace of business is accelerating. Businesses are introducing products and services at an increased rate. Businesses are moving into new markets, introducing new business processes, and more dynamic that ever before. If you frequent Starbucks you know that in a relatively short period of time they have added CDs, tea, food, addition coffee beverages, and numerous products to their offerings.
This accelerated change increases the number of training projects and the time frames shorten. This makes keeping workers informed and productive a more challenging task. A company can’t wait 6 months to have the sales staff ready for a new product introduction or to introduce a new business process.
In addition, companies are running leaner with tighter budgets and increased accountability. This includes learning and performance. This means learning and performance organizations must continuously seek ways to leverage their resources, do more with less, and produce quantifiable business results.
When some one asks; “How did we spend that $5 million on the new product launch, sales tells me projected sales are way below estimated?” You should have a good response or you are probably in for a career changing experience.
To be successful, training professionals must become familiar with the new learning environment and more efficient training processes. We all need to be smarter in developing our employees whether it is sales, customer service, or any other business function. To meet these increased demands, we need to take advantage of new learning tools and processes. Some of these are:
- eLearning
- Blended solutions
- Virtual classrooms
- Performance management systems
- Learning management systems
Many companies are already utilizing these new approaches and have produced remarkable results that have leveraged resources and produced quantifiable business results
- A major technology company trained 1,500 service technicians in a new business process in 3 weeks
- Existing classroom training was delivered globally over the Internet for a savings of $500,000 a year.
- Existing classroom and CBT training of 160 hours was reduced to 100 hours for a savings of $500,000 a year.
Whether you are Starbucks with 115,000 employees or a growing business with 500, 5,000, or 10,000 employees, the same principals apply. Rethink how you are using your learning and performance resource and find ways for it this resource to:
- Provide bottom line business impact
- Increase strategic advantage
- Improve worker productivity
- Increase speed to market
It should be the agent of change and business performance in your organization
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