Hello to anybody who is coming here as a follow up to my presentation Wednesday at the Governor’s Conference on Service and Volunteerism. This is probably, well, just about everybody at this point, as this blog was created as an easy way for me to share links related to the presentation without putting a lot of URLs on the handout.
My topic was “Turning Good Intentions Into Good Results“, and I spoke about driving results through effective communication. The presentation was only 50 minutes long, and I choose to skim lightly over several topics rather than dig deeply into one area.
Needs Analysis
Identify the results you hope to achieve
Effective organizations begin with a needs analysis to determine the results they are hoping to achieve. This process results in an articulated goal that links the information to be provided directly with the mission of the organization.
Identify the actions that will contribute to those results
The next step is to identify the concrete actions that will contribute to the desired results. In many cases, this step can be completed by answering the question “What will success look like?” If you have people or teams in your organization who are already outperforming the average volunteer, looking to what those individuals are doing differently can provide clues to the actions that will lead to the results you want.
Identify the individuals who will be taking those actions
These individuals become the audience for communications or the target learners for training. It’s useful to know what information is driving their results now. This helps you identify what needs to shift to shift the results you are getting.
Identify the information needed to effectively take those actions
What Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes will support effective action? Training and communication can impact business results that are driven by the knowledge, skills and attitudes of the people involved. While this is true of nearly every part of the business, it is also true that in nearly all cases individual action does not independently control outcomes. Environment, tools, process and events are also factors. No amount of training will get timely results out of a computer system that’s down 40% of the time.
Other models of needs analysis can be found here and here.
Training / Communication Capacity
Training is my bread and butter, professionally speaking, and I’d love to tell you that it can achieve any organizational result without assistance. I’d be lying if I said that, though, so I won’t. Instead, training can change three things:
- Knowledge
- Skills
- Attitudes
Used effectively, these are very powerful tools. But, like all tools, they have their place.
Methods
When faced with an opportunity to share information with learners, there are three methods from which to choose.
Tell
Provides:
- Information
Use For:
- Situations where the learner drives how the information will be used
- Situations where the results are more important than the process
- Changing people’s beliefs
Teach
Provides:
- More complex information
- Guidance on applying the information
Use For:
- Information –dense topics
- Principles and foundational information
- Increasing people’s knowledge
Train
Provides:
- Skills
- Direct practice applying the information
Use For:
- Transferring skills to specific job situations
- Situations where the process is as important as the result
- Increasing people’s skills
Tips and Techniques
Whatever form of communication you use, you’ll need solid writing skills. There are a lot of great resources on the web. Grammar Girl makes grammar fun (well, as fun as grammar can be, at least). Some other grammar sites can be found here and here.
And finally, if you want to catch up on some web 2.0 technology like RSS feeds and wikis, check out the “in plain English” series of vodcasts by the folks at Common Craft.
Thanks for visiting.
