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Introduction

When it comes to airline pilot and maintenance person-nel training, this company far surpasses the industry standard. Training plays a key role in guaranteeing flight safety and this company goes the extra mile to keep its personnel highly prepared. Nonetheless, until recently leadership training had been something that did not seem to generate significant changes for this company.

Because they wanted to change their leadership culture, they contracted with Dale Carnegie Training Louisiana to design and deliver a leadership training program. So, after interviewing 30-40 people in the company to iden-tify training needs, Dale Carnegie Training designed a 6 days leadership development program. Everybody im-mediately knew it was a real success, but they didn´t have the data to prove it.

From the sixth program onwards, Dale Carnegie Training proposed to the training department that they evaluate training impact. Using the complete model integrated in TransferLogixTM, they decided to diagnose the factors which might be barriers to trainees´ using learning on the job, evaluate learning transfer in the workplace and measure training ROI. All this data would allow them to: 1) detect potential barriers trainees face when returning back into their workplace; 2) find out whether the com-petencies taught in training were being demonstrated in the workplace; and, 3) establish whether their invest-ment in training was worthwhile. Additionally, it would give the provider solid data about the areas where con-

sultancy services might be needed so as to facilitate reaching the ultimate goal of the program: changing the leadership culture of the company.

The Process Used

Before the program started, the supervisors completed an evaluation of the trainees´ current performance lev-els. The questionnaire contained a series of behavioral indicators linked to the competencies addressed in train-ing. The following competencies were evaluated: com-munication, presentation skills, conflict resolution, moti-vating others, empathy, flexibility, autonomy, results orientation, initiative, feedback, planning, time manage-ment, developing teams and individuals, innovation, del-egation.

Then, each trainee had to formalize a Transfer Contract with their supervisor so as to ensure mutual engage-ment about incorporating the new competencies into everyday work. The contract contained seven questions referring to the support, resources and action plan to make learning transfer easier. The Transfer Contract also required the supervisors and trainees to reflect upon the impact training would have both upon the trainee´s ca-reer and the organization. This contract directly linked training to the strategy of the department and organiza-tion, while also getting the supervisors on-board and making the trainees responsible for their performance improvement.

Case Study - Dale Carnegie Training Louisiana

An example of how using TransferLogixTM was the right tool to demonstrate results of training to earns the client´s trust and take the conversation to the next level in terms of repeat sales.

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Immediately after training, the trainees completed the LTSITM questionnaire which assesses 16 factors directly correlated with the use of learning in the workplace. The most interesting results was that supervisors did not actively support the use of new skills on the job. The lack of supervisor support created other barriers to transfer. For example, there was a lack of performance coaching and a lack of negative consequences for not applying learning. The lack of supervisor support also generated amongst the trainees the perception that the contents taught were not essential to performing in their everyday job.

This result was surprising in the context of this compa-ny wanting to change its leadership culture, especially because the supervisors themselves had participated in the training program and were the ones to send their employees to the course. The fact that they were not actively getting involved in promoting the new compe-tencies in the workplace suggested a possible bottle-neck higher up the hierarchy. This was indeed con-firmed by the client.

When presenting the report to the client, Dale Carne-gie Training Louisiana was able to provide not only a diagnosis of the barriers to the implementation of new leadership competencies in the company, but also a list of possible solutions.

Outcomes

To measure whether the skills taught in training were really observed on the job afterwards, the supervisors were asked to rate their employees again on behavioral performance indicators. By contrasting the results with the baseline performance, they could demonstrate that all the competencies addressed in training had im-proved and were demonstrated in everyday work at a high rate. The results showed almost a 100% change in performance on the behaviors taught in the program. This meant training was indeed impactful.

Then they used TransferLogixTM´s easy ROI tool. This simple method provides a highly reliable estimate of training ROI and, unlike other methods, requires only

easy to obtain data. Dale Carnegie Training Louisiana demonstrated to their client that the ROI of their lead-ership program was conservatively estimated at 475%. This goes to show just how powerful training is if ac-companied by measures which boost performance out-side the classroom when trainees return back into their workplace.

Conclusion

By being able to bring such conclusive data and by helping their client overcome the barriers to imple-menting a new leadership culture, Dale Carnegie Louisi-ana was able to gain the client´s trust and generate repeated sales. Dale Carnegie Training Louisiana went from being only a training provider to becoming a per-formance partner.

This is a perfect example of a provider approaching training not as an event, but as a process. We know that strong learning transfer and high ROI only happens when training is a process, not an event. That is, the learning transfer process starts well before the training event with things such as good needs assessment, strong behavioral (performance) objectives, and super-visory engagement prior to training. The process con-tinues after training with good follow-up, effective coaching and mentoring, and supports and resources to enable participants to use the training.

The integration of training and development into an entire performance management system is a trend sweeping the entire HRD field and having the right tools to work in this new landscape is crucial.

Contact:

Dale Carnegie Louisiana Tyler Winner, President (225) 274-2460