Who doesn’t like puppies?

That thought rolled through my head as I watched over the fence of the puppy therapy stand at the CIPD Festival of Work show in June.

It was a welcome distraction from the hustle and bustle of the exhibition. What was so endearing was that the puppies seemed to be having as much fun as the people in the enclosure with them.

It reminded me of the phrase coined by the Dogs Trust over 40 years ago: ‘A dog is for life, not just for Christmas’. 

At the time, the growth in pet shops meant that people were purchasing dogs more impulsively, only to later go back on their decision and dump their new pets with animal charities.

Today, the Dogs Trust are still taking in huge numbers of unwanted dogs during the festive period, sometimes even on Christmas day itself. 

When the sparkle wears off and the Christmas lights fade, many who have been gifted puppies or dogs realise the huge commitment looking after an animal actually takes. 

As a result, many unwanted dogs still end up with animal charities.

A lifelong commitment 

And that got me thinking about how we often ‘mistreat’ training events. Training is for life, not just for Christmas.

So many people in training are focused on the training day itself. Their working day is about delivering training and when the training is done, their job is done. 

They focus on getting the people in the room, delivering as much content as they can while the people are in the room, and getting good scores on the happy sheets they hand out at the end of the training. 

Their reports to management are about the number of training hours delivered and how highly people rated the training on the day. 

Many people in training seldom stop to think about why they are doing the training. 

The logistics and hassles of keeping the training department running are sufficient to fill up their days and obscure the real purpose. 

They forget that so much more is needed beyond the training to generate impact.

The future of training is not just about learning and thereby creating employees who know a lot. We need to take the thinking further

Learning outcomes supported by learning transfer

Some years ago, many training departments changed their name to learning and development, and the goal of learning as an output from training became the focus. 

And learning is good. It is a better outcome for training than a good score on a happy sheet, although it is harder to measure.

The next step is to talk about transferring that learning into the workplace. Learning transfer is a phrase commonly used, but not so commonly thought through. 

The future of training is not just about learning and thereby creating employees who know a lot. We need to take the thinking further, so let's continue. 

Ensuring employee capability 

If the outcome is to shift that learning from the classroom into the workplace, what are we expecting to get as a result? 

Most people will answer along the lines that the employee will be able to do their job better. 

The key word in this response is ‘do’, because the outcome is really that the employee does things differently so that they get better results. 

The focus should be on identifying the jobs to be done and then tailoring the training, and the wrapper around that training, to make sure that people can do those jobs effectively and efficiently.

When someone can do a job well, we have a word for that: ‘capability’. If you ask a senior executive which they would prefer; an employee who knows lots of things from attending lots of training courses, or an employee who is capable of doing their job, the answer will be capability – every time.

The real outcome is creating capability that enables employees to do the ‘jobs to be done’.

If you ask a senior executive which they would prefer; an employee who knows lots of things from attending lots of training courses, or an employee who is capable of doing their job, the answer will be capability – every time

The capability manager

So, just for a moment, take off your hat that says ‘Training Manager’ or ‘Learning and Development Manager’ and put on a hat that says ‘Capability Manager’. How does that feel? 

If you are responsible for managing the capability of the employees in your organisation, how would that change the way you think about what you do? 

And I don’t just mean capable as they leave the classroom. I mean capable at the time and at the place they are doing their job. Capable at the point of work.

Capability requires so much more than a day in a classroom. Training is for life, not just for Christmas. 

It requires nurturing over time to grow with practice and reflection into something that embeds change into how people do what they do and how they accomplish the jobs to be done. 

It requires thinking about the environment that surrounds those people as they seek to employ their new learning into their job. It requires a design that gives them the step-by-step activities to utilise their training effectively.

Organisational success is dependent on capability, and you have just been promoted to Capability Manager. Congratulations!

PS I hope you like puppies!

If you enjoyed this, read: The skills taxonomy: A foundation for generative capability