A colleague commented to me recently that one of my clients needed a “Dinosaur version and a 21st Century version” of a particular ERP softare training course. Indeed, the audience for the course was as diverse as I’ve seen in almost every respect: generationally, culturally, politically, and in their level of computer literacy and years of experience with the organization.

This was an instructor led course and the content was primarily conceptual. The client had tried for a balance between traditional lecture and interactive exercises and games with the intent of trying to address a variety of learning styles during the one day course.

So, combine a widely diverse audience with a course presenting content in a variety of ways and, what is the feedback from the particpants? Overwhelmingly, about half of the particpants wanted more lecture and far fewer exercises and games and the other half wanted less lecture and more exercises and games. Interestingly, (or maybe not) the divide between these two groups was not so much related to individual learning styles as is was to age and years of experience with the organization. So, at least for this organization, the generation gap is the biggest one of all.

Thus the comment about the dinosuars and the 21st century. But here’s the problem, a big part of the reason for making these people sit through a full day course was the get them to interact, share experiences, and learn from each other. Having two versions of the course would not help to achieve that goal. So what’s the solution? How can we avoid a classroom experience where half the class is bored and disengaged from the lectures, and the other half is annoyed at the forced participation in interactive exercises and games, which they see as a waste of time? How do we get to a level of interaction that is reasonably comfortable for everyone? I don’t have the answer yet. But, I’m working on it.

It’s doesn’t surprise me any more when “project success” checklists fail to include change management, training, and documentation. So, when they make even the bottom of the list, it feels like cause for celebration. Michael Krigsman at the Project Failure blog puts forth 6 tips to reduce IT project failures. Last, but not least, among them:

6. Change management, documentation, and training are important. To be successful, users must understand the project’s goals, status, and impact on their jobs. Many projects pay too little attention to training and documentation, especially when the project starts to run over-budget. This oversight reduces productivity and can negatively impact the project ROI. In extreme cases, users simply don’t use the new software, bringing the effective ROI to zero.

So, the last few words in the last paragraph tell us about something that can “bring the effective ROI to zero.” If that’s the case, why is it so often at the bottom of the list? Or, as Michael states, ignored once the project starts to run over-budget?

One hypothesis I have: Project success for the software team isn’t measured on user adoption - or ROI of any kind. Instead, they’re measured on functioning screens and transactions. It’s up to the business to actually use the stuff.

Reminds me of a health club membership; just spending a lot of money on it doesn’t make you lose weight — you have to actually use it.

Everybody knows good training is essential to the success of enterprise software implementations, right? Well, if that’s true, why do so many companies fail to budget for it sufficiently?

Once a typical ERP project is about to go-live, chances are it’s over budget. Unfortunately, just prior to go-live is also about the time that:

- Senior management and business unit leaders start asking how everyone is going to get trained.
- The project team starts asking where the money for training is going to come from.

To make matters worse, the software vendor’s sales pitch is starting to sound, at best, like an optimistic version of the truth: “Don’t worry, our software is so intuitive you won’t really need to add much for training.”

To help those caught in the trap of shrinking budgets and expanding training needs, here’s a list 10 ways to stretch a training budget.

1. Start early. Request system access for the training team months in advance, not weeks. The last thing you want to do at crunch time is figure out how to access for another half-dozen team members.

2. Insist that your software vendor and integration partner construct a stable training environment so that training developers don’t spend time (and money) debugging untested software.

3. Get virtual private network (VPN) access for training developers and remote employees involved in acceptance testing. This will save thousands on travel and living expenses.

4. Use web-based training (WBT) as much as possible. A solid curriculum of asynchronous WBT modules, and synchronous eLearning (webcasts) can greatly reduce – or even eliminate – the need for in-person classroom training.

5. If you out-source WBT development, provide your vendor with corporate standards for online material and access to your LMS for compatibility testing. Do this early. Don’t consume budget on last-minute hassles with LMS connectivity.

6. Manage all class logistics from enrollment through room setup and materials reproduction internally. This is administrative work – don’t pay external consultants for busy work.

7. Document the job roles of system users and the tasks they will perform in the system. Provide your training developers with flowcharts or use cases that delineate job roles and process boundaries.

8. Assign one or more experts from the development/ configuration team to answer questions about the details of your customizations so that your training team or vendor can quickly document and prepare accurate scenarios. Don’t make them waste their time searching for answers.

9. Provide the training team with realistic training data for use in training classes – don’t make them spend their time searching for data.

10. Develop a team of super users who can attend classes (or stop in at scheduled intervals) to answer process-specific questions that might stump the stand-up trainers.

I know what you might be thinking: many of these items don’t seem like traditional cost-cutting measures. Assigning a member of the development team to training, for example (#8), sounds like a cost increase.

And it’s true, in the short run, some of these items might actually cost money. The trouble is, shortcuts in these areas will end up costing the company thousands – or millions – in lost productivity, errors, and re-work. (The term penny-wise and pound-foolish comes to mind).

In the end, it’s not just about the cost of training – it’s about cost of training’s impact on the organization.

Karl Kapp put together some nice guidance on software training last week in his post Tips for Teaching Software to Others.

Of course, since teaching software to others is pretty much at the core of our business, I couldn’t resist leaving a terribly long-winded comment, which I will excerpt below.

But first, I want to point out another comment in the thread, by Dave Ferguson that I absolutely love:

With newcomers (to an application, or to computers generally), I also try to avoid alternative-itis, a disease pandemic among enthusiasts. Many actions have a menu route, a keyboard-shortcut route, and sometimes a mouse-action route. Telling someone three ways to save doesn’t usually facilitate learning. Mostly, it increases cognitive load.

While Dave makes a lot of other great points, this one has always bugged me. I’ve often said that software training courses should follow this sequence: 1. Get trained; 2. Use it for 30 days; 3. Get trained on all the hot-keys and shortcuts!

Finally, this probably violates about 25 blogospheric codes of conduct, but I am actually going to quote myself from Karl’s comment box. Here are some of my own tips for training software to others:

1. Require pre-work. A couple of concise web-based intros (or quick Captivate modules, or even Powerpoint slides), prior to arriving in class can yield a huge return in terms of what you can accomplish in the classroom. This kind of pre-work serves two purposes:

A) It brings widely disparate skill levels to a base level of understanding (logging on, basic navigation, simple searches). This is a huge time-saver in class, and greatly appreciated by faster learners.

B) Done right, it can reinforce for students why it matters that they learn the software. There’s nothing worse as a trainer than having to “justify-on-the-fly” the employer’s rationale for moving to the new software platform in the first place.

2) Place every software function in the context of a business process. This requires genuine preparation on the part of the trainer, and of course the curriculum developer. Software training that focuses on clicks and screens (like most “out of the box” curricula) loses steam every time. Start training people on how to do their jobs, and everyone gets engaged.

Remember when you first set out to learn Excel (or Lotus)? I remember pulling up that first blank spreadsheet and thinking to myself, “what the h*** am I supposed to do with this?” Once I had a problem to solve, though, I was hooked.

3) Spend way more time than you think teaching on-line help. I know I’m just reiterating your point, but it’s such a good one that I think it deserves repeating. Most software learners won’t have a need or an opportunity to put their learning to work for days, weeks, or even months after class. By they time they need it, they’ve forgotten it.

If classroom training gives learners a proverbial fish (allowing them to eat, or remember, for a day), then teaching the on-line help gives them a handy, if cliché, fish-pole.