Outcomes Planning Wheel

Outcomes Planning Wheel

NAME

October 12, 2017

Grantham University

Training and Development

MGT441

Outcomes Planning Wheel

When using the planning wheel to understand what the business is trying to accomplish, you must first meet with the business leader to understand the objectives. When leading the discussion the person must have a general understanding of the business and this is acquired by doing some homework before hand on the business results and the specific market they are part of. The four questions in the wheel are structured to focus onhow to achieve success and arrive at a common understanding of the desired results a business is looking for, from training.

The first question of the outcomes planning wheel is, what businesses needs will be met? Many managers want training because they believe employees are not doing what they want because something is not happening, that they think should be. It could also be the reverse to that as well, something is happening in the business, which should not be, like scrap or rework. You have to get the specifics of the business need, based on the current performance, when addressing the business needs. Training is not always the solution, without specifics and details of the end objective, it is impossible to build the successful training criteria.

In the case study, the organizational goal is to improve the effectiveness of Application Analyst ability to complete their documentation. By using the first question in the wheel, it is determined that current rate at which the documentation is completed is not satisfactory. The benefit to the organization would be increased throughput and lest time required for the AA to do their task.

The 2nd question of the wheel is, what will participants to better or differently? This question is used to determine what actions are needed or vital behaviors that need achieved to get the desired results. One must determine when setting up the training what is that key fundamental that will help employees reach the desired performance, that will improve their efficiency. This sounds easy but when developing training and according to Kaufman (n.d.), it is critical to have good understanding of the manager’s perceptions about what is called a need and ensuring it isn’t just a preferred want.

In the case study is it apparent that they AA’s are familiar with using computers and programs, so that training is not required. One key point, Markgraf (n.d.) makes clear is that even with positive attitudes in employees and willingness to learn, they may not have the knowledge required to carry out their assigned task. What is required for AA’s, is that they get training on how to use a different program than they are using today. The Microsoft Word program, which contains the Document Manger, is different than the program they use today. So, there is a new skill that they would be required to learn. In order to measure the success and the mastery of the competencies, the training would have to encompass a test and the end of the session, to prove mastery of the skills, before gaining access to the new programs.

The 3rd question in the wheel is, who or what could confirm these changes? This has to be the sponsor or the manager that confirms the changes were successful or a failure. This is commonly determined by whether the change in performance met the expectations of manager or not. In this case, it would be an analysis of the time and money invested to train the AA’s on the Document Manager, made their jobs easier and made them more effective in doing their job.

The only ones requiring the training was the AA’s, it makes no sense to train anyone but the employees that will use the new program. The class size was limited to 15 per class due to the size of the computer classroom. Due to training affecting all 2500 AA’s, it required 167 different training sessions to be held. The training started effective on August 11, and ran for seven weeks or 35 business days. Each training class lasted for two hours, which two different trainers took turns instructing and deploying the criteria. It was determined in order to meet the expectations of management that some training had to be done virtually, via the internet, because they were not willing to pay for travel, for employees stationed globally or the trainers. It is important again when using the outcomes planning wheel, that you understand the client’s needs and expectations.

The fourth question in the planning wheel is, what isthe specific criteria that will determine the success of training? This can be determined in many ways by many different people, but the only one that matters is what the sponsor considers successful. To determine that it will take clear understanding of what and how business leaders determine success. It is very important to solidify and codify that through dialog with leaders. As in question three, it was discussed, who and what will confirm that the changes training made was successful, based on the criteria established.

Through discussion with leadership, it must be clarified what is a pure credible way to measure and present the evidence of successful business outcomes, due to the changes implemented through training. In D1 is should have been determined what defines success, now at the forth question in the outcomes planning wheel, it is time to define the correct measure, by discussing with the leadership. According to Wick (2006), documented results are both the end and beginning of the cycle, it is a reliable and credible way to prove the program delivered on the promise defined in D1. This will ensure the expectations and targets have alignment, on what successful change needed to happen, to get desired results. If, these changes are met through training, it will be seen as success for the learning organization and the organization as a whole.

If this training is not delivered for the new Microsoft program, the AA’s would not be able to use it, therefor not able to perform their job. With the creation of the document repository, it will enable all the AA’s to share information rapidly amongst each other and have templates readable available for use, without having to store them on their computers. This will improve efficiency by making the work much easier and quicker to do. Through successful training of this new document manager, it will fulfill the definition of success of management and their request of AA’s to be more effective with their documentation.

The outcomes planning wheel provides a strategic approach to help determine the definition of expected business results. D1 is the foundation on which to achieve and ensure the business case is addressed. It is important to communicate the overall business purpose to those in training, as to what it will improve for the enterprise. The level of detail can be determined by who the audience is but this will create buy-in from the team and provided them the reasons why this training is necessary. Once the business outcomes have been established it is important to follow it up with the learning objectives for the ones getting trained. This will explain to them, with clear expectations of what they need get out of the training to be successful. The process of the planning wheel breaks each task down to a manageable way to achieve successful results.

References

Kaufman, R. (n.d.). Needs Assessment vs. Needs Analysis. Retrieved October 12, 2017, from https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Links/2015/08/Needs-Assessment-Vs-Needs-Analysis

Markgraf, B. (n.d.). Tools to Measure Training Effectiveness. Retrieved October 12, 2017, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/tools-measure-training-effectiveness-52691.html

Pollock, R. V., Jefferson, A. M., & Wick, C. W. (2015). The six disciplines of breakthrough learning: how to turn training and development into business results. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Wick, C. W. (2006). The six disciplines of breakthrough learning: how to turn training and development into business results. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer. doi:http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/ZTAwMHhuYV9fMTU4MjkxX19BTg2?sid=acd8a77f-b53e-44b1-8abc-6a562492defd@sessionmgr4009&vid=25&format=EB&ppid=pp_204