Success Stories:   Advanced Trainer Workbook

Business Objective

To provide a standard approach to developing and delivering customized training for a distributed global pharmaceutical sales organization.

Challenges

Pharmaceutical companies are required to provide the latest research and findings regarding their products to their professional sales and marketing organizations. The time to market for this information is a competitive advantage. Their distributed workforce means a distributed training organization. With the demands placed on this group, they are challenged to meet a training development cycle that ensures effective and efficient training solutions.

To ensure that our client was able to analyze data to determine effective instruction, we chose a system that provided powerful, real-time reporting tools that were fully customizable and easily accessible over the web. Providing our client with the administrative support, programming and interface design for this solution allowed them to focus on the actual training.

Solution

Knowledge Design Group (KDG) developed a customized reference guide for employees with training responsibilities. The guide integrated traditional adult learning theory and practices with company specific training practices and methods. A step-by-step guide with job aides and tools were developed to facilitate the training development and delivery process. KDG's training methodology, which is based on information developed from their 20-year practice in commercial training was used as the foundation for developing topics. Chapters were mapped to a standard model for instructional systems design. The content included material provided by the organization and was customized to their specific requirements.

Analysis

The KDG team determined the critical elements required to analyze the goals of the training and the needs of the training audience and then designed tools for trainers to guide their planning process.

Design

In this phase, adult learning principles, levels of learning and learning styles were detailed to equip the trainer with the necessary background to develop and deliver effective instruction.

Development

To simplify and standardized the development process a model was designed as a tool to guide the trainers in this process. The results of the analysis and design phase were aligned to appropriate levels of interaction and activities. Since the model clearly maps levels of interactivity to appropriate activities, trainers can design effective training without having a background in instructional design.

Implementation

Many factors ultimately contribute to the success of any learning program. Key factors were organized into tip sheets and check lists whenever possible to provide the trainers with quick reference resources. Topics covered in this section included the training environment, guidelines for effective trainer behavior, troubleshooting, icebreakers, energizers, and presentation tools and techniques.

Evaluation

An effective evaluation process carefully implemented and executed is an effective technique for continuously improving training programs. In this guide, the value of evaluations was explained, and expectations were set on how the results would be used. Sample evaluations with administration instructions were included to facilitate the process for trainers.