“We need training on this!” you are told. “Please create a class for us right away.”

Stop.

Resist that powerful temptation to respond, “Yes, sir, yes, ma’am, when do you need it?”

You have just been handed a beautiful opportunity to show your value, even if you are not an expert trainer.

“I’m happy to help you with that,” you say. “Let’s talk about what you are hoping this training will do for you.”

At the moment she thinks she needs training. And given her workload, she probably hasn’t had time to think much further than that. So the greatest service you can give is to help her dig down -- quickly and painlessly -- to real clarity on the end result she wants.

Achieving such clarity isn’t easy for most of us. And if you haven’t thought through the types of useful questions you should have ready for occasions like these, all the knowledge you have about formulating them will leak right out of your head when you need it most.

Your questions should keep coming back to two things:

1) What will the people in the class DO differently after the training? How would an observer be able to tell if someone was properly trained? (Remember the fly-on-the-wall analogy.)
2) How will this training (and resulting change in performance) help meet specific business objectives? How will the training help with the timeless business goals of IRACIS: Increase Revenue, Avoid Costs or Improve Service?

If training really is the right tool to address the issue, this discussion surfaces the information you need to design effective learning activities and make a real impact on performance.

Of course, it may turn out that training won’t be the answer to the problem at hand. If that is the case, good for you! You saved the organization time and other resources that would have been devoted to something that would not have solved the problem. Now the manager can focus on more effective measures instead.

Bonus points: Maybe you see right away that training won’t solve the manager’s problem. You don’t need to let on immediately. If you let the manager figure that out for herself as a result of your insightful questions, you look even smarter!

Download this checklist of useful questions, and in the comments below share the additional questions you like to use.