Last Updated on June 15, 2023 by Dave Schoenbeck
Many managers struggle with learning how to create a simple employee training strategy. On paper, their training strategies and methods might seem straightforward. In practice, however, training can often set new employees up for failure before they even get started by allowing errors and gaps in knowledge to go unaddressed.
The Music Conductor Knows How to Train
Are you allowing your new employees the chance to fail? Many leaders will balk at this concept: failure isn’t something most people would say they want in the workplace. However, without allowing new employees to fail safely, you create an environment that discourages them from trying new things or asking for help when needed.
To teach you how to create a simple employee training strategy that works, a recent example comes to mind. I was watching a musical group rehearsal when the conductor first insisted that the group sight-read the entire piece of music all the way through, regardless of how many mistakes were made (and there were many).
He drove the group to finish the piece completely the first time, even though the musicians were frustrated and had low confidence. Once the first run-through was complete, he praised the group for their patience and found several ways to compliment the musicians even though it was hard to find much appealing in their performance.
The conductor immediately went to the most complicated passage in the music where there were many problems and patiently worked each section through their parts until they were more confident. Amazingly, the quality of the performance improved significantly through this step alone.
The next step was to go to the second most troublesome part of the music, where he repeated the process. He continued in this manner throughout the piece, and the quality progressed until all of the tricky parts of the score were at an equal level of competence.
From there, it was back to a complete run-through of the music to discover where he needed to teach and reinforce. In the end, the consistent doubling back to the problem areas and constructive encouragement allowed confidence to soar, and ultimately the players delivered a nearly flawless performance.
How to Create a Simple Employee Training Strategy for Your Business
You have quickly compared my story to how you and your team manage employee performance. You can channel this method into your business’s simple employee training strategy. Here’s how you can adapt the conductor’s approach to your training methods for new employees.
- When teaching a new method, review the entire process and look for good things to say. Let the new employee know that mistakes are to be expected at this point in their training. By providing a safe environment to fail, you can help your new employees learn from their mistakes and pinpoint potential problem areas.
- Please find the most troubling area that needs work and drill it until it’s okay. It’s important to keep morale high during this process. No one is perfect on their first attempt, and identifying the problem areas early on will prevent new employees from learning bad habits and ensure that they truly understand the procedure.
- Go to the next most troublesome area and do the same. Repeat the process until your employee can complete the task without error.
- Continue to train in this method, revisiting processes as needed to ensure your employee can still perform the most difficult tasks flawlessly after learning new ones.
Ultimately, figuring out how to create a simple employee training strategy for your business boils down to your dedication to the training process. If you work with your new employees early on to address mistakes as they happen, they will master their tasks and confidently avoid errors in the future.
Learning how to create a simple employee training strategy is ongoing, but improving your leadership skills can help. Sign up for my email list and have my latest articles on leadership delivered straight to your inbox.
Coach Dave
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