Table of Contents

Is this a training problem?

As L&D professionals, sometimes we see everything through the lens of a training problem. What happens when it's not a training problem at all?

Last week I was in Target in downtown Seattle and needed to take the elevator down to the parking garage. When I went to press the elevator call button, this is what I found:

Target Garbage

The call button is just above the heaping pile of trash. As I looked at this, I wondered if this was a problem that could be solved by training, or if it was something else.  What do you think?

Formal Training Solutions

Instructor-led Training (ILT):

If this was indeed a training problem, I could see this being covered during new employee orientation under a larger topic along the lines of maintaining store cleanliness. In addition to making sure products on the shelves were straight and shopping carts weren’t left abandoned in store aisles, I could see an activity in which participants would be asked to walk around an actual store, identify “cleanliness violations” and suggest ways to address them.

Elearning:

In order to scale and make the delivery of this message more consistent across tens of thousands of employees in hundreds of stores, elearning could be a more appropriate solution. I could see something similar to the instructor-led approach in which learners are exposed to images of a store and must identify what seems out of place (like a heaping pile of trash underneath the elevator call button for example) and make recommendations on how to address it.

Brief Video:

Short videos that are accessible through mobile devices or at computer stations in the break room and which offer continuing education could also be a solution. Demonstrations of what needs to be done and how to do it could help employees envision what they should be doing if they see something like this.

Informal Training Solutions

The issue, however, is that even if formal training had been offered, images like this may still pop up for various reasons. Perhaps more informal solutions would be more appropriate to address this problem. Following are a few examples:

Job Aid:

Perhaps there should be signage around the break room – posters or fliers – that have images of things out of place with a big caption underneath that says: “Store Cleanliness is Everyone’s Job. See Something, Do Something!”

Manager Feedback:

This could come in several forms – either 1:1 or with a group during a team meeting. Either way, if there’s an expectation that the store be kept neat and tidy, and if the store isn’t being kept neat and tidy in reality, then a supervisor should be taking note and reinforcing these expectations during meetings.

Leadership-modeled Behavior:

Leaders should never be above pitching in to fulfill common expectations. If everyone on the floor is busy, it could send a powerful message for a leader to bag up a pile of trash and take it out.

Other Solutions

Equipment:

As L&D professionals, sometimes we see everything through the lens of a training problem. What happens when it’s not a training problem at all? Would a larger trash can be the best solution?

Company Policies:

I looked at the trash can and felt it was kind of gross, and honestly I almost didn’t see the elevator call button because it was barely above the top of the trash pile. However, it could simply be an assumption on my part that there is a policy – formal or informal – about this sort of thing.

What do you think? Is something like this scene a training problem? Or is it something else? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comment section.

Articles Similar to Is this a training problem?

Nate Martin on Escape Room designs for training
Instructional Design
Brian Washburn

Instructional Design & Escape Room Design

If you’ve ever been to an escape room, you can observe what a group of highly engaged people look like for 60 straight minutes. Is there a way to harness escape room design elements and bring them into the world of corporate training?

How to create a training plan in under 10 minutes

Using a lesson plan template (which is the most downloaded resource from this blog) can help give you structure. Using Soapbox can save you all sorts of time (and still give your presentation some structure)!

Does training actually change behavior?

Does training actually change behavior? It’s a question we should be able to answer honestly. (And the answer is: No, not 100%… and yes, but seriously, not 100%)

Hybrid Learning: When to use it

Recently I had an opportunity to talk with the folks at Mimeo about hybrid learning and when to use it. In today’s post, I share a link to that podcast, which is one in a series of podcasts they did with industry leaders on hybrid learning strategies.

L&D Lessons Learned from Being a Parent (Part 5 of 5)

Once we get into a comfortable routine, how easy is it to want to try something new? Erin Clarke shares a few ah-ha’s about what she discovered and how she became better when she decided to leave her comfort zone and try something new.

Subscribe to Get Updates from Endurance Learning

Brian Washburn, Author

Brian Washburn
CEO & Chief Ideas Guy

Enter your information below and we’ll send you the latest updates from our blog. Thanks for following!

activities cookbook

Download the Training Activity Cookbook

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the Endurance Learning Activity Cookbook.

Find Your L&D Career Path

Explore the range of careers to understand what role might be a good fit for your L&D career.

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the What’s Possible in L&D Worksheet.

What's possible in L&D

Let's Talk Training!

Brian Washburn

Brian Washburn
CEO & Chief Ideas Guy

Enter your information below and we’ll get back to you soon.

Download the Feedback Lesson Plan

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the lesson plan as a PDF.

feedback lesson plan
MS Word Job Aid Template

Download the Microsoft Word Job Aid Template

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the Word version of this template.

Download the Free Lesson Plan Template!

Enter your email below and we’ll send you a Word document that you can start using today!

free lesson plan template
training materials checklist

Download the Training Materials Checklist

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the Training Materials Checklist.

Subscribe to Endurance Learning for updates

Get regular updates from the Endurance Learning team.