Designing Manager-Led Training

ASTD 2013 Sales Enablement Blog Series 3/20

Efficiency. Intimate training environments. Scale. Does your company strive to achieve all three of these important aspects of business when it comes to learning and development? Is it even possible at all anymore? Unfortunately, many training teams are challenged as companies grow and budgets shrink, making it harder and harder to engage all employees by creating impactful, energetic training.  Sure, remote e-learning addresses issues of efficiency and scale, but what about the benefits that only come from being up-front and personal in smaller, face-to-face engagements? And how do you do that while maintaining the amount of control your company requires? One solution may lie in a different approach, one that may be difficult for some training teams to swallow: outsourcing to line managers. 

The sales training team at E*TRADE Financial has done just that, and has been able to create efficiencies, while also building personal and customized training opportunities for every team.  During our workshop, “Designing Manager-Led Training,” we will discuss several techniques that have proven successful at designing, developing, and delivering training specifically targeted for delivery by line managers. 

When it comes to designing training for manager delivery, there are a few key questions one must address right off the bat.

1. What is the line manager’s capacity and ability to deliver training, and how does a training team determine that?

1. What type of content and method of delivery can be used by managers who may not naturally feel comfortable conducting training?

1. What are some scalable techniques that can be used to record and validate delivery for tracking purposes? 

These questions are just a sample of the important considerations during design and development of manager-led training that a training team must address and plan for during the initial design stages. By addressing these questions and involving the right people at the right time, your manager-led training project will have a much greater chance of success. 
In this workshop, you will have the opportunity to briefly hear about real-world experiences and successful approaches E*TRADE Financial has taken to design and deliver manager-led training. You will hear about “Mastering the Sales Conversation” capsules and other on-demand, optional training programs that line managers use to focus on specific sales skills. You will also hear about how E*TRADE Financial leverages line-manager training even when high amounts of compliance control and reporting are required.

You’ll learn about three approaches to designing and delivering manager-led training:

1. Very controlled: This involves the use of word-for-word scripted presentations, and may be ideal when your company requires a high level of compliance to specific guidelines, or when your line managers have less training and coaching experience.

1. Semi-controlled: This approach makes use of facilitator and participant guides with more loosely structured scripts and exercises. Use of this approach represents a hybrid between high levels of control and limited control, combining the best elements of both.

1. Limited-control: This involves the least amount of control by using outline and discussion-based engagements. If your line managers have a great deal of training and coaching experience, this approach gives them the greatest amount of leeway in delivery. 

After looking at the concepts important to designing and launching manager-led training and learning more about specific successes at E*TRADE Financial, you will have the opportunity to review a training case study and help design a manager-led training approach that best suits the situation. Finally, you will have the chance to share your ideas and begin working on designing manager-led training specific to your company.
If you and your company struggle with delivering high-quality training because your teams are geographically diverse, or if your technology and systems aren’t ideal for virtually delivered training, or if your line managers don’t have a lot of training experience, then you should attend this workshop. The trainers at E*TRADE Financial are confident you will walk away with specific ideas, techniques, and processes that will help you design high-quality, efficient, and impactful manager-led training.

Join me and my colleagues at ASTD 2013 for my session “Designing Manager-Led Sales Training” where we will present several techniques for designing manager-led training. Topics covered in the session include:

• how to assess line managers' capacity and ability to deliver training

• important considerations during design and development of training content (such as creating facilitator guides)

• how to equip line managers with adequate information and content so that they can confidently deliver the training to their reports

• techniques for recording and validating delivery.

The session will also include case studies that focus on manager-led, product-launch training events, and group exercises designed to help you begin preparations for designing manager-led training in your own company. Participants will discover and explore the challenges faced by sales line managers who may find it difficult to dedicate time to effective sales coaching and training. Participants will explore and reflect on examples of successful training design of programs targeted for manager delivery. Presenters will discuss several E*TRADE case studies of real world designs the firm has used in the past several years, as well as ask for participant examples and insight. Participants will apply learning by selecting a specific manager-led delivery technique such as coaching, role play or group discussion, then begin working on their specific situation using the job aids and tools provided by the presenters.

The ASTD 2013 International Conference & Exposition is the premier event for training and development professionals. This year's event will take place in Dallas, Texas, U.S.A. from May 19-22, 2013. Learn more about ASTD 2013's keynote speakers, educational sessions, andexposition at www.astdconference.org.