7 Deadly Wastes of Business Training

Over-production occurs when additional training courses (purchased or developed) are added to an employee’s list of required training that is not linked to a money-generating or cost-avoidance process or performance gap. This results in the employee having to take/sit through more training than what they need or the business requires of them.

This is one of the worst forms of waste as it has a domino effect on the other wastes. Over-production increases the opportunities for training defects, can negatively impact knowledge/skills inventory, add additional costs due to unnecessary instructional development and delivery, and usually increases unnecessary motion and transportation (See #5).

Training inventory refers to the knowledge/skills required to complete a task. When employees are required to attend training (whether in-person or online) on something they already know or can perform, they waste valuable resources (time/money). Competitive companies understand this and ensure their training systems only provide knowledge/skills training needed to close real/measured performance gaps so that time and money are not wasted.

Defects in training refer to ambiguous or erroneous information being presented to the learner and/or training in a format that is incongruent with the course objectives and/or performance gap.

Training defects can lead to over-production, non-value-added knowledge/skills, and human error, which can cause a negative cascade effect throughout the organization.

Borrowing from Edward Thorndike, the Law of Recency states that people best remember the most recent material covered. This ties into the term “just-in-time” training, meaning that training should be delivered as close to when the actual application of that training will be needed. This helps ensure that material will still be fresh and employees will be eager and ready to use their new knowledge and skills.

The longer employees wait between training and its application, the more their new knowledge/skills degrade. Unless you provide opportunities for continued practice and upkeep of what was learned, knowledge/skills will degrade to the point where employees must be retrained. This means you’ve just paid double for something better planning would have prevented.

Unnecessary transportation and motion are related to inefficient or unnecessary delivery of instructional material and learners’ engagement. This usually occurs when those involved with developing the learning event are either inexperienced or ignorant of instructional design and adult learning theories/methodologies. Training should be delivered in the least resource-consuming manner that will meet the objectives of the learning event and close the associated performance gap.

Unnecessary transportation refers to deploying (transporting) learning content in an unnecessary format. Unnecessary motion results from unnecessary transportation because it may displace employees and incur more costs due to the extra travel and/or time away from work.

Over processing occurs when the training includes more information than your learners require. Training should only include what is necessary to support the course objectives. Following this thought, the objectives should be based on what is required of the employee to fulfill the training’s overall goal, and the training goal should be tied directly to a business process/goal.

Overprocessing usually occurs when developers add “nice-to-know” information versus “need-to-know” information outside of the course objectives or are part of objectives that are not required to successfully close the associated performance gap.

Non-use of employee abilities refers to the organization not allowing or hindering employees from applying their new knowledge or skills after a learning event. It also does not properly utilize the skills and abilities of its workforce when it would benefit them to do so.

Remember, in business, all training must be connected to some form of application, and just like other resources, knowledge/skills not used for revenue generation or cost avoidance are a waste.

You can download a copy of “7 Deadly Wastes of Business Training” infographic here.

I hope you found this list to be thought-provoking. It’s a research project that still in progress, so I’d love to hear your comments on how to fine-tune the content so we can make it a great tool for everyone.

Cheers,

Dr. D