2018 Statewide Learning and Development Solutions
In This Issue:
  1. New Website for COE
  2. Featured Courses
  3. Learning Lessons - Want Employee Training to Last?
New Website for COE
There are many new and exciting features on the new COE website. We hope that these features make it easier for you to identify learning and development options for you and your teams.

Check out the COE home page for the new site here: https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/dhr/training

  From the home page you will see the most popular sections:
 
Register for a Training: This link opens to the Learning Management System where you register for classes and enter payment information. The classes listed on this page have active registration dates.
 
Products and Services: This is the most frequently used section of the new COE website. This page shows all of the products and services that are available through COE. You cannot register from this page, you have to go to the LMS to sign up for classes. You can request any of these classes to be delivered exclusively for your agency or team.

Waiver Guidance : You may not know that COE is responsible for reviewing and approving any training for employees. This authority is delegateded from the Colorado Revised Statute, CRS 24-50-122. In some cases, COE may grant or deny waivers for agencies to spend State funds for the training of employees in the state personnel system.  Waivers can be submitted through the  Request Training Waiver page . State funds shall not be expended for the training of employees in the state personnel system without approval.

From the COE home page, you can also view the four main sections:

Featured Training: Special offerings to state employees in this section include: discounted courses, new classes, or special programs. Currently there are several spots open for the Lean and Honsha programs.

General Enrollment: General Enrollment classes provide the flexibility to purchase one or more seats in a prescheduled class. These classes are high-demand and new classes that are open to all state employee.

Online Learning: Online learning classes allow employees, regardless of their location, to participate in training opportunities through computers or devices with an internet connection. These classes are perfect for groups that have employees in multiple locations, do not have access to classrooms, or who cannot bring everyone together in the same place at the same time.

Certificate Programs: Certificate programs are groups of classes with a common theme. Certificate programs deliver breadth and depth of knowledge through the variety of classes within the program. Participants who complete all components of a Certificate Program will be recognized by having their name posted on the Honor Wall.

Don't forget to visit the   Additional Resources Page . From here you can view the Statewide Competency Guide, see previous newsletters and add your name to the distribution list to receive the newsletters in the future.
Featured Courses


This month we want to draw your attention to some of the new courses that have been added to the COE catalog . In order to build on the foundation that we have started with the current LEAN training, we have partnered with our vendors to offer several new courses that relate to LEAN and Process Improvement.
 
We have also added two new courses that develop skill in Storytelling. Storytelling is the one vehicle that powerfully and positively impacts at least five different key areas in an organization: knowledge transfer, change, culture, talent wars, and customer loyalty.
 
W e are offering nine new options for LEAN and Process Improvement!
 
Lean Leader: Designed for senior leaders and executives, this 1-day course focuses on building the skills needed to create a culture of continuous improvement. Leaders will learn knowledge and skills to close the execution gap through a participative approach that empowers employees and sets staff up to be successful. From project selection, to change agent identification, to active change management, leaders will engage in dialogue-based learning with a focus on building a plan to move their own organization forward.
 
Lean Foundations: Lean continuous improvement can have a transformative effect on operational performance and employee satisfaction. This 1-day course delivers a foundational understanding for employees at any level who do not have experience using formal problem-solving methods. Class time focuses on building familiarity with the State's SOLVE method and toolkit through participative exercises. Entire teams can enroll with a goal of working together after the class to implement one or more improvements.
 
Establishing Lean Accountability: Increasing Performance through Ownership: Designed for professionals at any level, this 1-day course helps individuals and teams create shared accountability to make a positive impact on their organization. The course equips participants with concepts and practical skills to increase ownership and responsibility for achieving results. Through limited slideware and participative exercises, small groups will practice respectfully challenging accepted standards to pushing for a higher level of performance and teamwork. Note: This course is particularly effective for intact teams experiencing issues of trust and "finger pointing" around delivery of critical results.
 
The 4 Truths of Lean Change Management: Winning the Battle of Hearts and Minds: Managing the people side of change is critical to lasting project success. Leaders cannot merely dictate, they must ensure their people are prepared for and supported through the change. This 2-day course focuses on the practical skills to complement project management tasks with the "softer skills" needed to successfully implement and sustain high-impact improvements. The course is built around GPS' "4 Truths of Change" with 75% of class time spent applying the theory through exercises and small group discussions. Participants are encouraged to have a change project identified before the class so that exercises yield not just insights, but valuable outputs for a real-life project.
 
Driving Lean Culture Change-the 4Cs© Model : Shaping an organization's culture is a key function of executives and senior leaders. And, it is said that culture eats change for lunch. Moving from the culture you have to one that is supportive of accomplishing your mission takes an intentional, concerted effort. Through two 1-day sessions, leaders learn skills to characterize their current culture and to build a practical plan to transform it by progressing through the 4Cs of Culture©: Co-Create, Clarify, Connect, and Cultivate.
Note: Two hours of individual coaching are included with the course fee and additional coaching hours are recommended to support leaders as they lead the culture change effort.
 
Lean Standardization: This session covers the process of identifying opportunities for LEAN Process Improvement and Standardization. A combination of presentation, exercises, and team based application for 1-3 actual processes are used, based upon the number of participants. 
Pre-work includes selection of work areas in order to enable experiences within the Honsha's "Learn, See, Do" model.
 
Continuous Improvement: This session covers Improvement Philosophy and how leaders can engage their organization's transformation through the introduction of the Kaizen Teian ("presenting something I have already implemented") system.  Participants will learn:
  • The process of everyone identifying opportunities for improvement "ideas"
  • Implementing the improvement idea on their own
  • The management system required to sustain this system
Identify and Execute Process Improvements: This session covers the Lean Management System practice of organizing leaders' activities through the use of Leader Standardized Work. Strategies of scheduling similar activities to occur simultaneously, and leveling workload across the time horizon (day, week, month, year) are explored together. The leadership team refines roles and determines how they spend their most precious limited resource - time.  
 
Lean Leaders Vision and Strategy: This session shares a Vision for how Lean could look for Colorado in the future. Through dialogue and shared video observation of lean organizations, leaders have an opportunity to prepare a lean vision tailored to their own department. Values and principles of successful lean organizations are explored and evaluated against the departments' current values and philosophies.
 
COE is also offering two new options for training on Storytelling.
 
Stand Out Storytelling; An Interactive Workshop Building Your Storytelling Skills
During this full day event Karen Dietz, will give you practical tools and plenty of practice sessions to:
  • Understand the neuroscience behind storytelling and why it works to strengthen your story crafting skills
  • Know the 7 Signature Stories every person needs to tell
  • Engineer and craft your stories so they get results
  • A simple framework for data storytelling
  • Learn essential story delivery and practice skills to get started
  • Practice your story in a supportive and empowering environment where creativity flourishes
  • Generate confidence in your storytelling skills
  Never be boring again and inspire people to action.
 
Storytelling for Influence: An Interactive Workshop to Boost Engagement and Better Decision Making 

In this workshop, learn and practice how to use your stories to:
  1. Leverage story listening to become influential in daily work, and improve your decision making
  2. Arouse the best in people to ensure a vibrant business and engaged clients and employees
  3. Communicate genuinely to build relationships and enroll people across the organization in your projects and vision
  4. Identify stories you've never thought of before, spotting them all around you
  5. Work with the dynamics and neuroscience of story sharing for lasting influence
  6. Catch stories from those you work with to build deeper trust, and commitment
  7. Integrate storytelling into everyday work and business life
Learning Lessons
Miriam Lawrence, Director of Product and Market Research for Horsesmouth, published his article, Want Employee Training to Last?, in December of 2000.

Your support as coach will turn your training dollars into bottom-line gains.
When your [employees] participate in training, how often do you observe significant and lasting change when they get back to work?

Chances are, not often. The vast majority of corporate training-both in the brokerage industry and elsewhere-fails to "stick." Estimates vary, but workers at best retain and use only 30% (typically, it's more like 10%) of what they "learn" in training programs. One study conducted at Rutgers University concluded that companies waste between $5.6 and $16.8 billion every year on soft skills training that fails to translate into better on-the-job performance.

Like many branch managers, you've probably experienced these statistics first-hand. How many times have you sent an [employee] to a training program only to watch him return to business as usual when the training ended? "I see it all the time," said Matt Kolb, who has been a branch manager for 18 years and who currently runs Deutsche Banc Alex Brown's New York office.

Certainly, some training lacks substance or is poorly designed. ''There are these airballs like Tony Robbins who put you in a room and get you into a frenzy," Kolb snorted, "and 24 hours later there you are, $35 in books in hand and no idea where to start." But even when the techniques are solid and potentially valuable, [employees] rarely put new techniques into consistent practice.

Whose fault is it?
 
When good training fails to result in better performance, we tend to blame the trainee. We figure he's just not motivated, capable, or trying hard enough. So get ready for a big surprise. You actually play the pivotal part in determining whether training dollars result in a bottom-line benefit for your advisors [employees).

A manager's involvement in employee training strikingly correlates with strong post-training performance. In fact, Don Michalak, co-author of Making the Training Process Work, has found such a strong relationship between manager involvement and training success that he recommends managers forgo training programs unless they intend to invest their own time and energy to maintain the skills and knowledge employees gain in those programs.

How can you make such a difference? For one thing, your position of authority greatly affects attitude. 'We all look to our bosses and managers. They have earned their spurs," said University of Minnesota professor of management John W. Newstrom, who has extensively studied what makes corporate training stick. When you show genuine interest in an [employee's] development, it shows him that 1) training and development matter in your branch, and 2) you care about him and his success. Your position of authority makes you a powerful motivator, and motivation is key to putting training into action.

Make it pay off

Remember, where complex skills are concerned, mastery doesn't come in a day, a week, or a month. In most cases, it takes years. (Did you know that chess masters require from 50,000 to 100,000 hours of practice to become world-class players?) Your daily contact with advisors makes it possible to turn training events into training processes and to provide advisors with the ongoing reinforcement and guidance they require after training.

Here are some actions that you can take to reinforce your [employees'] training and make it last.

Demonstrate that training is a priority. If you think training is a waste of time, your employees-especially new ones-will follow your lead. Trainer and coach Steve Drozdek recalls his early days as a firm sales trainer. ''There were a few managers who, when kids got back from rookie training, would say forget everything you heard there, now we'II teach you how do it the right way. Not surprisingly, the trainees followed the manager's agenda. Remember, the tone you set determines whether or not people take development seriously.

Analyze needs and involve [employees] in training plans. Avoid the 11one-size-fit s­ alr1 approach. When you put together a training plan, get input from your [employees] about what they need and want. Also be sure to consult with each [employee] and take his strengths and weaknesses into account when deciding whether he should participate in a training program. Make training in your branch "one-size-fits-one."

Get familiar with training objectives and participate, if possible. You must know what [employees] are supposed to learn in order to coach them later. Besides, attending training sends an invaluable message. "You have to be there for every session," insists Alex Brown's Kolb, "because you're the leader. You don't lead by edict, you lead by example. My credibility with these people is that I've done what they've done." Pressed for time? According to Newstrom, even attending for an hour or two helps. "It makes an impression that the manager took the time to stop in."

Meet with [employees] before, during, and after training. Keep meetings short - 10 minutes maximum. Before training, solicit the employee's expectations. While training is in progress, check in to see how it's going. Afterwards, ask questions like, what did you get out of it? What do you plan to do with it? How can I help you? The simple act of taking time for a brief chat communicates that you care about an employee's training process, and studies show that your interest alone packs a great motivational punch.

Help [employees] set and meet goals. Before an employee begins training, talk about its potential benefits and applications on the job. When training ends, work together to establish specific, achievable objectives for putting the training into practice. The point is to help your employee answer the question, "What will I do with what I have learned?" in an action-oriented way - ideally, in writing.

Provide a supportive re-entry environment. Re-entry from training is not unlike re­ entry into the Earth's atmosphere: take the wrong approach and your investment disintegrates on contact. If you can, try to reduce expectations, job pressures, and deadlines for a few days, so [employees] can experiment with newly learned techniques. It's also a helpful to give [employees] a gentle reality check. Remind them that they will inevitably encounter some failures along the way and that they shouldn't get discouraged.

Help [employees] identify obstacles. Every [employee] has attitudes, fears, and mental blocks that can create barriers to change after training. Work environment and colleagues can also present obstacles. Talk openly with [employees] about the roadblocks they may face in putting what they've learned into practice. Then work together to figure out how to overcome them and what you can do to help.

Encourage community. Working with others during and after training can dramatically increase its potency. A buddy system is especially useful, according to Don Michalak. [Employees] who attended a training program should pair up and meet once a week to discuss and counsel each other about how they plan to apply the training in the coming week. Then they can reconvene to talk about what worked and what didn't. One major gas utility found that after a year, some trainees in a division who failed to do this partnering "didn't even remember going to the training!" recalls Michalak. Meanwhile, the division that did use the method showed great results.

Help [employees] keep skills fresh. [Employees] may have a difficult time seeing where to apply the skills and techniques they've just learned, and they may need feedback and coaching when they do apply them to affirm that they're "doing it right." Try to create relevant opportunities for this type of coached practice. And don't assume that the training department will arrange for refresher and follow-up training sessions; let trainers know you want follow-up sessions. If you don't get results, take the wheel yourself.

Always wear your coaching cap. Strong coaching is really the heart of your role in supporting training. As Matt Kolb explains it, "Good training is ongoing. Someone checks in with you regularly and keeps you on track, like a set of blinders on a horse." Take your employees to lunch and chat about how they're doing with new techniques. When they have a success, however small, give them positive reinforcement. Even a little "Nice job!" will do the trick. Above all, as Steve Drozdek put it, "Emblazon across your internal forehead: 'How Can I Help You?'"
Center for Organizational Effectiveness
Department of Personnel & Administration
Division of Human Resources
dpa_prsnltraining@state.co.us
303-866-2439