Individual Attention Adds Up to Group Success

As you tackle the process of introducing sustainable improvements across your organization, this series of articles is designed to provide a framework that you may wish to explore when looking to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your sales, service and support teams.

We started by reviewing the benefits of first determining the goals that you have for your learning initiative. This week we'll look at the other side of the coin and highlight one major factor that plays heavily on the ultimate success of any initiative – human nature.

Human nature has been described as 'a complex set of impulses that affect all aspects of our daily lives'. Our individual perspectives on what we deem important, our reaction to being told what to do, our survival instincts and our tolerance in the face of change are but a few elements that filter our daily interactions.

Human nature, being what it is, guarantees that everyone will be motivated by different things, interpret each event in different ways, is receptive to new concepts and information to various degrees and react differently to how they are approached. That all adds up to an environment that requires some thought when attempting to move as many people as possible to an elevated and sustainable skill level.

Not only is human nature at play but the characteristics of 'adult learner' suggests that the success of training in a group environment is best achieved when the individual can personalize the learnings and see direct benefit in their everyday routine. The adult learner requires learning to make sense – they will not perform a learning activity just because the instructor said to do it. And with their wide experience, they bring a lot to any learning situation.

We believe that an initiative is most successful when you have the capability to observe, record, analyze and support how an individual – or a group of individuals – is thinking. With the right data, you can tailor discussions that match the expectations of the group.

To best do that, there are a number of tools that can:

• gauge a participant's perspective and involve them the process
• assess the degree and quality to which an individual is engaged
• provide a way to interpret and choose a behaviour, belief or thinking style that we want to influence
• challenge things that don't support a desired outcome
• reinforce a successful pattern... over and over 

Once you have an array of data points, you then have a foundation to analyze, interpret and guide the progress of each participant and the group as a whole.

At the end of the day, the motivation to embrace new learning must come from within each person. A successful learning environment can be developed with the right combination of new skills, a measurement process that evaluates the quality of the effort being expelled and a coaching mechanism that reinforces desired behaviours.

We invite you to clearly identify the scope of what you need out of your investment in Sales Training and evaluate how the Algario PowerLearn™ Sales Development System can maximize the return you are looking for.