Many organizations spend huge sums of money on staff training and development and yet many times the investment does not yield the desired results.

The reason for this lack of results and what really goes wrong usually remains a mystery to most company executives. Especially where they have taken great care in selecting a top-notch expensive training outfit to carry out their staff development program.

The wrong approach starts right from the decision-making process. Somebody in management feels that, for example, the sales team is not achieving anywhere near as much sales as the competition. If there are some available figures to prove their point, the better. Naturally the first solution that comes to mind is sales training. Many times this fails miserably to have any significant effect on sales because, as is often the case, the problem is much deeper than that.

The reason why the real cause for sales not being where they should be may never be discovered in such an organization is the lack of communication in the organization. One would have thought that with all the advancements in communications today, this should be a thing of the past. Alas, communications has little to do with having access to email or personal mobile telephone numbers of all the Vice Presidents of the corporation.

It has much more to do with the culture of the company and the kind of constant effort being made to enhance communications throughout the organization. Does the organization have a system for harnessing ideas from all employees right at every level? In other words, are the channels of communication in the organization up and working? Are they a constant source of concern by senior management or do people just think about them when there is a crisis like the example of slipping sales?

This is what makes the difference. When the communication lines are truly open and working, then management has much more accurate and abundant information upon which to make decisions. And even more important, training and development will have the desired impact on everybody’s performance.

Copyright © 2006 Chuck Yorke - All Rights Reserved

Chuck Yorke is an organizational development and performance improvement specialist, trainer, consultant and speaker. His specialty is helping companies improve by tapping into the creative ideas of their workers. He is also co-author, along with Norman Bodek, of All You Gotta Do Is Ask, a book that explains how to promote large numbers of ideas from employees. Chuck may be reached at [email protected], http://www.peoplekaizen.com/

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