Today’s blog post is not so much a dissertation or opinion piece, but a question.
I’ve been having discussions lately with multiple pharma/biotech clients around the ongoing development of those who cycle into the training dept (as trainers, managers, associate directors, etc.)
Specifically – I know there are a fair number of offerings (including some from LTEN) that focus on training-specific skills – instructional design, facilitation, presentation skills, and the like. I HOPE that many companies are taking advantage of those.
But when it comes to developing “good corporate citizens” who are being effectively developed for positions of greater responsibility, who in our industry has a well-structured and systematic curriculum (say, perhaps, quarterly internal workshops) in place for those in the training department? I’m thinking of skills like this:
- Strategic Thinking
- Business Writing
- Influence without Authority
- Negotiation
- Communication
- Project Management
- Time and Priority Management
- Professional Networking
- Relationship Management
- Corporate Business Acumen
What do you have in place? I would really like to know (please send me a message: stevew@impactiviti.com). I get the sense, that, along with on-boarding, there are needs here – maybe we can brainstorm some solutions for your department.
(also – is your own sales training dept. planning for these developmental needs, or is it being done through HR? If the latter – is it effective?)
Within our training organization, it is a blend of corporate training offerings that include ILT, self paced eLearning/articles, etc. Most of those offerings are leadership development or project management related. We have supplemented those developmental resources with internal trainer specific offerings through a phased approach. The emphasis within this program is what skillsets and/or knowledge is required to be effective in the new role.