Hello, Habr! I would like to tell you about how we, at NPO Krista, conduct corporate trainings as part of the #KristaTeam project, developed to prepare the company's personnel reserve.
First, I will focus on whether training is needed at all? For a long time I had some skepticism about their usefulness. However, one day I got acquainted on the Internet with all sorts of information about corporate universities. Turns out they've been around for a long time. Companies spend considerable financial resources on training their employees through trainings.
Before, I had the opportunity to participate in various trainings. As a rule, they are led by sufficiently qualified, experienced trainers. Usually the training lasts 2-3 days for 8 hours. Theoretical material alternates with practical tasks. By the end of the training, its participants are invited to make a small project to consolidate knowledge. It would seem that everything was right, but every time after participating in a training of this format, I caught myself thinking that something was missing for me. The trainings of our #KristaTeam project became a real discovery for me and allowed me to take a step in my professional development. How are they different from other trainings?
Mentor training
To become an internal trainer in our company, each employee must complete training on topics that fit our competency framework and training for trainers on adult education methods.
Trainings for future mentors - project managers, which preceded the trainings in which I participated, were aimed at developing corporate and managerial competencies. These include:
- Commitment
- Customer-centricity
- Focus on innovation
- Teamwork
- Professionalism
- Team planning
- Organization of team work
- Control and evaluation of team work
- Conflict Management
- Risk management
- Time management and personal performance
- Leadership
- Staff development
- Strategic Thinking
- Change management
Project managers practiced the knowledge, skills and behaviors associated with these competencies.
Start
After completing the training, project managers acted as trainers for us, department heads and representatives of the company's personnel reserve. Since the training material is quite extensive, we were given it in a concise form. It turned out to be an intensive training. The duration of the training was 2 months. In general, there were 20 trainings: 2-3 trainings per week.
Among the students were young people and girls, there were 15 people in total. No more than 1 representative from the department of the company was involved. The selection was carried out on the basis of the wishes of the employees themselves and the recommendations of their leaders. As a result, the whole range of the company's key professions was represented in the group, including testers, software maintenance and implementation specialists, methodologists and, of course, programmers, to whom I belong.
At the beginning of the study, we were offered project topics and informed that, in addition to participating in trainings, we should think over their concepts, write terms of reference for them and defend projects.
Topics were:
- development of a knowledge base for the formation of technical specifications for the conditions of the customer;
- development of a mobile application for mapping desires and life goals;
- development of a "smart" user support system;
- development of a module for the internal website of the company and a mobile application for the introduction of a new system of non-material incentives for employees in the form of "achievements";
- development of the information portal of NPO "Krista".
All topics reflected real production tasks, which at that time had not yet reached the implementation stage, i.e. were relevant.
I was wondering how the training would go. I had previously communicated with many leaders at work, with some I knew well - I was curious how they would tell us everything.
Introductory training
He helped us overcome our worries about how to combine education and day-to-day work. After all, no one canceled it. Also, this training fueled interest in further trainings.
It went like this. After the introductory part, we divided into teams of 3 people each and played out the topics of our future projects. Our team got theme number 5. Then we were asked to complete a creative task. Each team was assigned two mentors. The task was to come up with and record 5-minute videos to introduce the teams. We went to our offices and started coming up with concepts and scenarios.
At first it was difficult to distribute the roles: to understand who is the generator of ideas, who is the integrator, and who is the harmonizer or researcher of resources. The mentors offered their ideas. However, gradually everything went-went. Our team took as a basis the story about smugglers from the movie "The Diamond Arm". The video is very funny. Other teams also had interesting videos. For example, one team for self-presentation beat the theme of the song of the group "Nautilus Pompilius" "Bound by one chain", the other preferred a direct form of self-presentation, accompanying it with graphic images.
In general, team building was held in a friendly, cheerful atmosphere, on an emotional upsurge. I concluded: a group creative task is a very important stage of the training. It was regularly used in further trainings. This task allowed:
- rally students;
- establish a trusting relationship between students and mentors;
- shift attention from work issues to another type of activity and look at familiar things with a fresh look.
Training "Customer orientation"
At this stage, we had to learn to identify and understand the needs of the organization's customers, build constructive, long-term relationships with them, overcome disagreements when working with customers and reach mutually beneficial solutions. The task was not easy. To cope with it, we were helped in many ways by a few effective rules of communication that are relevant to all trainings. These include:
- the one-mic rule;
- communication on "you";
- activity of each participant;
- switching phones to vibrate mode;
- a clear understanding that there are no stupid questions, the worst question is not asked.
Following these rules allowed us to create a constructive, friendly atmosphere and achieve the best result.
There were a lot of interesting moments in the process of training, accompanied by stormy emotions. Together we reviewed the usual approaches to work and made new decisions. The results of this and other trainings were discussed in a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere.
After this training, I already realized that I also want to try myself as a mentor. As a coach, I already wanted to bring my knowledge and energy into the learning process. I hoped to feel the same joy and unity with the trainees during the trainings as they did when I was taught. These hopes were subsequently justified in full measure.
Debate - training in public speaking
At the beginning of this training, we were introduced to how to ask questions, argue, lead a discussion, build a speech. Then there was practice: several sessions were devoted to debates, which were held according to the traditional model.
For many participants of the training, including me, it was the first experience of mastering public speaking. Speaking in front of an audience, answering the tricky questions of opponents was not easy. And I noticed this not only in myself, but also in other participants. However, after the training, I unexpectedly discovered that I liked it. Moreover, this type of training has become one of my favorites. I enjoyed participating in the debate. They ended, as a rule, late, but they never left a feeling of emotional emptiness, but, on the contrary, charged with positive energy.
In our company, debates have recently been held monthly: the #KristaDebates club has been created. I try to participate in every meeting.
Final project
In the final projects, we had to reflect and hone the knowledge gained at the trainings. Work on projects went on throughout the training. We met several times a week after work or training.
Our team was developing an information portal for NPO Krista. We needed to create a single information space for our company, which has a wide geography. It turned out to be especially difficult for us in this case to calculate the labor intensity and, on its basis, the budget. Some components of the project, for example, risks, we managed to work out quite well. While working on the project, I studied a lot of corporate portals. This analysis has been very helpful. We came to the conclusion that we need a full-fledged information system with broad functionality. As a result, the training project of our team was the first to go into production. I was lucky enough to lead it as a technical leader.
Conclusions and perspectives
Based on my experience of participating in trainings, I can formulate the following arguments in their favor: it is difficult to study the theory of behavioral models on your own - the help of an experienced mentor will be very useful here; in collective training, there is an exchange of experience and opinions between the participants, it is possible to immediately work out the mastered material in detail in practice; to dive into a particular topic, it is initially necessary to set a development vector, i.e. trainings will give direction, and then you can study the material in more detail on your own.
I really liked the format of the trainings within the framework of the #KristaTeam project. In my opinion, other participants too. The teaching material was different. The question arose: do we, specialists of various profiles, need training that is not directly related to our professions? For example, does a programmer need to be client-oriented? And then the answer question arose: do programmers understand testers, methodologists, implementation specialists, marketers well? After all, not everyone is immersed in communication with external customers, but everyone is with internal customers. However, not everyone is doing well. But if something doesnβt work out for me, then I need it, this is my development zone, and in this topic, the zone of personal growth. The influence of new information, supported by practice, on a person can change his, if not a formed core, then his view of certain things. Therefore, during the passage of this or that training, at least I realized for myself: this is the necessary material - I will return to it when necessary.
The undoubted advantage of the trainings was that our leaders - people with whom we periodically encounter at work under various circumstances - were in the role of equal participants. It felt like they genuinely care about us. The mentors were really worried about how things would go. During all the trainings, mentors and participants constantly communicated, exchanged opinions and emotions. As a result, they got used to each other and even became friends. Now we cooperate much more actively on all working issues. I try to maintain warm relations with all participants of the trainings.
After analyzing the experience of training the first flow of employees, we came to the conclusion that we succeeded:
- unity of trainees and trainers;
- development of existing and detailed development of new projects useful for business;
- intensive training format for the company's personnel reserve;
- development of corporate culture;
- increasing employee loyalty to the company.
We have made the following adjustments to the trainings of the second stream:
- Now everyone can apply to participate in the training. To do this, employees fill out questionnaires and write essays;
- it was decided to invite co-trainers - participants of the trainings of the first stream;
- within the framework of trainings for more effective team building, it was decided to hold sports events;
- at the end of all classes, a final business game is organized for their participants, during which all competencies are practiced;
- it is planned to spread the practice of intensive training of the personnel reserve of NPO "Krista" to the branches of our company in the regions of the country. They will take place in January-February 2020.
Trainings within the framework of the #KristaTeam project are part of the corporate training program, the creation of which NPO Krista pays great attention to. This project includes blocks of training events of different target orientation for employees of different professions and statuses. Among such events are internal face-to-face trainings on specialized topics. There will also be trainings on non-core topics. They will be led by guest coaches. A set of electronic courses, webinars and an offline learning system are currently being developed. A training program for customer support specialists is being created, within which various trainings will be held. In general, we assess the needs of our business and, on their basis, form a program for the development of the company's competency system.
Summarizing what has been said, I would like to emphasize that involving the heads of projects and departments of NPO Krista as trainers gives very good results. Now the third stream is being prepared for training. I will participate in it, as in the second stream, as a mentor, co-trainer, which is great.
Probably, trainings, somewhat similar to ours, are also held in other companies. It would be interesting to learn about such practice.
Source: habr.com