Effective training encourages employees to take responsibility for their careers.
Steve Zinkgraf had just closed a deal with Sony to provide its first major executive and champion training sessions. Then Sony called, asking for the slides and instructor notes so they could do the course themselves. "I didn't send them," says Zinkgraf, president and CEO of Sigma Breakthrough Technologies Inc. (SBTI, San Marcos, TX), who says those types of training programs often fail. "I think people respond to trainers who have been there and done that before."
Whether it is training for safety or Six Sigma, trainers believe there is a right and wrong way to do it. Ideally, training should be goal-based, tied to improving performance and led by a dynamic instructor.