Training is like booking a holiday

Any learning related activity – a lesson, a programme or a strategy – is a bit like going on holiday.

There are a few questions common to both activities:

1. Where are you going?
2. What’s there that you want to do?
3. When do you want to arrive?
4. Is it affordable?
5. What steps do you need to take to achieve it?

If you don’t know where you’re going, it is unlikely you will ever arrive. This is true for holidays and training. If you are planning training then you need to identify your destination first – what you want to achieve and how you know if you have achieved it. If you want a holiday in Florida but when you disembark the plane you see the Sphinx and Great Pyramids you know something’s gone wrong, right? So if you expect your training to deliver a specific destination and when you get there it looks wrong… then you didn’t do enough, or the right planning.

Right, you’ve chosen your destination. What next? You plan your activities to get the most out of your holiday. So, what about training? No real difference – you select training activities that match your requirements at the time – choosing those that are affordable to deliver in the time allotted.

You now have your destination and you know what you are going to do while you’re there but you need to know when you are going to arrive. As well as being crucial for a holiday to get the weather you want, you need to know your training timetable too. Without it you may try and cram too much content in and not have enough time to create it or even deliver it. Other organisational priorities may take the time you wanted, so talk to other stakeholders and make sure you get the time you need to design and deliver. Realistically, you may have to trim down the number and type of activities you engage in.

What’s left? How are you going to make this holiday happen? You need to book time off work, save up to pay for the holiday and spending money, find someone to feed the dog… When planning your training activity you need to look at how you will deliver the chosen outcome – identify what expertise, resources, budget and organisational commitment you will need to create the activity and then the resources, logistics and business support you will need to deliver the activity and then manage it into the business afterwards.

So whether you’re booking your holiday or delivering a training activity it is critical to identify the destination and how to get the most for your money and then look forward to some great memories.