Reference no: EM132200751

Question: Planning a Training Program

You are the Training Director for a large company that sells office equipment. You have developed a wide variety of training programs for this company, and there is a course catalog that is circulated each year for employees. Recently, it has come to your attention that a training program on listening skills would be useful for managers in this company. Several managers have identified this as a skill that they need to work on. Numerous employees have also complained that their managers do not listen to them very well, but instead jump to give their own viewpoints. You therefore feel that there is sufficient evidence that a training program on listening skills should be added to your course catalog, and you are now in the process of planning the exact content and format of this training program. Planning a training program involves a lot of thinking and coordination. This exercise will ask you to think through several components of the new training program. Please answer the five questions on the following pages.

For Your Information: Personnel Decisions, Inc. (PDI), a large consulting firm based out of Minneapolis, has published a book titled Successful Manager's Handbook with many important tips for managers. The book can also be helpful to trainers planning training programs for managers. A few of the tips available in PDI's handbook on listening skills include:

1. Avoid interrupting people and don't respond too quickly.

2. Reschedule conversations with subordinates if you don't have time to listen.

3. Ask questions when clarification may be needed.

4. Avoid doing other work while listening.

5. Pay attention to your subordinate's body language.

6. Use reflective statements to summarize your subordinate's message.

7. Use eye contact while listening, nod, lean forward, smile if appropriate.

1. Your first step should be to state the objective(s) of the training program. It will be useful to include the objective(s) of the program in the training catalog to make it very clear to employees what the purpose of the program will be. Stating the objective(s) will also help you stay on target when designing and evaluating the training program. State 1 to 3 primary objectives of your training program. Take care to make your objective statement(s) as specific and clear as possible.

2. Next, review the training techniques/methods. Which training method(s) would you want to use for your listening skills training program? Describe what the content of your program would include given your choice of methods. What advantages/disadvantages do you see with the methods you have chosen?

3. How many participants are you going to allow into each training session? How long will your training session be? Will you need to include breaks?

4. How will you evaluate the effectiveness of this training program?

5. What other things must you think about when planning this training program? Make a list of other issues/details you must attend to or organize.