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Some organizations (including a former client of mine) also involve training consultants in the content design process. However, I haven’t really heard of any consultant doing the needs analysis piece before getting into learning design and intervention. By needs identification, I mean a comprehensive assessment of capability development, including which needs are actually related to skill building and learning and which needs might be addressed by either changing organizational structure or moving people around.
The problem is when external consultants/trainers are brought in without real assessment of needs being done. The root of the issue is that Organizational Effectiveness/Developmental work is often divorced from training design and delivery. Had written more on this topic here
What I would like to know is why organizations do not involve external help in actually conducting the needs assessment which is as important, if not more, than training design and delivery.
Any answers?
May be it is just that most of us tend to feel that 'we know what are our needs'. There might also be a fear that if we leave it open, the consultants might identify 'needs' that are aligned more to the solutions they have and not to the 'real' needs. It could also be that the manager/ customer in question wants to get the satisfaction of having done something (by identifying/stating the particular 'need' and getting a training solution designed/ implemented) without taking the risk of a full scale diagnosis that could throw up issues that the manager/ customer does not want to address at this point.
ReplyDeleteHi! We have done an extensive needs analysis for a client some years back..and recently received a RFP for another TNA.
ReplyDeleteSo..never say never, eh?
Cheers,
Anubhuti@quadrangleconsulting.org