Any learning intervention, be it a training program, conference presentation or staff development seminar should aim at the same target: improving business results. Unless you know what business results you want to see at the end of the intervention you are wasting your time and money.
FAQs
Q: There are lots of facilitators and program designers
available for
contract assignments. Why should I hire Ascent Associates?
A: A training program or seminar can be brilliantly designed and
masterfully
facilitated and still be a waste of time. Why?
Because the client
organization did not address the organizational issues to create fully
engaged
participation. If participants do not understand why
they are being
required to take the program, if they see no
connection between the
contents of the seminar and their compensation, if participants do
not
understand the business drivers behind the program and if they
do not
buy into the desired outcomes, the program will fail.
Ascent
Associates provides not just the design work and facilitation, but all
the pre
and post-intervention consulting and leadership coaching that can make
the
difference between a memorable training experience that gets business
results
and just another mediocre program that is soon forgotten.
Q: We need to do some teambuilding with our staff.
How is the
teambuilding offered by Ascent Associates any different from the
teambuilding
program offered by dozens of other providers?
A: Many clients tell us they need teambuilding.
When we do a needs
analysis we discover that the team often lacks clear goals, doesn't
have a
purpose, doesn't have distinct roles, does not fully understand the
work
processes they are to use and lacks basic team-communication skills.
Until a
group shares common goals and purpose, knows its roles, understands its
work
processes and has good communication skills it is not really a team. No
amount
of so-called 'teambuilding', regardless of how fascinating or exciting
the
activities may be, can change this. Ascent Associates builds
all its
teambuilding programs on this foundation by helping teams identify
and/or
clarify their goals, purpose, roles, work processes and improve their
team-communication skills.
Q: Our organization has lots of employee development
issues that need
to be addressed, but no one has time to sit in a seminar. We
schedule
sessions, and then people either don't show or only participate
half-heartedly.
Why would an Ascent Associates program be any different?
A: It's true that people don’t want to
attend training sessions that
waste their time. But it's not quite true that no one has
time for
training anymore. People will enthusiastically participate in
training
that helps them do their jobs better and move forward in their careers.
They
have to understand why they are required to take the training.
They also
need to fully understand the consequences of not taking the training.
Ascent
Associates helps clients position their training through front-end
consulting
and communication so that full participation is assured.
Q: Our people have developed a strong aversion to traditional
seminars. They have seen it all -- dramatic video clips,
PowerPoint shows, dynamic motivational speakers and glitzy hi-tech
simulations. But at the end of the day, none of these bells and
whistles seem to make much difference. What's different about an Ascent
Associate program?
A: While good PowerPoint slides, intriguing video
clips, the right
speaker or a great simulation all can add value to any
training program,
without active participation and significant control over their agenda,
most
audiences will tune out. In Ascent Associates programs we
treat adults as
if they are really adults. We give them options for participation and
encourage
them to become involved in the rollout of the agenda. When appropriate
we use
action-learning or experiential activities to get people physically
involved in
their own learning.
Q: We participated in an action-learning workshop
recently in which
our people completed physical games and team problem-solving
activities.
It was fun at the time but at the end of the day our
people were
still asking why they had to lose a full day while work piled up on
their
desks back at the office. What is so different about
how Ascent Associates
uses action learning?
A: The design rationale behind any action-learning
activity has to be
based on business results. The difference is in the
debriefing of each
activity. What behaviour changes do you want to see and how
will you know
when the desired behaviour happens? What are the links
between what
happened in an action-learning activity and life back at work?
Ascent
Associates uses skillful in-depth debriefing techniques at the end of
each
action-learning activity to establish the links back to the desired
behaviours
and business results.
Q: Our managers all know they need to upgrade their skills,
but they won't
attend seminars that take them away from work. What can
Ascent Associates
do to help them?
A: There are a number of options for management development
apart from
seminars that include on-line learning, blended learning,
learning team
assignments and guided self-study. Coaching, either delivered to a team
of
managers or one-on-one, can also be a time-effective way of fitting
management
development into crowded schedules. At Ascent Associates we have
observed that
one of the outcomes of coaching we do can be a heightened sense of
personal
responsibility for one's own learning.
Q: We have invested heavily in management development over the
years and
quite frankly, we are disappointed with the ROI. How can
Ascent
Associates help us get greater value out of the management development
investments we continue to make?
A: Post-program coaching can make an immense difference in
the transfer of
learning from a seminar to the workplace. One-on-one coaching based in
part
upon the content of the seminar just completed can help individual
managers and
leaders make the learning real in their daily lives. Ascent
Associates
recommends post-seminar coaching as a way to maximize ROI and ensure
lasting
value.