Overlook training needs analysis at your peril!
Get this right and the rest of the training design process becomes much easier
The case for the importance of training needs analysis
If you follow me on LinkedIn and Instagram, you will often see me talking about the importance of training needs analysis (and if you don’t follow me on these platforms, why the heck not?)
For me, training needs analysis means getting answers to the following questions:
- What is the performance goal?
- What do people need to do to reach the goal?
- What is stopping them from achieving the goal?
- What will be done to follow up and help embed new skills and behaviours?
There are of course other elements to consider such as audience and geographical location, but I would wrap that up with getting answers to these four questions above. Working with my stakeholders to get answers to these questions makes designing a solution for the performance challenge much easier because I can always ask myself ‘is what I am creating going to enable people to achieve the performance goal.’
Sharing the case for training needs analysis far and wide
As I’m always ‘banging the drum’ for the importance of a through training needs analysis, I seized the opportunity to be given free rein to talk about it for 40 minutes as a guest on The Training Design Podcast. The podcast is hosted by Sheridan Webb, who runs a fantastic community for trainers called The Training Designers Club. A whole 40 minutes on training needs analysis; joy of joys!
Find out more
To listen to my thoughts on training needs analysis, just click here. You can find all the other episodes in the series by clicking on the image below.
Have a listen and let me know what you think!
