Training

Slim Down Your Safety Training Budget with a "Lean" Approach

Just as “Lean” has helped cut waste in manufacturing and other industries, it can help make your safety training more successful and cost-effective.

The basic concept of Lean in the corporate learning context is that “people should get the information they need exactly when they need it,” says Todd Hudson, head maverick at the Maverick Institute (www.maverickinstitute.com), which—to his knowledge—is the only firm that applies Lean principles to learning.

“The focus in Lean training is knowledge retention. It’s not the amount of training you do,” Hudson says. “It’s what people take away from the training that matters.

“Classroom training looks really efficient and effective” when you consider that you’re training 20 people simultaneously. But Hudson says that after a month, learners retain only about 20 percent of what they learn in classroom training.


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Address Identified Needs

Although some skills are best taught in a group setting, Hudson believes that 80 percent of training should be individualized and customized to address particular needs.

Rather than lumping several related topics into the same training session, for example, Lean training is more effective, Hudson maintains, because it addresses an identified need in small chunks, without a delay of weeks or months.

Such training is often one-to-one, on-the-job, giving the trainer the opportunity to take into account an individual employee’s prior knowledge and experience, and tailor the training to the specific needs of that worker.

Lower Costs and Increased Efficiency

Hudson claims that applying Lean principles to training lowers costs and increases training efficiency and effectiveness.

“People are going to be spending less time in training activities that don’t deliver results.” Trainees will also be retaining more of what they learn so that they can apply it to their jobs, improving safety performance.

Hudson points out that Lean training principles also help trainers deal with the disparity in knowledge, experience, and performance within training groups, where you may have some very experienced top performing workers along with some less knowledgeable, lower performing trainees.


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Lean Principles Applied to Training

According to The Maverick Institute, “The goal of Lean knowledge transfer is to improve measurable business performance by delivering exactly what people need to know, and how they like to learn it, exactly when they need it.”

For training to be considered Lean, the Institute believes the training must be based on these principles which they list on their website:

  • Clear learning signal. People need to know when they need to learn before attempting an activity. People understand the limits of their knowledge and skills.
  • Pull, not push. Individuals “pull” the knowledge they need to accomplish a specific task. Training events that “push” information in advance of need are minimized.
  • Just-in-time. They can pull the knowledge exactly when they need it to accomplish a specific task. Opportunities to practice and master content are immediate.
  • Instant gratification. The time required to find content is instantaneous. Learning is directly tied to application. Feedback on results is immediate.
  • Individualized learning. The format, amount and rate of learning are all tailored to the individual’s learning style, previous experience and the specific situation they’re facing.
  • Freshness. Content is created as close to the time of need as possible, so it’s up-to-date and focused on the problem at hand.

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