Think about how you surf the web. You see a link that’s interesting you go there. Maybe you come back. It’s horizontal, like crabgrass*. It’s branches go all directions, not primarily up and down like a tree. The thing I hate worst about online training is the boring structured pace of most of it. I need to know the content, not your way, but my way. Here is where technology really shines. You will use computers for communications. If you simply put static text documents on a computer, you’ll simply have the digital version of binders collecting dust on shelves. This dovetails with the first rule – Just In Time. I need to know what I need to know, when I need to know it. If I need to know a piece of a procedure, I should be able to pull up the procedure and jump to the piece I need – as with a hyperlinked table of contents or index.
You need to communicate huge amounts of information in your business. Making people page through information they don’t need to get to the things you they do need to know on your schedule is an exercise in futility. You can push headlines at people and even require them follow up and read the details, but you can’t force information they don’t need into them. When I watch a DVD, I am forced to see the anti-piracy warnings and disclaimers – now in four languages. The skip forward function is disabled. But they can’t force me to read them. I don’t intend to pirate DVDs, so it is not relevant to me. We need to understand that if people believe too much of our communication is irrelevant to them, they’ll at a minimum be frustrated trying to get the information they do need. With safety communications, too many people may believe too many safety practices can be winged. So while I end up watching the DVD after the anti-piracy messages, our people may decide they don’t need to hang in for the information that really is relevant to their safety. We must allow them freedom to filter.
Communication is not the same as training. Do not put training into your regular communications; put it into training sessions. Reminder snippets or extracts from training can certainly be good communication, but if you cloud your communications strategy by trying to accomplish your training, you won’t accomplish either.
*I didn’t invent this analogy, but I can’t remember where I came across it. So to whoever did invent it, thanks!
