The ladder to success begins with motivation and the tools to be successful. These tools include training, so you have to approach training as a tool for success or it becomes a chore. The key to training to improve on your professional skills it to have motivational trainers. It is not as easy to teach as one would think. Start with positive people in a pilot group and usually the word of mouth will make the training a success. It is also all about timing.

Shar M. also suggests these experts on this topic:

• William G. S.
• Michael Z.
• Melanie P.

posted April 20, 2008

Vinod:

You and I cannot "motivate" someone to do something if there is no perceived value in their eyes. We can bribe, deceive, coerce or threaten them, and achieve very short-term results, but these methods have nothing to do with intrinsic motivation. And we will not achieve sustainable results.

Let's face it, this is about perceived value and priorities. If a team does not see an event (or process) as a priority worthy of their time, this raises broader questions, such as:

- What do they identify as higher priorities? How and why do these conflict with training?
- Has the value proposition really been made clear? i.e - If the team invests in X, the potential benefits to the team, the individuals, the clients and the company will be Y.
- Is "Y" important to the team?
- Is there historical evidence in your company that this formula is valid, or is it just rhetoric?
- Has management actively supported and championed the importance of training in the past or is this seen a yet another fad?
- Is training and development presented as just an occasional event, or is it part of a process that has some meaning? Is it just a cost/necessary evil, or is it an investment with serious ROI?

People do things for reasons that make sense --- to them. If I'm refusing to drink the water but you perceive that I'm thirsty, you will not force me to drink. While you're checking my motives, check the quality of the water as well, and do not confuse forcing with motivating.

Rise above this and give your people a reason to invest.

I hope this helps, as your question is indeed a very important one.
Many thanks.

Jerome

posted April 20, 2008

Hi Vinod,

Even though it is up to leaders to motivate their teams a large part of it has to come from within. The eagerness to learn could be cultivated with pointing out directly proportional benefits of acquiring the additional knowledge that the training would bring to them both in the short and long term aspects.

We also need to be aware that even if we do motivate our teams to attend a training how much they really take back from it would depend on each individual.

What really works is the constant everyday encouragement to learn and expand instead of zeroing in on a particular training program.

regards
Nondini

posted April 20, 2008

Vinod,

Assuming that these individuals are all of average motivation, you can induce your team to attend trainings and workshops if you present a consistent message about their career development. If you send mixed messages, or they have a hard time seeing how the upgraded skills will translate into something valuable for them, then you'll have more of a problem.

If your organization is not paying for the training (or subsidizing it in any way), and there is no positive impact to compensation in the short-to-mid term, then you'll have more trouble enticing them. If they have to attend these workshops on their own time, that will also have an impact, and if the training is for areas that the organization needs, but are less valuable for the employees directly (e.g. dealing with legacy systems), then you will have more difficulty.

Without a clearer understanding of what skills are needing to be improved, and other details of the training (e.g. cost, time, value, etc), it will be hard to answer the question, and there may be undue assumption made against either the employees or the organization.

At the end of the day, if the benefits are clear to all parties, life is easier.


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posted April 20, 2008

One way to motivate is to lead. What would happen if you said something like, "I plan to attend a workshop on ________ next month to upgrade my professional skills. Who would like to attend with me?"

Links:

• http://rkenneth.wordpress.com/

posted April 20, 2008

Hello Vinod,

If it's provided by an outside vendor at a cost, pay for it and send them. If it's in-house, schedule them and let them know it's required.

Who doesn't want to continuously upgrade their professional skills?

Joy

posted April 20, 2008

You've already gotten some interesting answers to your question, so I won't re-hash here. What I will add is that one of the most "motivational" environments I've been in with respect to training had the following key items:

1. The manager took training and focused on career development personally, so it wasn't just an empty goal for the team;

2. Training & conference participants were encouraged to share their learnings at catered lunches once a month;

3. Projects had time built in to allow team members to try and/or apply a recent learnings to their work, and review the positive (or negative) impact without reprisal. This was by far the most significant -- going off to learn a new skill and not really having an opportunity to exercise it is pretty demotivating, so getting a chance to use it without fear of having it completely screw up the project was very helpful.

4. Most training was funded by the company, and time for training during the week was not subtracted from vacation or comp-time. If you want your employees to focus on improving, you have to give them the time and tools to do so.

Hope this helps.

posted April 20, 2008

As others suggest, motivation comes in many forms. For some people, just paying for the training would be enough while for others some incentive or modeling the behavior you want would work.

It also could depend on the type of training you're talking about, which isn't clear from your question. Perhaps they're not motivated because they don't see it as training they need? One approach would be to engage the team in a discussion of what kinds of training they fell would help them do their jobs and make the company more successful, and then design the training program around a mix of what you and they perceive as important.

Mark Berns

posted April 20, 2008

Hi Vinod,

I think people are motivated to upgrade their professional skills when this is directly related to intrinsic rewards such as enhanced pay and promotion opportunities. I think training and workshop opportunities need to be part of a structured program of development, clearly related to those intrinsic rewards.

In the absence of such a structured programme and a clear connection to beneficial outcomes, there is no way to motivate people, you can only insist.

Good luck with your work.

Vinod.

Links:

• http://www.eriskay-associates.co.uk

posted April 20, 2008

I would classify this as personal development and if people are not developing themselves I am not going to put much effort into motivating them to do so. You can lead the horse to water but you cannot make them drink it.

Many people are not interested so why force the issue. If you are paying for it then you have every right to ask people to attend the training or workshop.

posted April 21, 2008

Employees are motivated to update and develop additional and complementary professional skills when there is a direct relationship to reward or recognition. Those rewards are in the form of increases, promotional opportunities, project lead postions, and/or team/department recognition to name a few. My opinion is developmental education, training, and seminar/workshop opportunities need to be part of a unified program tied to overal employee performance, keen focus on retention, and skills development that benefit both them and the business and are clearly related to those individual and group rewards. This helps keep the business competitive and the employees lined with updated marketable skills both internally and externally.

If there is no such structured program and a clear line of sight to the beneficial outcomes, then there is no way to stimulate and motivate people. You are left with only demanding which could turn employees away from development.

posted April 21, 2008

I suspect Vinod, that most managers consider training and workshops important to because of the “so as to…” element that is their real concern. So as to increase sales, so as to improve productivity, so as to increase efficiency, so as to lower turnover, so as to get lower cost home grown talent, and so on. Why else are we interested in helping people “upgrade their professional skills”?

If we were REALLY interested in helping people grow and develop; if we were REALLY interested in the ambitions, aspirations, and intentions of the people we “manage”; if we were really focused on helping them achieve what THEY want then “motivation” would be handled – because THEY handled it.

Many of us, managers, consultants, coaches, …, pay lip service to Jerome’s assertion, “You and I cannot "motivate" someone to do something...”, we say that, and then proceed to use all our “techniques” to try and get people to do what we want them to do, produce the result that we want them to produce, behave the way we want them to behave, and so on.

Maybe, a more powerful inquiry for leaders and managers is one about the future they are creating, the possibility they are at work on, the game they are playing – if that is compelling enough we don’t have to worry about motivating people.

The problem, even for the most compelling and visionary leaders and managers, is that it is all to easy to get consumed by the here and now, the task at hand, the solution we need today…, and in the process the larger purpose is lost. Every time I hear questions or concerns from leaders about “motivating their people” I suspect (know really) that the real issue is that the leader is no longer creating a game worth playing, one that is compelling – they are focused on performance at the expense of purpose.

posted April 21, 2008

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

posted April 21, 2008

Hi Vinod

If we look at reasons of non-motivation, it's mainly so because there's neither a personal ideal (goal) nor is there a higher ideal, a common cause, beyond one's own interests. Alternatively, the goals are uninspiring to them and / or weakly fixed.

If this is accepted, then the answer to your question is:

Ensure that:

(1) Each member of the team has a firmly fixed personal goal that inspires.
(2) The team has a firmly fixed common objective that inspires.
(3) The personal goal and common goal are aligned.

All three ought to be in place, with the company vision and mission as beacons. This is not an instant happening but should be planned as a consistent and systematic awareness programme through the organisation spread over a reasonable period of time. Some may already be into it; they become the awareness group's members.

When both the head (reasoning) and heart (feelings) are in tandem on this, self-motivation takes place. Then they'll attend training, upgrade skills, etc. without external motivation; it could very well be the other way round - they might ask for training programmes!!

In such a case, they'll achieve such that both win, the individual and the company.

Hope this helps.

Keep smilin...
Anil

posted April 22, 2008