The riddle many training departments are facing—and are increasingly frustrated by—is how to get all that excitement and energy from the training to carry on in the field long after the event itself.

What we often see is that there’s a lot of focus and attention on the implementation. Maybe it’s being rolled out at a national sales meeting or other high-profile event with plenty of promotional build-up to generate enthusiasm and interest.

The training team works hard to make sure the material is aligned with the organization’s goals and needs and that it’s tailored to the kinds of day-to-day retail issues and scenarios that are relevant to the participants. Leaders introduce the training and explain why it’s important (in the ideal situation). And people leave feeling great about the experience and excited to try out their new skills and behaviors.

So what happens next?

In fact, what happens next is critical. For the training to get results, there needs to be a pivot from a training focus to a leadership and accountability focus.

Senior leaders in the field have to take ownership once the training has been implemented.

No training department is big enough to drive daily accountability in the store. That’s the boss’s job. For the training team, it’s about making sure field operations is ready to step up to this role.

If leaders are asking for results and measurement, the metrics that count are going to be the ones that play out in the business, not whether or not the training implementation has taken place.

What really matters is: are people using the skills and behaviors every day? Are we talking about it conference calls? Do we see it happening on store visits?

Are your leaders stepping up?

Let us know what you think! Share in the comments or tweet us @mohrretail.

Posted in Training Reinforcement
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About MOHR Retail

For more than 30 years, MOHR Retail has developed the critical people-to-people skills needed to create results in the retail industry—and we’re just getting started. Through innovative classroom and online learning methods, as well as our ongoing national retail research projects, we continue to stay on top of the trends so we can fuel the success of specialty stores, chain stores, outlets, catalogue retailers, department stores, and more. Nowhere does learning meet experience as it does in a MOHR Retail training program.