Team preparation and training – how relevant it is to the organization

Team preparation and training for the organization is a major part of a project manager‘s job and it doesn’t just apply to new employees.

People need training and support throughout their careers, both as individuals and as a team, to develop their skills and continue to work effectively.

Training is a great resource for expanding all employees’ knowledge base, yet employers sometimes perceive this as a cost and a waste of work time that can delay the successful completion of projects.

However, despite these potential pitfalls, training and development provides benefits to both the individual and the organizations as a whole that make the cost and time a worthwhile investment.

5 team preparation and training tips for your organization

Just because of the extreme relevance of training your team effectively, we would like to give you 5 tips to get it done right. Although they may seem obvious, they really aren’t and they are not always taken into due consideration. Let’s go!

Team preparation and training: Focus primarily on team building

To build synergy, the team must spend time together in order to get to know each other.

Studies show that team building positively impacts the workplace, such as in goal setting, relationships, and problem solving.

Instead of focusing on personal goals, good team building skills can unite employees around a common goal and boosts productivity by improving team efficiency.

So before you start looking into metodi di formazione del team, it’s important to begin with some team building sessions.

Team preparation and training: Find out how team members prefer to learn

Variety is key, not only within your workforce, but also in how you provide learning opportunities to your team.

Some people prefer hands-on training, while others prefer teacher-led classroom training.

Some people like to be immersed in training for an entire day, while others prefer to spend an hour each day.

Satisfying, as much as possible, the different learning needs of the team is extremely important for training success rates and increasing learning retention.

Kolb’s four learning styles can be beneficial in understanding how team individuals prefer to learn and what style of training might best suit them.

The four styles are:

• Diverging: People with this style of learning prefer observing rather than practicing, are interested in the relational and emotional aspect, and need dialogue and interaction.
• Assimilating: This learning style emphasizes ideas and concepts. These people are capable of understanding information and organizing it clearly and logically, have a strong task orientation, and are less interested in relationships.
• Converging: People with this learning style prefer the hands-on part, are efficient in operations, and like to experiment with new ideas.
• Accomodating: This style of learning is practical, and people who prefer this style rely on intuition rather than logic. They are strongly results-oriented.

Team preparation and training: Offer multiple training methods

Once you have learned what your goals are when forming your team and what the different styles are, it is time to look at the different ways you can train your team.

Some learning styles are better suited to a team compared to others.

Practical training, for example, can work exceptionally well for teams when combined with team building activities to allow people to practice what they’ve just learned in a controlled environment and work together toward a common goal.

The same applies to interactive training, where you can use games to guide your group through different work scenarios and get them to collaboratively understand how best to manage them.

Another approach could be to offer an online course, but let team members complete the quizzes and exercises individually, according to the schedule that best suits each of them.

Choosing the right type of training for the team thus depends on many aspects, including what the training needs are, how individuals learn, what the goal of the training is, the budget, and how much time you want to invest in training.

Team preparation and training: Follow up after training sessions

When training ends, team development does not. Continuity is key in fact.

The manager must ensure that they continue to provide learning, such as through personal feedback or extra responsibilities after the training.

Also, incentives can be created to encourage the team to practice what they have learned.

By emphasizing the importance of continuous learning, you show employees that their development is a priority for the organization.

By following up the training with new activities, regular meetings, or additional training, you prevent newly learned information from fading into oblivion or being buried by the work – as happens very often.

Team preparation and training: Don’t underestimate informal training power

It is a frequently overlooked aspect, but it is believed that informal learning accounts for up to 75% of learning within organizations.

By that, we mean learning through internal thinking, learning from colleagues, supervisors and managers, and learning from reading articles, books and specialist sites.

This is where investing in team building also comes in, to go back to the original discussion, because the better your team gets along, the greater the chances that they will learn informally from each other.

Team preparation and training benefits for the organization

• Improved employee performance: the employee who receives proper training is capable of performing their job better. The training will give the employee a greater understanding of their responsibilities within their role.
• Higher employee satisfaction and morale: investment in training shows employees that they are valued by the company. As a result, employees who feel valued and challenged by training opportunities may experience greater job satisfaction.
• Tackling weaknesses: Everyone has a few weaknesses to work on. A training program allows you to strengthen those skills that every employee needs to improve.
• Consistency: A sound training and development program ensures employees have a consistent experience and knowledge base.
• Increased productivity and compliance with quality standards, which in turn will improve the company’s revenue and potential market share.
• Increased innovation in new strategies and products: Continuing education and improving workforce skills can foster creativity.
• Reduced employee turnover: employees feel valued and are therefore less likely to change employers.

And how can a project management software help you in this process? Through a tool like Twproject, the team participates in the development of the project, cooperating and making the information shared and shareable. This allows seniors to transmit knowledge to junior members as well, highlighting known critical issues.

Work sharing helps informal training with the management of daily work by the whole team.

To wrap up: the more people on the team who are well trained, the more efficient the organization will be.