It´s a fact: when you have a variety of different skill sets to develop throughout the organization, a single training partner may not be enough. Whether you´re starting up a corporate university or establishing a core development curriculum to serve several audiences, you may be faced with the task of integrating a number of training and development partners or internal subject matter experts. But this can be a high-risk proposition. How do you integrate these contributors in a way that is seamless and easy to manage - and produces great results with minimum stress?
Interaction Associates Chair of the Board and Director of Product Development, Marybeth Tahar, outlines these best practices to help you integrate a number of programs and content areas into a curriculum.
The integration of a team of development partners falls into three major phases:
- Selecting Partners/Contributors
- Planning the Initiative
- Implementing the Initiative
Selecting Partners/Contributors
When selecting partners, your ideal choices won´t be "vendors" or "deliverers." They will be "trusted advisors." These are the kinds of partners that help demystify their processes, rather than trying to hold a "black box" aura of expertise mystique. They should be willing to offer good suggestions to solve systemic problems. They also should be willing to modify their basic approach, key content, key processes, and their deliverables, as needed. Most importantly, they should not add to any anxiety you may have about the project. They reduce it.
Some key indicators of capable, collaborative partners include: evidence that they understand your organization, and that they seem to appreciate and enjoy your culture. They should be listening to and understanding the pressures and idiosyncrasies of your company, and be able to communicate them to you.
Take care to validate their claims of expertise with tangible products, detailed client conversations, and a "sample work session" as part of your final decision making process.
In the first meeting with all the partners, ask yourself:
- Is mutual inquiry occurring?
- Do all the resources show genuine interest in each others´ interests, capability and intent?
- Do you have all needed complementary skills at the table?
- Are there any signs of territorial behavior or intentions?
- Do they seem unsatisfied with the role for which you have slated them? If they really want to deliver the whole curriculum and are cooperating on one aspect only to get in the door, the relationship will eventually break down.
Planning the Initiative
It´s important to decide early what role you will take. Will you be the project leader, or will you delegate that role to a lead consultant or integrator? Don´t inadvertently take on more work or responsibility than you planned. Typical areas where you may take on too much include: assuming the project management lead unnecessarily or writing internal communications, documentation and presentations. One option is to do all internal communication yourself, and have the integrator focus on the team.
Next, list all the tasks, considering the strengths of each partner -- and then be creative about who does what. Meet to agree on buy-off checkpoints at all key phases, using the contributors´ outlines of key phases and deliverables. Be sure to build in many early checkpoints so billable time doesn´t get away from you early in the contract. Be crystal clear about decision-making and roles.
Know upfront how much you are willing to pay for various resources to learn each others´ content and processes. To decide on this, know what it will yield for you.
One pitfall to avoid is putting someone in a decision making role for some area in which they have little capability. Specific areas to watch out for are: instructional design capability, training delivery capability, and project management capability.
Implementing the Initiative
This is when your early planning and listening pays off.
The first few meetings set the tone for the entire work process. Be clear about your expectations for communication and responsibilities, and make sure that the meetings are tightly planned and facilitated.
Be careful not to give someone a responsibility or deliverable because a) they are demanding it, or b) it seems like a natural part of their role. Be open to looking at all the resources available and selecting the one that gives you the best quality work.
Go with your gut. If something starts to go in a direction that gives you a sense of foreboding, stop it early. Be direct with your resources. At the same time, look for ways to truly appreciate the complimentary expertise that each resource is bringing to the table.
Decide upfront how you want to handle the contracting with the different resources. If you are making "different deals" be clear in your own mind what the justification is, so that if an "issue" emerges about it, you are clear and remember why you did what you did.
These guidelines have been developed over many years integrating partners to develop major training initiatives. With the right amount of careful planning, care in selecting the contributors, and a shared vision of success at the levels of results, process and relationship (RPR), your learning initiative will be a successful collaboration.
What follows is a handy checklist for planning your initiative, taking into account all these important factors.
About the Author
Marybeth Tahar is the Chair of the Board and Director, Client Services
Marybeth''s work over the last 20 years has been focused on transferring strategic thinking and collaborative skills throughout organizations. She has been with Interaction Associates, Inc. since 1986.
As Director of Client Services, Marybeth is responsible for the management and development of Interaction Associates consultants. She is also responsible for product development.
With extensive project experience in curriculum and learning process design, quality implementation, and team and individual development, Marybeth helps each client inspire and equip its workforce to achieve superior business results. Her current and past clients include Apple Computer, Chevron, Federal Aviation Administration, G.E. Capital, Head Start, Kraft, The Limited, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, the State Departments of Education of Florida, Hawaii, and Maryland, United Way of America, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett Packard, Charles Schwab, and America Online.
