Organization and the Audience
The audience that will be engaged in the training is the Saudi Students Organization members. This organization was chosen as a result of a complex needs assessment which aimed at finding and understanding the aspects for improvement. After the estimation, it was identified that the organization is currently facing a problem in the sphere of planning. It is hard for the group to organize the necessary events, follow the plan, and implement its ideas in reality. Therefore, the training and development program will be completed in this organization.
Needs Assessment Tool
For the process of needs assessment, it was primarily crucial to observe the communication in the group and identify the areas which seemed to lack expertise and professionalism from the organization members. Thus, an overview of the conditions that needed immediate improvement was created. Afterwards, the trainer held the central part of the needs analysis during which the Saudi Students Organization members attended an interview. The dialogue was initiated with the use of open-ended questions. As indicated by Weller et al. (2018), these kinds of inquiries are used “alone or with other techniques to explore topics in depth, to understand processes, and to identify potential causes of observed correlations” (p. 2). For this reason, it can be stated that the use of open-ended questions was appropriate and effective.
Question types used:
- In your opinion, what are the areas that need improvement in your organization?
- How effective is the process of planning and organizing in the workplace?
- What are the main obstacles to the achievement of the organization’s plans and ideas?
Communication Skill
Description
Since the needs assessment concluded that the audience encounters a lack of organization and planning, the communication skill that will be trained is planning. As noted by Haythem (2015), “strategic planning is the basis of every common-interest community” (p. 2). Preparation is the process which describes objectives, strategies, directions, and decisions for pursuing the identified goals (Haytem, 2015). The study concluded that planning is the skill that is positively associated with the overall performance of any organization (Haythem, 2015). Moreover, organizing is essential for the procedure of establishing trust and responsibility between individuals (Fox et al., 2017). Hence, without planning and coordinating the work properly, it is hard to achieve desirable results and establish trustful professional relationships within the community.
Training Methods
In order to engage and motivate the participants, the training session will start with an icebreaker game. One of the prime examples of active icebreakers is changing names according to personal preferences and using them throughout the training session. The training itself will be conducted on a practical assignment. After the presentation about planning as an essential communication skill, the participants will be acquainted with a task to plan an event. The engaging and challenging assignment will help individuals to go through a detailed process of organizing, identifying resources and environment and determine the perspectives of the group (Haythem, 2015). Consequently, the training session will be both exciting and challenging for the team members.
Training Objectives
The main objective of the following training and development session is to highlight the importance of planning as a fundamental necessity for a successful working outcome of the organization. Furthermore, another goal is to teach the participants how to use and implement the skill of planning in everyday situations and environments. Finally, the third goal will be to benefit future opportunities for acquiring new skills, knowledge, and competence of the organization members (Mozael, 2015). The achievement of the mentioned training objectives will be ensured by the establishment of positive physical and psychological surroundings and professional preparation and delivery of the session.
Delivery Plan
Composing a clear delivery plan is vital for the positive outcome of the training session. As mentioned by Mozael (2015), the training plan needs to be made according to the needs and preferences of participants. An entirely developed delivery program encourages an increase in the output and overall performance of the group (Mozael, 2015). The created training session is planned for 5 hours during a weekday and should be held after lunch. The conference consists of various parts, such as a 30-minute presentation, a 2-hour practical assignment, a 1-hour break, a 1-hour task presentation, and 30 minutes for debriefing and questions. The training needs to happen at least once a month. This consistency will ensure a continual practice of the planning skill that will be developed during the session. Some of the verbal and nonverbal skills that are necessary for the trainer are understanding, support, responsiveness, positivity, adaptability, and conflict resolution.
Learning Outcomes
Even though organizations usually invest a lot of time and money in training and development, only a small amount of the knowledge delivered during the sessions is attributed to the everyday environment. For this reason, it is crucial to identify the expected outcomes and evaluate the job of the trainer. As suggested by Kodwani (2017), the awareness of the coach, overall physical and psychological climate, and participant involvement are significantly correlated with the positive outcomes of the training process. Therefore, since the following session is developed with careful consideration, it is expected that the skill of planning will be considerably enhanced. Through the use of icebreaking games, the trainer will ensure the establishment of the needed environment, which will motivate the participants to engage and take advantage of the conference.
In order to objectively evaluate the effectiveness of the program, it is essential to conduct follow-up research regarding the situation in the workplace. The analysis can be done through the completion of a short survey by the participants. The questionnaire will include questions about the current situation in the organization concerning the issue of planning. As concluded by Rehmat et al. (2015), such surveys can help to identify the reaction of people towards the training and understand its performance at a deeper level. Consequently, after the research, it will be easier to indicate the points for improvement and work on them. For now, one thing that can be improved in future training is the length of the session. A 5-hour conference may become boring for the participants at some point, which will lead to the loss of motivation and desire to work. Thus, one of the solutions is to break the session for two days. During the first day, individuals will listen to the presentation and complete the task and, on the second, deliver their results and ask questions.
References
- Fox, M., Long, D., & Magazzeni, D. (2017). Explainable planning [PDF document]. Web.
- Haythem, A. (2015). The role of strategic planning in performance management. Express, an International Journal of Multi Disciplinary Research, 2(3), 1-14. Web.
- Kodwani, A. D. (2017). Decoding training effectiveness: The role of organisational factors. Journal of Workplace Learning, 29(3), 200-216. Web.
- Mozael, B. M. (2015). Impact of training and development programs on employee performance. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 5(11), 37-42. Web.
- Rehmat, W., Aaltio, I., Agha, M. H., & Khan, H. R. (2015). Is training effective? Evaluating training effectiveness in call centers. EJBO: Electronic Journal of Business Ethics and Organization Studies, 20(1), 4-13. Web.
- Weller, S. C., Vickers, B., Bernard, H. R., Blackburn, A. M., Borgatti, S., Gravlee, C. C., & Johnson, J. C. (2018). Open-ended interview questions and saturation. PloS One, 13(6), 1-18.