Tossing Trainers into the Deep End of the Pool

I have often likened what happens to new Life Sciences sales trainers coming in from the field as being tossed into the deep end of the pool – at least, when it comes to figuring out how to perform unfamiliar tasks like vendor and project management!

And yet – what is one of the most important competencies listed by our life sciences training leaders? That’s right – Project Management.

The ability of training managers to plan and execute projects is crucial to their success. The last two editions of LTEN FOCUS Magazine certainly make that abundantly clear:

(derived from LTEN/TGaS Advisors survey, FOCUS magazine, Spring 2017)

(derived from LTEN/TGaS Advisors survey, FOCUS magazine, Winter 2016)

Over the last 20+ years working with Life Sciences T&D departments, I have found a consistent gap in the on-boarding and developmental training of staff in the key skills required for project and vendor management. I don’t know how many people I’ve talked to who have nodded knowingly when I talk about “the deep end of the pool.”

Yet, here’s a crucial perspective to understand – the competencies developed for this role are central to ALL future roles, because, if you think about it – it’s all about pro-active collaboration skills (planning, influencing, communicating, defining, process-shepherding, teaming, evaluating, etc.).

It’s not merely project management – it’s corporate life.

So, here’s the 10 million dollar question – are we training our trainers to become effective vendor and project managers? Or are they being thrown into the deep end of the pool to “learn as they go” the hard way?

We certainly don’t send sales reps out that way, do we?

So…what’s the solution?

Impactiviti offers industry-specific training for Project and Vendor Management. This targeted program (delivered either on-demand or live) is built specifically for Life Sciences training departments, and has been embraced by many top companies over the past 6 years.

We address all the money-saving best practices that lead to successful engagements with vendors. The things that you definitely don’t want to have to learn the hard way. Here’s an overview of what we cover:

The Impactiviti workshop is available in both live and on-demand formats.

It’s time to put an end to lost training budget dollars and preventable mistakes that lead to project failures. Contact Steve Woodruff at Impactiviti (973-947-7429; AskSteve@impactiviti.com) to discuss how we can help you implement these best practices in your training department.

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A Titanic On-Boarding Disaster

Way back over a decade ago, when I was still working with a vendor company, we ended up involved in a project that started taking on water and sinking fast.

The main reason why? Company failure to effectively on-board a new training manager.

This high-profile, pre-launch project was not with some small-time startup pharma. It was with a division of a major drug company. And there was a perfect storm of circumstances that propelled this project toward disaster.

This learning system initiative was begun with one trainer heading up this department, who then was cycled to a new position. A new trainer was brought on board from the field, who had no prior experience in training.

Or managing projects.

Or working with vendors.

And whose on-boarding (if there was any) didn’t even include awareness of the headquarters Medical/Legal/Regulatory review process!

Rough waters? Oh, it gets worse.

This drug was a co-promote with a startup that had never commercialized a product before, but which had its say in any kind of training and messaging to be developed!

Needless to say, this effort devolved into a navigational nightmare. It was not at all clear how were going to arrive at a safe destination.

Perhaps it was a mercy that the drug was ultimately not approved by the FDA.

Many vendor/partners have similar stories they can tell. A lack of best practices in project and vendor management can lead to very expensive mistakes and inefficiencies.

While there are many lessons to be learned from this incident, one of the key ones for me was: companies need to quickly and pro-actively on-board their trainers with the skills and knowledge needed for their new set of responsibilities. This is a relatively small up-front investment with a huge ROI in role effectiveness.

I never forgot how disruptive the incomplete on-boarding training was to to this overwhelmed trainer as he faced a bunch of unfamiliar challenges. In fact, it was one of the incidents that led me to eventually develop the Impactiviti Project/Vendor Management workshop for life sciences trainers, which we’ve delivered for many training departments over the past years.

Costly disasters like this one are preventable. Contact Steve Woodruff at Impactiviti (973-947-7429; AskSteve@impactiviti.com) to discuss best practices in on-boarding your trainers, including the annual subscription to our Project/Vendor Management course (also available this spring in on-demand format!)

ALSO: Five Compelling Reasons to Provide Project Management Training

 

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Do You “Own” Your Training?

– WORK FOR HIRE –

I always ask in my Vendor/Project Management Best Practices workshop – does anyone know what these three words mean?

Almost nobody ever does.

Not knowing what “work for hire” means can lead to very costly mistakes when outsourcing training development to vendors.

In this quick video, I explain why every trainer needs to know about those 3 words:

Work For Hire addresses the critical issue of who “owns” the content/solutions/platform being used for your training initiative. This is not something salespeople coming into training from the field can be expected to know about – at least, not without proper on-boarding regarding vendor and project management.

Some clients have paid for training content to be developed, but because the ownership of the actual materials (the IP, or Intellectual Property) was not properly spelled out in the contract, they have had to pay over and over again for the expanded use of the content.

In such a case, three words were missing in the Statement of Work: Work For Hire.

Other clients have ruined relationships with valued vendors by treating licensed training content as if it was now owned by the client, and therefore usable/reproducible at will.

That’s called…well, stealing.

I’ve spoken with vendors over the years who have had their workshops ripped off by clients (deliberately or inadvertently) because these issues of Intellectual Property were not properly understood and enforced. It has costly ramifications, both legal and relational (and reputational).

These matters of intellectual property, licensing, ownership, and usage are some of the many business-critical issues we cover in the Vendor/Project Management Best Practices workshop. I have delivered this workshop “live” for a number of major pharmaceutical companies over the years.

This proven program will be available this spring for my life sciences clients in on-demand (eLearning, annual subscription) format, so that your training managers can gain these skills at any time.

Contact Steve Woodruff at Impactiviti (AskSteve@impactiviti.com) for details.

SEE ALSO: Stop Losing Those Training Dollars!

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