When your Kronos training project starts to move away from the training plan, you are experiencing "the bounce." As I am sure you are aware, changes can take on a life of their own, soon dominating the project and creating chaos. How can you stay flexible enough to accept the good change while trying to anchor yourself in the original plan?
You know how long it takes to build a detailed training plan. The detail in the timelines, overviews, user groups and so on. You know how hard it is to truly understand the needs of your customer, and then to put it to paper in an exceptional work flow document. All this effort, and then the customer goes and doctors it all up. I like to call this the bounce. When I have a customer up and change the training plan, I feel like I am riding one of those hopping balls, you know what I am talking about. You have a handle, so there is some control, and your feet give you a little
balance when landing, but the fun of it is that you get to bounce high in the sky and you aren't entirely sure where you land, control is never totally guaranteed. At least that is how I felt about it when I was a kid, until I bounced into a rose garden. Haven't bounced since.
SIDE NOTE - That probably has more to due with the fact that I am now 6'6" and well over 250lbs than any thorn related incident from my preschool days...
The bounce happens. It always happens. Still, you can manage, and possibly even improve your overall training program because of it. Here are some keys to keep you from bouncing into the rose garden...
Remember what is important - It is your training plan. It represents the best possible program that you can deliver. Still, there are going to be things you don't feel as strongly about as others. There are usually parts of your training plan that you are more willing to defend. DEFEND THEM! Make sure you are very clear as to why those points are important (realistic time schedule, bad experience with the customer and distance learning, what ever!) The customer may decide that they want to change something you feel very strongly about. Don't lose sleep over it, but make sure they understand the risks and how to mitigate them. Don't be the person that only brings up the negative. (hint: nobody likes that guy)
Be open to new ideas - I don't care how long you have been in training, you don't know it all. Accept it. I don't care if you think you know it all, or if you know everything by a different name, but you don't. If you can accept that, you can be a better trainer. There may be some new combination of previously used delivery techniques that will work well in your situation. Remember, you don't know the organization as well as their employees do. Give their ideas the respect they deserve. Heck, that idea may work for the next training plan you roll out. Just make sure you can work with the customer to ensure as much as possible that their ideas will be successful. Just because they have the idea doesn't mean they can implement it properly, which leads me to the last point...
Whatever is decided, implement it as best as possible - As the training coordinator, you will need to take the ideas from the customer and ensure as much as possible that they are successful. Often an ego wounded trainer will simply go through the motions because the customer "cut their idea down." Don't take things so personally! Assume this is the best idea for the customer because it comes from the customer AND WORK WITH IT! You have a lot of expertise, and even though the idea wasn't yours, it's successful implementation can be, so work hard and make it successful. You customers will appreciate the effort.
Just remember, the whole idea of the hopping ball is not to jump into a bunch of rose bushes, it is to have fun. The goal of your training implementation is to be successful, to make sure learning happens and that it can be accessed later. Sometimes it's not a matter of the steps you take, it's how you bounce.
Good luck with your Kronos training implementation.
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