Have you ever read the Charles Dickens classic “A Tale of Two Cities?” This timeless novel begins with the famous statement “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” and tells the story of a French doctor’s experience in two cities: Paris and London. The culture in one city was one of wisdom, belief, light, and hope. The culture in the second was one of incredulity, darkness and despair. In the first city the people believed things were headed in the right direction. In the other, the citizens felt that things were headed the other way.

It Was The Worst of Times

The story reminds of an experience I had working with two training departments. One department was experiencing the “worst of times.” The employees were in despair. They didn’t feel empowered. The training programs they developed took months and sometimes up to a year to complete. The rework associated with developing training seemed to never end. Internal customers constantly challenged the value they were receiving for their investment in training. Satisfaction with their training programs were pedestrian at best. And, the costs associated with developing said programs were through the roof.

It Was The Best of Times

The second training organization was experiencing “the best of times.” The employees felt empowered. They could develop and deliver training in as little as two weeks. Sometimes they even deployed learning solutions within hours of interviewing subject matter experts. Rework was almost non-existent. The satisfaction with the training programs were at world-class levels, and the cost to develop these programs was less than to cost of off-shoring training development.

Now here’s the plot twist….. those two training departments were actually the same training department.

What made the difference?

After experiencing “the worst of times” this training organization abandoned the old and outdated training methodologies of the past, and adopted an Agile approach to learning content development. Within 2 months the team realized a 75% increase in the number of learning solutions they could deliver to clients. Internal stakeholders sang the praises of this training organization by highlighting the quality of the programs and the “quick turnaround time.” The individuals who worked in the training organization began to feel empowered. The employee engagement and department leadership survey scores went from the 4th quartile to the 1st quartile. Perhaps most importantly, however, is that the Agile techniques the team adopted allowed the group to deliver training in days and weeks…not months.

Now, what about you and your training organization? Are you experiencing the worst of times or the best of times? How would you like to develop and deliver training in days and weeks instead of months?

If you’d like to know what we did to turn this training organization around and go from the “worst of times” to the “best of times” just put your name and email address in the form below and I’ll send you a FREE Case Study that will take you step by step through exactly what we did.

Be Agile.