Rock Products is the aggregates industry's leading source for market analysis and technology solutions, delivering critical content focusing on aggregates-processing equipment; operational efficiencies; management best practices; comprehensive market
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structure training programs to be most effective. Two hundred PowerPoint slides do not make an effective training program. Trainees must be actively involved in their learning through simula‐ tions and practice. Training should be an active event that is spread out over time. Give people some information, let them practice it, and then check for understanding. See One – Do One – Teach One. This is a model to keep in mind over the long‐term. Give trainees the op‐ portunity to observe work being done correctly and ask questions. Effective leaders are the key influence in bringing about innovation and opportunity. Their search for ways to advance and grow the organization takes them far beyond the traditional structures, methods and concepts that have worked in the past. In today's fast-paced market climate, empowering members to test new approaches and ideas is critical. This creates the innovation, creativity and opportunity needed to drive change. The forces of change come from both inside and outside the organization: customers are the source of demand for product and service innovation; process innovation generally comes from within the organization itself and through its employee members. There are definite factors needed to create the innovation--in essence a willingness to break from past methods--to effect positive change and incremental transformations. A major function of the leader's role is to stimulate innovation and creativity, to bring about incremental transformations that improve an organization's products, services and overall quality. This is necessary in order to meet both external and internal customer needs. Accomplishing this is done through developing an empowered environment that instills and reinforces innovation. – Timothy F. Bednarz, Ph.D. Then, put situations together where they have to perform the tasks in front of an expert. Once the expert is convinced that they can do the task, look for oppor‐ tunities for the employee to teach others. Teaching others is the final stage of learning. Identify best practices. Over time, your employees will take the training they went through and improve it on their own. Look for those superstar employees who have taken the training to another level on the job. Team them up with a training pro‐ fessional to build best practices training for other employees. It will enhance work capabilities at all lev‐ els and provide some recognition for your superstars. In summary, to get a return on your investment in training, you must take a long‐term view of it. Training is not pixie dust, it does not make employees perfect overnight. Just like any other business strategy, it takes continual follow‐up and evaluation to be most effective. E www.rockproducts.com ROCKproducts • JULY 2013 35