How to Use Your Competency Model to Develop a Comprehensive Training Program
You know you need a comprehensive training program based on your organization's prioritized competencies. But if you don't know how to get there, it can be overwhelming to start.
This is one of the common questions I get when working with my nonprofit clients to create competency models. It's that now what question.
Today, I want to explore how you can use your competency model to develop a comprehensive training program.
Listen to the episode or scroll down to read the blog post ↓
Key Points:
02:48 Identifying your focus
03:41 Identifying priority competencies
04:35 Determining learning needs
05:11 Closing the gap between where learners are and where they need to be
07:07 Testing your programs
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How to Use Your Competency Model to Develop a Comprehensive Training Program
As I've gotten older, I've become more and more interested in my health. I often dream of working with a nutritionist who can assess my body's unique needs, maybe run some tests to see what I'm deficient in, ask me a bunch of questions about my activity level, my wants, and my needs, and take into account my age and how that might impact me in the future. Then they take all of that information and create a holistic nutrition plan for me.
I know there are people like this out there. Experts who can order the right tests, ask the right questions, and then interpret all that data to create something perfect for me.
But I'm not an expert in nutrition. So it feels overwhelming to me. And that's probably why I'm still dreaming about it and haven't yet taken any action.
Maybe this is how you feel about creating a comprehensive training program based on your organization's prioritized competencies.
You don't know how to get there. So you don't start.
I don't want that to be you.
This is one of the common questions I get when working with my nonprofit clients to create competency models. It's that now what question.
How do we implement this thing? How do we decide what to prioritize? What does this mean for our training offerings?
In this blog post, I want to explore how you can use your competency model to develop a comprehensive training program. I'm going to walk through five steps to help you get there:
1) Identifying the Audience for Your Training Program
Once you’ve identified your competencies and you already know what skills you're looking for in your organization, the first thing you're going to do is identify the staff you want to focus on first. Or in the case of an association, maybe the type of association member, what their role is, that kind of thing.
So are you going to focus on everyone, all of your potential learners, or a certain level of staff, a certain role, or a certain functional area? Maybe it's a department that you want to focus on.
That's what you need to do first, think about which staff you want to focus on or which learner you want to focus on.
If you haven’t identified your competencies yet, check out some of my past episodes:
Episode 39: Ask These Two Questions to Identify Your Nonprofit's Core Competencies
Episode 20: How to Determine Which Competencies Are Right for You
Episode 19: One Nonprofit's Honest Opinion after 6 Months with a Competency Model
Episode 18: Four Reasons Your Competencies Don't Work
2) Using Your Competency Model to Identify Staff Development Needs
The second thing you're going to do is identify the competencies that are a priority for that learner.
Let's say you want to focus on everyone, all of your staff or all of your members, you're going to focus on one or two priority competencies instead of focusing on all of them. So maybe you're going to focus on the two that are most urgent, important, or essential when you think about the future of work.
Maybe you're focused on a certain level of staff or a certain role. In that case, identify the priority competencies for that group. Same if you want to focus on a functional area or department, identify the priority competencies for that area.
3) Determining Leadership Development Needs from Your Competency Model
So now you've identified which group you want to focus on and which competencies are a priority for them. The next thing you're going to do is determine the learning needs related to those competencies.
So you've already identified what that competency looks like in action when someone is proficient at it. That's your behavioral indicator that's already identified in the competency model. So you're going to review those behavioral indicators and start figuring out what the learning needs are. And this is where your traditional instructional design processes will start to kick in.
You want to assess where your learners are compared to where you need them to be. What is that gap?
4) Creating Training for Leadership Development
Next, you're going to map out how you can close that gap
Begin to imagine what kinds of experiences will close the gap. It's likely not a one-stop shop. They're not likely going to attend one training and be done. So it's going to require multiple learning experiences, probably both formal and informal. There might be some self-paced e-learning. There might be some in-person training or some virtual instructor-led training. There might be some videos. There might be a podcast that you want to create so that you're dripping content over a period of time. You might want to pair someone with a mentor or a coach.
All of these experiences can be part of that comprehensive training program.
You want to start to imagine what kinds of experiences will help you close the gap that you identified. And just like a map is a visualization of how you are going from point A to point B, you're going to want a map for your learners. That's what you're really creating here. As you think about how to close that gap and what learning experiences might help you do so, you're creating a map.
What's the starting point?
Where are they headed?
What are the stops along the way?
As you start to create this, you're designing that learner roadmap for your comprehensive training program.
Once you have your learner roadmap, you can start to create the experiences you plotted on that map. So again, you're going to continue with your instructional design processes here. You're going to need objectives to make sure you're closing those gaps.
5) Testing Your Training Programs
Now that you have this suite of learning experiences that are points along the roadmap, you're going to let your learners test it out. The more learners that take that journey from point A to point B, the better you can make that map.
You might identify new or different stops that you weren't aware of. You might realize that you put in the wrong destination, or more likely the wrong starting point. Adjust, iterate, and try again.
In the end, you'll have a comprehensive training program that allows your learners to develop the key priority skills your organization identified in its competency model as necessary and important.
That's it. It's simple, but it's not easy.
It's what my team does day in and day out. We love this kind of work. It's both strategic because it's aligned with your competency model and compassionately human-centered because you're creating those experiences based on your staff's needs. And that's where we thrive.
If you want support creating a comprehensive training program for your nonprofit or association, send me an email so we can set up a call to explore your needs together.
To hear the full conversation I had on the Learning for Good Podcast, scroll all the way up and tune into episode 51.
The Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective
Do you wish you could connect with other nonprofit learning and development leaders?
I know what it feels like to want someone to bounce ideas off of and to learn from, someone who really understands you and your work. Imagine if you could have a simple way to meet people in the field, ask questions, and share information.
That's why I created the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective – so nonprofit L&D, talent management, and DEI leaders can connect with each other quickly and easily in a virtual space.
When you join this community, you will walk away with a new, diverse, and powerful network – and a sounding board for your staff development needs.
So if you're ready to exchange ideas and collaborate with your peers, come join the Nonprofit L&D Collective.
