Soft Skills Training

Hi Tim,

This topic is near to my heart and something I've been involved with many times. My best piece of advice may seem counter-intuitive for this particular forum... but it is to stop thinking of this as a "course" or "training".

If your organization it serious about this, it involves creating a culture surrounding those values. That doesn't happen via a single course; no matter how amazing or well-constructed.  It happens over time through relating, repeating and reframing. Consequently, you may want to widen your lens to view the course as just a single piece in the broader effort of instilling this values-based culture in your organization.

Please know I'm a business pragmatist at heart, so not trying to get all squishy and/or make this something bigger than it needs to be.  But IMHO, this specific topic needs to be done correctly.... or not at all. Anything else is a waste of resources and will ring hollow with the employees.

Not sure if you have a culture function in your organization, but perhaps partnering with them and/or your internal marketing team and getting a high-level sponsor for the initiative might be great starting points.

Hope this helps and glad to talk more specifics should you wish.

Hey Bob

You sound very passionate about the subject.

The idea behind it is certainly is to encourage a culture that is embedded in all aspects of the business. This is just one building block alongside a company wide initiative towards achieving this. 

You are right, it needs to be more than simply a course or just seen as training.

Thank you

Hi Tim,

I guess I am! :)    It's great you are taking this on and that your organization is seeing this as an ongoing initiative. That's half the battle right there.

Regarding your course (original question), have you thought about the slant you were going to take?  Was it more of a "here are our values and why" sort of introduction.  Or perhaps more of a "our values in action" approach where you see how they influence decision making, personal interactions, customer service, etc.?

Hi, I totally agree with Bob, that it should never be a course or a training for employees to "learn" the company's values. It is to create a culture surrounding those values in all aspects of the business. However, if Tim is looking for a way to first introduce the values to employees. I have couple of experiences about creating a e-course to introduce core values. Here are two different ways I've used:

1. Create a task based game: players need to help interviewers find the right person for company, choose the candidates who's response meet the company's values. And of course, players is able to view/learn values before they start the game.

2. Case Study: provide several real company's cases, each case related to a specific value. People are free to choose any case to progress. Pause the story at a decision making point and ask the audience to think and response what they will do if they are the one face the same situation. Give them a brief feedback and show the following story. When the story is end, explain how and why the characters of the case show the value, and explain more about the value.

Bob - We would certainly like to take a more dynamic angle for delivering the values, so "our values in action would" be the right direction. for instance building scenarios and interactions around real life testimonials, be it client or employee.

Joanne - You are right I'm looking for a way to introduce our values (especially new starters),I love the idea interviewing candidates for a job role as part of an introduction. Similarly the case study path is a brilliant idea.

I'm in very early planning stages at the moment and I'm glad I put this question to you guys first!

Hi Joanne, sounds like you have experience doing this. Are you able to share specific examples? Screenshots, etc. It would help us newbies a lot. :)

Hi Benedict, I am planning to write some articles about instructional strategies that I've used for different type of training skills/subjects. I will post here when finishing. Hope it won't take too long.

Soft skills may be a term typically related to an individual's "EQ" (Emotional Intelligence Quotient), the cluster of temperament traits, social graces, communication, language, personal habits, social skills, managing individuals, leadership, etc. that characterize relationships with others. Soft skills distinction to laborious skills, that are usually simply quantitative and measurable (e.g. software system information, basic plumbing skills).A person's soft talent equivalent is a crucial a part of their individual contribution to the success of a company. Notably those organizations addressing customers face-to-face are usually a lot of victorious if they train their employees to use these skills. Screening or coaching for private habits or traits like dependable and conscientiousness will yield vital come on investment for a company. For this reason, soft skills are more and more wanted out by employers additionally to straightforward qualifications.I have some smart work expertise with a professional resume writing service and my words are clearly supported what I felt through such processes within the past.

That would be fantastic!

Here is my first post. You are welcome to add your commend in the post and I'll appreciate it.

Here comes the other post I mentioned. I will appreciate for any comment in the post.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/instructional-strategies-introducing-core-valuestask-based-chen?trk=prof-post