thanks for the suggestion, I know as a trainer I would hate to be micromanaged! This is great advise. What have been some views on mission statements value statements, etc for training does it help the department does it help the organization???

Consistently, I see complete lack of consistency with value/mission statements. They are supposed to be a guiding force, but instead, often end up being a waste of time. What I see a lot of is organizations with values/mission statements with leadership that doesn't even follow and model its own value/missions missives. One simply cannot expect employees to buy-in to this stuff if their own managers don't.

I think it's easier and less time consuming to focus on the true guiding forces of the company -- a combination of much more important things, not the least of which are the business goals and the leadership behaving as role models. The team will follow your lead if you're a good, trustworthy, enthusiastic, sane lead to follow.

My company doesn't have a mission statement (I suspect for the exact reason Always Learning mentioned), and so we, as a Training Dept, don't either (definitely for the exact reason AL mentioned).

We DO have department values, however. They are: Excellence, Joy, Team, Integrity, Continuous Learning, and Accountability. There are short narratives that go with each; let me know if you'd like to read them. These values work for us because we truly live and believe in them, and demonstrate them in our actions and decision-making ... but the same "danger" exists (i.e. becoming a waste of time and a joke) if you don't have 1) reasonable, sound values and 2)full buy-in from all levels.

Ultimately, well ... see AL's second paragraph. Couldn't have said it better myself.

Keep us posted on your progress!

Hi Melissa G,

Please send them to me I would love to take a look. First and foremost thank you for everyone's comments it is amazing how many viewpoints can streamline my process of discovery THANK YOU TO ALL...couple of more thoughts...Do you include technology or the innovation that it brings in your vision do you talk about it as a t&d department is it apart of our values?

I guess I would have one major question--your manager left and now you have to "rebuild" the training department? Was the department so tied to that one person that his/her leaving means the department lost all credibility? If so, I would undertake fixing that as a major mission. Unless it was a one or two person department, the fate of it should not rest solely on one individual. Regarding Nero's post of aligning training to business needs and the other post about making sure you get the right people, I completely agree. You also, however, need to start putting processes in place that will withstand your/or someone else's departure.

Some of these processes could be built around:
1. How do other departments request training
2. How are training projects prioritized (ties in with aligning with the business)
3. What is our design process
4. How are logistics handled
There are more but they're escaping me right now.

I'm currently undergoing this at my organization. I was brought in to a training department that for the first five years was 2 people. All of the knowledge/content/processes lived in their heads. I see it as my main responsibility to get that information out of their heads and documented.--It's been a year, and we're still working on it--but it is working--we've already withstood the departure of the director and have grown the department without skipping a beat.