Considerations for Updating Your Training

Training needs to be developed, delivered and maintained. If you have a plan to create it and deliver it, but no plan to keep it updated, it’s a two-legged stool and will topple over sooner or later.

When you are thinking about keeping training up-to-date, consider:

• Content—Will the technology change? Will thinking or processes in the discipline advance? Does it involve software that will be upgraded?

• Appearance—Will the course include pictures of people whose hair styles and clothes will become dated? Will the design begin to look “so last year”? Could company organization or ownership change requiring updated branding?

• Delivery—Might additional delivery modalities be needed, such as a classroom program needing to be delivered online, or online needing to go mobile?

When you start the process to create new training, chances are you have a plan for development and a plan for delivery. Don’t forget a plan to maintain the program. And make sure the plans are integrated.

If you’re thinking about keeping it updated, you might not want to make the design quite so trendy. And if your plan assumes that part of the content will change rapidly, you can design the more perishable topics to be modular and easily changed without affecting the rest of the content.

Do you have a process to keep training current? Is it designed in the training, or is it an afterthought. Tell us about it. We like to hear about your successes as well as your not-so-successful experiences.