Everywhere you go, Trainers and the people who employ them talk about engagement. But engagement shouldn’t be the goal.
This article is part of our Craft of Training & Speaking Series — tools and techniques for anyone who teaches, facilitates, or speaks to move people to think and act.
Engagement
You’ll hear Trainers, aspiring Trainers, and Clients use it constantly.
“Engage our people.”
But in training, I think the conversation often stops too soon.
Engagement isn’t the goal. It’s part of the journey — and it matters — but it isn’t the destination.
Changing Business Results is the Goal of Most Training
If it’s Customer Service training, decide what the goal is. Should repeat calls go down? Should Customer satisfaction go up? What about Employee attrition?
If it’s Contact Center management training, should service level improve? Should leaders reallocate how they spend their time? Should metrics be redesigned?
If it’s Customer Experience Management training, should people pass a certification exam? Should you add new listening posts? Should teams build new rituals?
One of my best work moments was watching a global Customer Service Director show their team how the organization’s results had improved over the last year.
Which measures had gone up, which had gone down — and how the work of the people in that room had contributed to those results.
His opening was a superb lead-in to the workshop I was about to run. Because he put business results at the center.
He brought up engagement as well in his workshop introduction.
He also mentioned engagement in his introduction: “And believe me, you’ll have fun with Dan. I know because I took this course before.”
That was a lovely compliment.
Engagement matters. It’s just not the end goal.
Don’t Treat Engagement as the Destination
As a Trainer, when you struggle to bring a group of people to life, your ability to deliver business results will suffer.
No matter how valid or good your content is.
On the other hand, if you get a room hyped up without meaningful change in behavior or outcomes, you have a different problem.
We’ve all seen sessions where people jump up and down — and a few even cry.
But the following week they’re all back at work doing everything exactly the same way they did before.
Nothing changes. I’ve always called that hoo-ha training — and I don’t mean it as a compliment.
And the term is not meant to be complimentary.
And some training — CPR, first aid, life-saving skills — may not tie to a specific business metric, but it still matters. It’s worth knowing when that’s the point.
People Expect Engagement
If you’re a pianist, you play with feeling. If you’re a lawyer, you articulate the merits of your case.
And as a Trainer, you engage groups of people. People expect that.
Your end goal is impact: change behavior and improve results.
That’s what really matters.
Thank You for Reading
I regularly share stories, strategies, and insights from our work across Contact Centers, Customer Service, and Customer Experience. If this resonates, I’d love to stay connected.
You can drop me a line anytime, or subscribe on our site.
Daniel Ord
[email protected]
www.omnitouchinternational.com
