Lean In To Learn Ep. 6: How to Identify Training Skills Gaps in the Workplace with guest Jessica LoRusso

Join Jessica Soodeen as she discusses How to Identify Training Skills Gaps - Organizational Needs Assessments for Workplace on Lean In To Learn with guest Jessica LoRusso. 

In partnership with Workplace Education Manitoba and thank our funder the Government of Canada Skills for Success Program. 

Joignez-vous à Jessica Soodeen qui discute de comment identifier les lacunes en matière de formation – Évaluation des besoins organisationnels en milieu de travail avec son invitée Jessica LoRusso.

On tiens à reconnaître Éducation en milieu de travail Manitoba et à remercier notre bailleur de fonds, le programme Compétences pour réussir du gouvernement du Canada.

Transcript

Welcome And Show Context

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to Lean In to Learn, your Skills for Success podcast. I'm Jessica Soudin, spokesperson for Workplace Connections, Master Certified Relational Skills Practitioner, and advocate of skills for success at work. Lean in to Learn is a series focused on insightful approaches and forward-thinking topics related to relational skills, which many of us refer to as soft skills. I'd like to acknowledge Workplace Education Manitoba and thank our funder, the Government of Canada's Skills for Success program. I, and carefully curated subject matter experts, will introduce you to an array of tools, resources, and personal journeys that will educate and empower to solve people-related issues at work as well as build individual skills for success. So settle in and open up your hearts and minds as we lean in to learn. Welcome to Lean In to Learn, your skills for success podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Soudin, certified master level relational skills practitioner. And today we'll discuss how to identify training gaps, organizational needs, assessments for workplaces, with guest, Jessica Loguso. Jessica is a serial entrepreneur with over 30 years' experience. She has built multiple profitable businesses, a testament for her business acumen. After selling her successful Medispa in 2014, Jessica with her team launched Credibility Matters powered by Jessica, which specializes in corporate training. Nice services that Jessica and her team provide are believability and credibility training and children and youth programs within the ICTC, and we will define that acronym shortly. Jessica is one of 12 civility trainer or master trainers worldwide, the author of four books, and she has launched her fourth book, Credibility Matters, where credibility is the currency of wealth and success for all organizations. So welcome, Jessica, to Lean In to Learn.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Thank you, Jessica Soudine. It's such a pleasure to be here with you today. And I just can't wait to answer some of your questions and add value to Lean In to Learn.

Defining ONA And Why It Matters

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Right on. So let's start with in your bio there. I said ICTC. What does that stand for?

SPEAKER_01 2:35

International Training, Civility Training Consortium. Beautiful. Yeah, that's where we make it smaller.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

No doubt. No doubt. So if I always like to start these off with a bit of a human touch. So if I was, you know, I was researching Jessica LaRusso and trying to find some stuff about you, what wouldn't I find online say?

SPEAKER_01 2:59

What wouldn't you find? All right. Well, amazingly, you know, I usually start with with all business and seriousness, but uh I'm happy to say and thank you. I am married and I do have an adult, adult son. So so we do get together every once in a while. But one day on a trip to Collingwood, Ontario, Blue Mountain, my husband and I came upon a shop that took pictures of your iris, and we decided that we wanted to have a romantic picture of our eyeballs. And so it looks, it looks like two planets clashing together. And if you can see the video, I know we're audio, but if you can see the video behind me is is my iris, and I have hazel golden eyes. Yes. Who knew?

SPEAKER_00 3:49

You do. That is a spectacular picture. Oh my God. It you know, my first reaction when I looked at it, it almost reminded me, you know, of musicians that get their golden or platinum records. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Just like that a little. We all have a we all have a platinum record then.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Yes, yes, you do. It's so cool that you and your husband mashed them together. That's awesome. So today's topic is how to identify training skill gaps. And we're gonna be digging into what is an organizational needs assessment, which from now on will be referred to as ONA. So, do you want to introduce us to this? And just for the listeners, Jessica LaRusso is the pro at these. She uh part of her role at Workplace Education Manitoba, WEM, and we will refer to WEM as WEM now. Part of her role in there was to help practitioners like myself through their programs and through their practicums by lending a hand with facilitating the ONAs. So tell us a little bit about what an ONA is briefly. All right.

From Assumptions To Evidence

SPEAKER_01 4:59

So I love OAs because it directly tells you what skills gaps an organization has. Now, okay, that sounds great, but so what? What the great thing about it is, is that when you approach a workplace and offer training or they want training, they they see a need for it, they might say, I need leadership training, or I need culture training, or I need something. But they it might not be what they need. It's what they think they need. So this is why an organizational needs assessment is so very important. Because through through some reports and then an interview, you compile this document that does a deep dive into what their needs are rather than what you think they are.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Yeah, and it could be that that whole idea, well, we need to work build on culture, we need to build on communication and that OA, even though that may be the holistic high-level need, that ONA is really going to help drive down to specify those trainings.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Would that be absolutely well it really identifies what the challenges are within an organization? Because sometimes, you know, we walk through weeds and we're we're we're standing in in two inches of water, but we're drowning. And and so, you know, people sometimes can't see what's going on because they're frustrated. When you do this organizational needs analysis or assessment, you're getting deep down into what actually is needed. And then the great thing, oh, I get excited about this. So the great thing is that now you can target your training, and then you once you target your training, it's not just willy-nilly. I know I'm saying something funny, but it's not just generic. You're actually looking at the challenge. Your learning objectives are for that challenge, and then you're hitting targets, and your training is impactful, so that when you go back to that organization, then they're saying you've impacted, you've moved the needle in our organization. What can we do next? So that's why that uh OA is so very important.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Very cool. So, and I imagine you've can like conducted many, many countless of these. So maybe you can share with us an aha moment in some of those skills identified that led to some actual really cool shifts in an organization with respect to gaps.

Aha Moment On Culture And Communication

SPEAKER_01 7:53

Absolutely. So most, I'm gonna say most organizations, the the communication, collaboration tends to be two of the most needed relational skills when it comes to training. But when it comes to huh, I had one time a situation where a workplace was uh challenged with the supervisor, was not really getting their information conveyed to their to their staff, and they thought it was a a language problem, or it was that the team didn't want to listen to them, or or they weren't, they didn't know how to do the job, or they didn't want to do the job. But after doing a deeper dive, we found out that it's it's a culture challenge where in some cultures you you when you get um when you get a direction, you don't ask questions, you just nod and say yes, and then you go back and try and make it happen. So, you know, we had to we had to shift through adding communication, collaboration, cultural competence, and and take that workplace and move it so that we empowered those employees to ask questions, and we also empowered the leadership to get feedback, but also get understanding. So it really impacted the workplace by increasing productivity, efficiency, engagement as well. So when we talk about aha's, that is a great example of an aha.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

That is a fabulous example because you're really fostering that understanding and getting into other, like really building empathy as well. That's awesome. And you know, I listened to that, and and it's so funny because there's there's often communication disconnects, whether that be between, you know, managers and their workers or even cross-functional teams. So when you see cross-functional teams being involved in in OAs and stuff, have you ever seen or tell me about a time that uh maybe it's something that both you and the client were super surprised about. So I think this is where some of the gold lies as well is when you don't know, you don't know. And when you when both practitioner plus client both have this together, you know, it's super impactful.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Well, what's what's interesting is that when you understand where your needs are, because the the workplace wants to start, they understand they need training, they just don't know what, and they kind of guess at it. Yeah. And and another thing too is that the mindset has to shift for the workplace, because the workplace is used to just give me a generic training at a certain day at a certain place. We're all used to that kind of delivery. Where when we when we change or flip it and say, okay, we're gonna do this analysis, we are gonna pinpoint what what we need to focus on, it really changes the the the system. And sometimes it's it's a definite shift in mindset where people people need to say, okay, I need to look at things differently. So I want you to ask your question again because I'm gonna add some more information to it.

Mindset Shift And Interview Strategy

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Oh, yeah. So it was all about what left yourself and the client both surprised at what wasn't covered.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Absolutely. So there's one question that I I like. If you could fix something right now, what would that be? Oh, nice. Yes, and so when you get to that point, they think about what is really their pain point and what is really bothering them. And then when we focus on what we can fix right now and train on that specific thing, that's what's gonna impact the workplace. That's what's gonna change people and and and make sure that the workplace is getting what they need.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Yeah. And when you do needs assessments, then organizational needs assessments, you know, I know there are a lot of people that say the good strategies are are making sure that you're interviewing not only the decision makers, but also anyone who's really involved in those changes. So how's that gone?

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Okay, so this is another point that I get really excited about. Every position has their own agenda. I know that's like really, yeah. So every position has their own agenda in what they want to achieve. So for a CEO or somebody who's looking after the big picture, what they might think is, you know, I need productivity, I need people to do things. Whereas HR just wants retention and engagement. Where the direct supervisor, they want productivity and performance. So depending on who you're speaking to, everybody has a different window that they look through or lens that they look through that guides what they're going to focus on. So I ask individuals who are performing an organizational needs assessment to not interview just one person, interview a few people, especially the people that are close to the to the people that you're training, because they're gonna have a different perspective. And another thing is that see if you can not interview together. And same in training, same in your in your interview. What happens is that you'll always have one person that is gonna lead the charge, they're gonna they're gonna say something, and then everybody's gonna agree with them. Like, you know, I don't want to say, you know, group group think, but you know, the okay, yeah, that sounds good, right? It's a it's a good point. Yeah. But if you if you take them and and have them separately, they will give you a more robust information to put in your report so that it's more meaty and has more information about what is required and what targets and challenges people are looking at. And sometimes you might have over overlying things, and maybe you'll have opposite opinions where the boss thinks that, you know, maybe hey, we've got great productivity, we're we're doing what we're supposed to do. Whereas the supervisor who's close to the team is saying, we're not somehow we're making errors, we're making more errors, we're wasting a little bit of money. So, you know, it depends on on what you're looking at. And in your training, think about if you if you have a training and everybody's in the training, there's always somebody, like if you have your supervisor in with your team, the team is looking for at the supervisor, and the it they have a difficult time sharing. So I always say that as well.

Getting Honest Answers And Confidentiality

SPEAKER_00 15:08

Very cool. So, does that mean that you're very intentional then about looking at, okay, well, and and I imagine that this has to be bought in by leadership as well. How are we gonna structure this ONA so that we do get the goods in a psychologically safety type place, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Exactly. And sometimes you have to say, like, when I approach a workplace, I ask them, this is all going in a report. Everybody shares the report. So if there's confidential information, please don't share. And I can make things generalized so that the information is is conveyed, but nobody's nobody, you could, you don't know who's who in the situation. Right. So nice.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

Yeah, because confidentiality, when you're thinking about these needs assessments, you're really you want to get as much information as possible from the OA. You know, I co-facilitated a culture branding workshop one time, and it was very interesting because we did the same thing. We were separating people and we're giving them a hypothetical situation of what would it look like to you if the CEO left tomorrow? And what do you think your role would be, or how would it change? So it was really interesting to see these different views of leadership as well. So, how do you find it to get leadership to buy into okay, there's change that needs to be done, and it may come in the form of process, it may come in the form of product or people, depending on what that looks like. But you're trying to get them bought into the change, might be you as well. How does that look?

Leadership Buy-In And Consequences Of Inaction

SPEAKER_01 16:48

That is a hard pill to swallow for some people, right? Yeah, because no one it's critical feedback, but you have to gain trust first. Yeah, that's why we have a sequence of questions to build on those questions. And when I get into it, what is one thing that you can fix right now? If you could fix it, that is one of my last questions because at that point we we're talking through the process, and it might be something that they've already said or something new. So building trust and rapport with with your with your individual who you're you're speaking with is important to get the information so that you you get true information. But but for for buy-in for leaders, how about this? What is the consequence of inaction? I'll repeat that. What is the consequence of inaction? So you ask that question about if you just stayed where you are, what does that look like? And then if you actually built a training plan and trained your staff or or mentored your staff, whatever your whatever your focus is on, how will it change your workplace? And then what happens if you don't? So are you gonna have again more errors? How much does that cost you in a year's time? What do you need to give up in order to have all these errors, for example, right? Or loss of productivity, safety issues. You know, you can look at so many different consequences, loss of revenue, people leaving because they're unhappy, or or they, you know, most people want to be polluting to others, exping more snowball effect, right? Exactly. People want to work in a safe, happy place where they feel that they have purpose and respect. And so when we allow things to continuously get worse, like say you have a wonderful, you know, great culture, but for some strange reason productivity is down and there's errors happening. Don't you think people's confidence will go down and they feel bad, right? Because they're doing something wrong. People want to take pride in what they do. So that's right, what is the consequence of inaction? And then what happens if you do take action? And those are the questions that I ask people to focus on.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

That's great. You know, and I've and I love how you word that question because I've heard of it as the cost of doing nothing. But I think the way that you're wording it is a little bit even more thought provoking as opposed to reactionary drawing.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

And and one more thing before I get too excited here. So as an exciting, yeah, as a trainer, you have to say, you have to look at the organization and say, To yourself and be prepared. What happens if they do take action? What are the consequences? And what happens if they don't take action? What are the consequences? Because again, if you know people drowned in two inches of water, like you just have to stand up. But sometimes when you are working the problem, you cannot see. You can't see what's what's happening. So as you work through the organizational needs assessment, you're also a guide for them. It's their information. You're not adding information, you're not doing anything. You are just asking the questions and you're putting it into a report. So when we talk about buy-in, they're seeing visually what they said, and they are looking at what the challenges are. And sometimes you just might need to bold some things in that report so that they see that and then review it with them as well.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

That's so awesome. Yeah, I was going to go into questionings about report, but you organically went there. I love it. Beautiful. Because I imagine that these leaders really need to have something concrete so that they have, you know, what are the KPIs that this might affect? KPIs being key performance indicators, or what are some metrics within the company that we're going to be able to tie to the to the results of this ONA in our future workings with people. So that's really excellent.

Metrics, KPIs, And Proving Impact

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Absolutely. So I want to talk about two things metrics and then the report. So that report, the the analysis, I know I'm doing a square here. The analysis, it's not just the leader looking at it. The leader tends to work with a group of people. And they're not, they're they're what what I call as influencers. They might they might not be the decision makers, but they're the leader's team that helps the leader make decisions. So you you you have to ask who else is in the room that makes decisions and who are the influencers. And maybe you want to present that report to everyone as well. So that's number one. Number two, I want to talk about metrics. So metrics. So within with an organization, we need impact to organization. And that's where your metrics comes in, where you're measuring, depending on that report, efficiency, productivity, safety, number of errors, client satisfaction. You can measure different things. So the suggestion is before you start training, you are taking a pre-metric. So I like to do on a scale of one to 10, one being low, 10 being high. I know you've heard this like many times, right? Tell me where where your team's productivity is. Then I ask her, what things tells you that they're being productive or not productive? Right. And I get these examples, right? How do you measure productivity? Yeah. Exactly. So I get these examples. So it might be that instead of five widgets, they make 10 widgets, right? The increase in five widgets. When it comes to errors, how many errors per month? When it comes to money, how did you increase or decrease dollar amount? So I ask those questions before, and then I go back 30, 60, sometimes 90 days to ask them where the needle has moved. So when we talk about buy-in, they see where they've they've come from and where they're going to. And that's the important thing because with so many options out there, how do we differentiate ourselves from everybody else? And that goes for organizations and trainers alike.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

Yeah, yeah. And that's a fair comment. Wow, you went like full circle on the whole process. That was brilliant. And really, I love the concrete examples that you have to understand with leaders, like, you know, these the relational skills trainers and practitioners that are out there like ourselves. It's so important for leaders to understand that this isn't let's do a team building, high fives, hugs, da-da-da. And then three months later, there's no sustainable gain. And I think this is where that OA really helps navigate and ensure that sustainable gain and the importance of touch points post.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Exactly. And and making making your training impactful and being, and so you can be proud of your training and know that this is the direction I need to go. Because as trainers, we have a lot of pressure on us where we we need to deliver. And this is the way, this is the path that you can follow that helps you deliver what is needed for that workplace.

Sustainable Training And Follow-Through

SPEAKER_00 25:13

That's brilliant. All right. Well, this has been so rich, and I'm sure we could go on and on and on because really the depth of these, and if we went into like the little questions, and I appreciate you actually also talking about the questions that you ask and when you ask them, which is also super important, you know, like that you don't kick off with, well, let's go into a solution-based mindset right now. No, let's stay in an exploratory mindset. This has been amazing. Thank you for joining us. So if our audience, if when our audience wants to reach out to you, how can they find you? And can you tell us a little? Can you let us know the names of your books? Excellent. All right.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

So my name is Jessica LaRusso. I have a company called Powered by Jessica and Credibility Matters. You can go on our website, which is www.poweredbyjessica.com. And uh my niche market is credibility, where I teach people to represent themselves and sell themselves through communication, conduct, and results. You talked about books. So of course I have receivable, right? So, you know, who you are, spotlighting the world. And of course, an organizational book, Credibility Matters, where we are doing a deep dive in, you know, how do I get people to trust me? What do I need to do? So, you know, there you go.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

Well, and isn't that handy for everyone on every single level that that's leaders alike, that's trainers alike. That's yeah. And just for the audience that isn't visually seeing this, Jessica's last name is spelt L-O-R-U-S-S-O. So thank you so much, Jessica. This is like the Jessica Squared podcast today.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

You got it.

Resources, Books, And How To Connect

SPEAKER_00 27:02

And uh this is awesome. Thank you so much for joining us. And um, for all those listening, I am Jessica Sudin. Thank you for taking the time to lean in to learn.