Organizational Development: A Manual for Managers and ... - FPDL

Nevertheless, sometimes trainer can just ‘come from the moon’ and make a lot of fun for
participants, playing games with fantastic situations. Sometimes it is the best, when objectives
of the course are to have a fun, to be together, to improve interpersonal relations, etc. In other
cases, such separation from the reality may cause an impression of irrelevance to reality.
Where to be in a course of training course – in given city and country, somewhere in Europe, or
even on the moon – it depends from were we are going to come at the end of the process.
12. Outcomes
12.1 PLANNED EFFECTS. Even on the stage of planning training event, objectives are never
coinciding with foreseen outcomes. Along with the main products of the training, which, in a
good case, should meet main objectives of the course, some co-products, sub-products and
other following up effects may be considered as outcomes, whatever desired or not. It should
be clearly defined in an agreement between client and training organisation, which effects of
the course will inevitable accompany the desired outcome.
For example, when one group formed from officers of Property Department of one big Russian
City have training, it made insulting impact to the relations between leaders and ‘internal
opposition’. One leader of sub-department should resign immediately after training; the position
of another one has been drastically changed. Of course, that was not an official agenda of the
training course. However, it could be foreseen.
The decision about doing or not that particular training should take in account all
accompanying effects, which are indivisible from the event. Preliminary assumptions about
such effects will depend from the information available to decision-makers and extent of
uncertainty in any given situation. ]
12.2 ACCIDENTAL EFFECTS. One may also be sure, that actual outcomes will never precisely
coincide with the planned effects. Something may not happen, which was expected to happen.
Something may happen, which was unexpected. Nevertheless, many threats or opportunities
are already given at the beginning of the process, and they should not be ignored. Changing
weather, absence of expected or presence of unexpected participant, sickness, curious
combination of circumstances – all that should give no excuse to the trainer. This is an art of a
trainer to be able to catch up any accidental opportunity and manage with accidental troubles.
Still, the range of possible ‘accidental’ outcomes worth to be carefully thought out before the
course. It will give to client an important information for more conscious decision, and will give
a possibility to trainer better prepare himself to the following ‘improvisation’. It is so well known
that only improvisations that are well prepared in advance have a chance to be successful.
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