Jane's Classroom Training Tips

This week's post is compliments of Jane Jazrawy - the VP, Product Development at CarriersEdge. In addition to be an outstanding developer of online materials, Jane is also a superb classroom trainer, having taught everything from elementary school to finance, consumer electronics, regulatory compliance, and a whole lot of other stuff. 

Even though our business is online driver improvement, we recognize that people aren't going to move EVERYTHING online (in fact, companies have tried that in the past with disastrous results), but with continued cost pressures in every business, it's important to make the most out of each classroom training session.

In this industry, the biggest challenge with classroom training is getting drivers to engage. Getting drivers into the room in the first place is tough, but getting them to open up and be an active part of the session is even tougher. They may be sitting silently and not saying much. They may be avid talkers that send the discussion down a rathole. In any case, to ensure a successful session it's important to get everyone engaged, and keep them focused.

Here then, are some of Jane's tips for running a successful classroom training session.

1. Set your expectations. Make sure you're clear on what you want to accomplish through the session and what you want everyone else to understand as well. When creating learning objectives for the session, be sure to use action words like 'list', 'define', and 'describe' since you can measure them. It's impossible to measure understanding, so avoid that one.

2. It's the experience that counts. The most important thing you can get out of a classroom training session is a deeper relationship with the people attending. The content is always secondary - if you can build the relationships effectively, and foster the right attitude among participants, the content will take care of itself. Drivers with the right attitude are always more valuable than smart people with the wrong attitude, so take the opportunity to build the relationships with and among the participants.

3. Get in the room, not in front of it. It's much easier to get people communicating when you're standing amongst them. Standing at the front of the room creates a divide between "teacher" and "students" which detracts from the educational experience. When you're in the middle of the room, you get better participation, and there's no longer a way for people to hide at the back. If you really want to change the dynamic of the room, give them an exercise then go stand at the back of the room while they complete it. 

4. Use icebreakers to your advantage. Instead of the standard introduction format of "who are you?", "where are you from?", "why are you here?", mix it up. Ask participants which regulation they dislike the most, or which one is their favorite. Try asking them what they think the session should focus on. That not only makes them think, but it gives you a better sense of where their head is at before the class really gets going. 

5. Use flip charts and whiteboards to your advantage. Flip charts are fabulous tools for tracking ideas, questions, and off-topic discussions during a session. Use these in combination with the tip above, to track the comments made during the introductions. Good instructors fill up lots of flip chart pages because there's always lots of unexpected things that come up during a session and it's important to document them.

6. Close-ended questions get more answers. If open-ended questions aren't generating the discussion you'd like, try using more close-ended questions. Specific questions, with specific answers, will often generate better results. Open-ended questions can often be like staring at a blank piece of paper - it's hard to know where to start so you end up doing nothing.

7. Follow-up. It's inevitable that there will be unanswered questions at the end of a training session, so make a point of following up in a timely fashion, and be sure all the participants get the answers. As trainers, we're there to provide a service to the people participating in the training, so it's important that the service is followed through until all the questions are answered.

Blue Ocean Trucking

I was on vacation last week and one of the books I took with me was Blue Ocean Strategy. Yeah, I know, that's pretty lame - taking a business strategy book as "light reading" on vacation. Others have already made fun of me for that. The truth is that I've picked through this book a number of times but never been able to sit down and really think about what it's saying.

Blue Ocean Strategy, for anyone not familiar with it, argues that to have real business success, you need to break out of the competitive bloodbath and create new market space by doing something that no one else is. Rather than fighting over the same customers again and again, create a new space that grows the overall market and assures your leadership in it. The book provides detailed instructions for doing this, but the gist of it is that you have to identify the elements that your market values and expand (or create) those, while simultaneously reducing (or eliminating) the things the market doesn't value. By doing this, you create a leap in value for your customers (which differentiates you from your traditional competitors), and you lower the cost of producing the service, which allows you to provide better pricing and still make a good profit. You can also draw in a number of non-customers who haven't previously bought the service, if you emphasize the right things. The book provides a number of excellent examples of companies that have done this and had great success with it - including diverse examples such as Cirque du Soleil, Southwest Airlines, and [yellowtail] wine - and it's a great read.

I started thinking about how this applies to trucking. I can't think of any for-hire carriers that have created a service radically different from the rest of the industry, but I'd be interested in finding one. Most fleets sell roughly the same service - "we'll deliver your freight on time, in good condition, for a fair price" - which is what most of the people currently buying trucking services want (or so the conventional logic goes). But is that really what those buyers value? And what about all the people who AREN'T buying trucking services? Why aren't they buying, and what are they buying instead? I'd be really interested in finding a trucking company that's tackled that challenge and put together and strategy for addressing it.

On the other side of that - the business of delivering the freight - there are lots of opportunities for applying a Blue Ocean approach as well. Regardless of who the customers are, all fleets want the same thing in a driver - someone who can be relied on to deliver the freight on time, in good condition, and do so in a safe and courteous manner. Traditionally, fleets get those drivers through a combination of screening tools (trying to get the best ones in the door in the first place), and a carrot/stick approach (incentives and training programs combined with discipline to keep everyone moving in the same direction). There are some variances in the screening processes, incentive programs, training, discipline, etc. but everyone is doing roughly the same things. As a result, everyone has roughly the same cost structure and therefore roughly the same comp package.

What would happen, though, if someone took a Blue Ocean approach and identified the things that are disproportionately important to drivers, then focused all their efforts on providing those things, while reducing or eliminating everything else?

For instance, every year there are surveys about what drivers want, and every year the same items appear at the top of the list - more money, more career opportunities, more education/training opportunities, more say in decisions, etc. 

I pretty much discount the money thing, because every person doing every job in every company wants more money. Every time you get a raise, you give half to the government and spend the rest before it even shows up in your pay. Two months after you first received the raise, you feel like you need another one. No way to win, so let's forget about that one.

However, the other things at the top of the list - training, career path, input - can all be lumped into professional development, and very few (if any) fleets focus much attention on that at all. I've yet to find a fleet that has multi-level job descriptions for drivers with documented steps to move up the levels. Very few fleets provide robust training and development opportunities for drivers, and fewer still advertise them. What would happen if a fleet focused on providing those things, and lowered their investment in things that drivers don't value as much? What would happen if, instead of advertising pay package, home time, and a family atmosphere, the fleet created a killer career path program for drivers? Or the best professional improvement education program in the industry? What kind of drivers would that attract, and what would it do for the fleet overall?

Are you doing anything like that? What strategy are you using to break out of the bloody red ocean of competition and create a blue ocean of uncontested space?

The "On Demand" World

I finally got an iPod. I know, most of the civilized world already has at least one, but I never got around to it before, and someone finally gave me one as a gift. In the few months that I've had it, I've already noticed that I'm not using it the way I thought I would.

Instead of dumping all my existing CDs onto it and having a virtual jukebox on the go, I find that I'm downloading a lot of podcasts. I also find that I'm downloading podcasts of radio shows that I used to listen to in the car. That's not remarkable on its own, but what is interesting is that I primarily use my iPod in the car. I've quickly got into the habit of downloading these podcasts and listening to them in the car, when I could just as easily be listening to them on the radio live.

I know I'm not alone in doing that, so I've been thinking about why people do it - why listen to a podcast of a CBC radio documentary, instead of just turning on the CBC and listening live?

Of course, the answer is that I'm getting used to having content presented to me when and how I want, and I'm not interested in content that's served to me according to someone else's schedule. More and more, that seems to be the case with how we consume services (whether it's broadcast content, or any other kind of service), we want them on our terms, not someone else's.

Another example is TV. I have a PVR that records my shows and keeps them organized for me. I couldn't tell you when any of my favorites are actually scheduled, I just know that new episodes appear every week. In fact, I don't care when they're scheduled - that's the TV network's problem to figure out, not mine. I just want the new episode. 

To a certain extent, I blame the banks for this. When banks rolled out ATMs in the 80s, all of a sudden we could access our money whenever and wherever we wanted. Not long after that, we could pay bills and do all our banking through ATMs, then phones, then computers. When the web hit, the door blew open even further. 

As those things have progressed, we've become more and more picky about how we consume services - we don't want to be forced to stand in line, pick through a catalog, wait for business hours, drive to a meeting, etc. We want what we want, and we want it NOW.

So, what does that have to do with drivers? 

Well, if that's the world we're living in now (and moving deeper into all the time) then that's the world we have to do business in. Trucking is already a "get it when you need it" business, but that doesn't always extend to the processes behind the scenes. If you think about the various services you provide to support your drivers, how many are available WHEN and HOW the drivers want?

I'm not saying that someone should be sitting by the phone 24/7 ready to take a driver's call - I think that's actually counterproductive because it assumes that drivers want to speak to a live body. All of the things I mentioned above are automated through technology, and heavily weighted towards self-serve. I think the on-demand model is a much better approach. Obviously, providing drivers with self-serve, on-demand training is a great idea (and I just happen to know where you can get some ;-)) but there are lots of other driver related processes that could easily be offered in a self-serve fashion as well.

Many companies have online portals for benefits administration, payroll and settlements, forms management and processing. More progressive companies are recognizing that coaching and mentoring can be administered entirely online (and by providing discussion forums and chat rooms, they've also got a mechanism for documenting best practices and tracking activities), and with newer technology entire communities can be created completely within an on-demand environment.

How are you using an on-demand approach to improve your business? Let me know.

Why People Hate Truck Drivers

This morning I was traveling across the top of Toronto on my way to a meeting and witnessed one example of why the general public is scared of big trucks. I was in the right lane with my cruise control set at 107 km/h and a guy driving a flatbed went past me, probably doing about 110-115. Not a lot faster than me, but faster. There was a car in his lane going slower than that, but instead of changing lanes and passing, the truck driver sailed right up behind the car and stayed on his bumper. He stayed there for quite a while - long enough for me to grab my phone a snap a picture.

Now, the truck was pulling an empty trailer, the traffic was fairly light, and it was a bright sunny morning, so the driver probably felt that he was in control and wasn't endangering anyone.

However, the car driver didn't know how much weight was on the truck behind him. All he knew is that a large truck was blocking his entire rear window and not backing off. Adding to the intimidation factor, the truck was dirty, beginning to rust, and generally not looking like something you want to be anywhere close to.

Maybe this driver was perfectly in control of his rig and knew exactly what was going on. Maybe he was a cowboy and thought that he owned the road. I don't know. I do know that car drivers get intimidated when big hulking, filthy trucks start riding up their butts. I also know that car drivers don't notice the 25 clean, well driven vehicles they pass on the highway, but they remember the one that scared them.

This industry already has a bad name among the general public and things like this don't help. The truck was being operated by a large lumber distributor, and I'm tempted to call them up and point out that their drivers could use some defensive driving training.

Surviving Las Vegas

As I mentioned last week, I was in Las Vegas for the Great West Truck Show. I love Las Vegas and it was an excellent show. As part of the show, I ran a seminar each day on cash flow management for owner-operators. We had a great turnout for each session, but hardly any true owner-operators (single truck operators). Most of the audience each day was made up of what I call micro-fleets - people running 2-10 trucks. At that size, they're starting to have the same challenges as larger fleets, but they don't have the resources to deal with them. 

They do, however, have lots of tips for maximizing revenue, cutting costs, and figuring out what's going on with the business. I compiled those tips and will be emailing a summary to everyone who attended. Here's a quick look at some of those comments:

• Buy the truck (rather than leasing) and run it for as many years as you can. This may not be possible in some industries that require newer equipment, but the consensus among the group was that buying was a better choice. Along with that, pay the truck off as soon as possible because then it's an asset that makes you money, rather than costing.
• With those older trucks, the group felt it was better to not invest in an APU. Avoiding idling was considered important, though, and the general feeling was that staying in a motel was the best way to avoid idling without an APU. The motel often costs less than idling, and offers other benefits as well (showers, TV, free Internet, etc.)
• One simple tip sparked a large discussion - look for lighter loads. Many loads aren't priced with thorough consideration for their weight, so hauling lighter loads at the same (or comparable) rate can save fuel and lower the overall operating cost.
• Someone else commented that many times "TL" loads don't actually fill the truck. Depending on the circumstances, you may be able to use that extra space and stick a couple of extra palettes in the back. Lots of discussion about this one as well, and the general consensus was that you have to be very careful, and it only works in specific circumstances, but it is something to be thinking of.
• Invest in software that streamlines the administrative requirements. A couple of participants mentioned different software products that integrated with QuickBooks and other programs and saved a lot of duplicate data entry. There are a number of these packages out there, so I may do some investigation for my Rear View Mirror column, but a little bit of poking around can end up saving lots of time on the business management side.

Do you have tips for more effectively managing the business? If so, send me your thoughts and I'll add them to the list.

Happy Canada Day to everyone north of the border! Happy 4th of July to everyone down south!