What will this article help you do? This article is going to help you achieve better training results in less time by teaching you how to create clear training "Outcome Statements". What if I told you that you were lost? But then I didn’t tell you where you needed to go? How would you develop a plan? How would you know if you were making progress? How would you know when you weren’t lost any more? Create an Outcome Statement In employee training, you clarify the destination by creating a clear definition of the outcome you want to achieve. We call this an “Outcome Statement.” Getting this definition right can make all of the difference. An ambiguous Outcome Statement will make it difficult to create training materials, measure progress, and determine success. A clear Outcome Statement will help you know: Exactly what training materials to create Exactly what to measure Exactly when you have achieved success (or failure) Attributes of a good Outcome Statement

When a manager sits down to "train" a new employee, the main focus is almost always on how to use the system. But that approach leaves everybody frustrated. The employee doesn't actually know the context of when she should be doing those actions, NOR can she remember everything the manager showed her. And the manager is frustrated because he notices that the employee seems to constantly interrupt him with questions. It's a lose-lose-lose (the system loses in this case, too) situation. Instead of only focusing on showing employees how a system works, I recommend focusing on all 3 of these elements:

If you are building a knowledge base for customer support or for internal training, then it is important to keep in mind what you want the article to accomplish. In a perfect world you could write one article and use it for training, onboarding and support. And this is the approach that many people take. But it is a big mistake. When someone needs to be trained, their needs are very different from when she need to be reminded. The person who is being trained needs to understand concepts, definitions and workflows. The person who just needs a quick reminder only needs a quick step-by-step guide.