Why Do Most Behavioral Training Fail?

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According to a study published in Wall Street 60% of corporate Six Sigma Initiatives fail. Many projects do well as long as the Six Sigma resource is tagged to them. Any guesses what really happens when the Six Sigma expert leaves the project?

Knowing and not doing.

A few common reasons why Six Sigma projects fail when the expert is gone are:

Ø  The team members know what to do but have lost their focus and motivation.

Ø  The team members have learnt how to handle the project however their behaviors have not been impacted

Ø  There has been learning and applying and yet, their habits of dependency remain unchanged

Inappropriate Modules

Does it never occur to a facilitator that an audience attending their training on “Decision Making” actually took all their critical decisions in life without this training? In work place, he is just unsure because his reporting manager is a control freak and, does not empower the team to take decisions.

Is this a gap in learning or training? And who needs the training really?

Ineffective Methods

When L&D team design programs relying on lectures, inspirational tales, audios and videos, role play, group discussion, gallery walk and simulation exercises – it scores high in feedback forms. Is there any change in behavior or output in work place?

When most organizations use their training investments just as smartly as they do their stationeries, the impact is going to be just as insignificant and negligible.

Organization goals

If trainings are not linked to strategies and project goals, there is no way training can bridge the gap between what is explained in classroom or webinars and what is carried out on the job. Behavioral, technical, leadership and even role based trainings are segmented, introduced based on projects or individual needs or leader’s whims and fancies – not remotely aligned to strategic goals. Training efforts are not well coordinated; each functional unit isolates their initiative and learning.

Performance Criteria

When an employee’s appraisal is tied to number of trainings attended, number of training hours concluded and not personal or business outcomes achieved, such training efforts never get off the ground because there is no behavior change as the whole exercise is mechanical and for the books only, not the mind.

Beckon Methodology ensures participants:

Build how-to skills

Learn and not just be trained

Change behavior and attitudes

Own outcomes

Produce tangible results

Apply and measure

Is There Any Scientific Approach to Estimate Working Man Days For a Consulting Project?

While preparing a management-consulting proposal for any client, most consultants estimate working man-days required to execute the project and deliver desired outcome. Each time, they fumble at the exact same point – How to calculate, if not exact, at least close to exact man-days? It is not the ambiguity involved that creates the confusion – it is lack of a scientific approach. However, there is enough room for refining prevailing approach by considering a combination of the following components while estimating working man-days:

Scope of Work: You re look at the scope not just from execution perspective but also from an outcome based standpoint. The methodology you will adopt to frame your recommendations, implement your solution and execute the project should be crystal clear and should not be “Evolve as you Solve” style. You list the series of tasks; estimate time and effort required for each task and quote a fee, even if you are unsure if all components were appropriately included. The list is to let your client know the magnitude of the project.

Methodology: Many consultants often refer earlier projects similar in nature to arrive at the working man-days. A standard set of assumptions can be misleading. If a particular task took X time in a company as the resources involved went out of the way to execute it, how fair it is to assume another company would be able to complete the same task within the same time frame? What discount would you consider for bureaucracy? Time and effort required for key tasks could vary, depending upon the complexity of activity, stakeholders involved, organization culture and other external factors.

Milestones: Clients would me more keen about milestones reached or outcomes achieved than activities involved – You can always keep the man-days for internal reference and add required buffer if you anticipate slips or delay from client’s end while quoting project based fee. In the project charter include roles and responsibilities of both parties with required penalty clauses for delay and options to claim additional fee in case of implementation lapse. A communication calendar with key stakeholders to discuss project progress as per mutually agreed timelines should facilitate meeting targets better and lead to a logical closure of the project.

BECKON Model is used in One to One sessions with Entry-level Consultants, Leaders, Entrepreneurs, Owners of Small and Medium size enterprises.

For more details contact advocating.outcomes@gmail.com

Is B.Ed enough for teachers?

We can explore the reasons to understand if really B.Ed alone is enough for being a good teacher.

Quality of Teachers: To improve learning objectives and to achieve learning outcomes, it is not enough to hire teachers with the right fit in terms of degree and experience but to also gauge their potential to create positive impact on learners and inspire them to make learning their personal discipline. If the demo class with a new hire even remotely hints at a teacher’s ability and intention to impact, the learning system of education will automatically reflect a soaring graph.


A Teacher’s Toolkit: Every teacher has his/ her toolkit – Qualifications, labels, experience, depth of understanding the subject and the kind. Being more knowledgeable is not always being a better teacher. The degrees can get you the job but not really certify you as a great or more effective teacher. Experience certainly can give that edge to deal with wider range of questions related to the subject to the entire satisfaction of the student. It is only teachers with better teaching skills who do far better than those with just smarter tool kits. They also thoroughly enjoy what they do because of the results it brings.


Methodology: What truly determines the quality of knowledge shared is not the system of education, syllabus, and lesson plans; it is what works with a specific target group that stands out as the best methodology. It is often a combination of tools and techniques - medium, motivation; methods go hand in hand and any effort to teach just with a standard methodology without any understanding of a learner’s drive is as futile as never to have taught at all.


Two times learning: Challenges thrown at teachers either in terms of dealing with difficult students, classroom realities of disobedience or just relevant questions beyond syllabus and teacher’s scope of knowledge has always added to a teacher’s toolkit. Though trained teachers do better than untrained ones in handling a class, they are not always better in teaching as that is an altogether different ability.


Under researched Areas: A large proportion of teachers quit, in spite of joining the vocation with great enthusiasm. This is simply because the way teachers are taught. Only sharing teaching tools and not exactly showing how to teach or developing the required skills is the one of the primary causes of this crisis. A B. Ed class should be able to assist the learner to imagine a real time class, a chaotic disobedient class or a studious class with intelligent questions and accordingly apply their tools and expertise. Like any other course, teacher’s training requires being apprenticed to someone or supervised while doing it alone initially with a structured feedback mechanism from an experienced practitioner.


Social View/ Industry pressure: In our society, a teacher’s job, regardless of the pay is still a very respectable job. A teacher who cannot set a good example by being principled in his/ her ways in the class environment or elsewhere, lose credibility which in turn impacts a student’s belief system, thought process and at times their learning curve. A teacher who compromises under parental pressure or school’s hierarchy and leadership has to work harder to improve their integrity rather than prove their abilities.


While the teacher’s can acquire their toolkit from their respective course degrees, BECKON Model sharpens that much needed skill to teach, that is more important than the tools - to stay composed during a reality crisis and gradually build that trust in student-teacher relationship.


BECKON Model will nurture even untrained teachers with required classroom simulations, structured feedback, and support in their teaching journey with adequate exposure to real time scenarios and demonstration. BECKON will support at different levels in this pathway, as determined by the learner however after an evaluation of their current capacity through BECKON questionnaire and face-to-face interaction.

For more details, Schools, Training Institutes, Teachers can contact advocating.outcomes@gmail.com