Real World Results (A Case)

Real-World Results as Assessment Data

Our training course for a retail merchandizing company taught the participants how to write direct-mail advertisements. The deliverable in our Assessment Center was a real advertisement piece, all typeset and ready to go, for one of the products in the company’s catalogue. Here’s how we assessed this piece: We mailed it out to 1000 randomly selected people from the company’s mailing list. If this mailing resulted in four or more orders, the participant passed the test. Otherwise he or she had to keep on trying until the desired results were achieved.

Real-World Results

This is an example of using real world results as an assessment technique. We strongly recommend this assessment approach, if you can pull it off. The advantage is the focus on the application of new skills and knowledge to the real-world context. The resulting data are valid and objective. The disadvantage is that it could be somewhat time consuming.

Here’s another example: We taught a group of Customer Service Representatives (CSR) on handling calls to the company’s hot line. After the completion of the course, we sent the participants to the call center. After a day on the job, we interviewed one or two of the customers who called on that day. We began with an open-ended question: “Tell me about your conversation with the CSR”. We followed-up with additional questions that required rating the CSR’s performance along the dimensions of courtesy, friendliness, competency, and promptness. We used the information from real world customers as assessment data.

One more example: For a month after completing the course on sales prospecting techniques, we asked the participants to call four people from their database and keep a log of their interaction with such details as the prospect’s name, organization, need, decision, and plans for follow up. At the end of the month, the course participants sent a copy of their logs. We analyzed the information in the log awarded a final grade for the course.

Final example: We told the participants to get a proposal accepted for a conference presentation. After making the presentation, we asked the participants to send a copy of the evaluation sheets from their audience members. We used these data as the final proof of the mastery of the Presentation Skills course.

Two Approaches

Every product or interpersonal interaction involves a customer, client, prospect, or audience member we are trying to influence. It makes sense to measure and assess the impact on the target audience. Here are some two ways you can measure the real-world impact:

1. Interview or survey the people who are using the product or interacting with the participant. Collect feedback from them on the quality of the product or the interaction.
2. Ask the participant to keep a journal or a log of how he or she applied the news skills on the job and what results were obtained.