How Effective Can Training Be? A Holistic Approach

The IAEA Department of Safeguards has embarked on a strategic change: They are moving away from a system that was “prescriptive, driven by pre- determined criteria and focused at the facility level - to one that is customized, driven by outcomes and focused at the State level. By taking into account a broad range of State-specific factors, safeguards activities in the field and at Headquarters will become increasingly objective driven”. When strategic changes take place in an organization, such as the ones just mentioned, it is essential to assure that those changes will still achieve their anticipated goals. Research shows that, typically, 70% of those strategic changes fail. The reasons for this high degree of failure may vary and range from the lack of authority and support from the governing bodies to ill-conceived goals and procedures, to the impact that those changes have on the work of the staff in charge of implementing the new strategies. This paper deals exclusively with the latter possibility and will include some well-known (but not always openly discussed) advice to keep the inspectors workforce performing at their traditional levels of excellence. Indeed, inspectors may question if they still fit into the changing strategy of the organization; whether their skills are becoming less relevant as a result of the current emphasis on objective-driven safeguards and the preponderant roles of information analysts and support staff. With the differences of opinion shown at the IAEA’s governing bodies regarding objective- driven safeguards, inspectors and analysts alike may feel lacking support from their stakeholders and therefore be unsure of what is expected from them. Additionally their motivation to work may be reduced or extinguished if they face barriers in their work environment that interfere with their ability to meet expectations. Training can remedy deficiencies on people's skill, but not the motivational or context obstacles they may face. That's why a systematic approach needs to be applied to determine if training will be able to improve job performance — or if non-training solutions should be considered. Also, if motivational and procedural obstacles affect performance, they should be addressed in a holistic and comprehensive manner. An open and forthright diagnosis of the actual situation is for sure the first step in finding a solution to a potential performance problem that would include long-term non-training solutions.