Cascading training. (Training).

THE CONCEPT IS SIMPLE AND SEDUCtive. The manager says, "Why should I send 10 people to training? I'll just send Sammy, and when she comes back she can train everybody else."

I call this "cascading training." The question is, does it work?

And I suggest that the answer is: Sometimes it can work--but the concept is still dangerous because there are more situations where it doesn't work, and our hypothetical manager is not likely to have a clearly defined map in his head of where it can work and where it is a recipe for disaster. Therefore, if he uses this technique once successfully, he is apt to use it indiscriminately in the future, with terrible results.

So, when does cascading training work? When the material is very simple or intuitive--or both. Sammy can certainly go to the new dress-code training, come back, give out the summary sheet and say, "OK guys, here are the new rules: No denim. Men's shirts must have collars. Socks are required." Fairly simple process training will also usually succeed when cascaded from Sammy to her colleagues. Things like moderate changes to the voice-mail system or updates to a file-flow process are good examples.

Although, having said that, I really believe that if the material to be trained is simple enough that management can be confident in Sammy's ability to train it to her colleagues, then stand-up training was not required in the first place--a simple memo would have done the trick.

If the training is more complex, and especially if it is conceptual rather than technical, there are a whole series of risks in having Sammy carry the training back to her colleagues.

Let's take a typical example. Rather than freeing up nine supervisors for a day of Selection Interviewing training, the manager sends Sammy, with instructions for her to come back and share with the other supervisors what she learned.

Here are half a dozen ways this plan can go awry. Note that not all of these circumstances have to occur to cause the manager's plan to fail; one is enough. And, in my experience, at least one is almost certain to happen.

First, given the hectic pace of the work environment, the meeting in which Sammy is to train her colleagues might never happen. This is very common.

Second, the meeting may happen, but Joe is on vacation and Jennifer can't attend--so a significant portion of the supervisors get no training whatsoever.

Third, this model assumes that Sammy assimilated 100 percent of the material presented. That is highly unlikely. Some people would dispute this, but I think that an intelligent, motivated participant in a conceptual course like interviewing can hope to really learn about 6o percent of the material on the first go-through.

Fourth, this model assumes that Sammy is as good a trainer as the trainer was. Once again, that is highly unlikely. Sammy is a supervisor; the trainer is a trainer. The positions require different skill sets, and it is somewhat unfair to Sammy to expect her to display a skill set that is only a very peripheral part of her job.

Fifth, Sammy will be doing her training without the accoutrements of a professional training session: videos; case studies; group exercises; feedback; and a controlled, dedicated training environment.

And sixth, suppose that the training course was eight hours long, Sammy will typically be given a one-hour slot in a department meeting to present the training. If the material could be learned in an hour, then the course would have been an hour in the first place. At best, Sammy's participants will come out one-eighth trained.

In general, the difference between attending a training course and having someone tell you what was in it is exactly the same as the difference between seeing a movie and having someone tell you what it was about. It is almost always a better management decision to just bite the bullet and send to a training course all the people who need the skill or knowledge that is being taught.

Andrew Hubbard is national training director for Irwin Mortgage Corporation in Indianapolis. He can be reached at [e-mail].