When you say "internal academies," what do you mean?
In essence, an internal academy is a targeted corporate investment in employee learning and development. Many people then think primarily of a kind of training catalog offered to the employees of this company to teach certain skills, abilities and behaviors. But we always take this investment decision as a challenge and a mandate to make this company truly more successful. That's why we take a holistic approach, first wanting to understand the culture and strategic direction of the company, the short- and long-term challenges, and the specific goals. Then we always consider together: does an internal academy make sense against this background, and if so, which focal points and formats might be suitable? Which trainers fit the culture and the development goals? How can we be innovative and surprising without being too demanding, and much more. And at the end of the day, we have a tailor-made offer for employees that motivates, challenges, promotes and conveys appreciation.
Why don't you actually offer open trainings?
One of our guiding principles is "People shape organizations and organizations shape people". That's why it's always important to us not to see personnel development as separate from organizational development, but to be holistically effective. So we also want to be effective in the company with our trainings and formats - that's what really drives us. And let's be honest: what use is it to me if I know how to lead in an agile way, for example, but I find myself in a very traditional corporate culture with rigid processes? Knowledge is always exciting, but the danger is simply great of remaining a lonely caller and perhaps feeling burned in the end. That's why we focus on understanding the background and initial situation of a company, its goals and strategies, and then using this as a basis for selecting suitable topics, formats and trainers for successful corporate development. And this is not a one-time event - our internal academies, or let it just be internal trainings, are checked, revised and changed annually to reflect the development in the company. And that we are not entirely wrong in doing so is also shown by the fact that we have quite a few customers whom we have been supporting in this segment for decades.
And what makes your trainings offstandards?
Our passion, our desire for unusual formats and, of course, the experience and expert knowledge in our team. We are very broadly positioned. We currently have around 60 trainers worldwide with a wide range of expertise, professional backgrounds and cultural home bases. This enables us to create an ideal fit for our customers and their corporate culture. And we attach great importance to ease and good didactics with a lot of interaction to enable real joy in learning. It is typical, for example, that our participants have nothing to do for more than 10 minutes. A lot of interaction, a lot of action. We do not hold theoretical monologues but pick up our participants in their practical environment. And - we are capable of learning! If a concept doesn't work 100%, we adapt it immediately.
How does one actually become an offstandards trainer?
We actually have a pretty strict selection process, but we are also always on the lookout for people who fit in with us and can complement us thematically. So we keep our eyes open and are active in our network to complement certain competencies. If we then have the initial contact, we check the CV and above all the references provided. In the next step, we conduct a get-to-know-you interview so that both parties can find out whether they could be a good fit for each other - rather on a personal, value-oriented and emotional level. If we both say yes, then we do a trial training, i.e. a live session, either virtually or as a face-to-face session in our Hamburg or Munich office. And on that basis, we then decide as a team whether it's really the right fit. And by then, the applicant will have gotten to know us so well that he or she will be able to decide whether it's a good fit for us.
What distinguishes offstandards trainers?
What unites them is their diversity and their in-depth specialist and experiential knowledge. We want people who know what they're talking about, and not just from theory - whether it's related to their function, the industry, or a specific topic. For example, our leadership trainers always have their own leadership experience, and our agile project management trainers always have experience in the agile PM environment. This experience makes our trainings special and intensive. And our people all have an open, non-judgmental and flexible mindset. They have a sense of when to hold back and when to think out of the loop and get participants out of their comfort zone. They bring empathy, are open to new things, dynamic and interactive. And each of them enjoys familiarizing themselves with the customer context and thus becoming as effective as possible.
Do you see a general shift in topics trained in internal academies?
Oh yes - but that's actually always the case. There are a few basic topics that simply belong, such as communication and conflict management. But in addition, we always have completely new approaches. Currently, there are topics such as agile working, collaboration, empowerment, cross-functional collaboration, knowledge sharing, and breaking down silos. Everything to do with New Work: how do we work in a contemporary way, how do we work across generations, what does effective leadership currently look like? There's a lot going on right now. To stay on top of this, we also have to invest a lot in research and educate each other. We have exchange formats between the trainers, an internal change consultant training, our OE/PE learning days and we attend a number of events. And then MS Teams also helps us for quick and uncomplicated exchange on new topics and their evaluation. Because we don't jump on every bandwagon either.
Now you often talk about learning landscapes. What do you understand by this?
It is one thing to offer measures - but what is the point if they are not sustainable? People and companies want to change, want to develop. But that doesn't always work well via a one-off event. That's why we want to build learning landscapes that map the process of learning and can be individualized. In such a landscape, you will find different formats, such as preworks, face-to-face meetings, online sessions and virtual collegial consulting sessions. And then what you learn is supported and echoed via accompanying formats such as eNuggets, i.e. shorter digital and interactive learning sequences, blogs, podcasts and, above all, a Rreminder app. In this way, we want to trigger a lasting effect in the company. The topics are taken up continuously and integrated into everyday professional life. That's not easy, because we always have to take a good look at what fits into the respective culture. Companies are incredibly different in this respect. That's why it makes a lot of sense to design such a learning landscape together with the PE colleagues in the company. We can then offer complete implementation services.
What do you need from the customer to be successful?
The conviction that personnel development is a critical success factor for a company. It must be clear that personnel development is not just a "nice to have". It is not about putting a green check mark somewhere and being able to say "yes, we also offer further training". It's about the fact that companies can only survive if they provide their employees and managers with the necessary resources for further development, if they have a good learning culture, and if learning is embedded in the company's everyday life. Ideally, discussions with managers should be planned before training sessions in order to sharpen individual learning objectives and to consider together what is to be gained from the training. On the one hand, this shows appreciation, and on the other hand, the investment in training pays off for everyone in the team.
What sets you apart from the competition?
Of course, everyone wants to understand the customers. But for us, that's a really big priority. It's part of our DNA, so to speak. And if you take a look at the feedback from our customers on the homepage, you'll see that we don't just talk the talk. We have anchored in the team the claim to really know the customer and to have understood the culture. This is what drives us and makes us a real partner for our customers. And what we also hear again and again: we are very flexible and very fast. We can implement changes very quickly and adapt to changing conditions. And - we also say "no" sometimes - if we can bundle topics, for example, then we do that and don't just make two trainings out of it. We think from our customers' point of view and always consider what makes sense. Our decades of experience in building academies also helps here.
In my view, what sets us apart is our excellent team of trainers. We have so much expertise and so many different personalities. And that also allows us to replace trainers very quickly if someone falls ill or it's perhaps not such a good fit. This security and speed is very much appreciated by many of our customers, who are sometimes really long-suffering.
And last but not least, it's our creative take on learning landscapes that make our academies such an experience!
Now, in addition to setting up and running academies, you also offer "managed training services" - what do you mean by that?
Our close cooperation with our customers showed us years ago that everything to do with seminar organization sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. The colleagues in the internal personnel development departments often simply don't have the capacity for this anymore, and yet they are also better off with strategically important tasks than with these non-demanding but often very time-consuming activities, such as invitations, hotel organization and much more. And that's where we come in, by being able to take over all this organization. This is structured in a modular way and includes many individual services that can be booked. From feedback requests and certificates to the online platform for registrations. Activities can therefore be outsourced to us as needed. We have also built our own training management platform, which our colleagues from internal HR development can access at any time. This platform is customized and also has many totally exciting features, such as a feedback tool for 360° surveys in preparation for management development. It is basically a small LMS and a great addition to the customer's large LMS. We are extremely flexible and can program in such a way that it perfectly reflects the customer's wishes.
You're an expert here around in-house academies and managed training services - what do you enjoy so much about it?
I think learning and development are so important and I'm always happy when that's carried over into a company. And building something together with the customer, getting insights into companies and then bringing the experience into other companies, that motivates me enormously!
Thank you for the interview, Friederike!
