A Consultative Training Program: Collateral Effect of a Needs Assessment

This case study reveals a series of significant and effective changes that resulted from administering a needs assessment to managers working in a bank undergoing a major change in the organizational culture. The assessment changed not only the training objectives or the client organization, but also the training design. What originally began as a didactic, management-driven training shifted to a trainee-focused design using a collaborative approach. These changes only occurred after recognizing that the trainees had valuable skills, ideas, and knowledge of processes that could be tapped for the training. In the end, the trainee's individual knowledge and collective expertise served as the foundation for a new management plan specifically fitted to the context and needs of a developing organization.