Supervisor Training: Go for skills, not just knowledge

By: Denis Becker

No skills? No habits? - No results!

Supervisor training is WAY too important to take lightly. Supervisors are critical to operations performance. Any gaps in their skills directly impacts the reliability and performance of processes, the effectiveness of team work, the personal growth and development of people and, with this, operations results. Poorly performing shop-floors, offices and teams highlight weaknesses in leadership skills or management habits. Equally, well performing ones almost invariably are linked to capable leaders whose skills and habits enable stability, growth and results. Hence Leadership Development Programmes are very much essential for supervisors to undergo which will help them in running day-to-day operations.

Supervisor training, therefore, must be carefully chosen. One or two day assertive behaviour leadership or production management courses in a training room at the college, leadership training centre or supervisor training company down the road won't be enough to make a lasting impact in supervisors' or team leaders' skills and habits. If these don't change, company directors and operations managers cannot expect payback from their training investment. Other than getting a few boxes ticked. No results, period.

What's the alternative?

Training within Industry (TWI) training is different. They have been around for over 70 years and had a profound impact on the development and success of Toyota as well as many other businesses around the globe. TWI was designed to transform average supervisors into great supervisors and highly effective leaders. The TWI programs develop foundational leadership skills to rapidly grow supervisors' capability, build new habits and enable participants to quickly deliver much better, more reliable results.

Participants learn simple practice routines which they immediately apply to solve real-life problems in their workplaces. Through the repeated application of these routines, supported by an experienced practitioner or coach, supervisors develop and consolidate these skills. As they get better at this, supervisors become more effective at solving everyday operations problems quickly and sustainably. Thus, as their leadership skills improve, there are measurable operations improvements. This happens very quickly following the training - companies get rapid Return on Training Investment (ROTI). What's more, regular practice of the same leadership routines not only generates better results faster, it also forms new management habits in front-line leaders which stick and continue generating benefits in the long run - for supervisors and their companies.

What TWI leadership skills do supervisors need?

Training Within Industry (TWI) provides an off-the-shelf, time-proven solution to jump-starting supervisors' transition to becoming highly effective leaders. The TWI supervisor training programs develop essential leadership and improvement skills:

• TWI Job Relations: Solving people problems, building trust and developing high-performance teams

• TWI Job Methods: Analysing and improving operations processes and work methods

• TWI Job Instruction: Performing effective on-the-job training, and stabilising processes and methods

• TWI Problem Solving: Identifying and sustainably removing causes of operations problems

• TWI Job Safety: Spotting and preventing the causes of accidents in people and their environment

Once supervisors acquire these skills and internalise them through daily practice, they are able to manage and lead operations and their teams much more effectively and, with this, bring about significant, lasting improvement in their organisations.

Supervisor Academy are experts in providing Leadership Development Programmes as well as Lean Manufacturing skills. They also help you to implement these skills in your day-to-day operations.