The Beginning Of The End (# 99)

I've been working on a systems conversion project for the last year. It's called project 'Phantom' for no particular reason - but I've been telling myself that the name signifies just how scary and hard to get your arms around the conversion is. Today the first class started training and although everything is not perfect, at least it's starting to end.

I've struggled trying to find answers to process questions and odd little system requirements. Over and over I've been told - don't ask us, you're the trainer... somehow my title is supposed to come with a crystal ball. In the end (or what we though was the end) I simply cut all the unanswered stuff and put it in a set of team specific job aids to be provided by each unit .... this meant I didn't have to write it and they had to get their own answers. Some were not happy with this, but like I said it got done - sort of.

The strange part now is that the conversion has been pushed out (maybe as much as 2 months) but I'm supposed to keep training going. The trainers that are actually doing the classes for me are ticked because they know the agents are going to forget between now and then and will have to be retrained. So that's what I'm planning for now ... refresher sessions to be completed at some future date. Oh and all that team specific job aid stuff - I rolled it into the refreshers; that will buy me a another month or two to find answers since the answer people still don't seem to know.

Well, like I said - the first class is going on right now and their training systems all seem to be working. I feel like I've taken my first deep calming breath at work in 6 months.