Should You Send Managers To VBA Training?

A growing number of companies are sending managers to learn Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) in Excel 2007 courses. They find it has a number of benefits even if the manager never actually uses the software.

Understanding The Work Makes Better Managers

In theory, it is possible to manage people without having any real idea what they do for a living. However it is a situation that makes the manager's job more difficult. Managers who learn VBA in Excel 2007 courses gain a clear picture of what macro programming allows their employees to do. With a new understanding of department capabilities they can better plan workflows and division of duties.

The managers may come up with new ideas of how employees can use VBA to automate and streamline their spreadsheet operations. It gives them the capacity to combine the big picture and small detail views of the work to improve strategic planning of department function.

Learning Together Provides Team Building Opportunities

Departments function better if employees feel the manager is "one of us" rather than "one of them". Companies implement a variety of team building exercises from the mundane to the bizarre, but one of the best ways to improve group dynamics is simply to do things together.

When an entire department attends a VBA in Excel 2007 course, they immediately begin to view themselves as a single unit. It's not a matter of "Charlie knows VBA and Peggy knows Access and Bill runs the show". Instead, the entire team is familiar with all operations and acts as a single unit. Employee morale improves as managers work with the group rather than over it. Workers feel that managers understand what they do and have more respect for their decisions.

Improve Post-Training Reinforcement

Training does not exist in a vacuum. Companies can't send a worker off to a VBA Excel 2007 course and expect that *poof* the employee is now an expert in macro programming.

Principles learned in training courses must be reinforced or they will be forgotten quickly. Part of a manager's duty is to help the employee find ways to implement this new knowledge, even in ways that are not immediately beneficial to the company. The more the person works with VBA, the stronger the skills become.

It is difficult for a manager to create effective post-training activities without understanding the subject that is being reinforced. During the course, the manager can be coming up with ideas for future activities that will help the entire team build their VBA skills.

Including managers in a VBA Excel 2007 course, or indeed any training course, builds strong teams and improves employees' learning opportunities. As more organizations see the advantages of the process, it is a practice that is becoming more popular in the business world.