JM's Anatomy of Business Learning Model or "JM's ABL Training Model" The content, components, design, structure, illustration, intention, application and format of the JM ABL model is the work and design of John Michael Castillo a.k.a. "The Practical Trainer". John-Michael is a 25 year veteran (at the publishing of this article) of Instructional design, Teaching, Training, Business Education, Public Speaking, Leadership and Management.

The Origin of JM's ABL Training Model The Anatomy of Business Learning model found its inspiration and earliest conceptual structure while John Michael Castillo, “JM”, was just a teenager working as a personal computer tutor for families and professionals in Jacksonville, Florida in the late 80’s. While conducting a PC tutoring session for a client one Saturday afternoon who worked at AT&T American Transtech, JM noticed a diagram on a small drawing board which essentially was comprised of a series of simple boxes, arrows and labels.

When asked what the drawing was, his client simply replied, “Oh, that’s Shannon’s model”. The simple drawing intrigued him and compelled him to research the matter. After a great deal of research he later learned it was a drawing of Claude Shannon’s Model of the Communication Process which shares core structural characteristics with Alexander Graham Bell’s original sketches of the telephone. John-Michael studied and read all he could find on the subject, its origin and application.

Bell's sketch of the workings of a telephone

A couple of years later while teaching computer and software classes at Crown Point Elementary in Jacksonville, Florida he designed a model of his own to illustrate how computers on a network communicate to a class of novice computer users and business owners. His illustration and the training curriculum he had designed around that original model provided an effective framework to teach his class basic computer and network communication. He received a great deal of positive feedback from his students on his training approach. The new model became the centerpiece and foundation for much of his training programs and supporting learning exercises.

Over the next few years the John-Michael used his network model as inspiration to design an entirely new model for an entirely new discipline. His new model mapped out the critical and universal elements of a successful business training program. All of the standard elements that comprised a business training program were mapped out, documented, codified and graphically represented in what he eventually named "JM's Model".

The ABL Training Model is Born Not long after, he began working at AT&T and used the same foundational model in creating and utilizing other illustrative models of communication and information transmission when training user groups on the use of various software and reporting systems he and his team members developed. Over the next few years of his career while tutoring and conducting training consulting for small businesses, John-Michael developed the initial origins of what he has named JM's ABL Training Model.

He soon after began working at AT&T Universal Card Services (Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award Winner 1992) and applied early iterations of his ABL Training Model when teaching numerous systems, products, sales and customer care training programs to learners and trainers. This evolved version of his original model took into account foundational and universal elements of all effective and efficiently executed training programs. He found that when a trainer clearly understood all of the foundational elements of an effective training program, they could more clearly identify program strengths, weaknesses, liabilities and improvement opportunities. They then were able focus on clearly defined weaknesses to improve the program and, most importantly the learners' performance upon completing the subject training program.

Over the next 2 decades John-Michael utilized, evolved, distilled and perfected the model and used it to teach trainers, leaders, managers and other professionals how to effectively impart information, skills and knowledge and change attitudes and perspectives of professionals in a business environment to meet and exceed business goals at such respected organizations as AT&T Transtech, AT&T Universal Card, General Electric, CSX, the PGA Tour Card, Florida Digital Network and NuVox to name a few. In those 2 decades John-Michael discovered other applications and designed adaptations from his base model that were very effectively applied to other disciplines such as team management, sales, leadership, customer care, presentation skills, facilitation skills, mentoring skills, coaching, effective communication and others.

JM's ABL Training Model Defined The model illustrates and codifies the primary and universal elements of effective business training. Understanding this model in totality, as well as at the modular level ,enables a program trainer and/or administrator to design and implement highly effective training programs as well as to analyze the effectiveness of any existing training program. The foundational elements of JM's ABL Training Model are as follows.

1. Goals - The program goals are the documented or implied desired outcomes of the training program. Typically, training program goals represent desired improvement and/or change in the learner's skills, knowledge and attitudes in relation to the program subject matter and courseware as well as their ability to apply what they learned in a production environment.

2. Trainer(s) - The designation of "Trainer" refers to the team or individual responsible for managing and executing the successful implementation of the overall training program as designed and prescribed by the training program stakeholders, administrators and creators.

3. Courseware - Courseware is defined as any and all media and material whether physical, electronic or abstract that is utilized to implement a training program in its entirety as designed and prescribed by the training program stakeholders, administrators and creators. Examples of typical courseware would be course syllabi, instructor guides, PowerPoint presentations, manuals, handouts, games and videos.

4. Modality & Medium - Modality and Medium are terms used to describe the primary communication style(s) and method used by a trainer to deliver training program courseware. This concept is best illustrated with an example. A PowerPoint presentation would be an example of utilizing visual and auditory modalities if a trainer is both visually referring to the presentation while providing supporting and instructive verbal guidance and lecture. The medium could be classroom Instructor lead training OR live or recorded Webinar (Webex/Citrix) with the same instructor utilizing an electronic medium rather than a traditional face-to-face classroom.

5. Learners - The learners are those individuals who attend the subject training program by "elective or directive". In a highly effective training program the learner and their development and improvement, relative to the program subject matter(s), is the highest priority in the model.

6. Feedback - Feedback is the 3 way dialogue between the trainer and learners and the learners and each other that takes place between the structured and prescribed program courseware delivery which used to add to and evaluate learner retention, recall, comprehension and ability to apply the concepts taught in the program lessons.

7. Distractions - Any element that subtracts from the maximum potential positive outcome of the training program could be classified as a distraction. Most training programs are susceptible to internal and external distractions. Examples of common internal distractions are incompetent trainers, "know-it-all" learners, poorly designed courseware, ineffective or inappropriate environment and ineffective medium or related tools. Examples of potential external distractions are noisy surroundings, unplanned visitors, controversial organizational announcements, local/world events or frequent and/or unclear mid-program changes.

8. Environment - The term "environment" is most applicable to the attributes and characteristics of a physical training room or other physical training facilities used to conduct training programs. The term can also be used to refer to the abstract environment created by virtual training mediums. As an example, a classroom can be well lit, well equipped, well-furnished and ideal for the subject training program. Whereas a Webinar may not create the appropriate and necessary "environment" to effectively train a soft skill such as nonverbal communication as the trainer may not be able to properly demonstrate and observe the learners perform good nonverbal communication techniques.

9. Free Radicals - Free Radical is the term used in John-Michael's ABL model to identify unforeseeable and unexpected "wild card" events that could have a negative effect or, in rare instances, a program terminating effect. These are elements and events that were not planned, expected or accounted for in the formal training program plan. Free Radicals are classified in 2 categories: Contingency Opportunities and Catastrophic Occurrences. Contingency Opportunities are unplanned events such as projector failure, printer failure, missing materials or scheduled visiting speakers that do not show up on time OR take too much time for their presentation. Catastrophic Occurrences, as the iconic symbols in the ABL model imply, are so extreme in rarity, scope or severity that the program will likely be rescheduled at a minimum and cancelled in truly extreme circumstances.