How to build a training system for a smarter shop

Over the years I’ve spoken with a good number of shop owners or managers about their training programs. It’s something I’m keenly interested in. For many, they don’t really have a program or a system. It’s more like: “Go watch Steve for a while.”

For these shops, that works. Until one day when it doesn’t.

Work starts piling up around a few key people. When these folks are out, jobs slow down or stop because nobody knows how to do them. Mistakes start sneaking in because someone guessed instead of knowing how. The schedule gets crazier, pressure builds, and, without anyone noticing, the shop is reacting to more problems than ever before.

Sound familiar? The real issue isn’t effort. It’s not even talent. It’s dependency.

When your business completely depends on a handful of people to keep things moving, everything becomes fragile. One absence, one busy week, one unexpected problem with an important order, and the whole system feels like it is going to come crashing down. This isn’t a training problem — this is a business risk.

What you want is for your shop to be “anti-fragile.” Most training conversations start with, “We need to teach our team how to do their jobs better.” That might sound correct, but it misses the point. The goal here isn’t only better task execution or greater effectiveness. The goal, instead, is to build a team that can step in, step up, figure things out, and keep work moving forward without waiting for answers.

What is a good training program?

Let’s start with a simple definition to help clear the air. A good training program doesn’t pull people away from their work. It lives inside the work. It shows up on the production floor, in the art department, in sales conversations, and in how problems get solved in real time. It is not necessarily a class. It shows up in how the shop operates and is driven by culture.

This article is about building that system from the ground up. One that works for any shop, any size, and for any role. Because, at the end of the day, the goal is simple: Build a business that does not stop when one person is missing or unavailable.

What training should actually do

When someone thinks about “training,” they almost always think about it as an event. It is something you schedule, run, and check off a list. But that is an incomplete way of looking at it.

Training is a system. And like any system in your shop, it either helps performance, or gets in the way.

If you stop and think about it, every system you have built in your shop is judged the same way. Your quoting process, ordering system, scheduling system, or production workflow, for example. All of these exist to help your shop run better. Your training system should work the same way.

The real question to ask isn’t, “Did we train people?” The real question to ask is, “Did anything improve because of it?” Because a training system should directly impact how your shop operates daily. When it is working well, you’ll see clear changes.

If your training program isn’t making your shop faster, more reliable, and easier to run, then it’s not really training. It’s just an activity.

The 70:20:10 reality

If you really want to add a training system that works, you have to start with how people actually learn. Consider this:

• About 70% of learning happens by doing the work.
• About 20% of learning happens by learning from others.
• About 10% of learning occurs through formal training.

Work is the classroom. Problems are the curriculum. You do not learn how to operate equipment by watching someone else do it. You learn by loading shirts, dealing with misprints, adjusting settings, and fixing what goes wrong. This is true throughout your shop. Sales, art, production, receiving, shipping, and even leadership. It all comes down to experience.

This doesn’t mean that formal training is useless. It has its place. Formal training provides the “why” behind what they are doing. That’s important as it provides context. But it is not where the majority of the learning happens. Solid growth happens from doing the work, making decisions, and getting feedback along the way.

So instead of thinking of training as something separate and distinctive, like an event, the better approach is to build a system where all three of these happen all the time:

1. People are doing the work.
2. They are learning from each other.
3. They get structure to understand what good looks like.

Let’s review how to build this in your shop:

1. Define what ‘good’ looks like

You can’t train what you haven’t defined. So, for really anything, what does “good” actually look like? By the way, if three people all handle the same task in different ways, you are going to have trouble defining the best way to do something. You have to start by agreeing on the proper process and outcome for everything.

But for the sake of discussion, let’s say you have that. At a basic level, each employee should understand the fundamentals: information, deadlines, quality control, communication, organization, and working cleanly.

From there, define the role-specific skills for their position. What do they need to know? Why is that important? What is the best outcome? How will they be evaluated?

Lastly, don’t forget the behavioral side: problem solving, teamwork, and accountability. These are just as important as developing their technical ability. What are the expectations with these ideas?

Keep it simple. Every skill should have a clear standard. Not a manual or a long document. Simply a straightforward understanding of
“This is how we do it here.”

And one important note: If the process itself is broken, don’t try to train around it. Fix the process first.

2. Build a skills matrix

Once you’ve defined what a “good” outcome should be, the next step is figuring out where the members of your team actually stand. A simple way to do this is with a skills matrix.

Just list your employees across the top and skills down one side. Then rate each person based on their ability to handle each skill item. A zero means they don’t have the skill. A 10 means they can probably teach that skill.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. The goal here isn’t perfection, it’s visibility. You’ll see where you have depth, where you are thin, and maybe even where you are exposed. The point of this step is to prioritize your effort based on where your biggest gaps and potential challenges actually live.

3. Prioritize cross-training

If you have filled out the skills matrix for your shop, you can visualize your gaps and focus on the next step — what to do about them.

Don’t make the mistake of only training people to improve in their specific area. While this is important, obviously, it’s not enough. What you want to add is cross-training to your system. This ensures work keeps moving, no matter who is available.

Start with your biggest risks. Look at your matrix. Where do you have only one strong person? What would happen if your shipping person were sick? Do you not ship today? What if your screen room tech is out? Are you skipping burning screens for a day or two? What would be the impact of that?

That’s where you begin.

Also, there is another benefit to cross-training that isn’t as obvious. Consider how work actually flows through your shop. Sales feeds art. Art feeds production. Production feeds shipping. If someone only understands their piece of the puzzle, they will struggle when something upstream or downstream from them breaks. Cross-training helps fix that.

People tend to make better decisions when they understand how their role connects to others. The “why” something has to be handled a certain way can prevent mistakes. They don’t just do their job; they help the entire process.

You don’t need a big plan to start. Pick a few key skills that need focus and start building depth using the 70:20:10 model. Have someone learn the basics of a neighboring role. Give them reps doing the work. Let them make mistakes and figure things out. Over time, this removes friction in your shop.

4. Train with the work (the 70%)

This is the core of your new training system. After all, if most learning actually happens by doing the work, then your training needs to live here. This means moving away from any classroom-heavy training and focusing on the real job execution.

A simple way to approach this is with a repeatable process. First, show the task. Walk them through what needs to happen and what a good outcome looks like.

Next, have them do it on their own. Let them work through it, and, as a reminder, it doesn’t need to be perfect. In fact, a little struggle is part of the process. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always learned more from my mistakes than my successes.

Finally, review the results. Talk through what worked and what didn’t. This is where the learning sticks. Mistakes are part of the process, so use them as teachable moments.

The key is to keep everything simple and repeatable. You don’t need a complicated system; you simply need consistent, everyday effort with more of your staff learning new things.

5. Learn from others (the 20%)

The next chunk is learning from others. People don’t just learn by doing. They learn faster when they can observe someone completing a task and adhering to the standard operating procedures.

Pair people up. Have the experienced team member work alongside someone newer to the role. Rotate responsibilities when it makes sense. Don’t just stop at observation either. Ensure your trained team members explain what they are doing and why.

Give people opportunities to work together. Create an environment where sharing knowledge is the norm and helping other teams is commonplace. In fact, I was speaking with a shop owner the other day about this very subject, and she told me how her screen printing press operator will jump over to trim embroidery if she runs out of work for the day.

This type of collaboration happens when team members learn from each other, and the work isn’t always dependent on one person.

6. Use formal training for context (the 10%)

By the way, formal training still has an important place. It’s just not supposed to be the main event. It is used to explain the “why” behind the work.

Formal training is the opportunity to discuss how things connect. Talk about processes and standard operating procedures. Show real examples of what “good” looks like, and why they are considered good. You might also show what “bad” looks like and why it is considered unacceptable.

This is a short, focused walkthrough. When you use a brief session to go over facts, expectations, and guardrails, you can align everyone to the same approach. And more importantly, where you establish your “one source of truth.”

Every shop should have a clear, consistent place where employees can go to see how something should be done. This could be short shop-made videos, a simple operations manual, checklists, or documented SOPs. The format matters less than getting everyone on board and aligned with the approved process.

You want clarity. No guessing. There should be only one clear answer for how to do something, and it should be easily accessible and convenient.

We don’t want the formal training to turn into long sessions and thick binders. It won’t stick. People will forget most of what you say the moment they return to their normal routine. The goal here is for clarity, not sheer volume.

Use the documentation to help bridge the gap if they forget something, not as the main training device. Your team needs just enough structure to understand what they are doing and why it matters. Learning how to do the work lets them apply it to real situations, and that’s where it becomes useful.