Training courses are a waste of time
True? They can be.
When working in the corporate world as a Sales Trainer, so often did I hear the words “of course, in real life with a real client I’d have said…”
These words were spoken by salespeople undergoing “training” and “roleplay” supposedly designed to improve their dealings with their clients. Truth be told, it was more like a rigorous series of hoops that we all had to jump through in order to satisfy something godlike called “compliance”.
They hated it. We hated it. I don’t know what the governing body thought about it but as long as they could tick their boxes they appeared satisfied.
At other times when we were asked to deliver courses to cover a specific topic, it was usually the case that the company wanted the training to appeal to as wide an audience as possible “in order to save money”. So we had managers, salespeople and support staff attending the same event. Then every department wanted “their message” to be included – reasons for this varied between them wanting to be visible (jobsworth) to piggybacking someone else’s budget (moneysworth).
Add to this the tedious route to production with endless internal meetings where no-one takes responsibility, the same discussions occur time and time again and management is done by consensus.
The net result was that all attendees were uninterested for 80% of the time, waiting for their opportunity to learn what they needed. After which they promptly forgot it due to some delay in implementation.
So much for saving money.
Flogging a dead horse is defined as: “to pursue a topic or course of action that is likely to be totally unproductive”. Well, that’s what we were doing.
Enter the Small Business, stage left.
Small Businesses are a logical alternative. Let’s stay with the training analogy to see how they would do things differently:
They’re not part of the same company
Simply put, this means that the Small Business isn’t a constant overhead, just there when needed. Plus they’re free of internal politics so there’s no bias in what they deliver.
Scattergun versus sniper
Instead of throwing every bit of learning at everybody in sight (which logistically is easier for the trainer), the Small Business can target specific audiences with what they need to know.
Limit to what’s needed now
Avoiding confusion by limiting training to the immediate requirement, the Small Business is able to supply small events to do just that.
Schedule for what’s needed later
Having met the immediate requirement, the Small Business can easily schedule similar small events as and when future requirements will arise. No knowledge deterioration.
Job specific
The Small Business will ensure that the audiences are streamed based on the job they do, and train accordingly. Less boredom, less time spent off the job.
Task specific
Going even deeper, the Small Business will concentrate solely on the changes applicable to the tasks that an audience needs to accomplish.
By balancing the business needs with both the recipient and the delivery, Small Businesses have the flexibility to provide that special service that was taken for granted before the corporates took over.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I hate to admit it Chris is right!
This is a bold statement as I make my living from designing & delivering training courses!!!
Time and Money can be wasted by buying the wrong training. Training in my opinion must be designed to suit the individuals attending first and then opperational needs next. If you can’t engage the audience and give them tools they can use right away then it is a waste.
The training is only as good as the followup actions taken by the learner or the company who sent them.
Understanding something at an intelectual level is useless if it is not followed by actions. If you individually, or as a company invest in training courses then do nothing after the event, that is a waste of time!
Training courses are not the only option to help people improve performance, coaching & mentoring are equally valuable use of time. I recommend a combination of both.
Phil Clarkson
Phil, thanks for your comment and indeed for supporting my argument.
Followup, as you say IS key as it ensures the learning is embedded; sadly it is often overlooked as the corporate mind considers ‘the training’ to be the whole solution. Then its ‘the training’ that gets the blame for poor sales!