Training Is For Animals

Posted by Jim Connolly on 9 January, 2010  Email This Post -  Print This Post

Training is often seen as the answer to many organizational challenges.  Besides, it’s less expensive than hiring a consultant, right?  When you look strictly at the outlay of cash, training may be less expensive than many other alternatives.  However, when you consider the return on your investment, which should repay your cash outlay and lost productivity many times over, training is often money thrown into the furnace.

Most training is so poorly designed that it is clearly a waste of every dollar spent on it. 

Trainers have learned how to use PowerPoint slides.  They’ve learned how to use stories to make concepts stick.  Some trainers are even very good presenters. 

But, oh so often, trainers fail to make the link between the knowledge they share and the change in beliefs that has to happen in a participants mind that will, ultimately, change a the participant’s behavior.

Here’s the formula:  Knowledge that changes beliefs will change individual behavior.  Change enough individual behavior and you can change organizational performance.  And, since organizational performance determines organizational results, effective training should help an organization improve it’s results. 

When selecting a trainer, ask for references who will say that the training provided actually helped improve the organization’s results.

Next post:  Do you need training or consulting?