Care for a bit of cheese with that whine?
We humans are such a curious species. Always wanting more but never short of moaning and groaning about having to put a bit of extra effort into getting what we want.
But who can blame us? The cable channels are chocked full of reality programming that entertain us with drama showing people getting something for little to nothing.
These days, this seems to have permeated into the psyche of a great many people. It’s no wonder that at the mere mention of training to enhance one’s knowledge, skills and abilities, eyes begin to roll, smiles turn to frowns and sighs of discontent begin.
In the non-TV reality of work and career, fame and fortune are not a product of 60 minutes of tele-drama with a happy ending. The reality is, no matter how hard you try, success is not guaranteed. But if you do nothing, failure is. Possibly not the most motivating factors of striving for success, but nonetheless, it’s more true than not.
AWARENESS
From an organizational perspective, it is paramount to have an awareness of an employee’s issues with the reality of training with no guaranteed outcome of mutual benefit before devising a framework for mitigating these concerns.
One of the most common issues is perceptions of training. This may harken back to boring lectures during one’s college days, or the recollection of a really bad past training experience. Probably to a person, we can all empathize with this particular issue, as it will more than likely well-up an unpleasant learning experience.
One I recall was an English Composition II class during my freshman year in junior college. In all my years of college, this was the only class that I ever dropped. Not because of the course content, but because the instructor was totally disorganized and disengaged.
During the same semester, I had my best-ever learning experience, Econ I with Dr. Jewel. From the first minute of the first class, students knew this was going to be a great experience. Dr. Jewel had a well-structured course and kept his students engaged through his insatiable humor and respect for each student and their time in his classroom.
Organization, engagement and respect for people’s time – a good recipe for a response to the issue of negative training perceptions.
ATTITUDES VARY
Another common issue is the ego-centric or socio-centric attitudes people will have with training.
In many organizations and institutions, instructors and teachers are now called “facilitators” and they use team learning models. In essence, this equivocates to a learning environment that requires inclusion and participation on the part of students, and this may not meld well with their personality type.
In 1944, Isabel Briggs-Meyers and her mother, Katharine Cook Briggs, developed a personality-type model called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) – a self-report questionnaire designed to indicate psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. One of the key cognitive learning styles in the model is the categorization of an individual’s learning preference as extroverted or introverted.
Extroverted types learn best by talking and interacting with others. By interacting with the physical world, extroverts can process and make sense of new information.
Introverted types, in contrast, prefer quiet reflection and privacy. Information processing occurs for introverts as they explore ideas and concepts internally.
Herein lays the conundrum of ego-centric or socio-centric attitudes.
While many people do better in group situations than others, in most facilitation models, there is little room for those who prefer not to participate in the facilitation process versus those who do. Forcing one personality type into a situation that is psychologically conflicting can be counterproductive to their learning processes.
Organizations ought to recognize that these differences in learning preferences exist and have a list of options, such as online or self-study programs, which will not put people into conflict with their comfort zones.
TIME AND MONEY
Another common issue some employees will have with training goes back to the old adage of “time is money.” As a person who has been working for himself for a majority of my career, I can attest to the aspect of “time is money” from both a financial and productivity perspective. However, as today’s workforces are shrinking in numbers but increasing in tasks, “time is money” could be less a factor of money and more a factor of productivity.
A generation ago, when a person was away from their office for an extended period of time, for instance taking a vacation, they would usually pick up where they left off before leaving. Nowadays, being able to pick up where you left off during or after taking time off for training is about as likely as winning the lottery. Tasks no longer wait for your return, they just pile up.
Organizations need to be aware of the time elements involved in conducting training and allow for employees to make choices for training that enhances a person’s chances for success by not piling onto their chances for failure.
Paul Ulasien is president and senior partner of Business Training Consultants (www.biztrainingconsult.com). The company provides innovative and effective training strategies based on Social Learning Theory that strives to stimulate individual learning retention and then share what has been learned to individuals throughout the social fabric of the organization. Ulasien has more than 30 years of experience in training consulting and education. He serves on the Advisory Panel of Faulkner Information Services, a provider of IT and communications information services; has been an Adjunct Professor of Graduate Business Studies; and holds dual Masters Degrees in Business Administration and Industrial-Organizational Psychology.