Solving Your Business Issues

Disappointed in the results of training? Were you educating instead of training? Did little training actually occur? Was skill training your goal?

Most training courses educate, not train, even when the goal is skills training. There is a difference between training and education yet they are often treated as one and the same. Education is the theory, knowledge and intellectual awareness of a subject or activity. Training gives us the ability to perform or execute a given task or activity.

There is a direct relationship between training and performance. Training leads to competence; competence becomes the power to perform. The power to perform causes a desired effect and creating desired effects equals “performance.” There is not a strong relationship between education and performance.

Performance is achieved by training. If we are training to enhance performance then we need to train not educate. If education is all that is required for performance then there would be no need to train professionals or trades people on the job through internships, apprenticeships etc. Classroom education and learning would be sufficient. Would we allow a surgeon to operate without real surgical training to augment education?

The Par Group from Atlanta asks this question.

If you want to get skillful, to become truly proficient, not just to know something but you want to be able to do it and do it well would you:

• Read a book?
• Watch a video?
• Hire a motivational speaker?
• Attend a seminar or webinar?
• Try a few role-plays?
• Practice with an expert coach under realistic working conditions until you achieve
fluency?

The answer seems obvious. While any of the choices would provide useful information only practice will turn potential talent into demonstrable competence.

Training causes competence. Education gives knowledge.

Consider taking a one-hour golf lesson using typical corporate “training” methods. You’ll meet away from the golf course, talk golf for about 45 minutes, take a few make-believe swings and then be asked to write an “action plan” describing how you will apply what you’ve “learned.” Will this make you a better golfer?

How does real training work? How does one acquire skills? Through Practice, Practice and more Practice, preferably with a good coach. That’s it. In the hands of a good trainer or coach, the education portion of a program should be between 5 to 20 percent of the program. Training takes up the rest of the time and energy. To be blunt, if the student isn’t doing something, they aren’t training.

A day spent talking about skills will not make anyone skillful. World class athletes understand this principle. They use skilled coaches and trainers throughout their careers, not to educate them on the game but to train and coach them. Education makes a person aware and creates understanding. Nobody gets competent in a “skill” by talking or listening. If you don’t acquire the “feel,” by doing you don’t acquire the skill.

Training is different from and usually more time consuming than education because practice makes perfect, and practice takes time and repetition on an ongoing basis. To educate you don’t teach the skill, you teach the theory, and then the student needs to practice the skill. That’s why so few training courses do much real training; they are focused on theory not skill. They are focused on process.

A classroom is normally a place where education happens. It’s a place where people learn about things, not a place where acquiring the specific skills to do things are developed.

In training the idea is to “Educate” quickly and precisely, and then train until the performance level and the desired results are achieved. This will result in higher skill levels with sustainable and repeatable results.

No More Stuff – What Really Matters

I was at the shopping mall looking for a few gifts for the “big day” when my phone rang. It was work but quickly switched to shopping, a favorite male subject. Finding the right gift for our wives was the topic.

Since I was in the mall Dave suggested I take notes and copy him outlining everything I see that might make an appropriate gift. Yeah right, like that’s about to happen.

So I asked, “What does Gail want”. He replied, “snow tires”.

“For Christmas?”

“Well no, I don’t think so, but she does want snow tires”.

Snow Tires. Hmmm, snow tires I thought as I wondered if he was going to buy her tires for Christmas.

I thought of the cleaver I bought my wife so many years ago; I can still see the look of unconcealed joy on her face when she opened that box. Bad idea.

Looking for suggestions he asked what we were exchanging this year. “Nothing much” was my reply. My wife and I have decided that if we can’t eat or drink it then we don’t really want it. No more stuff. We have too much stuff already, stuff we don’t use, don’t know what it does and that prevents my car from ever seeing the inside of the garage.

Last year we bought goats for a family in a third world country in the name of my

In-laws (they don’t want stuff either). It seemed like a good idea. I’m not sure they ever really grasped the concept, but seemed happy enough when they realized they would never see the goats.

I don’t remember what I got for Christmas last year, or most years since my childhood for that matter, but I remember who came over, the friends we visited and family we saw. I thought of the people who are no longer here to visit. I miss them. The stuff doesn’t seem to matter so much anymore.

My hope for all of you this year is to have a wonderful Christmas season, and no matter which holiday you celebrate, may the season be full of joy and happiness, family and friends and may you have a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. That’s what really matters I think.

I also hope you only get stuff you really want or need, which would be nice as well.