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Seven Deadly Sins of Training
Featured Author:
Kevin Dwyer
Is a pragmatic change management advisor and founder of Change Factory. He comes from an old school that experienced and led change first and learned the theory later. Kevin has since managed small companies as CEO, founding Change Factory in 2004.
Change Factory’s mission is to help organizations that do not like their business outcomes get better business outcomes through changing people’s behavior. The Change Factory view of what is generally missing in sales development can be summed up by the phrase “Training is not enough”. Visit Kevin’s website: www.changefactory.com.au
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Kevin Dwyer
Remoteness
Trainers remain aloof from their audience. They do little or no research on their audience. Consequently, they use terms which do not gel with their audience. They describe situations which do not happen in the audience’s day-to-day life to provide context for a concept.
Trainers dress inappropriately for their audience and the training being conducted. For example, wearing a suit and tie to train truck drivers on safety, or wearing shorts and a polo shirt to train business people on performance management techniques would both result in doubts about the trainer’s knowledge of their topic.
Trainers do not warm to their audience. The audience does not warm to the trainer. Rapport is absent. Trust is, therefore, absent.
Trainees do not learn as they do not believe what they are hearing and seeing.
Dissonance
Theory clashes with practice during the training. For example, a training session on optimising workflow has a haphazard approach to registration, distribution of training materials, seating and allocation of people to syndicate sessions.
Theories espoused during the training suggest opposite causes and effect.
Words said in response to questions run counter to information provided in the formal material.
Concepts developed in training run counter to organisational policy. Concepts developed in training run counter to organisational culture.
Trainees do not learn as they do not see the concepts as being relevant to their day-to-day working life.
