I believe that not having a clear cut, precise definition of “training” leads to trouble and difficulty for company trainers.
Here are two of the major problems I ran into while being a trainer that I feel came from the word not being fully defined:
1. Lack of Support
It felt like my team and I were swimming against the current.When new hires had finished introductory placement training I found that managers, directors and a few other company executives, stopped supporting training. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t stopping the employees from getting training or going to the training area, but they didn’t go out of their way to ensure that it was happening, or that their employees were showing up.
2. Impossible Schedules
There’s nothing harder than trying to keep a employees on a set training schedule. The idea of a business is just that, conducting business. So when a “fire” presents itself, training gets moved down the ladder of priorities and the main goal is to extinguish that “fire”. The idea was “training isn’t going anywhere and can always be done at a later date”. If you think about it, these “fires” are most likely the result of very little, if any training.
The Common Definition
I believe that some executives thought this was the definition of training:
Doing something over and over that is supposed to increase quality of products, delivery, reduce errors, improve sales and customer retention. However, is really just a giant black hole that eats up company time, money, resources, and man hours.
Now I may have exaggerated a little bit, but this is what I felt. I’m sure at times training felt endless and like there was no light at the end of the tunnel for the trainees. No wonder I ran into trouble.
Conclusion
The word “training” is an incredibly vague concept, I mean think about it, for a basketball team it’s practicing, drilling particular plays, working on passing, shooting, and working on defense, to name a few. Here we have an exact activity taking place, there is an obvious objective and purpose.
For a company that sells software, what would that mean?
That’s when I discovered the idea of training didn’t translate well from industry to industry. Every field is different, how can every company need training unanimously, when the only common denominator between a business is that it requires people?
So with that in mind, training needed to be redefined in a clearer, concise, and workable manner that could apply to all fields. For now, let’s define training as: Study, practice, and drilling, aimed at the accomplishment of a specific goal or objective, to yield better results. For example: to effectively handle disgruntled customers.That’s “training” that executives and number crunchers can get behind, am I right?
What do you think?
Aaron Dunham
Chief Operating Officer
