Are you a Tigger or an Eeyore? That is, are you bouncing optimist or a mournful skeptic?
It seems like the world favors Tiggers. Be optimistic! Right? Isn’t that we are all told? For me, the problem is, I count myself among the Eeyores. And we are also told to be true to yourself. So, here’s a question: is it possible to be an optimistic Eeyore?
Probably not. But, I am convinced, it is possible for Eeyores to create value in the world of the wildly optimistic. Let Tiggers make the initial plans. Eeyores should be the questioners, the ones who find flaws in the plans of the Tiggers. Then, let the Tiggers come back in and review our skeptical questions, to find the optimistic answers that overcome – but do not ignore – our objections.
In other words, work together.
Which brings me to another set of questions.
What is the real value of training? How do adults learn best? And what is the best way to turning learning into improved performance?
I am mostly an outsider. I work as a independent contractor, so I can’t really see what goes on inside of companies. And, as stated, I am an Eeyore.
From my outsider, Eeyore perspective, it seems like a lot of training dollars are not spent wisely. It still seems that most training follows the old grade-school model. There’s a “teacher” and a “class.” There is a lecture that is focused on what the “student” needs to know, not what the “worker” needs to do. In other words, a model that wastes money because it does not lead to improved on-the-job performance.
This is based on the projects that I get, what I am told to develop, and some extrapolations from I can tell of what is happening in the field. Harold Stolovich and Erica Keeps have made a lot of money telling us that “Telling Ain’t Training.” And National ASTD is holding two – count ‘em, two – Telling Ain't Training Conferences this year. And we all know, don’t we, that training ain’t performance. Would these resources exist if companies were actually focused on performance? I doubt it.
So, am I right? Is too training still using a classroom model with little regard for the learner, let alone the worker.
Or am I out of touch?
What is reality? Let’s have a dialogue.
Eric Hansen,
President, GCASTD