For those of you that have followed my blog, or those of you that know me, you know that my family is filled with educators. My wife is a Para-Professional in Special Education for Kindergarten, my youngest daughter is a first grade teacher, and I am a corporate trainer.
I often sit and listen to my wife and daughter discuss the good bad and ugly of NCLB, No Child Left Behind. Whenever this happens I start to think about what NLLB (no learner left behind) would be like in business.
I have had the opportunity to stand in front of thousands of learners over the past 12 years. I am proud to say many of these people have gone on to become top producers in the company I worked and many others have moved to other companies around the world to find their success.
Along with the successes I have had, there unfortunately have been failures. Sales reps that have left the sales profession for other opportunities in positions that they could thrive and advance in. What separates the successes and the failures? I often think it is me. Maybe I didn’t do a good job training these reps. However, when I look at the other people in the class with them, many are doing a good job, so the training had merit.
After a lot of thought, and a lot of sleepless nights, I have come to the conclusion that the people that fail didn’t want success badly enough! Unlike the school system my family teaches in, corporate learning has to be something the learner wants to learn as much if not more then the company wants to have it taught.
A child knows that they are enrolled in school and until they reach a certain age they are required to be in class. (I understand that there are a lot of kids that skip school and drop out, but that is a small percent on average) Adult learners usually know that they are only in a class for a set amount of time (usually a half day to a few days) and then they will be back to the normal work they do. If the adult learner doesn’t want to be in the class all they need to do is show up and tune out.
The question then becomes, what should be done with these learners? If there was a NLLB rule, it would be the responsibility of the trainer to make sure the learner got the information. This means slowing down the class to either go back over the material, or slow the entire learning process down which would bore the rest of the class.
So here we are at a crossroads, what should a trainer do? I’ll tell you. A trainer shouldn’t do anything! The learners need to make the changes.
Put that rock down, hitting your monitor isn’t going to hurt me or make you feel any better!
What I am talking about is how training is viewed by adult learners. If a learner views a training session as a chore or in some cases companies use training as a punishment, then the learner will certainly approach the training with a BAD attitude. If on the other hand the learner views training as an opportunity for growth and advancement, they will view training as important and vital to their success.
There is a saying, “KNOWLEDGE IS POWER”, a training class gives you knowledge so it should be viewed as also giving you power.
Let’s go back to what I said a few paragraphs ago. “Along with the successes I have had, there unfortunately have been failures. Sales reps that have left the sales profession for other opportunities in positions that they could thrive and advance in”. In many cases the information that I gave the reps in the class helped them secure the new job that they were successful in. In other cases, the information showed the learners that sales weren’t for them. Once again the knowledge was instrumental in leading them to making a career decision. Either way, the Knowledge was the power that created the change.
There are no NLLB rules or requirements. You make the rules and set the requirements to fit your individual needs. Your company may frame training in a negative way and make it appear to be that chore you are going to hate. Keep in mind, Knowledge is Power, and any learning opportunity will give you more power. Be positive towards training opportunities, be enthusiastic about having the chance to get information that will help you advance in your job, be excited to learn, and then be ready for success!
Lorin
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